Recently I've been reading and researching Bill Bryson's work, and in my travels I came across some interesting video of him from a most unlikely location: Shanghai.
That is the home of Tudou, China's largest video sharing website. I saw an episode of his BBC series NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND (based on his wonderful book and unavailable on this side of the Pond).
My Chinese isn't what it ought to be, but I was able to figure out the design of Tudou well enough to find five more episodes posted by a Chinese fan of Bryson's. They are a little trucated, but well worth watching. Bryson's idiosyncratic tour is entertaining, and he himself is a fascinating product of Iowa roots and British soil. Dry, droll, and yet a man from the heartland.
Best of all for doc makers is the cinematography: the interviews are often shot at a distance with a lot of foreground: there's a fascinating combination of physical distance and conversational initimacy throughout...and some of it's just flat-out beautiful even as it's being streamed from half a world away.
Don't let the Chinese charaters bother you...just wait for a minute and the show will load...
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