Croatian Expert and Scholar Goran Durdevic Experiences Various Folk Customs of Beijing through Charming Beijing TV Series

On February 27, the Charming Beijing Overseas Communication Achievements Exhibition and the 2023 Launch Ceremony of Charming Beijing TV Series took place successfully at the No. 10 exhibition hall of Shougang Park, Beijing. The event was sponsored by the Information Office of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality and organized by CRI Online of China Media Group in Beijing.

The overseas Communication of Charming Beijing TV series was sponsored by the Information Office of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality and organized under cooperation with CRI Online of China Media Group. After being launched in 2019 for the first time, the project has invited production teams from ten countries such as Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Russia to carry out interviews and video shooting in Beijing. The corresponding TV series has won popularity in those countries after being available on their TV stations.

Goran Durdevic, a host from Croatia in the TV series, a lecturer at Beiwai College of Beijing Foreign Studies University, and a Croatian archaeologist and historian addressed in the event and was interviewed by CRI Online. He got a deep feeling of the profound culture and lively folk customs of Beijing, the capital city enjoying a history of more than a thousand years, after visiting the Summer Palace, the Grand Canal, an old hutong Yangmeizhuxie Street, and some other places in 2022. Beijing is a well-known historical city with abundant cultural relics that can take people back in time. Based on his life and working experience in Beijing, he hoped that Charming Beijing TV series can record the real Beijing and its stories in his eyes to showcase the unique charm of Beijing and acquaint others with Chinese civilization.

In Goran Durdevic's opinion, hutongs, the typical cultural relics in Beijing, are live witnesses to history. Moreover, people living in hutongs are essential as the city is comprised of them. The close and harmonious relationship between neighbors living in hutongs also impressed him. Different from people who live in modern and well-equipped residential buildings or detached villas, people living in hutongs share water resources, kitchens, bathrooms, and other public spaces. They have to communicate frequently with their neighbors which also gives them good chances to better understand each other and have closer relationships with each other. Hutongs make people living here a big family. He also realized that stray animals in hutongs often live a harmonious life with residents nearby. People take turns feeding and taking care of stray animals. Thus, these small neighbors become part of life in hutongs and the boundary of the big family is expanded.

To conduct better publicity of culture in Beijing, Goran Durdevic gave an on-site introduction to primary and secondary school students from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Denmark via live-streaming software when he took a walk in the Palace Museum. When showing the royal palaces to others, he especially emphasized that he hoped to demonstrate real life in the city. He believed that recording what was happening in Beijing made Charming Beijing TV series different from the rest. By seeing natives of Beijing visiting or taking a walk in the places of interest next to him and hearing the Chinese conversation in the live-streaming, the audiences got opportunities to experience Beijing's folk customs from various perspectives, which allow them to better understand Beijing and its culture gradually.

According to Goran Durdevic, Charming Beijing TV series is a good channel to help people get familiar with the history and culture of the ancient capital Beijing. It also reflects the efforts made by the city to preserve cultural and natural heritage items. What's more, he thought that the TV series produced in his mother tongue would make it popular in Croatia. He hoped to make good use of the TV series to promote tourism cooperation between Beijing or China with Croatia and other countries in Southeast Europe. Thus, he could build eternal bridges between Croatia and China, his two hometowns.