CGTN has released the three-part documentary series The Story I Found in China. The series follows Hussein Fahmy, President of the Cairo International Film Festival and one of Egypt’s most celebrated actors, on a journey across China. As China continues to attract global attention, many discussions about the country focus on infrastructure, technological development, urban transformation and the sense of safety in everyday life. This series begins with a related but more human question: behind China’s visible achievements, who are the people who have taken part in shaping the China of today?
Rather than offering a single explanation for China’s transformation, the documentary turns its camera toward the lives of ordinary people. Fahmy is both a storyteller and a witness. Traveling through different regions of China, he listens to people from different backgrounds and gradually discovers that the answer may not lie only in policies, statistics or visible achievements. It may also be found in the quiet and sustained efforts of ordinary individuals, who keep trying in their own lives and turn what once seemed impossible into something possible, step by step.
Across its three episodes, the series unfolds around three universal relationships: how people live with one another, how they live with the world around them and how they live with themselves. In Standing Together, stories of companionship, trust and mutual support show how people stand by one another in times of difficulty. In Among All Things, encounters with forests, reindeer and the rhythms of nature reveal a wisdom of harmonious coexistence. In Defining Myself, people facing limits, prejudice or uncertainty continue to ask who they are and what kind of life they want to create.
The people in the documentary are not portrayed as distant, untouchable heroes. Li Xia, who lives with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, has a life-threatening condition that has left him able to move only one finger and one toe. Yet through a computer, he operates a smart farm, turning technology into a way to remain connected to work and life. Lu Hong, who has lived with cerebral palsy since childhood, keeps running despite the limits of his body, redefining the boundaries others once imagined for him. Juele, an Evenki reindeer herder who once worked in a big city, chooses to return to the forest and relearn how to live with reindeer, the land and the changing seasons. A grassroots football team in southwest China steps onto the field not because victory is already within reach, but because the act of trying itself carries dignity.
Through these individuals, the series reveals qualities that are deeply human: resilience, patience, openness, trust and the courage not to give up easily. They are Chinese stories, but they also belong to a broader human experience. Any society is shaped not only by major decisions and historical opportunities, but also by countless ordinary people who continue to love, work, care, create and begin again.
In this sense, The Story I Found in China offers a human-centered way of understanding contemporary China. It invites viewers to look beyond headlines and statistics and return to people themselves: to their struggles, tenderness, hope and search for self. The stories found in China are not only about China. Through the stories of others, viewers may also find a reflection of themselves.
