Story of China

(upbeat percussion music) This is a rural fair at a 2,000 year old temple, which was closed down in the communist era in the 1950s. I'm at a great farmer's festival in the plain of the Yellow River, with a million people all around me. And these vast crowds have come to celebrate an ancient myth that tells of the origins of the Chinese people. As in many ancient cultures, it's the women who've treasured the tales and handed them down. How much, three? Especially the tale of the mother goddess of the Chinese people, Nuwa. Little dog (chuckles). It's great, isn't it? This whole great festival is to two ancient gods in Chinese mythology, Fuxi, the male god, and Nuwa, the female god, and she's famous because she created humanity out of the yellow mud of the Yellow River. And the mud that was left over, she made dogs and chickens, according to the myth. And the myth contains the seeds of Chinese identity, incredibly passed down from the Bronze Age. (woman speaking in foreign language) -

Translator

A long time ago, the earth quaked and the sky fell in. Only Nuwa and her brother Fuxi survived. So they bit their fingers and mixed their blood with mud from the Yellow River, and with this mixture they molded the very first humans. (peaceful music) So Nuwa is our ancestral mother. We're all here because of her. (woman laughs) These myths have been handed down for over 4,000 years, and they contain a crucial idea, the uniqueness of Chinese ethnic identity. China is a huge and diverse country, with so many languages and cultures, but the vast majority of its people call themselves Han Chinese after the great Han dynasty that ruled China 2,000 years ago.