OU on the BBC: Chinese School - Programme 5: Loved ones

It’s a month of preparations as fireworks are bought, dumplings cooked, decorations hung, and Liu Xiang’s family even kill their pig to roast the meat. Super-student Wu Yufei comes home from university for the first time and Haiyang Middle School hold a great celebratory talent contest.

It is also a popular time for weddings and several teachers from Xiuning Middle School get hitched, revealing the schools matchmaking policy.

School radio broadcaster Zha Yujie temporally misses the fun as for her the New Year brings a different adventure. She goes to Beijing to study broadcasting - but comes up against an unforeseen problem. The Mandarin she speaks at home is considered parochial and ugly in the capital and she struggles to learn the correct pronunciation.

Back in Xiuning, preparations for the festival are all but complete, with many eagerly awaiting the return home of relatives from jobs in the cities. More often than not, it is the only time in the year when the family can be together.

But this year the people of Anhui and southern china are faced with another problem. Treacherous snow and ice storms and the worst weather in 50 years sink the province into a deep freeze and travel becomes impossible.

As the days tick by and the stranded crowds at the railway stations grow ever bigger and food prices double by the day the government begins to worry. And for many pupils, the treasured promise of seeing their parents again begins to look less than certain...

First broadcast: Tuesday 8 Apr 2008 on BBC TWO

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