Broadcast Article - by Richard Nash

How Sky Documentaries met the Children of Shanghai

Our story of a former British footballer’s extraordinary intervention that meant a million Chinese orphans were moved into local foster families was a cultural learning curve and unique creative experience, says Richard Nash

Children of Shanghai, Sky Documentaries

Producers Children of Shanghai Ltd; Warmbath.TV

Commissioner Zai Bennett

TX 7pm, Tuesday 1 June (International Children’s Day)

Narrator Bear Grylls

Director Richard Nash

Producer Matti Gao

DoP Jonny Hall

Camera Adam Kerby; Weinan Li

Editor Naudene Leisegang; Jonny Hall

Composer Fiona Taylor

Sound Cuixin Duan; Xiao Yu

Gaffer Dangjun Hue

Archive producer Lisa Clayton-Jones

Production team Carolyn Hucknall; Phill Gray; Lois Hall; Alex Zhang; Lucy Lu; Sunny Sun 

Robert Glover is quite possibly the only Chinese folk hero to have played upfront for Norwich City and making a documentary about his extraordinary story certainly involved thinking outside the box.

Filmed across three years and three Chinese cities, the challenges included winning the trust of vulnerable orphans and high-ranking officials, working in two languages and three dialects and remaining infinitely flexible despite limited resources.

Robert with local friends in a Shanghai village in the 90s

Robert’s name had the power to open doors normally locked to westerners, but it was also important to deploy that vital currency of Chinese culture: food.

Securing filming access to one orphanage involved gifting its director two chunks of her favourite Welsh cheddar (a tad sweaty after 18 hours on two aircraft) and discussing recipes over a surprisingly edible plate of goose bowel and frog hotpot. Negotiating permissions always required extensive meal-based diplomacy and this often took priority over actually filming anything.

Robert’s story has all the elements of a Hollywood blockbuster, but our budget was more Chorleywood. On one shoot, the only sound recordist we could afford was included with the kit hire and I often had to hold the boom for him.

Scheduling shoots was near-impossible. I soon discovered that people at all levels of Chinese society love nothing more than a last-minute change of plan. One of these necessitated that I direct a full day’s shoot remotely from a giant panda sanctuary.

Once I had learned to embrace the chaos, I started to appreciate the humour of the situation. One key consultant on our team was a veteran social worker superbly named Lucy Lu. She was on most of the shoots, but always refused to switch off her mobile during filming.

Signing ceremony to start placing orphans back into local families

I was impressed by the sheer variety of the alerts and ringtones deployed by a women in her seventies. Lucy also took great pleasure in getting in shot at critical moments and it would have been entirely possible to cut together an independent feature starring her.

But there did come a point where I started to appreciate that this was all a game and she played a decisive role in persuading the foster families to participate.

One of the most disorientating interactions was with a foster parent who talked to me intensely in quick-fire Mandarin. With limited language skills, all I could do was react to what his body language seemed to be conveying. Unfortunately, I always got it wrong.

Whenever I grinned along to what seemed to be the recollection of an intensely happy experience, the translation would reveal it to have been a tale of desperate misfortune. Whenever I consoled him over what appeared to be a deeply painful memory, the translation inevitably revealed it to be one of his fondest memories.

Luckily, he wasn’t offended and he gave a heartfelt interview.

One of the first fostered children in Shanghai

In just 20 years, Robert Glover persuaded China to move one million orphans out of institutions and into local foster families. We filmed the very first clutch of these and most of them are now successful young professionals – musicians, coders, accountants and sportswomen.

I had feared that they would be difficult to draw out, but these were thriving, motivated young people and they all spoke with great emotional openness and candid insight. China’s first foster parents all proved to be justly proud, warm-hearted characters whose interviews often made us laugh and cry.

The Glover family

Archive producer Lisa Clayton-Jones had the daunting task of tracking down footage from Chinese archives. She was able to find some images of Chairman Mao’s personal translator, Yan Mingfu, who was one of Robert’s most influential allies.

Yan Mingfu had prevented a war by persuading Mao that Krushchev’s aggressive shoe-banging was just a harmless Russian custom.

My tricks of the trade: filming In China – Richard Nash

• Never refuse a dinner invitation from a would-be contributor. If you’ve not eaten together, you’re a stranger.
• It helps to have an adept linguist at the core of the team to draw everything together.
• There are multiple dialects – your translator may well need a translator.
• Expect the unexpected and never get angry about last-minute changes, even though giant pandas can be distracting co-directors.
• Seeking informal permission with a respectful, friendly attitude. Good will is everything.
• Always bring gifts and business cards, and never underestimate the Chinese sense of humour. As a confused westerner, you are providing valuable entertainment.

Footage of Robert’s key breakthrough was easier to come by. He first gained the confidence of the orphanage directors by leading a team of disabled orphans to victory in Shanghai’s main youth football tournament. Lisa found coverage of them all training in Robert’s Norwich City kits.

Making the documentary has led to collaborations with China’s bestselling author Feng Tang, its leading documentary director Michelle Chen Miao and senior diplomat-turned-comedian Ting Ting Yang.

Children of Shanghai was an unforgettable experience: a positive story of open-hearted international engagement combining individual heroism with humanitarian results on a colossal scale.

Building an Anglo-Chinese alliance

Matti Gao, Producer 

It is essential to have friendship and trust (what we Chinese call ‘Guanxi’) at the heart of a project. I met Richard Nash in 2015 when my company invited him to give a TV masterclass at Beijing’s World Trade Centre and we share a sense of humour, a love of human quirkiness and a positive pragmatism.

I was a producer on a 700-million rating reality show in China and adjusting to the limited resources available for this documentary was a challenge.

What began as a short film to highlight one child’s story developed into a much bigger project and therefore funding had to be raised in steps, leading to further investment by increments. However, we had the advantage of an extremely versatile DoP in Jonny Hall and having a small team did help with access.

Chinese storytelling emphasises mood and emotion in an almost poetic way, whereas the British approach is more logical, factual and focused on step-by-step causality. It wasn’t easy balancing the two approaches, but when we found the right blend the narrative became rich and compelling.

To avoid frustration when working in China, westerners should be flexible and manage their expectations. It is impossible to exercise full control over a schedule, but they will soon find that their Chinese partners have a can-do attitude to overcoming problems.

After months of preparation, we lost 15 contributors at the last minute and the entire project was close to falling through. But with persistence, we were able to rebuild things. Last-minute changes can be devastating, but they can also be surprisingly energising.

We managed to finish all the filming before the pandemic. Editing was almost all done remotely by English speakers. Eighty per cent of the footage filmed was in Chinese (Mandarin, Shanghai and Chengdu dialects), so managing the translations was an immense task. As the only person fluent in the languages and dialects, I had to become involved in every stage of the edit.

At first, Richard didn’t understand the necessity of having many long meals during filming, but luckily he is very open minded and by the end he would eat and drink pretty much anything.