EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
T
oday, the two countries still maintain close
ties. Of the five East African
Community member states, Tanzania
continues to attract the most Chinese
investment, with 3 billion US dollars
flowing into its mining sector in 2011.
Julie: And you returned to China many times
in the years to follow. What brought you back
again?
Martin: “It was…soap opera. During the
past decades, I have visited various Chinese
metropolises, such as Beijing, Shanghai,
and Guangzhou. More recently, I have
been invited by Yunnan Nationalities
University to make documentaries of the
local subjects and mainly to present the
African point of view on China’s
multicultural life. In this context, I have
worked in the city of Yuxi in China’s
southwest province of Yunnan as a
filmmaker and guest lecturer at the Yuxi
Normal University. I used well-known
soap operas to teach my Chinese class of
filmmakers about narrative structure and
conventions. I must say it was an effective
way of communication between me and
my Chinese colleagues and students, who
didn’t speak English well. In the end, they
were keen to participate and were less shy
and reserved. So that was my bit in ‘living
your life as a soap opera!’”
BUSINESS