Covering China’s history, however, is a herculean task given that it dates 4,000 years. Wood attempts to look at the country from ancient civilization to modern boon, and does so through varied themes that include historical texts, interviews and his own on-the-ground perspective.
The one-hour episodes “Ancestors” and “Silk Roads & China Ships” open the series Tuesday. They’ll be followed in the coming weeks by episodes devoted to the “Golden Age,” “The Ming,” “The Last Empire” and “The Age of Revolution.”