Half the Sky Television Program

The UN Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 was a special conference for me, as the conference was a turning point in both my career and life.

Sun Suping, Wang Xian and I, three women television directors at CCTV, in 1994 planned to produce a television program that would serve Chinese women and communicate with women around the world. We thought that establishing a women's program was the best method to support the upcoming world conference on women in Beijing.

At the beginning of April 1994, we submitted an application to produce a women's television program.

Officials of CCTV approved our application, and we named the program "Half the Sky". It debuted on January 1, 1995. I was the program's chief editor and art director. I was responsible for selecting the topics and arranging the programs.

The program introduced the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, in great details, and the living conditions of women in other countries. It also focused on past and current women's movements in China. Many valuable documents were broadcast, via the television, in China for the first time, and that caught viewers' attention. The program also reported the stories of more than 200 women. 

The 23rd Special Session of the General Assembly on Women was held at the UN's Headquarters, in New York, in June 2000. "Half the Sky" program was considered an influential program that specialized in women's topics.

The program was in its heyday in 2000. It received 21 awards between 1995 and 2000. "Half the Sky" was one of CCTV's top 10 programs.

(Women of China)