This Way Forward CGTN EUROPE

In April 2023, Andrea Papi became the first Italian in 150 years to be killed by a bear. Mauled while jogging, he became an unwitting victim of a well-meaning EU-funded rewilding program designed to reintroduce bears to the Italian Dolomites. This podcast explores where responsibility lies for his death and  how it has exacerbated a growing divide in Italy and beyond about the wisdom, safety and management of rewilding large carnivores.
Presenter: Johannes Pleschberger
Producers: Elizabeth Mearns, Alice Castle
Sound Editor: Terry Wilson
Series Producer: Elizabeth Mearns
Sfx: Life Ursus



Sound Editor: Terry wilson

In this podcast, meet Uganda’s first wildlife vet and expert on mountain gorillas Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. She’s not your average vet, her work has brought back Uganda’s wildlife from the brink of disaster and her winning formula is being adopted across Africa but this is just one of her many achievements. She says:
‘I would like to be remembered as someone who went outside their comfort zone to change the world and somebody who was willing to challenge societal norms and cultural barriers and as somebody who championed a new way of promoting conservation’.
Hear her extraordinary story here.

Presenter: Paul Barber
Producer: Sarah Parfitt
Sound design: Terry Wilson
Series Producer: Elizabeth Mearns
Team Gorilla was written and performed by Gasuza
Gorilla natural sound: Nick Penny
Additional audio clip: Carla Delaney

Zoë Reed’s English mother Susan met her Chinese father KC
Sun at college in the late 1940s. He had been brought over as the first ever
mature Chinese student funded by British United Aid to China; she was
one of only three women – from the cohort of 103. “She had a pretty good choice of which young man to fall in love with and told me there was a chap from Iceland she quite liked,” smiles Zoë. “But it was my father from China with whom she fell in love. They had a strong romance together.” A two-year affair ended when KC returned to
China... not knowing Susan was pregnant.

Initially told her father was dead, Zoë eventually discovered the truth and started a written correspondence, but didn’t meet him in person until her 46th birthday. They met under the huge flag in Beijing’s Tian-anmen Square, and Zoë finally connected with a long-minimized part of her heritage. Having built a personal bridge, she now helps others to do similar – as part of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU). Having joined as an ordinary member, she was persuaded to become its chair in 2009. SACU’s objective is to build friendship and understanding between the peoples of China and Britain, she explains: “Particularly, an education charity – to educate the British public about all things to do with China and the Chinese.” She has helped to build up SACU’s profile at a crucial time, amid growing Sinophobia in certain sections of society. “As the West has gotten more critical of China, I think the interest in SACU from British people who actually don’t think that’s the right route has gotten stronger,” she says. “We’ve got a growing number of people that are joining SACU, and I’m very excited that there’s a whole number of younger people.”

Presenter: Louise Greenwood
Producer: Sarah Parfitt 
Sound Editor: Terry Wilson
Series Producer: Elizabeth Mearns 

Zi Lan Liao is one of the leading exponents of Chinese music. Her busy career on the international concert circuit has resulted in her being the most widely heard and best appreciated performer on the gu zheng worldwide. Her work includes Oscar-winning scores and modern fusion music – but her real passion is passing on her musical heritage to the British Chinese children of the Pagoda Arts Centre in Liverpool. 

In the late 1970s, Liao Zilan’s musician father took the life-changing decision to become a cultural officer in Liverpool. Liao and the family relocated from Guangzhou – but Liao continued to play the guzheng, or Chinese harp. A globe-leading musician experimenting with fusing Chinese and Western styles, she has performed at the Royal Albert Hall, toured internationally and recorded music for Hollywood film scores – but she still helps local children to get hands-on with Chinese musical instruments. “To actually see young people playing Chinese music live is something new to them – all they can imagine is seeing this instrument on the television but not be able to have hands on it,” she says. “And so they really think it's amazing that Liverpool children can, if they want, they can come and learn it.”

Presenter: Louise Greenwood
Producer: Elizabeth Mearns
Sound Editor: Terry Wilson
Series Producer: Elizabeth Mearns 

In this series of podcasts, the story of how a brutal policy of forced repatriation caused thousands of Chinese men to disappear from Liverpool at the end of World War II. This policy, orchestrated by the British government, would leave families traumatized and the community broken.
During World War II, one in seven merchant seamen in the UK was Chinese. When the war was over, many returned to the lives they had built in Liverpool. But instead of the hero's welcome received by British servicemen, they found themselves facing sudden deportation. Despite many having roots in the city, including jobs, marriages and children, they were labelled troublemakers. Almost all of them were forcibly removed.
In this episode, we speak to the families left behind to poverty, stigma and racism and hear how secrecy surrounding the policy from the British government has exacerbated the families’ suffering – and hampered plans to find lost relatives.
We also speak to Rana Mitter, an Oxford University historian specializing in modern China, about the fate awaiting seamen once repatriated to China after more than a decade of war in the Pacific.
Presenter: Jamie Owen
Producers: Elizabeth Mearns, Mark Ashenden
Series Producer: Simon Morris

In this series of podcasts, the story of how a brutal policy of forced repatriation caused thousands of Chinese men to disappear from Liverpool at the end of World War II. This policy, orchestrated by the British government, would leave families traumatized and the community broken.
The deportations were shrouded in secrecy for decades, until declassification of Home Office files entitled “Compulsory repatriation of undesirable Chinese seamen” prompted members of the families left behind to take action.
In this episode, we follow the families, community members and Members of Parliament who are campaigning for justice. We hear Liverpool MP Kim Johnson raising questions in parliament and prompting minister Kevin Foster to launch an internal investigation. We talk to surviving family members about their continuing campaign for an official apology from the British government.
We also look at how some family members are still searching for lost relatives in China through new DNA techniques, and discover how the Chinese community in Liverpool is hoping a memorial to the sailors will keep their memories alive – and prevent history from repeating itself.
Presenter: Jamie Owen
Producers: Elizabeth Mearns, Mark Ashenden
Series Producer: Simon Morris