A life on screen,
a standard of grace

BIOGRAPHY

From "A New Generation"
to "The Yangtze"

Chen Duo was born in Shanghai in April 1939, with family roots in Huai'an, Jiangsu, and graduated from the School of Journalism at Fudan University in 1961. In 1958 he joined the Central Radio and Television Drama Troupe, becoming one of the first television professionals of the People's Republic of China.

He has worked in nearly every craft of broadcasting and television: actor, editor, reporter, director, broadcaster, photographer, voice artist and music editor. In 1959 he played the male lead in "A New Generation", China's first full-length television drama. He also helped pioneer dubbing at CCTV — directing and voicing early translated films — and recorded much-loved radio film adaptations for China National Radio.

Since the 1980s Chen Duo has been a host on CCTV, presenting a run of landmark documentary series: "The Yangtze", "The Grand Canal", "The Silk Road", "Along the Maritime Frontier", "Shu Roads", "Developing the Great Southwest", "Fifty Years of the Long March: Song of Life" and more. His 1983 co-hosting of the 25-episode "The Yangtze" with Hong Yun pioneered the dual-host format on Chinese television; the series transfixed the nation and remains a classic of Chinese television history.

Now in his mid-eighties, he continues to work — from screen to stage, from television to recital — telling Chinese stories in the manner critics once called "scholarship worn lightly".