| People playing badminton | Music | 00:00 |
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| MCDONELL: Badminton to China is what basketball is to America. When space is limited in ever more crowded cities, it’s the participation sport of choice. |
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| At the Olympic Games it’ll be taken very seriously by the Chinese team, but you don’t have to be that good to enjoy it. | 00:21 |
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| Music | 00:32 |
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| MCDONELL: Most people playing in the street, like these Beijing locals, don’t use a net. | 00:36 |
| McDonnell to camera. Badminton players in b/g Super: | All they need is a racquet and a shuttlecock and they’re away. And with over a billion potential devotees -- somebody, somewhere is making a lot of racquets. | 00:41 |
| Longmen old town and people | Music | 00:51 |
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| MCDONELL: Longmen is a traditional river town in China’s South Eastern Zhejiang Province. It was known for rice, corn and sweet potato. | 00:56 |
| McDonell walks | Walking these cobbled streets, it doesn’t feel like it should now be a hotbed of “racqueteering”-- but that’s exactly what it is. Well, in a way. | 01:07 |
| McDonell walks up to lady and has a chat | McDonell: Hello there, are you making badminton racquets? Woman: Yes. McDonell: Your technique is very good. | 01:17 |
| Woman making racquets | Woman: Yes, very good. McDonell: Are they difficult to make? Woman: No, not difficult. | 01:26 |
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| An old woman like me can make 50 racquets; a young person can make 100 racquets a day. | 01:33 |
| Delivery cart delivering racquet materials | Music | 01:40 |
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| MCDONELL: Every morning, the frame and string delivery cart winds its way around Longmen. | 01:43 |
| Racquet materials | It distributes to villagers the materials they need for a day of racquet weaving. | 01:51 |
| Town women make racquets | Then in all the nooks and crannies of this town, people sit out in the sun and while away the hours making badminton racquets. | 20:00 |
| Woman carries finished racquets | The townspeople are said to string a total of 50 million racquets each year. | 02:09 |
| Women in street | It’s a long way from the grand history of this town and its people. Sheng Yonggan: Ninety per cent of Longmen’s population is surnamed Sun. | 02:18 |
| Sheng Yonggan | Sun Quan was the Emperor of nearby Dongwu. | 02:28 |
| Women in street | Now many of Sun Quan’s descendants live in Longmen. | 02:35 |
| McDonell and Sheng Yonggan | MCDONELL: Sheng Yonggan is the town’s Deputy Governor. He says nearby factories | 02:42 |
| Women make racquets | have given the townspeople a change to make some money, as their returns on farming have dropped. But they’re not exactly raking it in. | 0246 |
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| Villagers in Longmen don’t have enough work opportunities in industry or business. So they started doing the stringing work. But the wages of racquet stringing are pretty low. | 02:58 |
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| With all of China’s manufacturing might, its big drawcard is still cheap labour. | 03:10 |
| McDonell with woman making racquets | McDonell: So how much are you paid for 100 racquets? Woman: 20 yuan per 100 racquets. | 03:18 |
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| McDonell : So how many racquets do you make each week? | 03:27 |
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| Woman: 700 racquets per week. MCDONELL: It’s only $22 a week, but it all adds up. | 03:31 |
| Women making racquets by canal | That doesn’t mean you have to like it. Sometimes what Western journalists find charming about the Third World is actually a bit dreary for people who live it. | 03:38 |
| McDonell to camera | We asked one man if we could interview him about making racquets because, we said, what he’s doing is interesting. His reply “Well you might find think it’s interesting, but I don’t. No you can’t film me.” | 03:49 |
| Young woman making racquet | But others say it’s not so bad. McDonell: You aren’t a bit bored doing this? Woman: This isn’t boring. It’s teaching me to be patient. I’m learning to be patient. | 04:00 |
| Kids make racquets on river bank | MCDONELL: If you live in Longmen, it seems there’s no getting out of it. Children learn to string racquets here before they can walk. | 04:13 |
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| Music | 04:25 |
| Old ladies string racquets | MCDONELL: Their parents and grandparents are still stringing into the night. And, if they keep going the way they are, | 04:28 |
| McDonell to camera holding racquet | Longmen will be supplying racquets for hundreds of years to come. Right – I’m ready to take on a champion worthy of my abilities. | 04:34 |
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| Music | 04:42 |
| McDonell plays badminton with girl |
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| McDonell: Beats me again. How humiliating! | 04:52 |
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| Reporter: Stephen McDonell Camera: Robert Hill Editor: Bryan Milliss Producer: Jiang Xin | 05:03 |