BBC documentary on Spring Festival eye-opener for West, tear-jerker for China

A father reunites with his daughter. [Photo/Screen capture from Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth]

For Chinese viewers, the emotions triggered are perhaps less exhilarating, but more sentimental.

Family is the central aspect of Chinese lives; often the only chance a family gets to reunite during the whole year is during Spring Festival.

"Chunyun", literally the Spring Movement in Chinese and a term that describes the massive migration where a sixth of the world's population travels home to celebrate Spring Festival with their families across China, has already begun this year.

Chinese people travel great distances each year to be reunited with their loved ones across the length and breadth of this huge and varied country.

The documentary follows one family, that of Li Tongyu in Sari in England, on her return to Beijing with her children to spend Chinese New Year with family for the first time in nine years. It is difficult to suppress a sense of nostalgia and homesickness when watching Li's children paint a family portrait as a gift for their grandfather, and the joy on their faces as they rush into the arms of their uncle at the exit of Beijing Capital International Airport.

"I welled up when I watched it," said "Wuliao" on Tencent. "This series made me even prouder to be a Chinese and made me feel homesick."

Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth is available on Tencent.

[Photo/Screen capture from Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth]