Although the financial industry in China is still in its infancy, 7% of Chinese people are already trading the markets, and millions more are being added every month. Western investors are also lining up to benefit from China's economic growth. For years, Wall Street gave China wide latitude to raise money on the international capital market, such as with Jack Ma's Alibaba IPO.
In 2020, when Ma also wanted to take his new company Ant Group public he no longer did so on Wall Street but wanted to do so simultaneously in Shanghai and Hong Kong. That plan strained the relationship between China and Planet Finance. By whose rules will the game ultimately be played?

In this six-part documentary series, Marije Meerman takes you to Planet Finance. Who live and work there? What language do they speak? What is the use of this planet, and what makes this financial world so attractive to so many people?

Written & directed by Marije Meerman

Research: Piet Ruig, Marijntje Denters, Maarten Mosselman, Floris-Jan van Luyn, Pingyang Peng
Cinematography: Yuling Chow, Shuxuan Mei, Joost van Herwijnen nsc, Cecile Zhang, Chuhang Ma
Sound: Kai Wang, Jiansheng Han, Tim van Peppen, Wenbin Tang, Richie Fowler, Dominic Yip
Editor: Michiel Hazebroek
Field director Hong Kong: Amy Ip
Field director Shanghai: Mijie Li
Archival research: Barbara Kist, Paula Witkamp
Visual & data design: Femke Herregraven
Motion design: Mark Visser, Jeroen Schellekens
Music: BJ Nilsen
Sound design: Tim van Peppen
Voice-over: Alice O’Connell
Colourist: Rachel Stone
Finishing: Jan Jaap Kuiper
Datahandlng: Watse Eisma
Online editor colour grading: Yannick Elferink
Producer colour grading: Marja Paeper, Remco Smit
Interns: Athena Potamianos, Julia Baud, Margeaux Abeyta, Malou Sandig
Production assistant Pieter Wibaut
Line producer: Olivier Schuringa
Line producer: ZDF/ARTE Katharina Krohmann
Executive producer: Zoë de Wilde, Julia van Schieveen
Coach tot he director: Maaik Krijgsman
Commissioning editor: zdf/arte Türkān Schirmer, Frederic Ulferts
Head editorial department: ZDF/ARTE Martin Pieper
Commissioning editor VPRO: Barbara Truyen

Thanks to Wei Wang, Jennifer Chen, Haesu Lee, Tiansi Wang, Viki Chi, Joshua Crabb, Harfun Ven, Kelvin Leung, Weijian Wang. Guohua Wu, Yizhe Liu, Christina Bao, Henry Sung, Matthew & Marina Hoyle, Gregg Griffin, Dun Lee, Maiko Yahagi, Lorant Szakacs, Sarah Hall, Andrew Sheng, Bart & Laurens Kasteleijn, Haim Bodek, Charles Liu, Andy Xie, Daryl Loo, Kerry Chan, Dermott Clancy, David Kleijwegt, Daan Wierda, Mariska Schneider, Sharon Yosef, Vian Paashuis, Brigit Dopheide, Petra Vermeulen, Marleen Stikker

Archive: NYSE Group Inc., CNBC, AN,P BUND, ScreenOcean, Pond5
Presale: VRT

Planet Finance is produced by VPRO in co-production with ZDF and in collaboration with ARTE
This series was created with the support of NPO-fonds & CoBo
© VPRO & ZDF 2023

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