《做世界新民》讲述的是晏阳初先生(Y．C．James Yen)在中国开展平民教育，进而领导国际乡村改造运动的故事。晏阳初平民教育的思想体系由儒家的民本思想和基督教的博爱哲学结合而产生。它于20世纪20年代在中国大地上生根、开花、结果，后由晏阻初本人将其收获的种子撒播于全世界贫瘠的土地上，并继续浇灌几十年，为中国和世界不发达国家和地区培养了一大批平民教育专家和乡村建设人才。晏阳初因此被称作"世界平民教育之父"。（Make New Citizens of the World：Giuseppe Castiglione, Italian, came to China in the 18th century and worked for the Qing court as a palace painter. He won favor of three generations of the emperor for his works which feature a combination of the Chinese and Western painting styles. He lived in China for some 50 years, and worked to cultivate the Chinese painters in the painting style unique to European painting school, thus helping produce a large number of palace painters well versed in Chinese and Western paintings.）