Pingyao Relocates Its Dwellers to Conserve World Cultural Heritage

THE Chinese film Raise the Red Lantern made the Qiao family courtyard where it was shot into a famous tourism destination. There are over 4,000 such siheyuan (family courtyards surrounded by rooms) in the ancient city of Pingyao, just a few dozen kilometers away. It was only when the film went on release that the owners of these properties became aware of their architectural and cultural value, and it was Zhang Yimou's film of ten years     

China''''s Filmmaking Debut

IT was a century ago that China's first film, Conquer Jun Mountain, was made. It was masterminded by Ren Qingtai, proprietor of the Beijing Fengtai Photo Studio. Ren's studio was originally a shop that he bought and con- verted after his return from self-funded photographic studies in Japan. By 1905, Chinese audience had tired of seeing ex- clusively foreign films, so Ren decided to make a Chinese documentary film on the most popular performance art of the time - Peking Opera. He invite…     

Chinese Film Breaks Away from Tradition

THE Chinese film The Goddess, made in 1934, was hailed by critics as "eternal" and "the pinnacle of Chinese silent film." Wu Yonggang wrote and directed this, his first film, with the obvious intent of set- ting it apart from any hitherto made in China. He paid no tribute whatsoever to the Chinese tradition of narration, or of achieving dramatic effect through external conflict, concentrating instead on conveying the mentality of the main character. The film is about the suffer- ings of a …     

Harry Potter Weaves His Magic in China

ON a stormy night so severe that dozens of trees were knocked down in the innerBeijing suburb of Dongzhimen, local girl Zhang Jing braved the harsh weather and empty streets to make her way to a cinema. Inside Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was playing on the silver screen. ＂HP fans＂ with Zhang Jing＇s dedication are by no means rare in China. Despite hitting local screens a month behind the global release date, enjoying only limited publicity and suffering from a small number of film prints in circulation, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was a certified blockbuster in China, grossing over RMB 110 million in just nine days.     

Move Over! Installation Art in China

THE field of Chinese installation art was ignited by a single event： a one-man show at the National Art Museum in Beijing staged in the 1980s by American artist Robert Rauschenberg. In the following three decades many Chinese artists plunged headlong into the practice and development of this cuckoo art form, winning the admiration of established art circles and the public at large. The installation genre employs a wide variety of media and art forms - painting, sculpture, architecture, music, theater, poetry, prose, film, photography, and audio and visual recording; its lack of restrictions means ＂almost anything on hand can be turned into art by inspired installation artists, including the ＂viewers＂ themselves.     

A Note of Friendship

Seventy-four years after he died, Chinese composer Xian Xinghai is touching hearts again, this time through a film made on the tragic last years of his life that hit the screens in China and Kazakhstan in May. Chinese director Xinzat Yahup's biopic The Composer, the first China-Kazakh coproduction, shines a light on the man regarded as one of the greatest Chinese composers, who was forced by circumstances to spend his last years in Kazakhstan and Russia, where he took his last breath.     

Seminar on NGOs of China,Japan and ROK Held

Jointly sponsored by the CPAFFC, the China Friendship Foundation for Peace and Development, the China NPO Network and the Japan Foundation, a seminar on Nongovernmental Organizations of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea was held at the Friendship Museum of the CPAFFC on March 14. The seminar was co-chaired by Masachika Yamazaki, director of the     

Diverse Charms of Movie Icons over Time

POPULAR opinion on ideal feminine beauty and masculine good looks was a deciding factor for decades on which actors/actresses were most successful. The looks and roles of these movie icons reflected the prevailing values and attitudes of the time towards love and romance. Today, a broader appreciation of beauty has engendered a constellation of film celebrities, each attractive in their distinct way.     

Battle for the New Year Crown

THE turn of the year is the high season for China＇s film industry, when three major festivals come in a row： Christmas, New Year and Spring Festival （or Chinese New Year）.With a steep increase in the number of moviegoers, this period of a month or more （Spring Festival can fall anywhere between late January to early February） is always marked by hectic competition among established directors intent on refreshing their reputations, and newcomers eager to carve out a niche. This year the battleground was particularly crowded.     

Living with Films

ILMS are my passion. I visit DVD shops two or three times a week and constantly surf the Inter- net for the latest produc- tions. I saw my first film, a domestic pro- duction named Heroic Sons and Daugh- ters, at the age of four, and went on to watch it a further 20 times. This was not because of an obsessive love for the film but because I grew up during a restric- tive and isolated period, when cine-re- sources fell far short of the demands of a cinephile such as me. I grew up in the la…     

The Declaration on the Right to Development as a First Step towards a Comprehensive Southern Vision on Human Rights

Having proper sanitation and hygiene, access to affordable health care and enough food on the table are the basic conditions for a dignified life. This link between human dignity and the right to development was made very persuasively already in the White Paper on human rights, issued by the State Council of P.R.C. in 1991. The Declaration on the right to development can be considered the first successful joint action undertaken by Southern states in the area of human rights. The Declaration was based on Southern scholarship, such as the pioneering research conducted by the Senegalese jurist Kéba M'baye. And its adoption was the result of joint stage management performed by diplomats from different continents. Therefore the Declaration serves as a source of inspiration for the work of drafting a Comprehensive Southern Vision on human rights. The Vision document will lay out a common Southern outlook on human rights issues as an elaboration of the Universal Declaration.     

Reunion With A Farewell

正Debutante director pays tribute to her hometown with award-winning film By Li QingThe Tarim Basin in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,northwest China,is a land of contrasts.Flanked by towering mountains with the arid Taklimakan Desert lying at its heart,it boasts lush greenery and a vast Euphrates poplar forest the largest and best preserved of its kind in the world.This is the hometown of Wang Lina,the32-year-old director whose debut feature film A First Farewell received rave reviews when it was screened in film festivals in 201 8 and got     

The Power of the Market

IN 1992, China set out to establish a socialist market economy system-a move that jump-started reforms to the film distribution system the following year. In 2001, the year negotiations were concluded on China’s terms of membership of the WTO, film was defined as a product of the service and trade sector. Since then, the market force has gradually become predominant in the industry’s development.     

Investigation Tour on Religious Affairs in Hebei

Astudy group headed by Zhou Jue, president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), toured around Hebei from September 21 to 27, 2003 to make investigations on religious affairs in the province. It was the very first study tour focusing on religions conducted by CSHRS since it was founded ten years ago. The group comprising experts on human rights and international laws went to a number of sites of religious activities in Shijiazhuang, Handan, Baoding and Qingyuan County, and talked extensively with clergymen and believers of different religions. Short as it was, it was a fruitful tour. The scholars and experts of the group gathered the first-hand materials about how the state poficies on     

Kung Fu Hustle

L ast week, film-lovers were able to enjoy the Beijing premiere of a new film by Stephen Chow: "Kung Fu Hustle". Though the ticketprice in the capital's cinemas was by no means cheep(60 yuan at the Xidan Guangchang cinema), manypeople came to see it. And it seems, "Kung Fu Hustle"didn't fail to meet the public expectations. During theshowing I visited nobody left the hall before the endof the movie and when the lights went on most of spec-tators looked happy and conten…     

Light and Shade

Blockbusters add to festive atmosphere and signal film industry recovery‘In my memory,my mother is always a middle-aged woman,but once she too was a blossoming girl,"says Jia Xiaoling,the main character of Hi,Mom,the new Chinese top-grossing film by a female director.     

A Witness＇s Account of Changes in Tibet＇s Human Rights Conditions

After riots that occurred on March 14, 2008 in Lhasa, Tibet, the China Central Television Station broadcast a documentary film titled Tibet＇s Past shot years ago by the Central Newsreel ＆ Documentary Film Studio about the miserable life of serfs under Tibet＇s feudal serf system before a democratic reform was carried out in the region. The documentary stunned many people. It helps people see through the reactionary and corrupt nature of the Dalai clique.     

For Unforgettable Memory—Victor Hugo’s Bust is Erected at Yuanmingyuan

The year 2010 marked the 150 anniversary of the sacking of Yuanmingyuan (the old Summer Palace) by Anglo-French forces and was a suitable occasion for the unveiling of a bronze bust of Victor Hugo there on October 16. It was sculpted by the noted French sculptor Nacera Kainou.     

Chinese artist shows his respect to the Cuban hero

The unveiling ceremony of the bronze bust of Jose Marti created by Yuan Xikun was held jointly by the Cuban Embassy to China and the Beijing Jintai Art Museum on the museum's front lawn in Chaoyang Park, on 12 October. The bronze is another masterpiece by Yuan Xikun, who was awarded the "Art for Peace" medal by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture on 20 August, after completing a bust of Deng Xiaoping.     

THIS WEEK SOCIETY

Vacci ne Developme nt The COVID-19 vaccine workshop of the China National Pharmaceutical Group(Sinopharm)on April 10.Developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products under Sinopharm and the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences,the vaccine was approved for clinical trial on April 12 An other vaccine developed by Sinovac Research and Development,a company based in Beijing,was approved for trial on April 13.