LET THE VOLUNTEER-HUNT BEGIN！

The race to become an Olympic Volunteer starts now CHINA'S Olympic athletes hope to dazzle the nation with a record haul of medals at the Beijing Games in 2008, but another race to bring a smile to the host city has just commenced. This month sees the official     

MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL

BOTOX, RMB 500 per area, Liposuction, RMB 2,000 per area, Breast Augmentation, RMB 15,000," touts an Ameri- can plastic surgeon s ad to potential clients in Beijing, where he now operates. But since 2003, when a plain Chinese girl named Hao Lulu became a house-     

The Great Invisible Wall

Understanding is key to Westerners and Chinese surmounting barriers Most of the media reports will not present a thorough and balanced analysis of the situation in Xinjiang, a vast region whose stability and development are not only strategic for the People's Republic of China     

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and the Art of Revolutionary Cinema

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea has been widely acclaimed for his cinematic production and for his role as a key figure in the elaboration of a distinctively Cuban aesthetic. Drawing on notions such as Martín-Barbero's mediations, Billig's banal nationalism, and Gutiérrez Alea's own viewer's dialectic, consideration is given here to the mutual influences of the Revolution's cultural policies on cinema, and of cinema on the Revolution. Analysis will focus on the films Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968), Hasta cierto punto (1983), Fresa y chocolate (1993) and Guantanamera (1995), which will allow for discussion of some of the director's key themes, including gender issues, the place and role of intellectuals and artists in relation to the Revolution, and the defence of a critical space in which to explore such issues.     

OVERSEAS, AND BACK

Chinese students are still heading overseas for education - but these days, they're also coming back. THE sea turtle may be one of the animal kingdoms' most endangered species, hut in its allegorical sense, it thrives. Each year, thousands of Chinese set out for distant lands on a hunt for knowledge, and well-worn trails lead to every top university on earth. Some never make it - they're snaffled up by massive competition, financial restraints or bureaucracy before they ever leave their shores. But those that do get through have different instincts than their predecessors - they