What's new
Palace Museum launches academy
The Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing launched the opening of its research academy on Oct 23. The academy aims to lead more extensive and deeper research into the imperial culture and historic relics of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. The museum was also certified to set up a postdoctoral research station in July, which is the first of its kind to set up in a museum in China. A total of 53 academics and research teams were honored for their contribution to the research for the museum at the opening ceremony.
Zhang back with flick about young lives
Director Zhang Yuan's first film in five years, Beijing Flickers, is partly inspired by the experience of diva Faye Wong, says the film's distributor Gao Jun. Zhang's film, a continuous effort to explore young people's love and life in Beijing after his 1990 work Beijing Bastards, focuses on three youngsters' struggles in the city. Zhang recalls that when shooting Beijing Bastards, Wong often came to visit Dou Wei, her ex-husband, a famous rocker and lead actor in the film. Beijing Flickers will be released on Nov 8, starring Zhang's girlfriend Li Xinyun and rising actor Lyu Yulai.
Ovation for Sichuan Opera star
The singing of Chen Qiaoru, a famous Sichuan Opera actress dressed like Yang Yuhuan - a drunken imperial concubine of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) - in the Jinjiang Theater in Chengdu, Sichuan province, impressed the audience so much that they kept applauding. The performance of the classic play Drunken Beauty was one of a series of recent events held in Chengdu to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Yang Youhe (1913-84), a master of Sichuan Opera. The events included classic performances by Yang's students who are elite Sichuan Opera performers, some of whom are in their 70s, and an exhibition of more than 300 photos featuring Yang's life and artistic achievements.
Journalists promoting world peace win award
The second presentation of the Helen Foster Snow Journalism Award was held recently in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. Thirteen Chinese journalists promoting Sino-US friendship and world peace won the award. Launched by the Shaanxi Journalism Association and Shaanxi Translation Association in 2001, the award is named after Helen Foster Snow (1907-97), a well-known American journalist, writer and social activist. Snow was a faithful friend of China who braved the gunfire during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) to reach Yan'an from Xi'an, and told the true story of China to the world. Helen Foster Snow spent four and a half months in Yan'an, interviewing Mao Zedong and more than 30 other leaders of the Red Army, according to her niece Sheril Foster Bischoff.
Guqin master releases Tang Dynasty music
Guqin master Li Xiangting is releasing a 10-CD set of newly recorded Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) music, using an instrument from that period. The set includes both impromptu and classic arias including the Plum Blossom Melody and Lisao (The Lament). Many have been released for the first time. Li, also a professor with the Central Conservatory of Music, has been playing guqin, a plucked seven-string musical instrument, for 50 years. The instrument he used for the album was made in the year 756 for a throne-ascending ceremony. Three books by Li on the art of guqin have been published by China Renmin University Press.
Charity provides financial aid to schools
China Children and Teenager's Fund and Ping An Life Insurance Company of China, recently jointly initiated a charity program to provide schooling necessities and scholarships for children in poverty-stricken areas. In September, about 7,000 students in Guizhou province benefited from the program, getting 7,000 sets of schooling supplies, books and financial aid that amounted to 50,000 yuan ($8,200). The program also plans to provide more than 5,000 sets of school supplies and 50,000 yuan of financial aid to students in Chongqing this month.
China Daily
(China Daily USA10/25/2013 page17)
