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Curtains down on Year of Italy
Performers suspended in mid air during the opening of the Year of Italy. Cui Hao |
In 1998, the Tuscany Orchestra performed a memorable Turandot at the Forbidden City, directed by Zhang Yimou.
The exhibition Pompeii: Stories from a Volcano Eruption, on from February through May at the World Art Museum in Beijing, is the last of the more than 200 events brought to Chinese audiences. Most of them were dedicated to promoting culture and ranged from music (opera theatre orchestras, light music, jazz and folk music), dance (La Scala Theatre Ballet Company to contemporary choreographers) and art to cinema, theatre and literature. Economic activities were on the agenda as well with 800 Italian firms participating in the Guangdong Fair. Cooperation in education took off with the inauguration of a Chinese-Italian campus in Shanghai.
The year of Italy also encompassed tourism, science, health, fashion, wine and food.
The exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci's machines, showing how contemporary Italian technology is the result of secular experience, alone attracted more than 300,000 visitors.
Film fest to give African films shot in the arm
Africa's biggest film festival opened on Saturday in the capital of Burkina Faso hoping to revive the continent's ailing cinema industry.
The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, or FESPACO, which runs till March 3, is a two-yearly event gathering more than 3,000 film types from across the continent, from South Africa through Mali to Morocco, as well as from the African diaspora.
Ironically, this year's event takes place as the curtain comes down for cinemas across the continent, but also as African films rake up top international awards, feeding hopes of a new golden age in the years to come.
South Africa's Tsotsi last year won Oscar celebrity status, picking up Hollywood's coveted best foreign-language film award. It is one of two South African entries among the 20 feature films competing for FESPACO's top prize, the Etalon d'Or de Yennenga or Golden Stallion of Yennenga.
Also competing for the top FESPACO award this year are two films from Chad.
With the exception of South Africa and Nigeria, cinema houses have been closing down one after the other across the continent, the African monthly Continental said in its February issue.
After receiving state backing in the post-independence 1970s, producers, directors and distributors have largely had to fend for themselves since the 1990s, when governments cut funding owing to pressure from world financial institutions.
It's a nun's life from now on for 'Lin Daiyu'
Religious awakening for Chen Xiaoxu, former star of A Dream of Red Mansions. File photo |
So said Chen Xiaoxu, a millionairess and chairperson of a major advertising company in China, who stunned the public with her recent decision to become a Buddhist nun "in pursuit of eternal happiness and tranquillity."
Chen is best remembered and recognized by millions of Chinese audiences for her heart-wrenching portrayal of Lin Daiyu, in the 1987 costume TV drama series A Dream of Red Mansions.
Born in 1965 in Anshan, in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Chen had a passion for Chinese classic literature, especially poems, since the age of 3.
At 18, she auditioned for the TV drama series. Asked why she wanted the role of Lin Daiyu, a melancholy and graceful beauty and ardent lover of Chinese poems in the ancient novel, Chen replied confidently: "I am Lin Daiyu. If I took up other roles, the audiences would think Lin Daiyu was trying to act as another girl." She won the role.
Directed by Wang Fulin and adapted from the best-known Chinese literary classic A Dream of Red Mansions, written by Cao Xueqin (ca. 1715-1763), the TV drama series became an instant hit and has had several hundred re-runs on Chinese TV screens.
The 42-year-old businesswoman has been a Buddhist for at least seven years since she attended a Buddhist lecture in Singapore, local media reported.
And it is rumored that Chen's husband Hao Tong will also become a Buddhist monk in the coming weeks in Shenzhen.
China Daily-Agencies
(China Daily 02/27/2007 page18)
