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School given highest honor for music
Tianjin Music School, located in neighboring Beijing, has been awarded the "All-Steinway Primary School" honor by the Steinway HQ in Germany, which is regarded as the highest honor for music schools in the world. Only the Yale School of Music and a few other top music universities around the world are recognized as All-Steinway Schools.
Tianjin Music school is fully equipped with only Steinway pianos and provides bilingual instruction for its students. It also offers scholarships to students from low-income families.
Established in 1853, Steinway is regarded as the founder of the modern piano industry. Its long history and uncompromising standard earn Steinway the acclaim of the King of Pianos.
Nightmare in the closet
Hong Kong veteran actor Francis Ng Chun-Yu (also known as Wu Zhenyu, pictured) is recovering in Hokkaido sunshine in Japan, after he suffered severe stress from his latest role in the thriller The Closet, which premiered on May 11. Wu plays a magician called Luo Fei, who was abused by his father as a little boy. Later in life he is haunted by nightmares of his father.
Luo's girlfriend took him to the Japanese villa for a good rest, but real life nightmares continued for the actor. Wu tried to negotiate with director Cao Jiannan to cut some of the more terrifying scenes, because he found it hard to sleep during filming. He said it would be his last horror film, because he did not want his family to worry about him.
Wu said he would try to forget the role as soon as he finished it, to avoid the tragedy of Leslie Cheung, the Hong Kong star who committed suicide in 2003.
Homegrown movie stars
Amateur filmmakers are vying for 1 million yuan in the first Chinese Podcast Contest. Anybody can submit original or adapted dramas, animated pictures, MVs, or even mock videos to compete for more than 600 awards.
Organizers said the multiple awards were set to promote podcasting, and original works would be preferred. Superstar Jackie Chan, established director Feng Xiaogang and popular scholar Yi Zhongtian, among others, will make up a jury.
Award winners may have a chance to shoot a short drama with the famous directors among the judges.
Sina.com.cn has opened its podcast channel recently to support the contest. Staff said that they would soon invite 100 celebrities from various walks of lives to capture their typical day and show the videos on the channel. The show will then extend to ordinary netizens, who are welcome to open their own podcast space on the website to share their stories.
Dramas Down Under
Wait for Me in Sydney, a 21-part TV drama focusing on a teenage student's growing pains and culture shock in Australia, will show on CCTV-8 at 7:30 every evening since today.
Director Zhu Yi studied in Australia for eight years. He believed the show, although not the first on the topic of Chinese studying abroad, was still attractive to today's audience. This is because Beijingers in New York, the first TV drama depicting the group was shot 20 years ago, while today's Chinese people abroad have a different life.
Zhu thought the drama would be a new take on the old topic, because it not only focused on young students, but also on how their parents sacrifice for their children's dreams of studying abroad. The show will also be broadcast on Hong Kong's TVB.
China Daily
(China Daily 05/15/2007 page18)
