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Absolutely splendid

Chinese and foreign audiences at the Beijing Olympic Games will have another chance to see Splendid! an acrobatic show that blends various elements of Chinese culture like painting, calligraphy, music and dance.

Performed by the China National Acrobatic Troupe, the show will be put on at the Poly Theater in Beijing in 60 consecutive days, from July 4 to August 31, a record for the theater.

The show consists of 13 of the troupe's best programs, half of which have won awards at international competitions. Around 100,000 people are expected to attend the performances.

Symbol of sovereignty

The Beijing Oriental Bokoo Collection Center has recently got its hands on a Chinese Jiuding, or ancient tripod cauldron, which has been duplicated by the National Museum of China.

The Chinese Jiuding is thought to have been made during King Yu's reign in the Xia Dynasty (2070 BC-1600 BC). It was a symbol of sovereignty in ancient China, but was lost in the late Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC-256 BC).

A copy of the Chinese Jiuding was completed last year. Now it has become the biggest item in the Beijing Oriental Bokoo Collection Center.

Crowds lining up for Assembly

About 86 percent of moviegoers who have seen director Feng Xiaogang's Assembly have given the new blockbuster the thumbs up, an unprecedented figure, according to a survey by the China Film Association.

The previous best-liked film was the Hollywood action hit King Kong with a 73.5 percent approval rating in the association's annual survey. This latest survey is the association's fourth.

The survey, the core of an in-depth report on China's film market, sent 1,000 questionnaires to 20 large cinemas nationwide, starting on December 20.

Assembly tells the story of a People's Liberation Army soldier who devotes his life to redeeming the honor of his comrades who are declared missing in action.

Some 73.5 percent of respondents said it was a heart-warming film, and 99 percent said they were not disappointed.

"Everything in the film seemed so real," said filmgoer Dang Guohui, who added that a friend's father, who was a soldier at that time, broke into tears during the film.

Assembly has also done great at the box office. In its first nine days, the film raked in more than 130 million yuan ($16 million), which was the total gross of Feng's last ambitious ancient epic, The Banquet.

The survey results, released last week, are preliminary and a more comprehensive result is expected in February. The survey included Wong Kar Wai's star-studded My Blueberry Night and others.

China Daily-Xinhua

(China Daily 01/03/2008 page18)