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New home for east coast culture

Weihai, a coastal city in Shandong Province is known for its natural beauty and serene environment.

In a boost for the local cultural scene, the Weihai Fudi Museum of Arts and Culture opened yesterday in the emerging Weihai Creative Industries Zone.

Covering a floor space of over 4,000 sq m, the museum also serves as an exchange center for artists from Weihai and the city of Gimje, in South Korea. It will also house the Art Research and Exchange Center for the Weihai branch of the China Democratic League.

A grand exhibition currently on show at the museum, features scores of ink paintings by artists from Weihai and the Zhou Shaohua Art Studio. The exhibition runs until January 31.

Yang has her eyes on Japan's literary prize

Japan-based Chinese author Yang Yi was nominated on Monday, along with six others, for Japan's Akutagawa Prize, the country's top literary award for new writers.

If successful, Yang will be the first Chinese to be awarded the prize.

The 43-year-old woman, originally from Heilongjiang Province, was picked by the award selection body for her novel Wang-chan, which tells the story of a Japan-based Chinese woman working as a matchmaker between Japanese men and Chinese women.

It's very rare for non-native Japanese speakers to be nominated for the privileged literary award.

Winners of the 138th Akutagawa Prize will be announced after a screening committee meeting in Tokyo on January 16.

Wang is currently a Chinese teacher in Tokyo. In October, she won Bungeishunju Magazine's annual New Writer's Award for the novel, becoming the first foreigner given the prize.

The Akutagawa Prize, which was established in 1935 to commemorate a late Japanese writer, aims to encourage Japan's new short fiction writers.

Oscars 'likely' to go ahead

Academy Awards organizers expressed confidence on Tuesday that this year's Oscars show will take place as planned, as Hollywood digests the bombshell cancellation of the Golden Globes.

Bruce Davis, the executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said that Oscars organizers were hopeful of reaching a deal with writers that would allow the highlight of the awards season.

"At this stage we are still making our plans as normal," Davis said.

The dispute between writers and producers claimed its highest profile casualty on Monday when it was confirmed that Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony had been scrapped and replaced with a press conference.

The decision came after Hollywood's actors union, the Screen Actors Guild, announced last week that stars would not cross picket lines surrounding the show set erected by the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

The WGA has already said its members will not be allowed to write the script for the Oscars show, but has not yet explicitly confirmed if it will picket.

Davis said that while the Oscars could probably survive the absence of writers, picket lines would pose a headache, raising the grim prospect of a Globes-style actors boycott.

"I think we could absorb not having writers if they don't put up a picket line," Davis said. "But a picket line is a whole new problem," he added.

Davis said organizers will be able to wait until a few days before the event is scheduled to make their final decision, comparing it to 2003, when the Oscars took place a few days after the US-led war in Iraq began.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 01/10/2008 page18)