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French award for Chinese director

Film director Jia Zhangke received the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Prize last Friday at the 10th Deauville Asian Film Festival in northern France.

French director Cedric Kahn, who presented Jia with the award, said: "From The Pick Pocket (Xiao Wu) in 1998, moviegoers around the world began their journey to explore a unique understanding of human nature".

"There always is some kind of enlightening discovery when Jia's version intertwines with reality. His movies clearly depict human nature."

Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the festival held a retrospective show of Jia's works. Also, the mayor of Deauville awarded Jia with the town's Urban Prize to honor his cultural contribution to the seaside resort.

The festival, which focuses on Asian cinema, ran from March 12-16.

Bid to protect Yangtze treasures

The Yangtze River Fishery Administrative Committee and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) signed a cooperation memorandum in Beijing last week on protecting fishery resources and endangered aquatic wildlife and their habitats in the Yangtze River and lakes along it.

The two sides expect the partnership to promote sustainable fishery, conservation of aquatic biodiversity and development of aquatic reserves in the Yangtze River Basin, build up an aquatic wildlife monitoring system, and strengthen ecological research.

The Yangtze Fishery Administrative Committee under the Ministry of Agriculture, is in charge of Yangtze aquatic wildlife management and the monitoring and evaluating of fishery resources. Based in the United States, TNC is an international non-governmental organization known for its rich experience in bio-diversity conservation.

Wolf set loose in English

The global English edition of Chinese author Jiang Rong's Wolf Totem was launched last Thursday in the Forbidden City.

Now Chinese readers can buy it at Xinhua bookstores, foreign languages bookstores, star-ranked hotels and China's major airports at 96 yuan (the book's international price is $30), says Guo Xin from China International Book Import and Export Corp, the English book's domestic distributor.

American translator Howard Goldblatt's rendition of Jiang's original Chinese text has won widespread acclaim and a training workshop is to open soon in Beijing for Chinese literary translators, using Goldblatt's text for reference, says Zhao Haiyun from the General Administration for Press and Publishing.

Since its release in 2004, Wolf Totem has won widespread acclaim.

Web push for new Chan and Li blockbuster

Chinese web portal sina.com.cn has launched a mini-site devoted to the upcoming film, The Forbidden Kingdom (Gongfu Zhi Wang), starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

The mini-site features interviews with the stars and director Rob Minkoff, the film's trailer, as well as a photo gallery.

A $70-million film co-production between Lionsgate and mainland media group Huayi Brothers, the film is the onscreen collaboration of Chan and Li. Based on Asian tales and myths, the story follows an American teenager's journey into the world of martial arts.

The film will hit screens in the United States on April 18, six days before its premiere on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

China Daily

(China Daily 03/18/2008 page18)