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Multi million dollar film production plan

Private mainland production company Enlight Pictures has announced a three-year strategy, in which it will invest in and distribute 30 films over the next three years.

The company expects these releases to gross 1 billion yuan ($137 million) at the box office. Many of the projects will be driven by original stories from the film's own creative team.

Middle-budget features with optimistic commercial prospects are the company's priorities, says Zhang Zhao, Enlight's CEO. The company has signed contracts with five Hong Kong directors, all of whom are working on projects financed by the company. Among them is a film about Chinese martial art master Chen Zhen directed by Gordon Chan, president of the Hong Kong Directors' Guild. An international co-production named Transsiberia (Chuanyue Xiboliya) is also planned.

Enlight has invested in and released five films since its establishment two years ago and Zhang says that all five have made money. The best performer was Confession of Pain (Shang Cheng) starring Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro (pictured), which pulled 80 million yuan ($11 million) at the mainland box office. In May, the company will release Shark Tsui's Missing (Shenhai Xunren), the first Chinese film featuring under-water shooting.

Artists to flock to Nanjing

Some 100 artists from Japan, South Korea and China will meet in September in Nanjing for the Third Nanjing Triennial.

"Nanjing is a city of great cultural and historical significance," says chief curator Huang Du who teams up with Fumihiko Sumitomo from Japan, Kang Jaeyoung from South Korea, and Li Zhenhua from Beijing. "It once served as capital for six feudal dynasties and people here have endured untold sufferings during the wars, social turbulences and foreign invasion over the last century."

The participating artists will present art pieces with distinct Asian flavors.

Through their works and interaction with local visitors, the artists will also "try to discover and capture the city's cultural dynamics amid China's rapid change and development," Huang says.

The art gathering is co-organized by Nanjing Museum of Modern Art, Nanjing Art Acadmey and local government.

Ireland's poetry, in Chinese

Noted Irish poet Desmond Egan (pictured) celebrated publishing the Chinese version of his book September Dandelion by reciting three poems at a press conference on Saturday, in Beijing. Jin Wenning, the Chinese translator of the book, joined him. John Hughes, president of National University of Ireland Maynooth presided at the ceremony.

Egan said he was a fan of China. He said he loves Chinese poems and paintings and believes the essential relationship in Chinese poetry between emotion and landscape can be found in September Dandelion.

Egan has published 20 collections of poetry, but this is the first time that he has been published in Chinese.

On Monday afternoon Egan gave a lecture on poetry multiculturalism and Irish studies to students from Beijing University of Foreign Studies.

Buying art to battle leukaemia

More than 170 Chinese ink paintings, calligraphic scrolls, and oil paintings from some of the best-known Chinese artists will go under the hammer at an upcoming charity auction in Beijing.

Up for grabs will be works by artists including Yue Minjun, Wang Guangyi, Yin Zhaoyang, He Duoling, Fan Yang, and Yang Mingyi.

The pieces can be viewed at the Beijing International Hotel from Thursday to Friday. The auction will take place on Saturday evening. Proceeds will be donated to the fight against leukaemia.

Statistics show that China has more than 4 million people who suffer from the disease, about half of whom are children. "Although latest medical advancements have made it possible to cure the disease, many Chinese families have witnessed the loss of their beloved ones due to the lack of money," says Liu Guolin, secretary-general with China Charity Federation.

To help alleviate the burden of poor families, his organization is planning to set up a special fund to help leukaemia-inflicted children from impoverished families.

China Daily

(China Daily 03/19/2008 page18)