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International flavor for music festival

World famous throat-singing group Huun-Huur-Tu (pictured) of the Tuva people will share a stage with folk musicians of the Pumi, one of the smallest ethnic groups in China, at the 2008 World Music Shanghai, to be held from April 30 to May 5 at the Shanghai Concert Hall.

Each night of the festival will feature a Chinese and an international group. The opening concert will feature a Dong people's choir of "big songs", a form similar to the Western a cappella, and the National Drummers of Burundi. Other concerts will feature Dolan muqam from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region/ Ensemble Shanbehzadeh from Iran, Miao singer Long Xian'e/ gamelan group Gender Wayang from Indonesia, and the Laoqiang group from Shaanxi province /Spanish flamenco guitarist Daniel Casares.

A music event affiliated with the Expo 2010 Shanghai, the World Music Shanghai will be held annually from 2008 to 2010.

Stellar films lined up for retrospective

Beijing Stellar International Cineplex will host a retrospective show of films produced by its parent company Stellar Mega Media in three Stellar theaters, including the new Huilongguan branch. The show opened on Friday and will end on April 30.

The films include Hong Kong director Peter Chan's Perhaps Love (Ruguo Ai), Li Shaohong's horror film The Door (Men) and rising director A Gan's Two Stupid Eggs (Dadianying 2.0). Award-winning mainland art house director Wang Xiaoshuai's Shanghai Dreams (Qinghong), the Cannes Grand Prize winner, and In Love We Trust (Zuo You), which won him a silver bear in Berlin, are also on the list. Wang's silver bear will be exhibited in Huilongguan Theater for one week.

Jet to take charity to great heights

Jet Li, the Chinese kungfu star, has again become the center of attention, this time, not for his Best Actor prize at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards or the world premiere of his latest film The Forbidden Kingdom co-starring Jacky Chan, but his efforts promoting the One Foundation, a charity fund he launched last April.

At a press conference in Beijing on April 17, Jet Li kept his hands folded in a Zen gesture of thanks and said: "Film is my job but the One Foundation is my life".

He compared the foundation to a toddler still learning to walk.

"One Foundation was born on April 19 last year and now it is two days away from reaching his one-year birthday. He is stumbling to get on his own feet."

Recently, One Foundation agreed to join with Boao Forum for Asia 2008 to hold a charity forum every December in Beijing. In March, One Foundation aligned with the Huayi Brothers Film Corporation. The leading corporation in China's film industry promised to donate part of its movies' box office income to the fund over the next 10 years.

Jet Li's latest film The Forbidden Kingdom, which just held its world premiere on April 16, will be subject to this agreement. By April 15, donations had reached over 10 million yuan and the foundation invited Deloitte, one of the world's four major audit firms, to examine its accounts.

China Daily

(China Daily 04/22/2008 page18)