It's hard to pinpoint yearzero for the rejuvenation of China's film industry, but 2013 will probably be remembered as the year the industry gained full confidence and changes happened faster than any prognostication. By the end of 2013, China's box-office total is expected to hit 21.5 billion yuan ($3.54 billion), 10 times the revenue of 2006. Last year's number already placed China as the second-largest cinema market in the world, next only to the United States. But only this year did the ratio of domestic releases rise well above the 50 percent demarcation, and without any palpable manipulations.
Switch: A heist film set in Dubai, Tokyo and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and crammed with unintentional kitsch.
The year 2013 will be remembered for the spectacular takeoff of China's film market, and it will also go down in history as the year bad movies ruled, or at least shared, the box office and public consciousness as often as, if not more frequently than, good ones. Here is the result of painstaking scavenging for something valuable from a big pile of cinematic fluff and trash.
This year, I published an English-language book, titled A PracticalGuide to Chinese Cinema 2002-2012 which is now available in the Kindle store, but it does no include two of the most dramatic episodes that happened to me as a film critic. They might have shaped film criticism in China, though.
A brain tumor nearly grounded a veteran fighter pilot forever but Shen Wenjie was determined to get back in the air, he tells Peng Yining in Yantai, Shandong province.
Without providing any qualifications or certificates, language schools in Lhasa have led many people struggling with literacy to new job opportunities.
Chinese television production is crying out for more original content, but industry forces discourage innovation. Han Bingbin finds out what's on the box.
Television channels in China have been exploring new show formats to boost viewership, but many do not know their target audience.
As an actress, Yao Chen adores Angelina Jolie.They have some things in common, like the signature big mouth, and they are now both goodwill ambassadors of United Nations' agency for refugees. On Oct 23 this year, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres presented Yao the certificate of appointment, thanking her for devoting herself to three years of work as UNHCR's honorary patron. "I'm very happy to have someone like you supporting the cause of refugees," he said. "Public awareness of UNHCR in China has multiplied." Before she became the first goodwill ambassador in China for the agency, the 34-year-old actress had visited urban refugees in the Philippines, refugees from Myanmar in Thailand's camps and Somali refugees in Ethiopia's camps as UNHCR's honorary patron. The visits totally refreshed her understanding of the common word "refugee".
If you could talk to a late master in your field, who would you like to talk to and why?
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Raymond Zhou
Op Rana
Berlin Fang
Zhu Yuan
Huang Xiangyang
Chen Weihua
