Diehard cinema fan

Shen Jian, the recent winner of a top French honor, has traveled a long way with his World Film Report, as Xu Fan discovers.

Ang Lee turned down a number of interview requests from world media when his Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became the first Chinese title to win the Oscar for best foreign movie in 2000. But at the time, Shen Jian, a lesser-known TV producer, couldn't just take "no" for an answer, so he sent his staff members to the director's alma mater, New York University.

There they recorded video greetings from Lee's former teachers and sent him the tapes.