BEIJING
Internet music
The first Internet music charts in China, the "Oppo 2005 Internet Song Charts" have been launched by the Beijing based website Sina.
All the four charts will be based on votes by netizens, with two - the "Original Internet song Chart" and the "Karaoke Song Chart" - designed for music by netizens themselves. The two charts will feature original songs and karaoke songs from netizens who upload their works onto the Internet.
Sina will also organize singers featured in the charts to perform in universities in over 30 cities around China, providing opportunities for Internet stars to come face to face with an audience.
Internet music has become a growing power in the Chinese pop music scene. Some songs like "Northeastern People Are All Living Lei Feng" and "The Rat Loves the Rice" have become very popular through dissemination on the Net.
Teacher training
The First International Symposium on Qualification Systems for Teachers in China ended last week at Beijing Normal University.
It focused on a couple of key issues concerning the current situation, experiments and reforms in the teacher qualification systems in China and worldwide.
Qualification Systems for Teachers have existed in Western countries for at least 200 years. But the systems have not been widely adopted in China, as they were only introduced here four years ago.
So far about 6 million young Chinese applying for an entry-level job in the teaching profession have been certified, said Gu Mingyuan, chairman of the symposium and professor with the Beijing Normal University.
Sponsored by the university and the State Centre of Teacher Qualification under the Ministry of Education, the three-day symposium was attended by at least 150 researchers, scholars, educators from the UK, Australia, Singapore, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, and China.
Auctioneer warms up
Huachen, China's major auctioneer, will launch an auction in Beijing on April 24 with more than 900 articles, which include paintings, calligraphy works, porcelain and jade wares, and sculptures as a warm-up for its coming large spring sale.
Hu Zhaohui, a manager with Huachen, said more than 600 painting and calligraphy works will be up for auction. Some are classic works by current artists or modern works from the mid-19th century to 1919, such as Tian Liming and Li Kuchan.
The articles to be auctioned also include a folding screen inlaid with ancient chinaware chips and a porcelain vase made during the reign of Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu (1871-1908).
The company wants to restrict the coming medium-sized spring auction to within 1,000 articles and the number of paintings and calligraphy works to within 650.
"Thus, we shift some articles with comparatively lower prices to warm-up the auction," said Gan Xuejun, the auction house president.
Personal art collections are becoming increasingly fashionable in China with the rapid development of the country's economy.
First album
The award-winning actress Qin Hailu will release her first album "Sweet Aftertaste" under the label Sony-BMG by the end of May.
It has taken the company and Qin 10 months to record the actress' debut album, the first Chinese album Sony China has released after it merged with BMG China last July.
Although Qin learned Peking Opera before she entered the Central Academy of Drama in 1996, she has put great effort into her vocal training during the last 10 months.
Wherever she happened to be shooting movies or TV serials, she made sure she was back in Beijing for her weekly voice coaching.
"I am not singing for fun but to fulfil a dream both I and my mother have, that is to try to be a singer. I worked hard on the record and hope people will like it," said the actress.
Qin was the classmate of Zhang Ziyi during 1996 to 2000 at the Central Academy of Drama.
In 2000, she won both the Best Actress Awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Taiwan Golden Horse Film Festival for her impressive performance in director Fruit Chan's movie "Durian, Durian."
Fashion soap opera
A 20-part TV serial "Talented Women and Handsome Men" broadcast by CCTV-8 has turned out to be one of the most popular soap operas in recent months.
Its star-studded cast, including Huang Xiaoming and Yin Xiaotian and super-models-turned actresses Yu Na and Wang Haizhen has played a significant part in it being an audience draw.
The storyline which centres on the fashion business and the behind the scene lives of models and designers and their longing to become famous, is also captivating TV audiences.
It also tells a quite complicated love story between two men and two women, which guarantees viewers tune in to the next episode.
Invested by Beijing Starlight Media Co Ltd, "Talented Women and Handsome Men" is the company's second TV serial featuring the loves, lives and careers of young city-dwellers.
The previous one "Talented Men and Pretty Women" also had high audience ratings when it was broadcast two years ago.
The company's next production will be the last of the trilogy and entitled "Both Talented and Good-Looking."
(China Daily 04/18/2005 page13)
