Category: CULTURE

(Xinhua)09:19, January 10, 2021

BEIJING, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) — Chinese feature film A Little Red Flower continued leading box office chart on the mainland Friday, grossing 35.1 million yuan (around 5.48 million U.S. dollars).

The film, telling of a heartwarming story about two families battling cancer, had been topping the box office chart since its debut on Dec. 31, generating a total of 935 million yuan in nine days, data from the China Movie Data Information Network showed Saturday.

Coming in second was comedy Warm Hug, which raked in about 18.09 million yuan on Friday. The film, starring well-known Chinese comedian Shen Teng, is adapted from Korean comedy The Plan Man.

It was followed by Chinese action crime thriller Shock Wave 2, which earned about 17.84 million yuan Friday. Since its Dec. 24 debut, the film had pocketed 910 million yuan.

(Xinhua)09:36, January 10, 2021

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) — Chinese-born female director Chloe Zhaos critically-acclaimed film Nomadland continued to pile up awards this week in the United States, strengthening its Oscars chances.

On Thursday, the American contemporary western drama film from Disneys Searchlight Pictures was named one of the top 10 films of 2020 by the Columbus Film Critics Association, along with Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal, Ma Raineys Black Bottom, Minari, Soul, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, The Trial of the Chicago 7, First Cow, and Mank.

Adapted by Zhao from Jessica Bruders 2017 non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, the film stars two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand as an out-of-work woman who packs her van and sets off from her small town to travel around the vast landscape of the American West, exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad.

Zhao took home the Best Director award and Best Adapted Screenplay award at the annual Columbus Film Critics Association Awards. The film also won Best Cinematography for Joshua James Richards in an online ceremony held by the U.S. critics group, made up of film critics based in Columbus, Ohio, and the surrounding areas.

Zhao took an understated story and delivered it almost perfectly, wrote Brad Keefe, a voting member of the association for Columbus Alive, a weekly entertainment magazine and website serving Central Ohio.

One day earlier, Nomadland racked up four honors at the 2020 Oklahoma Film Critics Circle awards on Wednesday.

Zhao was named Best Director of 2020 by the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle, composed of Oklahoma-based print, broadcast and Internet film critics. She also nabbed Best Adapted Screenplay at the awards.

The film also won Best Actress for Frances McDormand and landed in the critics groups top 10 films of 2020.

Nomadland dominated the 2020 Alliance Of Women Film Journalists Awards on Monday, taking home six top honors, including Best Film.

Zhao won Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing for the film. Frances McDormand won the accolade for Best Actress while Joshua James Richards snagged the Best Cinematography award.

Alliance of Women Film Journalists, based in New York City, is dedicated to supporting work by and about women in the film industry.

Nomadland also took home four trophies on Monday at 2020 North Carolina Film Critics Association Awards, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Cinematography.

Nomadland nabbed the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Peoples Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020.

The film is racking up top honors ahead of the 2021 Oscar nominations. It has swept awards from coast to coast in the United States in recent weeks, including Best Director awards from the Boston Online Film Critics Association, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Florida Film Critics Circle, Indiana Film Journalists Association awards, IndieWire Critics Poll, the New York Film Critics Circle and the LA Film Critics Association. Enditem

(Xinhua)13:46, January 10, 2021

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) — Chinese-born female director Chloe Zhaos feature film Nomadland turned out to be a big winner on Saturday at the annual National Society of Film Critics Awards with four trophies, continuing to sweep the awards circuit in the United States.

At the U.S. critics groups 55th awards voting meeting, which was held virtually this year, the American contemporary western drama film from Disneys Searchlight Pictures was named Best Picture of 2020. Zhao also nabbed the Best Director award at the annual event.

Adapted by Zhao from Jessica Bruders 2017 non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, the film stars two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand as an out-of-work woman who packs her van and sets off from her small town to travel around the vast landscape of the American West, exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad.

McDormand won Best Actress for her performance in the film while Joshua James Richards walked away with the Best Cinematography award.

The National Society of Film Critics is made up of 60 prominent movie critics across the United States.

(Xinhua)09:24, January 11, 2021

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) — Chinese-born director Chloe Zhaos feature film Nomadland became a big winner on Saturday with four trophies at the annual National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) Awards, and is continuing to sweep the awards circuit in the United States.

Nomadland, an American contemporary Western drama distributed by Searchlight Pictures, was named best film of 2020 at the virtual NSFCs 55th awards voting meeting, and is Zhaos second film after the cowboy drama The Rider two years ago.

Zhao also nabbed the best director award. Best actress went to Frances McDormand for her performance, and Joshua James Richards walked away with the best cinematography award.

It was at least the fifth top prize in film directing this week for Zhao from the countrys critics groups, with the others from the Columbus Film Critics Association, the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle, the Alliance Of Women Film Journalists, and the North Carolina Film Critics Association.

An adaptation from a 2017 non-fiction book, the film stars McDormand, a two-time Oscar winner, as an out-of-work woman who packs her van and sets off from her small town across the vast landscape of the American West, exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad.

Earlier, Nomadland had won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Peoples Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, making history as the first to win both honors. Awards have piled up from coast to coast in the United States in recent weeks, putting it on the fast track for Oscar contention.

Voting of the NSFC, consisting of 60 prominent movie critics from major papers and outlets across the United States, is conducted via a weighted ballot system this year. Delroy Lindo nabbed best actor for his role in Netflixs war drama Da 5 Bloods. Eliza Hittman in Never Rarely Sometimes Always was awarded best screenplay, and the Romanian film Collective won the best foreign language film award.

The South Korean film Parasite was the best film at the NSFC Awards last year. It went on to make history at the 92nd Academy Awards, winning four top prizes, including the one for best picture.

(Xinhua)09:45, January 11, 2021

SHANGHAI, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) — The 2021 League of Legends Pro League (LPL) Spring Split kicked off here on Saturday.

In the opener, SN beat TES 2-0, who also sealed a 3-1 victory over the opponent in the semifinals of the 2020 League of Legends World Championship (S10). Elsewhere, EDG edged OMG 2-1.

In 2020, more than 21.8 billion person-time watched the live broadcast of professional events in the LPL, according to the statistics released by Jin Yibo, the co-CEO of TJ Sport, which manages eSport, and the game of LOL, in China.

The press conference before the game announced the reform plan of LPL that 10 teams will compete in 12 playoff games this year.

According to the official Weibo account of LOL, the 2021 League of Legends World Championship (S11) will still take place in China, including the final in Shenzhen, south Chinas Guangdong Province.

(Xinhua)10:00, January 05, 2021

ISTANBUL, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — Turkey has been restoring historical bridges in the country and transforming them into tourism destinations, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu said on Monday.

In 2020, 57 bridges out of a total of 2,378 historical bridges have been completed restorations, all of which are made of stone, wood, iron, and reinforced concrete, the minister announced in a written statement.

We ensure that these bridges, which are of great importance in terms of both cultural and technological history, are restored and preserved in line with their original versions, Karaismailoglu noted.

The restoration processes of over 10 bridges, including Cayli Bridge, built in the 19th century during the Ottoman era in the central Anatolian province of Cankiri, are still going on in line with the international conservation and restoration principles, according to the minister.

The wooden Cayli Bridge over the Melan stream has managed to survive up to today with its original details to a great extent, Karaismailoglu said.

We try to keep them alive and transfer them to future generations, he stressed, noting that since 2003, restoration works of 373 historical bridges in total have been completed.

Karaismailoglu also noted that 316 bridges that belong to the Ottoman era are located abroad, with most of them in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

(Xinhua)10:08, January 07, 2021

JERUSALEM, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) — A stone bearing an inscription in Greek from about 1,400 years ago was discovered in southern Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said on Wednesday.

The stone, dating back to the end of the Byzantine period, was discovered in the confines of the Nitzana National Park in the Negev Desert.

The flat and round stone, 25 cm in diameter, was used as a tombstone in one of the cemeteries surrounding the ancient Nabataean city of Nitzana.

Nitzana was founded in as early as the third century BC as a road station on a major trade route and the place was inhabited intermittently for about 1,300 years.

During the fifth and sixth centuries AD, Nitzana was a center for the villages in the vicinity.

(Peoples Daily Online)13:54, January 07, 2021

Awarded the honorable title of a great craftsman of China in 2018, Yang Songyuan, a man in his 60s, has been making writing brushes for nearly 50 years.

Developed in Huzhou in east Chinas Zhejiang province, the Huzhou writing brush serves as one of the four treasures of study in traditional Chinese culture (the other three are Xuan paper, Duan ink stone and Hui ink) .

Yang Songyuan makes writing brushes. (Photo provided by Qianjin town, Huzhou)

Making writing brushes is not as easy as it appears, as it requires full concentration. In the first week of learning, Yang could not even pick up the most fundamental brush-making skills, he recalled.

Instead of giving up, Yang dove into learning the techniques, further improving his skills through learning from several masters.

He has also been constantly improving the skills of making Huzhou writing brushes to better meet customers needs. In order to improve the resilience and life expectancy of the brush, he adopted plant ash to degrease the hair under high temperature, instead of the traditional method of using limestone and sulfur.

Photo shows notes taken by Yang Songyuan. (Photo provided by Qianjin town, Huzhou)

In addition, Yang often seeks feedback from different calligraphers and painters, for the purpose of innovating the ink brushes. Under his efforts, over 100 varieties of customized writing brushes have been launched.

Two varieties were selected by an international expo as permanent exhibits, while several other varieties sold well in Hong Kong.

Making the writing brush is indeed a boring and rigorous job, however, since I like it, I am willing to spend my whole life time on this work, Yang said.

Photo shows writing brushes made by Yang Songyuan. (Photo provided by Qianjin town, Huzhou)

In recent years, Yang focuses more on the cultural inheritance of the Huzhou writing brush. Not only has he made documentaries and written papers on the writing brush, but he also set up a team to do more research and innovate the skills of making the ink brush.

(Xinhua)16:56, January 08, 2021

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) — A new movie adapted from a Chinese sci-fi novel will soon hit the big screen, the latest such adaptation following the hugely successful trailblazer The Wandering Earth and the high-profile flop Shanghai Fortress.

The Soul, a daring overhaul of a 2012 short story of the same name by Jiang Bo, will be officially released in cinemas on the Chinese mainland on Jan. 15.

Helmed by Taiwanese director Cheng Wei-hao and starring Chang Chen and Chang Chun-ning, the sci-fi thriller revolves around the mysterious murder of a business tycoon and a controversial technology for soul transplants.

Movie adaptations of Chinese sci-fi novels remain rare in the worlds second-largest movie market. The new movie will be the latest test of market enthusiasm for this genre.

In 2019, the sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth, adapted from the eponymous story by Liu Cixin, raked in more than 4.6 billion yuan (over 720 million U.S. dollars) at Chinas box office, spurring heated discussions about the advent of an era of Chinese sci-fi blockbusters.

Shanghai Fortress, the second such adaptation from a popular Chinese sci-fi novel released later that year, however, fared badly both at the box office and in public reviews.

Jiang, the author of the original story, gave the movie adaptation of The Soul a 9.5/10 rating after watching the premiere on Thursday.

The Xingyun (Nebula) Award winner said despite being vastly different from the novel, the movie is a successful transplant of his sci-fi ideas onto a detective story with heavy elements of interpersonal bonds.

I hope sci-fi elements can prosper in more types of Chinese movies. When sci-fi becomes a common element in movies and TV dramas, the spring of Chinese science fiction will truly come, he said.

Ji Shaoting, founder of the Future Affairs Administration, an incubator for new sci-fi writers, said she was impressed by the Chinese love story depicted in the sci-fi movie.

Everything in this sci-fi movie is very Oriental. This is the very thing Chinese sci-fi fans have long wished to see in cinemas, Ji said after attending the premiere.

(Xinhua)13:26, January 03, 2021

The National Library of China has launched 48 documentaries online to further promote the nations intangible cultural heritage (ICH) among the public.

The documentaries cover 10 categories of ICH, exploring such areas as living environment, growth experience, skill acquisition, teaching and inheritance.

The documentaries aim to inform the public of Chinas ICH, while helping them to understand, love and protect it.

Audiences can visit the website, ich.nlc.cn, to watch the documentaries and vote for their favorites.

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