The original film, based on the novel of the same name, spanned 172-minutes long for European and American markets but was cut to just 137 for its mainland version, according to the film's directors.
[…] "Although the mainland version is a bit constrained, [we] fully believe in the regulator's editing standards," said Cloud Atlas co-director Tom Tykwer, who was in Beijing on Tuesday to promote the movie ahead of its January 31 release.
[…] Material deleted mainly comprised of love scenes, gory sequences and nudity. A number of same-sex love scenes between actors Ben Whishaw and James D'Arcy were also cut from the film due to the Sarft's strict ban on homosexual content.
Shi Chuan, a professor from Shanghai University's school of film & TV arts and technology, proposed the enaction of relevant laws and the establishment of norms for movie censors to follow.
[…] "Movie regulators should respect the producers' original ideas, rather than chopping scenes arbitrarily," Shi said.
However, he said that he believes the censorship system is necessary for China's film industry.
[…] During an annual session of China's political advisory body held in March last year, Yin Li, vice chairman of the China Film Association, said Chinese film-making faces too many restrictions regarding sensitive topics such as public security, diplomacy, ethnic minorities and religion.
"I hope China can offer more freedom to film-makers so that a more favorable environment can be created for the country's movie industry," Yin said.
According to veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Philip Lee, an executive producer of Cloud Atlas responsible for its fund-raising in Asia, Hong Kong has a unique edge in film financing, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
"Hong Kong is the Asian financial centre and has a long history in filmmaking. With more collaboration with foreign projects or companies, knowing how to find the right match is very important, and Hong Kong has the expertise," says Lee, who served as an associate producer of the international hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and a line producer for Batman film The Dark Knight during its filming in Hong Kong.
[…] "The mainland certainly has capital, but can they find the right people? Not necessarily. Hong Kong can be more active in bridging this gap," [Media Asia's head of distribution Ricky Tse Chi-keung] says.
Li Ning (李凝) the Body Art Guerrilla Group, Made-in-J Town (凌雲焰肢體游擊隊), are among one of the most interesting groups. Recently, they released three action art performances from 2008 through Youtube. The year of the Beijing Olympics - 2008 – dissent voices in the country faced the harshest repression. The 11-year imprisonment of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, because of his Charter 08 initiative, is the most well-known example. These videos from 2008 give a glimpse into the resistance culture among young people in China.
[…] 2008 is the year of Beijing Olympic. In order to show the strength of the country, demolition had taken place in all major cities. Even though Jinan was not the hosting city, the scale of demolition and re-development had been huge. Li Ning and Body Art Guerrilla Group, Made-in-J Town, produced a short video showing the Olympic Torch relay in Jinan and the demolition. In the video, Li Ning performs the flesh and blood in the demolition scene, which creates a sharp contrast with the propaganda of the torch relay.
Jiang asked the party's new Central Committee to put his name among those of other retired leaders, and behind incumbent party and state leaders, after the party's national congress in November, Xinhua reported.
It praised Jiang's move as "reflecting the noble character and sterling integrity and open-mindedness of a Communist".
At the funeral of General Yang Baibing on Monday, Jiang's name appeared after those of members of the party's Politburo Standing Committee and state leaders for the first time since his full retirement in 2004.
Jiang had previously ranked second only to President Hu Jintao at official occasions following his retirement.
The South China Morning Post had reported Jiang's tumble in the pecking order on Tuesday, before state media claimed the change came at the former leader's own request. Still, one Beijing-based political analyst told the South China Morning Post on Thursday that Jiang "had most likely been forced to take a step back." Chris Buckley of The New York Times noted that Jiang was listed third in a similar mourning announcement just two months ago:
For some political analysts seeking to fathom the undercurrents of power in China's elite, Mr. Jiang's reduced protocol ranking suggested something more: that he may finally curb any impulses to exert influence in Zhongnanhai, the party leadership's compound in Beijing.
"In China, the saying goes that you must live up to your title to give your words sway, so if Jiang Zemin meddles in politics again after making this step, his reputation will be badly damaged," said Yao Jianfu, a retired party official and researcher in Beijing.
"It's a change in protocol, but now he'll be expected to live up to it and stop being such a political busybody," Mr. Yao said.
"In terms of the symbolism, this is a step forward to mitigate and to guard against the so-called geriatric politics: the old men interfering, retired old cadres who have no position still having a big say in party affairs," said Willy Lam, a China politics expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
"But on a practical level, it's difficult to prevent Jiang Zemin from still trying to do whatever he can to interfere in party affairs," Lam said. "In the Chinese context, tradition dies hard and you have a long record of retired party elders still interfering in party politics."
Natsuo Yamaguchi made no comments upon his arrival but told reporters in Tokyo he hoped his trip would help ease months of friction over the uninhabited East China Sea islands that are controlled by Japan but claimed by China.
"It is important for us to have consultations to normalise our relationship," said Yamaguchi, a lawmaker who leads the New Komeito party, the junior partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
…
Both nations have called for dialogue recently, and Chinese state broadcaster CCTV led its noon news broadcast with a live report on Yamaguchi's arrival in a sign of the importance Beijing attaches to his visit.
Yamaguchi is not a member of the government so his meetings in Beijing represent a type of quiet diplomacy that could allow for a franker exchange of views than official talks might.
China has always called for resolving the dispute through dialogue and consultation in the hope that the issue will not stand in the way of a stable and healthy bilateral relationship.
As a sign of good faith, China has invited Japanese politicians such as Yukio Hatoyama and Kenji Kosaka, a lawmaker from Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, to visit Beijing this month.
However, the situation remains tense and volatile. Japan needs to deal with the issue with calmness, reason and with a sense of reality.
In so doing, the two countries can find a way to move the issue in the right direction through diplomatic talks.
Seasoned at playing the provocateur, Mr Li moved from reporting on sport to writing essays on politics and society soon after the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, which killed more than 80,000 people. His writing on the struggles of common people after the disaster brought his work to a whole new audience of internet-savvy young Chinese. He went on to publish a novel in 2011, "Li Kele Protests Demolitions". Mr Li's "Li Kele" was an immediate hit; the descriptions of ordinary people who united together to fight faceless forces and venality propelled the writer into the arms of a more organized new audience: China's advocates for social reform.
Later that year Mr Li announced that he would be running for public office in Chengdu as an independent. Although his election campaign was never allowed to get under way (candidates for office are carefully screened by the Communist Party and eventually Mr Li failed his background check), he gained a new degree of credibility. Here, it seemed, was a man who would back up his words with actions.
At the book launch in Chengdu, an elderly man named Liu Shahe sat behind Mr Li. Mr Liu is one of the signatories of Charter 08, the document demanding a list political reforms that Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel laureate, was jailed for drafting. Mr Li tweeted Mr Liu's words to him—"You man of words, just keep writing"—and said the encouragement from the older man had reduced him to tears.
In Guangzhou, the final leg of Li's tour, the signing was cancelled at the last minute because the building where it was being hosted was closed for fire safety inspections.
Li Chengpeng apologized to his readers for the Guangzhou cancellation with a tongue-in-cheek post to his Sina Weibo account playing on the title of his book [Everybody in the World Knows]: "Once again I apologize to everyone: Because fire safety inspections are happening at the Tianya Building, outsiders cannot go in, and therefore my book signing for readers is cancelled. I'm accepting this fact, because this place is really in need of a fire safety inspection. Everybody in the world knows, fire safety is really important."
For all of its hitches and hijinks, Li Chengpeng's book tour illustrates the limitations of control in the era of social media. Li's "silent" signing in Chengdu was anything but silent — it was broadcast loudly across the internet. Every leg of his tour became the subject of fevered discussion online, pitting the values of speech and openness against controls that appeared foolish and anachronistic.
On January 12, 2013, two family members of the imprisoned rights defense lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟) were permitted to visit Gao at Shaya Prison in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to Gao's wife Geng He (耿和). This was the first family visit since March 24, 2012, and the only confirmation since that date that Gao is still alive. Gao's younger brother and Geng He's father were allowed to see Gao and speak with him by phone through a glass window.
[…] Before being allowed to see Gao, his younger brother was subjected to a body search and told that, during the visit, he was not allowed to discuss Gao's case, Gao's prison situation, or Geng He and their two children, who are in the United States, or to accept press interviews after the visit.
Gao's mind seemed clear and he spoke normally. His younger brother was not able to find out when Gao is scheduled to be released, or whether he received the letters from his wife and children.
When Gao's brother asked when Gao is permitted to see his family next, he was told that the family has to "follow old ways." Geng He said, "Last time, it took nine months for the authorities to allow the family to see Gao in prison. How long will it take next time?"
We studied all publicly traded Chinese companies in safety-regulated industries, including petroleum and natural gas extraction, mining, chemicals manufacture, and construction—a total of 276 firms. We added up the annual fatalities in each firm from 2008 to 2011, using company-reported statistics, government data, and press reports. After examining the employment histories of the firms' top (C-suite-equivalent) leaders, we defined a company as "connected" if at least one executive previously held a high-level government post.
Our results showed that on average, the rate of worker deaths is five times greater at connected companies than at similar companies that lack political connections. The finding that connected companies have much worse records was remarkably consistent from year to year. Moreover, deaths per 10,000 workers rose by almost 10, on average, during the year following the arrival of a connected executive at a previously unconnected firm, and fell by 6.4 during the year following a connected executive's departure. To investigate whether our results were skewed by underreporting, we narrowed our focus to include only major accidents, or ones that caused three or more deaths—events that would be very hard, if not impossible, to shield from discovery. The same pattern prevailed.
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by central government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth."
Guangdong Propaganda Department:North Korea objects to Shenzhen Satellite TV's report that Kim Jong-un had a face-lift. Do not report this incident, including Xinhua's clarification. (January 23, 2013)
CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
Al Jazeera's The Stream reported today on a global trend toward women marrying later and advancing their own education and careers before creating a family. The show focuses on India and China, where, as Leta Hong Fincher has written, women who are unmarried after age 27 are known as "leftover women" and looked down on in society. Al Jazeera interviews Joy Chen, whose books "Do Not Marry Before Age 30″ is a best-seller in China.
As the Lunar New Year approaches, many young people in China are heading home to visit their families. Those who are single often don't want to confront family pressure to find a spouse, and so to avoid it they hire strangers to play the role of love interest for family visits. The New York Times blog reports:
On Taobao, this man, who didn't give his name but supplied a photograph, said he was born in 1991, was a B.A. student, an extrovert, 170 centimeters (5 feet, 6 inches) tall and 60 kilograms (132 pounds), offered a relatively simple list of extra services.
"Boyfriend for rent, 300 yuan a day, holding hands and hugs free, appropriate kisses 50 yuan, talking to old people 30 yuan an hour, others we'll talk about it when we meet," his post said. Also: "accommodation and transport costs paid by the woman."
Often, services are worked out in minute financial detail. This man, charging 800 renminbi ($128) a day, had a long list of extras: shopping (15 renminbi per hour or 150 a day, minimum two hours); chatting (10 renminbi an hour or 100 a day); watching a movie (10 renminbi an hour, double for horror films); attending parties (20 renminbi an hour, will not go to dangerous places). And he charges for drinking, based on the spirit content (drinking alcohol is de rigueur for men at festive banquets): 100 renminbi per 100 milliliters of white spirits, 50 renminbi for 100 milliliters of red wine, 20 renminbi for 500 milliliters of beer.
Just in case you're wondering if it's all for real, or just a cruel hoax — it's true. My colleague Dan Levin wrote about the phenomenon a few years ago, and even people.com.cn, the racier, online version of the Communist Party-run People's Daily newspaper, recently carried a report.
The First Intermediate Court of Beijing submitted a report earlier this month recommending changing the law for women who discover their husbands are gay so that they are not branded as 'divorced' which would make it even harder to find a new man in a society that insists on labelling any woman unmarried after 27 a 'left over woman'.
Reportedly, an estimated 70 percent of all gay men in China marry women, resulting in about 16 million women who are now labelled 'tongqi', which would loosely translate to 'homo-wife'. Homosexuality is still very controversial in China (it was listed as a mental illness until 2001) and many people enter into heterosexual marriages just to appease their families and to have children.
The new legislation would presumably apply to anyone but does not explicitly state what happens if the couple already have children, or if the man only realises his sexuality after the marriage, or if the woman is a lesbian and her straight husband finds out.
The Word of the Week comes from China Digital Space's Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China's online "resistance discourse," used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.
Government jargon and a source of frustration to many Chinese people. Sometimes the "relevant department" is clear from context, but more often it remains ambiguous. A government spokesperson may assure people that "the relevant department" is taking care of a particular crisis without elaborating which particular department that may be. Or a request for information may be turned down and the person seeking the information directed to ask the "relevant department" (without identifying which department that is).
The Relevant Department is China's most powerful department. Tasks that other departments cannot do are handed over to this department. It is also the department most frequently reported on in the news media. The Relevant Department is the world's most mysterious department.
There are plenty of distinct and plausible shocks to the system that could knock our expectations of the future wildly off course — and plenty of surprises that we can neither predict nor anticipate, but that we can indirectly prepare for by attuning ourselves to the possibility of their occurrence. To take an example of one of the more plausible shocks we now face, a miscalculation in the South China Sea could easily set off a chain of events not entirely dissimilar to a shot in Sarajevo in 1914, with alliance structures, questions of prestige, escalation, credibility, and military capability turning what should be marginal to global affairs into a central question of war and peace.
Consider this: In Hong Kong over the weekend, Shotaro Yachi, the foreign policy adviser to the Japanese prime minister, accused China of "breaching the rule of international order" (his remarks were delivered by a former Japanese official, Takujiro Hamada, The South China Morning Post reported).
"You will be a superpower — much feared but not much liked," Mr. Yachi warned China at the third Sino-U.S. Colloquium, organized by the China Energy Fund Committee.
China is asserting territorial claims by force, said Mr. Yachi, referring to Beijing's actions at the Diaoyu Islands, which Japan calls the Senkakus and which are claimed by China, Japan and Taiwan.
…
A retired People's Liberation Army major general, Pan Zhenqiang, now an adviser to the Chinese government, characterized Mr. Yachi's statement as "very rude and arrogant" and warned Tokyo to treat China as an enemy at its peril, The Post reported.
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