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(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-18 15:06

Yao Ming offers hope to kids

Basketball star Yao Ming (pictured), together with food and beverage giant Kraft Foods, has recently established the Oreo Children Care Project, in Shanghai.

Yao is the brand ambassador of Oreo, a flagship product of Kraft Foods. He played games and shared his stories with students from Yihai Hope School in Pingjiang county, Hunan province.

Yihai Hope Primary School is one of 100 schools where Kraft built "Hope Kitchens" in 2009. For the new 2010 Oreo project, Kraft promises to donate Oreo products worth about 1 million yuan ($147,000) to students at Hope schools.

 

Student exchange program

Ten top Chinese students had a lively discussion on world issues with 10 of their counterparts from the United States on Saturday in Beijing.

Harvard, Tsinghua and Peking universities initiated the project, called Initiating Mutual Understanding through Student Exchange, in 2007.

Chosen from thousands of candidates, the Chinese and US students will also meet the US ambassador to China, visit Chinese companies and stay with farmers in Beijing's Miyun county, in order to enhance mutual understanding and friendship, says Du Jiamei, president of the project's branch in Peking University.

Among the Chinese students is Yue Wan-hsin, the first delegate from Taiwan. The 20-year-old political science and economics major from National Taiwan University says she expects to understand mainland students better during her stay in Beijing.

 

Reaching out to the choir

Choirs from the mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, the United States, Japan, Singapore and Australia gathered in Beijing to sing in Chinese at the 4th International Chinese Choral Festival (DongZhou Cup).

Organized by China Chorus Association and sponsored by NPO World Art & Culture Promotion Association (Japan), the festival was held at the National Center for the Performing Arts and Beijing Concert Hall between Aug 10 and 13.

At the opening ceremony, the choirs sang the theme song Pray Together, composed by China's Meng Weidong.

Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale performed Chinese folk songs Jasmine Flower and Spring Dawn. The Alps Choir from Japan sang Ode to Early Spring and Coconut.

Chinese choirs presented well-known classics such as Boatman's Song on Wusuli River, Go to the West and Moonlight on the Spring.

Singing contests and lectures on choirs were also held during the festival.

 

Actor takes new cues

Performer Li Yugang will bring his concert Flower in Mirror, Moon in Water to Japan's Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space from Aug 27 to 29.

Li often borrows techniques from traditional Peking Opera and Japanese Kabuki, and is celebrated for his versatility in switching between male and female roles.

He shot to fame when his gender-bending performances were broadcast on China Central Television's popular talent show Star Boulevard in 2006.

The 31-year-old is learning Japanese so he can communicate with Kabuki artists and will sing in Japanese during his concert.

China Daily