Crazy Office heads to the Internet

Web portal Sohu.com has again joined forces with Eastern Film Production, the Hong Kong-based film company with which it produced Kungfu Hustle and Jet Li's Fearless, to shoot its second online drama.

Titled Crazy Office, it is a 10-episode comedy set in a company called Crazy Dream, whose main business is to help people realize their dreams, however crazy they are.

Television anchor Dai Jun plays the company's CEO, Opama, who leads a crazy team of young people, each boasting unique skills, such as kungfu and eloquence.

Some A-listers will play cameo roles in the show, which will be broadcast on Sohu's video channel in April.

Deadline extended for ballet competition

In order to provide opportunities for more candidates to participate in the First Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition, the organizing committee has delayed the event's application deadline from Feb 28 to Mar 31.

Hosted by the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), the competition aims to identify promising ballet dancers and choreographers, and promote international exchanges.

Applicants around the world can visit the competition website: www.china-ibcc.org to familiarize themselves with the regulations, download application forms, and send DVDs of their application programs for the preliminary selection.

Fifty classical ballet applicants and 25 choreography applicants will qualify to join the competition, which will be held at NCPA in Beijing from July 7-17.

'Leftover women' subject of hit drama

Happiness at the Door, a prime-time series that premiered on China Central Television (CCTV) on Feb 20, is top of the ratings for TV dramas.

Based on a novel by Chinese-American author Yan Geling, the 33-episode show is set in 1980s China and depicts a fashionable woman (played by Jiang Wenli) who cherishes love.

Also popular with netizens, the series has triggered online discussions about the factors that have led to "leftover women" (a term referring to unmarried women in their 30's and 40's) in 1980s China and today.

What's the song and dance about tulou?

A song and dance show featuring Hakka culture and performed by hundreds of amateur actors from Yongding, Fujian province, was performed at the National Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday night.

Entitled Verve of Tulou, the five-part show portrays the development of the tulou and the Hakka migration that brought them to Yongding. The Hakka built tulou - earthen communal houses - in Yongding between the 15th and 20th centuries. The Hakka people are said to have migrated as war refugees from Central China. Yongding now hosts 20,000 of the structures, which were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008.

Directed by artist Lai Yongsheng, the show, which presents about a dozen Hakka songs and dances and features traditional attire, offers a holistic presentation of life in the county.