Tang Wei gets busy

The year 2013 will be a busy year for Tang Wei, star of Ang Lee's spy thriller Lust, Caution. Tang will lead a romantic comedy set in both Beijing and Seattle named Finding Mr. Right. Working with senior actor Wu Xiubo, Tang will challenge herself by portraying a material girl. It will be Tang's first comedy. Director Xue Xiaolu has directed only one film before, but the emotional drama on autistic children was well received by audience and critics. Tang will also play the legendary modern writer Xiao Hong in Ann Hui's Our Golden Age (tentative title), now in production. Finding Mr. Right will premiere in China on March 15.

Push for documentaries

Raredoc Asia Plan, a project to find documentary-making talent in Asia, started in Beijing late last month. Initiated by Beijing-based Rare Media Group, which has made documentaries for 11 years, the campaign calls for candidates to upload a five-minute video onto Youku.com with the theme of "my city and I". Rare Media Group will work with 200 television stations and websites to select 30 and provide financial support for those creators to finish a 15-minute documentary. They will also choose 10 from 30 candidates as the final winners. The company will help the top 10 make a 50-minute documentary.

Mongolian lark returns

After more than seven years of silence, Inner Mongolian pop singer Siqingerile is sweeping back onto the music scene with a new album, Mountain Spring. Like her previous albums, she wrote most of the music and lyrics in the album. Born in Xilinhot, a small city on the grasslands of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, she attributes her talent as inherent, since she was born into an ethnic group known for singing and dancing. During the past seven years, she says she has been traveling around the world. "The more I see the world, the more I want to write songs for my homeland," she says.

China Daily

(China Daily 01/15/2013 page20)