Rural romance

The sixth season of Countryside Love Story, a television drama on the rural life in Northeast China, will premiere around the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 10 this year. Video website Youku.com has bought the exclusive new media screening rights of the show and will release it simultaneously. Zhao Benshan, the senior comedian/director behind the smash hit, says that another show produced by his Benshan Media will also have its online premiere on Youku.com. Zhao plays in both shows.

Sharing resources

The National Library of China will share the digital version of more than 1 million books, 180,000 documents in foreign languages, 700 periodicals, photos, videos and study courses with other libraries in the country. Readers from 20 libraries across the country will have access to the NLC's digital offerings through a special virtual network starting from Feb 4. The project will be extended to 33 provincial libraries and 33 city-level ones. NLC will also provide online streaming of lectures on Chinese folk culture during the Spring Festival.

New moves

Tai chi grandmaster Chen Xiaowang unveiled his newly created nine-posture Chen-style tai chi boxing on Wednesday in Beijing. The tai chi master has already created two condensed versions of Chen-style tai chi boxing, featuring 38 postures and 19 postures respectively. The new nine-posture is a further simplification, which hopes to attract the young generation with its easy steps. Chen will personally train 900 tai chi teachers across the world. Chen is the 19th generation of Chen-style tai chi. He has more than 300,000 disciples worldwide.

Cultural project in Shanghai

A promotional conference for Ocean Cube Cultural and Creative Town was held at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Jan 30. More than 40 experts from various fields of cultural industry discussed the feasibility and operation pattern of the cultural project. Planned since 2009, the Ocean Cube will be built in Shanghai's Chongming county on 10.25 million square meters. The core area will be a trade center of cultural creative products and copyrights. Three cluster areas will be centers for art institutes, film and TV, and original arts. Eight theme parks will feature ethnic culture, art gifts, fashion, creative agriculture, cartoons, sports, leisure and music.

Drive home for holiday

As an alternative to railway and airline transportation, Jiaduobao Group and eHi Car Service are offering 2,000 free and discounted rental cars for netizens around the country during the Spring Festival travel "migration". The event offers various discount coupons to applicants by lottery, who must register by Feb 8 on the Jiaduobao website or Sina Weibo account. Wang Yuegui, a manager with Jiaduobao, said the program would alleviate pressure on public transportation and encourage the use of environment-friendly cars.

Festival bond

Senior comedian Zhu Shimao's second directorial work Love Retake will be released on the first day of Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 10. Zhu summons not only four young leading stars from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan including Su Chien-hsin and Gillian Chung, but also 10 veteran actors such as Pan Changjiang and Zhang Tielin as guest stars. Zhu says he chose the date because he used to perform at CCTV's Spring Gala for many years. Although he has stopped doing that, he wants his work to be seen during the festival to continue the bond between himself and audiences.

China Daily

(China Daily 02/05/2013 page20)