Box office star of 2010 Ge You itching for a rest

Comedian Ge You, who starred in three films in 2010 that grossed about 1.2 billion yuan ($185 million) - or more than one-tenth of the year's box office revenue - is taking a break in 2011.

The 54-year-old actor is not in either of the new efforts of Feng Xiaogang or Jiang Wen, directors of his last two films.

Ge claims he has not seen any appealing scripts so far.

Feng's new film is about a famine in 1942, while Jiang's is a sequel to Let the Bullets Fly.

Ge played a cinematographer in Feng's If You are the One 2 and a cheat in Jiang Wen's Bullets, in 2010. He also led the cast in Chen Kaige's 2010 costume drama, Sacrifice.

Giving teenagers a head start in art

The third annual Art Week for Teenagers, held jointly by Beijing Municipal Education Commission (BMEC) and the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), kicked off on Monday.

It attempts to showcase what Beijing's art education of youth has achieved.

NCPA has committed itself to making such education more accessible to young art lovers by hosting performances, lectures and free concerts all year round.

Fu Gengchen songs to celebrate CPC milestone

To celebrate the Communist Party of China's 90th anniversary, a special concert entitled Songs of Dreams - Fu Gengchen Concert will be held at the National Center for the Performing Arts on May 23.

Fu is currently honorary chairman of the Chinese Musicians Association, and an honorary committee member of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, as well as a member of the International Music Council.

Over the past 60 years, Fu has composed many widely loved songs, including the ever-popular film track Tunnel Warfare.

The concert will include some of Fu's new compositions and will be performed by well-known singers, such as Li Shuangjiang and Yu Junjian.

Art lifetime achievement awards event held in Beijing

Celebrated art historian Shui Tianzhong was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding accomplishments at the 5th AAC Awards for the Most Influential Participants of Chinese Art 2010.

The annual art event, hosted by Beijing Artron Cultural Development Company and artron.net, was held recently at the Palace Museum in Beijing.

A selection committee composed of 21 art critics and scholars, from home and abroad, credited the 76-year-old Shui for his outstanding academic studies in the development of ink art and oil paintings in New China.

Ten other award-winning artists included Song Dong, who is noted for his video and installations, conceptual sculptor Zhan Wang, Cynical Realism oil painter Fang Lijun and emerging young artist Jia Aili, whose paintings tackle the violence of contemporary life.

Introducing China and how it should be done

How should one introduce Chinese culture to people from different backgrounds? How should one translate Chinese arts into foreign languages? How should one organize intercultural events in and outside China?

Those were some of the topics discussed at a recent symposium in Beijing on the international promotion of Chinese arts and culture.

The event, jointly sponsored by the All China Federation of the Literary and Arts Circles and China Arts Daily, attracted about 50 scholars, curators and PR people who have been engaged in promoting ink art, calligraphy, acrobatics, local operas, and other forms of Chinese culture abroad.

"It is important for Chinese arts and culture to have dialogues with other cultures and civilizations worldwide," said Feng Yuan, vice-president of the All China Federation of the Literary and Arts Circles.

"Only through intercultural communication can people from around the world better understand China and Chinese people."

Quake documentary shows reconstruction process

China Intercontinental Communication Center has partnered with Discovery Communications to co-produce a documentary about the rebuilding of a county destroyed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

The 50-minute film, Rebuilding Sichuan, chronicles the journey of reconstruction in Beichuan county, which was devastated by the temblor, in fewer than two years.

Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, a division of Discovery Communications, distributed the documentary on May 12, the three-year anniversary of the earthquake that killed nearly 70,000.

Film focusing on ties that bind gets new sponsor

My Father, a film 28-year-old Qingdao-based actor Yao Jinfei has dedicated to his father, who has late-stage cancer, resumed shooting in Beijing last week. The resumption of filming has been made possible by the sponsorship of Beijing Cixiaokang TCM Research Institute, which contacted Yao after media covered his story.

Yao has undertaken the film as a final gift to his father. Yao and his dad, who is an amateur actor, play themselves in the film, which depicts touching moments they shared. It was half finished when the money ran out.

The sponsor will provide free treatments for Yao's father and fund the rest of the filming. The team also received 10,000 yuan ($1,538) from netizens, who were moved by their story.

China Daily