Edison Chen to perform at Zebra Music Festival

Hong Kong singer/actor Edison Chen will perform at the Zebra Music Festival - his first outdoor musical festival - which will kick off on April 30 in Chengdu and last three days.

It will mark Chen's first public appearance in the mainland in three years. The star will perform songs from his new album, Confusion.

The festival will feature four international bands, Your Favorite Enemies, Success, Good 4 Nothing, and The On Fires, as well as stars Chen Chusheng, champion of Happy Boys - a Chinese version of American Idol - and Xu Wei, a widely loved rock singer.

Controversy dogs film The Warring States

The lead-up to the April 12 release of The Warring States, a period film, has been filled with controversy.

Most of it revolves around the film's casting. Actress Jing Tian, a relative newcomer to the big screen, leads the cast supported by many A-listers, such as Sun Honglei, Francis Ng and South Korean star Kim Hee-seon.

At a press conference last week, Sun apologized for his poor performance, especially in the film's opening 15 minutes. Ng said the script was revised often leaving him confused as to who was the leading actress. Jing, responding to criticism of her performance, asked viewers to be more forgiving of a new actress.

However, Zong Shan, an executive of the film's production company, sounded confident about the film's box office, saying he expected it to gross 300 million yuan ($44 million).

Avril Lavigne to headline Music Valley's first gig

Canadian rocker Avril Lavigne will perform at the 2011 China Music Valley International Music Festival Beijing, held on April 30 and May 1.

Organized by Gehua Live Nation, the music festival will see 17 international artistes play over the two days, including American actress and singer Juliet Lewis, English electropop singer-songwriter Little Boots and British indie rock band Editors.

The lineup also features musicians from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland, including Paul Wong, the former leading guitarist of rock band, Beyond, Taiwan's "Queen of Pub" Tiger Wong and Beijing-based punk-rock band Ziyo.

China Music Valley, in Pinggu district, 70 km northeast of downtown Beijing, is a 15 billion yuan ($2.29 billion) project aiming to build up an international music base. The 10-sq-km music valley, surrounded by mountains, will open for the first time for this music festival.

Symposium marks Chinese translations of Isaiah Berlin

British philosopher Isaiah Berlin, one of the leading thinkers of the 20th century, is likely the most read and loved social/political theorist among Chinese readers.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Berlin being translated into Chinese. To celebrate, Nanjing-based Yilin Press, and Tsinghua University, organized an international symposium recently in Beijing, at which scholars from around the world were invited to discuss Berlin and his influence on Chinese minds.

Berlin's works have triggered much discussions in academic circles, and his The Soviet Mind alone has sold nearly 30,000 copies in China.

Three more titles on Berlin will appear in Chinese this year, including a collection of his letters.

First Fashion Power Award honors celebrities, brands

More than 70 people from fashion and showbiz gathered recently in Grand Hyatt Beijing Hotel, for the first Fashion Power Award ceremony hosted by Beijing News.

The 18 winners, including Best Fashion Brand and Best Fashion Creation of 2010, were chosen over four months by 23 judges, drawn from the media, fashion and entertainment industries.

The awards were aimed at honoring efforts that brought in new trends and lifestyles and took Chinese fashion to a new level.

Among the winners were brands such as Hermes, Lining, and Omega, and celebrities such as writer Han Han, avant-garde director Meng Jinghui and A-list actress Yao Chen.