News Links - 1/14/08

[dleedlee]

Jet Li moves to Singapore
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... sec=movies

CJ7 Out of this world
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... sec=movies

Tsui Hark shoots comedy
http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpr ... 1167.shtml


Bai Ling moves into "Love Ranch"
http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5291/1/

China has banner film year
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2008/ ... films.html


Golden Globes Press Conference Diary
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0 ... 40,00.html

Phone Ringing; It's Chou Singing
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/01/14/1261@313902.htm

Carol spotted - more on the rumoured Mrs Lau
http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story ... &sec=music

Drug busts nab Zhang Yuan, Wu Lala (video)
http://www.danwei.org/video/drug_busts_ ... n_wu_l.php

The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name — Discreetly
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 80,00.html

Gamblers unite! And book a ticket to Wuhan.
http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2008/01/ ... -to-wuhan/

[ewaffle]

The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name — Discreetly
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 80,00.html

from the article:

Still, Beijing is no San Francisco. Openly gay filmmaker Cui Zien says it's still easy to cross an invisible line drawn by the authorities when it comes to publicly celebrating gay culture. "I organized a gay film festival in July of last year, and the authorities warned us not to advertise the location and the date of the festival anywhere. Not even on the internet." Despite the restrictions, though, the festival was allowed to go ahead (unlike some previous years) and was actually well attended

"Time" style has been criticized, lampooned and parodied for decades beginning with the famous "New York" article that included the line "backwards ran sentences until reeled the mind" and when one is writing and editing for a worldwide audience clarity, dramatic impact and good prose can suffer.

However the "invisible line" that the authorities drew in this case--a complete prohibition on advertising or even mentioning the existence of a film festival--seems about as invisible as, say, the 38th parallel of latitude on the Korean peninsula. They authorities may have wanted to make the film festival invisible but the ban on publicity seems very clear.

Like many worldwide media conglomerates, Time, Inc. publishes with at least one eye on the censors, whether formal or informal. The result can be a bit of a mess.

But as information about the gay community in large cities in the PRC the article was pretty informative so I shouldn't be picky.