The Beijinger Blog - Victoria Yang

China Fashion Week: Far East Is Far Out

thebeijinger — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:00:30 +0800

China International Fashion Week 2009/2010 autumn/winter series opened in Beijing yesterday. One of the opening events of the event, the Hempel Award, attracted a fresh crop of young designers from 18 countries and regions to flaunt their designs yesterday.

Unlike the Spring Summer Collection of last year, there's little in the way of over-the-top garments on show. Most dresses flapping down the runway are one-piece numbers, featuring straight cuts, cold and simple colors - giving expression to the show's slogan: "simple is best".

Slumdog Millionaire Opens Today

thebeijinger — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:00:33 +0800

Slumdog Millionaire opens around town today and gets a general release at over 2,000 theaters across China tomorrow. The Oscar-winning director of the film, Danny Boyle, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday to promote the ”Feel Good Movie of the Year”. The first thing the director of Trainspotting did upon arriving in China was visit Tian’anmen Square. Along with a series of media interviews and other promotional activities, Boyle also attended a premiere at a cinema in Wangfujing last night. This was the director's first trip to China, but it was announced that he'll be back in June to head the jury of the Shanghai International Film Festival.

For those of you who haven't already seen the film on DVD or want to watch it in the company of somone talking loudly into their cell phone, keep reading below for details of screening times across Beijing:

New Year Turds

thebeijinger — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:00:57 +0800

Anyone who ventured out to a Temple Fair over the past week may have noticed some rather interesting floats wafting along with the standard toys, masks and devil horns that traditionally add a bit of color to the holiday season. Given the bleak economic circumstances, both in China and around the world, it seems that a lot of temple fair attendees thought that it made sense to mark the rather shitty start to the Year of the Bull by traipsing around with an inflatable turd on a stick.

Tuesday Film Roundup: The Foreign Films that made it on to Beijing's screens in 2008

thebeijinger — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:00:31 +0800

Back in July last year, we wrote about the interesting gap between SARFT's (The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television) stated aim of only approving about 20 foreign films for domestic release each year and The Beijing News' report that, in fact, the total amount of domestically-released foreign movies have actually been around 50 in recent years. We took a quick look through our archives and counted a total of 44 foreign films released at Beijing's cinemas in 2008. You can take a look at the full list below. Also keep reading below for a comprehensive list of all the films screening in Beijing this week and screening times for what's left of half-price Tuesday.

Jan 
1.The Pursuit of Happyness 
2.My Blueberry Nights

Feb 
3.Becoming Jane

Film Roundup: The Top Ten Films of 2008 and Red Cliff II

thebeijinger — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:00:19 +0800

The Top Ten Films of 2008

Triumphant reports of the continued dominance of domestic films over imported films at the Chinese box office in 2008 appeared on the pages of entertainment websites across China earlier this week. The claims of domestic strength were included in reports that detailed the 26.9% growth in box office takings over the previous year’s numbers to a total of RMB 4.21 billion in 2008.

According to the reports, this pushes China into the world’s top ten cinema markets. The 400 domestically produced films, most of which never made it to cinema screens, also see China rise to third on the world tables of film production.

Tuesday Film Roundup: Red Cliff 2

thebeijinger — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:16:52 +0800

According to yesterday’s newspaper, the second part of Red Cliff will officially premiere on January 7 2009, 2pm. The first part broke box office records in Asia as 2008 Chinese summer blockbuster of choice. John Woo is going to set another fire on this He sui Season with his massive epic period war film Red Cliff 2. The comical exchanges between actors, prevalent in the first part, will still be conspicuous. Presumably Red Cliff Part 2 will hopefully propel John Woo's Asian film return to a much higher level. A short trailer of the second installment has also been proving popular on video sharing sites.

Haunted House

thebeijinger — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:15:52 +0800

In every city there are local tales of unexplained circumstances and “haunted houses”. Beijing, being such a large city still covered by much ancient architecture has inevitably gained its own reputation for being home to many haunted houses and accompanying ghost stories.

Chaonei Dajie No.81 building is one of the most famous haunted places in Beijing. On the bustling strip of Chaoyangmen Neidajie; No.81 is a rundown multi-leveled building with an ominous appearance. This particular western structure looks quite obtrusive and unique among the flourishing Chinese architectures that surround it.

Tuesday Film Roundup: New Year's Comedy Season is on!

thebeijinger — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:00:34 +0800

After a series of spoof, or " Shan Zhai/ 山寨"- the Shan Zhai Spring Festival Gala, shan zhai CCTV News, Shan Zhai Lecture Forum( 百家讲坛), the spoof culture became an acceptable form of the expression of contemporary Chinese Internet creativity. However, Bollywood seems to be able to do it best. Chandni Chowk To China (月光集市到中国), to be released next year, is the first ever Bollywood Kung Fu Comedy. It follows one man's journey from being a medicore cook to an alleged reincarnated kung fu fighting legend. From the streets of Chandni Chowk in Delhi, India, to the Great Wall of China and beyond this hilarious comedy that spoofs movies such as Kung Fu Hustle and Curse of the Golden Flower will keep you laughing and on seat's edge through scene after scene of amusing situations.

Tuesday Film Roundup: Next, Diving in Mongolia and EFF

thebeijinger — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:00:36 +0800

European Film Festival
Many of the European embassies in Beijing have come together to present China’s first Annual European Union Film Festival. The schedule consists of films from over 20 countries and includes popular films like Once from Ireland, La Môme (My Life in Rose) from France and The Last King of Scotland from the UK. For a complete schedule click here. The screenings will take place in four locations: the French Cultural Centre, Instituto Cervantes, Italian Institute of Culture and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. Each film will be screened in its original language, with English and Chinese subtitles. Free. ID required at certain locations.

Beijing's Octopus: The Things You Can Do with an Yikatong

thebeijinger — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:00:47 +0800

The Beijing Municipal Administration and Communications Card or Yikatong is in need of a nice catchy English name. Beijingologist David Feng's Beijing Super Pass is a good first attempt, but it doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Hong Kong's Octopus or London's Oyster. Despite the lack of a nifty moniker, the handy little card has proved popular with Beijngers and visitors to the city since it became possible to ride on most of Beijing's public transport in 2006 by simply swiping the card. Yikatong became even more popular when in January 2007 card users were given discounts on the city's public buses (it now costs a minimum of 4 mao to ride if you swipe but 1 kuai if you're paying cash) and when paper tickets were done away with on all of the capital's subway lines. Prior to the Olympics, despite the occasional controversy, close to 20,000,000 cards had been sold.