Headlines
- Global press freedom eroded in 2009: survey
- China has 18.08 mln 3G users
- 2010 China BO could reach almost $1.5 bil
- What’s worse than Hollywood is ‘Hollywoodization’
- Surviving Henan TV’s dating reality show
Global press freedom eroded in 2009: survey
Global press freedom deteriorated last year as political turmoil or drug violence engulfed emerging democracies like Thailand and cialis sans ordonnance sans danger Mexico and authoritarian China and Russia tightened controls, a U.S. annual survey said on Thursday.
Freedom House, which has been conducting such polls since 1980, said 2009 marked the eighth-straight year of deterioration of media freedom, with setbacks in nearly every region creating a situation in which only one of six people in the world live in countries with a free press. “While there were some positive developments, particularly in South Asia, significant declines were recorded in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East,” said Freedom House, a watchdog group funded by private and Western government donations. Behind the declines, the worst since 1996, was strife in a number of countries that threatened independent reporting, including drug wars in Mexico; political coups in Honduras, Guinea and Niger; and political strife in Thailand, it said.
With China, Russia and Venezuela boosting already strong controls on media, Freedom House said “the year was notable for intensified efforts by authoritarian regimes to place restrictions on all conduits for news and information.” “The Chinese regime has become a world leader in the development of new and more sophisticated methods of information control,” said the report, compiled before the U.S. search engine Google Corp quit the China market in a dispute over censorship.
BLEAKEST IN AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST
Russia’s situation faltered, the report said, “as legal protections are routinely ignored, the judicial system grows more subservient to the executive branch, reporters face severe repercussions for reporting on sensitive issues, most attacks on journalists go unpunished, and media ownership is brought firmly under the control of the state.” Freedom House also warned of “globalization of censorship” because some methods of control have crossed borders.
Beijing pressed overseas film festivals and viagra preise book fairs to ban appearances or works by China’s critics and Islamic nations have united to try to restrict speech by including antiblasphemy codes in international human rights law, it said. In a practice it called “libel tourism,” foreign business and political figures used Britain’s expansive libel laws to quash critical research or commentary by journalists and scholars, the report said. Of the 196 countries and territories assessed in 2009, 69 were rated Free, 64 were rated Partly Free, and 63 were rated Not Free.
By country, the “worst of the worst” in 2009, with minimal or nonexistent media freedom were Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, the survey said. The bleakest region for media freedom was North Africa and the Middle East, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa and the non-Baltic nations of the former Soviet Union, it said.
Although North America and Western Europe contained the greatest concentration of countries with free media, Freedom House rapped Britain for expansive libel laws used to stifle criticism and lasix en ligne sans ordonnance said the United States lacked federal protection-of-sources legislation, while media diversity was threatened by the news industry’s economic troubles.
Italy was rated only “partly free” as a result of government interference with state broadcasters’ editorial policies and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s clash with media outlets over coverage of his personal life, the watchdog group said. （http://www.reuters.com/article/）
China has 18.08 mln 3G users
The number of China’s 3G mobile telecommunication users reached 18.08 million in March, an increase of 4.83 million from the first quarter, said a senior official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) Thursday. China Mobile took the biggest 3G market share at 42.5 percent, followed by China Telecom at 30.8 percent and China Unicom at 26.7 percent, Zhu Jun, deputy director of the ministry’s telecom development department, told a press conference.
The three giant telecommunication operators had invested 6 billion yuan (878.9 million U.S. dollars) in 3G network construction in the first three months, out of the total 95 billion yuan planned for the year, said Xin Guobin, director of the ministry’s Performance Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
The ministry said earlier this month that China aimed to have 150 million 3G mobile telecommunication users by 2011 when investment in 3G development would hit 400 billion yuan. Zhu said at the conference that the Internet industry in China had been expanding and boosting social and economic development. The number of Internet users rose by about 20 million in the first quarter to hit 404 million in March, Zhu said. China had 191 million subscribers to the country’s social networking sites in March. By the end of 2009, China had 3.23 million domestic websites, said Zhu. （22-04-2010 http://news.xinhuanet.com）
2010 China BO could reach almost $1.5 bil
China’s 2010 boxoffice gross could exceed 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion), jumping 61% this year, according to one of the country’s top industry regulators, state-run media reported. La Peikang, a deputy director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, made the forecast on Saturday, the May 1 Labor Day holiday, one of the busiest movie-going weekends in the year, while speaking at an animated films forum in the eastern city of Hangzhou, the Xinhua News Agency said.
As the number of movie theaters quintupled from 2003-2009 to more than 5,000 to meet growing demand for entertainment among China’s burgeoning middle class, China’s boxoffice gross surged to 6.2 billion yuan ($909 million) last year, up from less than 1 billion yuan in 2003. In 2009, films made in China took home a 56.6% share of the gross, while the rest was dominated by Hollywood films such as “Transformers II” and “2012.” This year’s boxoffice got off to a big start with Hollywood’s 3D blockbuster “Avatar,” which grossed a record 1.3 billion yuan ($190 million dollars) in China at the beginning of the year, according to the film’s distributor, the China Film Group Corp. In the second half of the year, a raft of big Chinese-language films will premiere, including, in July, director Feng Xiaogang’s “Aftershock” from Huayi Brothers Media, will compete with Hollywood imports such as the latest “Harry Potter” film. （02-05-2010 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/）
What’s worse than Hollywood is ‘Hollywoodization’
“Hollywood blockbusters have invaded the cities and taken over all around the globe, with the only market left being China’s, once the line of defense is broken, then it will push straight through, and affect China’s film industry as a whole.†Yesterday, the deputy head of SARFT, Mao Yu (毛羽) expressed conscious unhappiness at the 2010 Beijing Municipal Working Conference on Cinema. He said that the eyeballs of Chinese audiences have already been “taken hostage†by Hollywood blockbusters. The World Trade Organization ruling last year will also help more Hollywood blockbusters enter the Chinese market: “We are still evaluating the ruling, but the call of the “counterattack†of domestically produced films has been sounded, and we already have some “mandatory quotas.â€
In 1994, Hollywood films finally entered the Chinese film market ï¼ the first film to be imported and distributed on the mainland was The Fugitive, and after this 10 films were imported every year. In 2001, the WTO ruling made the standard 20. At the moment only two companies are allowed to distribute imported films: China Film Group (ä¸å½±é›†å›¢) and Huaxia Film Distribution Co. Ltd (åŽå¤ç”µå½±å‘行有é™å…¬å¸). For Hollywood movies, the entrance requirements are very high, and the channels very narrow. But still, last year the WTO decided that these limitations of US films in China broke world trade regulations, which means that there will be an increase of imported Hollywood films, which will be distributed through other channels. Hollywood film companies may even start distributing their own films in China.
Is the wolf really coming? Yesterday, the deputy head of SARFT Mao Yu’s warning predicts this threat: “Perhaps many people think that with more Hollywood blockbusters entering Chinese cinemas there’ll be more cinematic enjoyment, and that it’s a good thing. But things aren’t that simple; there is a potential danger.†Mao Yu elaborates that at present, any foreign film that wants to enter the Chinese market needs to go through a process with China Film or Huaxia. The distribution at the box office for Hollywood blockbusters is only 13% ï¼ 15%, because they have no other channels of directing films into China. But if the quota is opened for imported films, the “monopoly†of China Film and Huaxia will end, then Hollywood films will take 60% or even 70% ï¼ this is already the “example†for Hollywood in other countries. The consequence will seriously affect the rewards of the investment made by Chinese cinema itself, so that the good cycle of sustained development of the Chinese film industry will be harmed.
Apart from this, what worries Mao Yu is the “Hollywoodization†of Chinese tastes: “The way that Hollywood makes money is to use significant technological methods to create a shock to the senses, in this strain they made Avatar, of which the box office reached 1.3 billion yuan in China. Some say that Avatar can only be made once every 10 years, but currently in the cinemas, 3D movies haven’t stopped being made. Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans and other big Hollywood movies used 3D technology have ‘captured’ Chinese people’s eyeballs. For China, whose technological standards are not yet that high, this is a huge shock.â€
In order to feel safe, Chinese films have to be “strong,†from what we can see now, domestically produced films isn’t lacking in opportunities. In 2009 box offices in all the cities came to 6.206 billion yuan, the growth rate equaled to four times, growth in Chinese domestic films were the most obvious, taking 56.6% of the total, making more than 3.5 billion, and has made more than imported films in the last 7 years.
Yesterday, Mao Yu emphasized the Guidelines of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Prosperous Development of Movie Industry (关于促进电影产业ç¹è£å‘展的指导æ„è§, from January 2010) and revealed the plans that were made, which was to promote the development of Chinese film: “For example, in future the production of Chinese films will continue to be around 500 in number every year, and one third will be shown in a mainstream way, and every year 50 films will be both good and popular.†Apart from this, China will also promote the use of 3D technology: “In the next five years, China will increase its large-scale film production bases, in order to bring about China’s digital revolution.†Mao Yu said that he hoped China’s films will actively attack and move itself out of China, “Chinese films need to create international influence: we will dub 100 domestic films and organize shows of Chinese film in 40 or 50 countries, with the number reaching 400 or 500.â€
As for whether domestic films are still under protection? This reporter saw this line the Guidelines of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Prosperous Development of Movie Industry: “Cinemas will seriously ensure that two thirds of films which are shown will be domestically made.†(28-4-2010 http://www.danwei.org)
Surviving Henan TV’s dating reality show
This article was contributed by Matt Cool. Matt Cool has been living in Zhengzhou teaching and studying Chinese in his spare time for two years. You can watch Matt loose his dignity on Fei Cheng Wu Rao (éžè¯šå‹¿æ‰°) on Henan TV.
It wasn’t until I was standing in front of the cameras in a wrestling fatigue doing muscle poses that I realized I had yet again bit off more than I could chew in China. How does this happen? Miscommunication? Ignorance? A desire to see foreigners looking foolish on Chinese TV? As I went through the muscle poses and performed a near flawless worm on the floor, I thought back to the many times my expat friends and I had been duped in China: the trip to the mountain, the basketball game, my PSB forced confession… the list goes on. As I stood holding the 1000 yuan prize, I knew that this was going to be the basketball game all over again. Even with prior experience in the Chinese unexpected, I was not prepared for Henan reality TV.
About a week before I got onto the show, a friend told me a TV station was looking for a foreigner to be thrown into a dating show and ‘mix things up a bit’. Having had a few friends do TV spots before and having no concern about my reputation, humiliation, or face, I agreed to do it. Knowing full well that I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I waited for more information. Finally, a dinner had been arranged to discuss the details of my role.
The conversation that night went something like this:
Me: So… What exactly do I have to do?
Cute Producer Girl: You have to live in a mansion with 4 other guys and 5 girls and do competitions.
Me: Haha. Great! (Thinking Big Brother, Real World) Ok, so how long will this take?
Cute Producer Girl: 6 days
Me: Whoa, 6 days?!?! How many episodes are we talking about here?
Cute Producer Girl: 8 episodes
Me: huh… ok. So when do we start
Cute Producer Girl: Tomorrow at 6AM
Me: Wha??
Cute Producer Girl: (giggles)
For the next six days, I was subjected to late night testimonials, cheesy competitions, and reality TV drama. Often there were times when I was told directly what to say but I did get some freedom to create my own reality TV persona. Many of the competitions were rigged. About half the cast thought it was real and about half were actors or spies from other networks1, eager to steal the shows concept (a generic bacheloresque reality TV show).
The competitions ranged from laser tag and ice hockey to theater and charades. In one competition, I was to try to win the approval of a girl’s mother. The mother was actually an actress hired to reject anything I did. No matter what I did during that competition to try to win her approval, I was met with the words: “我就ä¸å–œæ¬¢å¤–国人!†(I just don’t like foreigners).
The show ended with a final ‘romantic date’ where I ‘serenaded’ one of the girls with a guitar, candlelight, and a bottle of wine. I was instructed to tell her that I was happy to have found her, she was my one true love, and we should run away together and let the others battle it out. Her reply? She told me to play something on guitar and then awkwardly sang an unrelated song back to me. It truly was a beautiful moment.
A happy ending right? I wish I could say so. Following my brush with Henan reality stardom, I returned to my work as a computer teacher. That’s where all the trouble began.
I had a feeling it would be impossible to keep my students in the dark about their famous teacher and eventually they found out about the show when it first aired March of 2010. The students decided it would be funny to start a message board/fan club dedicated to me and my performance on the show. After hundreds of joke postings over praising my performance on the show, I got a phone call.
Cute Producer Girl: Due to your popularity on Internet forums, the Orient Today (东方今报) would like to interview you.
Me: Really?? That’s funny. I’ll have to think about it but I can’t see why not.
I thought about it. The truth was I felt bad about lying to the girl on the show. She apparently thought the whole thing was real. What a great opportunity for me to expose the show for being fake and clear my name.
Me: I’ll do it.
Big mistake. When the article came out, next to a picture of me the headline read: 我很å我就æ¥çŽ© (I’m very naughty, I just came to play). The newspaper published all sorts of interesting facts I never knew about myself. They simply made up a lot like I ‘came to China because the job market was tough in America’. I was also ‘part of a Sino-American exchange program as a student’. I didn’t mind some of the inaccuracies (they said I was 26 years old, I’m 25) but falsities that play into stereotypes Chinese people have about Americans bothered me. They portrayed me as a playboy and called me a typical American in the article.
Some Chinese friends advised me to do nothing; others told me I should sue the newspaper. They all agreed the article did not reflect well on me. So much for exposing the show as a fake… The article also failed to mention the other people paid to act on the show or the ‘spy’, which I felt would make a good news story.
In the end I was paid less than half of what I had previously been worked out with Not-So-Cute-Anymore Producer Girl in our verbal agreement. (after taxes about 1,600 yuan). Lessons learned. I survived Henan reality TV. （04-05-2010 http://www.danwei.org/tv/）
(EDITOR: Jackie Fang YIN)
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