What North Korea Can Learn from the Oscars

Censorship destroys creativity.

      At the Academy Awards ceremony in the United States on February 9, 2020, South Korea's film, Parasite, won Best Picture of 2019. Filmed in black and white with sub-titles U.S. movie audiences had to read as they watched the movie. Yet Parasite bested eight English-speaking films in color. The film also won Best Original Screenplay. Bong Joon Ho, who was one of the screenplay's writers, also won Best Director. Although the wife of North Korea's Kim Jong Un is a singer, she was never considered as one of the possible voices chosen to sing, in her native tongue, the nominated song from Frozen at the Academy Awards.

     Nor can China brag about any international film accolades. In 2016 China's wealthy Danan Wanda Group constructed an $8 billion complex to attract international movie-makers to the coastal city of  Qingdao. Despite offering generous financial incentives, the project is not a success. Censorship by China's State Administration of Press Publications, Radio, Film and Television proved to be incompatible with the creative process.

     South Korea offers North Korea a way to escape the Chinese film censorship trap. Missiles and nuclear weapons attract international attention, but so does a blockbuster film. North Korea is lucky to have a prize-winning movie-making community of educators available next door. Those trouble-making North Koreans locked away in the country's concentration camps may be just the creative talent that could net Kim Jong Un and his wife tickets to an Academy Awards celebration and positive international attention for North Korea.       

Tour Sites Beyond A Country's Capital

News coverage rightly focuses on the capitals of countries. In governing centers, elections, coups. terrorist attacks, and earthquakes deserve attention, because they affect the political directions and needs of a country. Nonetheless, capital-centered news draws attention away from much that a country has to offer. This realization came home to me this morning, when I heard news warning U.S. citizens to avoid travel to China during this period of trade and spying tensions.

     Consider some of the sights and activities visitors to China have discovered  in cities beyond Beijing. Find a map or globe and locate:

Yanqing - North of Beijing, visitors will see flower exhibits from over 100 countries at the International Flower Festival with the theme, "Live Green, Live Better," which begins April 29, 2019. From a nearby 4-story tower, tourists also will be able to see the Great Wall of China when smog does not obstruct the view. In 2022, this city will be the site of some Winter Olympic events.

Chongli - North of Yanqing, this city also will be the site of some Winter Olympic events in 2022.

Moving southeast from Beijing toward China's coast, locate:

Qingdao - This deep water port was annexed by Germany and used by the German navy in 1887, captured by Japan in 1914, and returned to China in 1922. Germany's lingering influence is evident in the city's famous brewery, Tsingtao; a German Protestant church; and the Governor's House Museum. Prior to September, 2019, you may have been able to see movie stars coming and going from what was expected to be this new center of Chinese filmmaking before authoritarian control caused investors to leave.

Suzhou - Farther down the eastern coast, west of Shanghai, is China's traditional cultural center for intellectuals known as "the Venice of the East" because of its picturesque canals and stone bridges. A museum here traces silk production, and the UNESCO heritage Humble Administration's Garden and the Garden of Cultivation attract millions of tourists.

Xiamen - Still farther south, west of Taiwan, the deep water harbor, also known as Amoy, was once a pirate hideaway and tea exporting port. Now, it is known for its beaches and earthen Hakka roundhouses. A ferry takes visitors to Gulangyu Island to see the former mansions of European and Japanese traders.

Haikou - At the base of China, east of Vietnam, this city on Hainan Island is a tropical beach with water sports and arcades.

In western China, there are at least two notable cities, one in the south and one in the north.

Chengdu - If you've seen a Giant Panda at a zoo, it probably came from the research and breeding center, established in 1987, that you're welcome to visit at Chengdu, far west of Shanghai.

Lanzhou - This stop on China's ancient Silk Road map is the gateway to western China. It is a multicultural city, with Chinese Han, Muslim, and Tibetan influences, at the Zhongshan Bridge over the Yellow River. Lanzhou beef noodles and barbecued meats are local specialties.

     Beyond the capital of any country, what are the other significant cities you would like to visit?

China Beyond the Headlines

Much is made of the contrast between the corruption overlooked in Russia and the crackdown on corruption in China. But other Chinese behaviors and practices deserve examination.

     Stealing is rampant in China; the country's prohibition on tax evasion and gambling is evaded; and a form of discrimination is legal. Foreign companies expect their intellectual property rights to be ignored. Chinese companies contracted to manufacture products for foreign firms readily produce knock-offs of those same products. Even exchange students find they have to keep a sharp eye on their belongings or they will disappear. An engineering student from a U.S. Ivy League college, who planned to stay in China for a couple of months, left after a week when her caliper was stolen.

     China is not exempt from tax dodgers. There is the revenue a company makes, the amount it reports for tax purposes, and the difference deposited in overseas banks or in Khorgos, an out-of-the-way Central Asian Chinese town on the Kazakhstan border. Along with film studios, media outlets, financial services, and over 14,000 other companies, Chinese movie star, Fan Bingbing, who earned $43 million in 2017, registered her company in Khorgos. Ever since China began a probe into tax evasion on June 3, 2018, Miss Bingbing has not been seen in public, and she has been fined $129 million. Her 62 million followers on social media correctly speculated she was caught in the Communist Party's anti-corruption, tax evasion campaign. She also might be a victim of President Xi Jinping's new morality crackdown on culture and behavior not in line with socialist values.

     Gambling is illegal on the Chinese mainland. Beijing stopped approving new gaming apps created by China's Tencent tech leader and  pressured Apple to remove gambling apps in its Chinese App Store. But casinos attract Chinese gamblers to Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China, and Chinese travelers freely gamble on overseas trips. "Justify," the winner of the Kentucky Derby,  Preakness, and Belmont Stakes is owned by the China Horse Club, as is "Audible," the horse that came in third in the Kentucky Derby. No doubt Chinese handicappers won plenty of cash, when "Justify" won all three legs of the Triple Crown.

     Finally, the U.S. State Department's annual report on religious freedom called attention to the million Uighur Muslims China holds in secret re-education camps. In another example of discrimination in China, members of China's poor underclass, unskilled rural transplants earning little in city jobs, find they are victims of the hukou system. They are shut out of health care, housing, and quality educations in state-run schools. They also have been shut out of watching some short-form videos on Douyin, the app Chinese authorities find shallow and addictive and monitor for illegal or morally questionable content contrary to socialist values. Young Chinese viewers say they enjoy watching good-looking amateurs tell jokes, sing, and perform imaginative stunts on Douyin; it's fun and relaxing.

(Also see the earlier posts,"China's Plan for World Domination" and "China Stretches a Napoleon-Style Belt.")

February's International Film Festival

One of the most pleasant ways to learn about a country is to go to a movie made in or about somewhere you don't live. When Oscar nominations for short and feature films are announced, it's time to start looking for theatres that show them, because many of these potential Academy Award winners have an international connection.

     This year, in the animated shorts category, South Africa presents Revolting Rhymes based on Ronald Dahl's dark spin on fairy tales. One French short, Negative Space, shows a sad relationship between father and son can exist in any culture, and, in another French short, two amphibians explore a deserted mansion. These shorts are shown together with two U.S. films: the Pixar short, Lou, that ran before Cars and Kobe Bryant's retirement letter, Dear Basketball.

     Since the live action shorts nominated for Oscars often portray news events, they can be a pleasant way to see both uplifting and unpleasant aspects of a country. Watu Wote (All of Us) shows how Muslims risked their lives to protect the Christians riding on a bus with them, when Islamic terrorists attacked in Kenya. The British short, The Silent Child, introduces the social worker who taught a deaf 4-year-old girl the sign language that enabled her to come out of the shadows and be included in family conversations. Two U.S. entries cover a school shooting in Atlanta titled DeKalb Elementary and My Nephew Emmett based on the 1955 racist murder of Emmett Till. Australian humor is on display in The Eleven O'Clock, a short about an appointment between a psychiatrist and patient that try to treat each other.

     Families already may have seen the animated feature, Coco, which has a Mexican theme depicting how a death in the family shouldn't end memories of a relative. Loving Vincent probably won't have wide distribution, but if young people have a chance to see this Polish-British feature, it might be their only time to see a movie where each frame about Vincent Van Gogh is made by an oil painting. Since Angelina Jolie produced The Breadwinner, this animated feature likely has wider distribution. It shows how an 11-year-old girl disguised herself as a boy to grow up with more opportunities under the Taliban in Afghanistan.

     Although too advanced to be appropriate or understood by young people, the live action foreign language films nominated for Academy Awards provide adults with points of view from Chile (A Fantastic Woman), Lebanon (The Insult), Russia (Loveless), Hungary (On Body and Soul), and Sweden (The Square).

     Oscar winners will be announced on Sunday, March 4, 2018.

     

   

Chinese Culture Creep

The Chinese Year of the Rooster is fast approaching on Saturday, January 28, 2017. After the antics of the Year of the Monkey, the rooster wakes us up to prepare for fresh challenges that require a quick wit, practical solutions, and persistence.

     With theme parks and film, savvy showmen Qiaoling Huang and Wang Jianlin are providing entertainment and spreading Chinese culture at the same time. Huang's Songcheng Group is making its first overseas investment in the $600 million Australia Legend Kingdom. On Australia's Gold Coast, local visitors, the 1.2 million Chinese tourists who spend $8000 per trip, and other international tourists will be able to visit a theme park that features an aboriginal Australian village and the "Mystic Orient," which showcases Chinese and Southeast Asian culture.

     Chinese investors have acquired AMC movie theaters and the Legendary Entertainment movie studio in the United States. Wang Jianlin, chairman of the (Dalian) Wanda Group/Wanda Cultural Industry Group, is in the process of developing a state-of-the-art Movie Metropolis Complex and offering up to 40% of production costs to attract filmmakers to Qingdao. China's censorship State Administration of Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television is therefore positioned to counter Western values and to introduce China's core socialist values into films and to influence the culture of global moviegoers.

     China's attempt to buy into World-Cup-class soccer (football) suffered an initial setback. According to TIME magazine (Jan. 16, 2017), Christiano Ronaldo, a Real Madrid star, turned down a $314 million offer from a Chinese Super League club. But by 2018, Alibaba had a sports channel streaming soccer. China's HNA Group was one of  the sponsors at the French Open tennis tournament May 22 - June 11, 2017.

     Chinese culture has no trouble being represented on dinner tables around the world. Begin the Year of the Rooster by dining at a local Chinese restaurant or, with an adult's help, try this recipe at home.

                                                         Pineapple Chicken Stir-Fry
Servings: 4

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
3 boneless, skinless Chicken breast halves, cut in strips
1/2 green or red pepper, thinly sliced
1 can (15.25 oz.) pineapple chunks in their own juice
3/4 cup sauce (1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 tsp ginger)
Hot cooked rice
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and green pepper, cook and stir 5 to 6 minutes or until chicken is done (no longer pink).
2. Drain pineapple and reserve 2 tablespoons of juice. Combine reserved juice and sauce.
3. Add pineapple chunks and sauce mixture to skillet. Cover and cook 2 minutes or until heated through. Serve over rice.




    

You Oughta Be in Pictures

Bollywood and Nollywood are known around the world as the Hollywoods of Bombay, India, and Nigeria, because they house major film producers and distributors. In Nigeria, Jason Njoku's iROKOtv is transitioning from a Netflix distributor to a Nollywood producer. Sure, making movies helps countries make money and attract tourists, but countries such as China also see films as a way to influence social norms, politics, and economic decisions.

     As the Mauritius Film Development Corporation notes, a film industry creates jobs. Movies require acting talent but also camera and sound technicians, carpenters, make-up artists, costume designers, rental companies, caterers, restaurants, hotels, and airlines. How many tourists have films attracted to London, Paris, Rome, and New York over the years? After "Break Up Guru," which was filmed in Mauritius, played to 40 million Chinese, Chinese tourists flocked to Mauritius. The government now provides generous tax breaks to film producers who choose to take advantage of the good weather they can count on when they make a movie in this island off the east coast of Africa.

     Movie making is one of India's biggest revenue producing industries. Vinod Chopra, who has been directing films there since 1942, also works on productions in other parts of the globe. Indian film companies, such as Eros International and YRF Films distribute their movies throughout the world.

     In China, the State Administration of Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People's Republic of China stands ready to censor and change films in order to control what movie audiences see and think. For example, Chinese villains might be altered to become North Koreans. Now, Chinese influence is coming to the United States, since Chinese companies are buying AMC movie theatres to gain distribution in Washington, DC, New York, and small U.S. towns. A Chinese production company already owns Legendary Films, which produces Batman films, and has been negotiating to partner with Lionsgate.

     Anyone thinking about making a film in any country can check Kemps Film and TV Production Handbook for a list of helpful resources.

(The following earlier posts also look at what movies can do: How Do Films Depict Countries? See the World in Oscar-Nominated Films, See the World at the Movies, Humor Paves the Way for Refugees.)

How Do Films Depict Countries?

Renowned film authority and co-author of the film bible, Film Art: An Introduction,  Kristin Thompson, once said, "I think you tend to get interested in films from countries you've visited." After I saw a Persian/Iranian film at a foreign film festival this weekend, I would rephrase her observation to read, "I think you tend to get interested in countries from films you've seen."

     According to Film Art, the elements that directors put into each frame of their films, their mise-en-scene, are: setting, costumes, lighting, and the actors' expressions and movements. The movie I saw this weekend used these elements to show me an Iran without terrorists. Instead, waves lapped along a beach at the Persian Gulf, where the humid climate caused structures to rust and fog reminded me of San Francisco and London. The setting also showed a country with a mix of gated single-family homes, a modern high rise apartment, and many low small rundown dwellings. A female actor's costume changed from a plain brown headscarf to a colorful flowered one, when she went to meet her boyfriend. Male actors wore jeans, but women didn't. Dim lighting set a somber tone of a troubled relationship. Unlike what we might expect in a Muslim culture, unchaperoned men and women stood and walked close together when they were dating, men and boys freely gambled on games and sports, and children misbehaved and talked back to their parents.

     At this weekend's foreign film fest, I also saw a movie where actors in the role of German business consultants in Pakistan and Nigeria found their glib solutions didn't work when confronted by terrorists.

     Often foreign films aren't suitable for children, but in earlier posts, "See the World in Oscar-Nominated Films" and "See the World at the Movies," I identified some that were. Since movies offer an excellent glimpse of other countries and cultures, keep looking for children-suitable ones like the upcoming Pele: Birth of a Legend. Seeing Brazil in the film will provide an interesting way to compare the movie's setting, costumes, lighting, and actors' expressions and movements with the real life we'll see in this summer's Olympic games in Rio.

Hearing Voices from Mexico and Russia

Journalist Sam Quinones in his book, Dreamland, challenged me to think about where we get the news of the world that we tell our children. He wrote, "Mexican media rarely covered the stories of anyone outside the upper classes...." A few days later, I read in Time magazine (March 16, 2015) that RT (Russia Today) beams President Vladimir Putin's view of the world to 700 million people in at least 100 countries. Mikhail Lesin, who was credited with inspiring the creation of RT, was found dead in a Washington, DC hotel on November 5, 2015. Although the Russian embassy claimed Lesin died of a heart attack, in March, 2016, DC's chief medical examiner said the cause of his death was blunt force trauma to the head. His body also showed injuries to his arms, legs, neck, and torso. When the US imposed financial sanctions on Putin's closest associates after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Lesin failed to comply with an order to bring home his foreign assets and those of his children.

     Quinones tells the story of the well-mannered farm boys from Xalisco, in the Mexican state of Nayarit, who are much different from the imagined image of heroin dealers. Instead of cold, conniving cartel killers or thugs; they don't use drugs; and they crave all things American: cars, action heroes, McDonald's, and girls.

     The stories Quinones finds among U.S. immigrant communities would make for an illuminating family dinner table conversation about U.S. immigration legislation and executive orders. A question like, "Did you know Cambodians don't know what doughnuts are?" could lead to the story of the Cambodian refugee, Ted Ngoy, who now runs an empire of doughnut shops in the Los Angeles area. Ngoy brought his nephew to the U.S. only after the young man escaped from a Cambodian re-education camp, walked through the jungle while being stalked by panthers, feared ambush by Khmer Rouge gunmen every step of the way, and spent a year in a Thai refugee camp.

     Russia as victim and the West as villain is an ongoing theme on RT. Protests led by Zoran Zaev in Skopje, Macedonia, were blamed on the West. Albanians who make up nearly a quarter of Macedonia's population, demanded greater rights, and Zaev's opposition demands the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevaki. His administration is being charged with wiretapping the press, judiciary, elected officials, and religious leaders. When these recordings were released, they appeared to show vote rigging and a murder cover-up.

     In February, 2015, RT viewers heard that the murder of dissident Boris Nemtsov, while he was walking near Red Square, was the work of enemies determined to discredit the Russian government. In later developments, TIME magazine (June 28, 2015) reported a Russian deputy commander of an elite Chechen battalion was charged with Nemtsov's murder. (Chechen hit men also were accused of murdering Anna Politkovskaya. See the earlier blog post, "Hope for the Future.) A re-education campaign once changed Russia's Chechnya rebels into fighters willing to follow orders from President Putin. Chechen forces took over part of Ukraine as volunteers acting for Putin, By tattooing his name and address on his arm, Lesin had avoided a similar deployment in Angola in an unmarked uniform. If his dead body were found there, Russia's clandestine involvement in this 1970s Cold War proxy conflict would have been exposed. Currently, Ramzan Kadyrow seems free to act on his own agenda in Chechnya. After Nemtsov's murder, dissidents in Russia realized they have to fear both Chechen assassins and Putin's security forces.

     Apparently Moscow also fears some of the returning volunteers, who went to Ukraine to defend ethnic Russians, consider Putin's government ineffective and corrupt. (See mention of Putin's corruption in regard to Litvinenko's assassination in the earlier post, "Hope for the Future.") Realizing these troops are combat trained and capable of leading protests, they are being closely monitored and any weapons they are trying to smuggle home are being confiscated at the border. In a reaction to Russia's aggression in Ukraine, the U.S. has plans to deploy missiles in Poland and Romania.

     At the time of Nemtsov's assassination, Russian TV viewers did not see the Moscow march protesting Nemtsov's murder, because RT showed a documentary about U.S. racial abuses. Reports of Nemtsov's murder failed to mention he was compiling information to challenge President Putin's claim that Russia was not supplying military equipment and regular Russian army troops to support separatists in Ukraine. Although 80% of older Russians receive their news from state-television, where anti-Putin activists and journalists are not allowed to appear, during Putin's 17 years in power, the younger generation has slipped away to watch YouTube and other social media outlets that show authorities with millions in assets and Russian troops seizing Crimea. Technically, we now know some of the Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine were volunteers who had temporarily resigned from Chechen's regular army. Coffins returned to Russia following battles at a strategic rail hub in Ilovaisk and at Debaltseve in Ukraine. Some of Nemtsov's information came from relatives of dead Russian soldiers who had not received the compensation that they had been promised.

    Using online video to inform scattered dissidents of opposition protests is an aim of Open Russia, a foundation founded by exiled oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom Putin issued an arrest warrant for in December, 2015. Just as Putin, in his annual question-and-answer session on TV, was claiming that Russia's oil and gas based economy, which has shrunk 4.6%, would recover in two years and downplaying the conflict in Ukraine, security forces from the anti-extremism office of the Interior Ministry raided the Moscow offices of Open Russia. On May 26, 2015, Vladimir Kara-Murza, the coordinator of Open Russia and an adviser to Nemtsov, had collapsed in his office as a result of being poisoned by a toxin that shuts down a whole body in six hours. That attempt failed as did another in early 2017. Kara-Murza, who holds dual UK-Russian citizenship, believes he is targeted due to his successful effort to pass the Magnitsky Act in both the US and UK. The Act, which is named for Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax expert, sometimes characterized as a lawyer, who died in a Russian prison in 2009, prevents powerful Russians who abuse human rights at home from keeping their wealth in Western banks. Kara-Murza also believes athletes should attend competitions, such as the 2018 World Cup, in Russia but western democracies should not honor Putin by sending their leaders to such games.

     Russia, which planned  to deliver S-300 surface-to-air defense missiles to Tehran, along with  the United States, China, France, the UK, Germany and the European Union, negotiated what Iran calls the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to impose restrictions on Iran's nuclear program. Once Putin determined ISIS brought down Russian Flight 9268 over the Sinai peninsula in October, 2015, Russia agreed to join the US and French bombing ISIS positions in Syria. But  Russian bombers also operated against forces fighting Syria's dictator rather than ISIS. In March, 2016, Putin announced Russian troops would leave Syria before the cost escalates, but Russia would keep a naval base, air base, and air-defense systems there. In April, 2017, Syrian civilians died from chemical poison dropped on them from a Russian-made airplane which may or may not have been piloted by a Russian.

     Voices abound in this age of apps, the Internet, broadcast and cable TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, and movies. The more we see, hear, and read, the better we are able to help children form an accurate view of their world and ours.

See the World in Oscar-Nominated Films

In 2016, Oscars continued to honor a variety of countries at the Academy Awards ceremony on February 28. I'll just name the countries of those I remember who were involved in honored films: Mexico, Chile, Hungary, Israel, Italy, the UK, and Pakistan.

     Before the Academy Awards presentations on February 22, 2015, movie theatres began to show the Live Action and Animated Shorts nominated for Oscars. Last year these shorts gave kids a chance to see life in foreign countries.

     "Butter Lamp" showed the reactions of Tibetan nomads as they had their pictures taken, not by selfies, but by a professional photographer who provided various backdrops showing sites in China.

     "Boogaloo and Graham" captured the reactions of a mother and two boys in Northern Ireland who took care of the chicks their father gave them during the Troubles.

     In "Parvaneh" (a Persian name meaning "Butterfly"), when an Afghan girl seeking asylum in Switzerland enlisted the aid of a local girl, Emely, to help her send money to her family, she encountered lots of red tape and learned girls in different countries with very different lifestyles can be friends.

     A live action short, "My Father's Truck," that didn't quite make the cut to receive an Oscar nomination, showed how family members can live very different lives. When a girl in Vietnam skipped school one day, she found out her life as a school girl was a lot easier than what her father did transporting passengers in his truck. The Chinese father in "Carry On," a film also on a short list of possible Oscar-nominated movies, sacrificed his life to save his family during the Japanese invasion in World War II.

     Some films might show how kids in other countries experience the same things as they do.

     One child's parents can be very different from another child's, as a Norwegian 7-year-old-girl and her sisters learn when they request a bicycle from their hippie parents in "Me and My Moulton," an animated short nominated for an Oscar.

     "Baghdad Messi," a live action short considered for an Oscar, showed how kids in Iraq, even those with only one leg, love soccer as much as kids in other countries.

     "Summer Vacation," an Israeli short considered for an Oscar, may remind kids that every family vacation to a beautiful beach doesn't always go as planned.

     And "Symphony No. 42," an animated short from Hungary that was considered for an Oscar, even notices the similarities between the activities that humans and animals perform. Music in this film includes bird and jungle sounds from Sri Lanka.

     Considering the full-length, Oscar-nominated, foreign language films from Poland (Ida), Russia (Leviathan), Estonia (Tangerines), Mauritania (Timbuktu), and Argentina (Wild Tales), making and viewing movies are popular activities all over the world.



   

Let's Visit China

While the world is focused on Scotland's vote to remain in the United Kingdom, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and ways to contain the ISIS menace, a  number of Chinese developments merit attention.


China's e-commerce platform, Alibaba, raised $25  billion when its shares went on sale September 19, 2014. As with other e-commerce firms, there are charges pending about the lack of sales tax paid on Alibaba purchases, and there is concern about e-commerce sales of counterfeit items. Also, there has been no news about how well China's shipping and delivery network is handling online purchases, a problem that has adversely affected India's e-commerce boom (See the later blog post,"Problems Present Career Opportunities.").

Alibaba was not the only company to enjoy a strong response to its initial stock offering. China's CGN nuclear power group received a similar response when its shares went on sale for the first time in Hong Kong. Yet, in January, 2015, the Chinese residential real estate developer, Kaisa Group Holdings, defaulted on a $128 million payment to foreign investors holding $500 million in bonds promising a 10.25% yield.

Urbanization and higher incomes in China are raising demand for locally produced goods, baby formula, disposable diapers, Western foods (such as cheese and Starbuck's and Costa coffee) and movies. Aiming to expand into the film business, Dalian Wanda, China's fourth richest man, who operates China's largest cinema chain and luxury hotels, is expected to open a major office in Hollywood, where he  has shown interest in buying shares in and film collaboration with Hollywood's Lionsgate studio. Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba, also has had discussions with Lionsgate. In 2017, movie box office revenue in China will be $8.6 billion. By then, film studios and movie stars will begin to stash revenue in the Khorgos tax haven on China's far northwestern border with Kazakhstan.

Local governments continue to prop up failing heavy industrial plants, and China's manufacturing sector does not turn down opportunities to produce religious items. Though an atheist country, a Chinese factory has published over 125 million Bibles. Unfettered industrialization continues to cause China problems with pollution. Recent studies show China's population produces more carbon dioxide (CO2) per head than the European Union and U.S. Therefore, it was great news November 12, 2014 to learn that China and the U.S. have signed a pact, however symbolic, to limit carbon emissions. At a dinner and meeting in Beijing's Great Hall of the People during the November 11-12, 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, both President Obama and President/General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, stressed peace, prosperity, stability, and a partnership that fosters security in a Pacific Ocean "broad enough to accommodate the development of both China and the United States."

At the end of the APEC summit, after Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and China's President met on November 10, 2014, Abe said he hoped the two countries would talk again and again (a hotline to prevent their vessels from conflict in the East China Sea has been proposed) and that they would work toward a mutually beneficial relationship. Earlier, a Chinese diplomat in Iceland was arrested as a spy for Japan.

Hong Kong tycoons are spending freely. The Chan brothers have donated $350 million to Harvard and expect to make another sizable donation to the University of Southern California. Stephen Hung ordered $20 million worth of Rolls Royces to transport gamblers at his Louis XIII resort in Macao. Nonetheless, Chinese gamblers, who have been staying away from Macao's casinos for fear of being targeted in China's crack down on corruption, have put a big dent in the island's revenue as they try to stay clear of China's anti-graft investigations into the origin of their wealth. Casinos in Cambodia have benefited from this exodus of Chinese gamblers trying to stay under the radar. Macau's investors, on the other hand, are trying to regain visitors by following the Las Vegas model and giving the island a more family-friendly image by adding a $2.3 billion theme park to a new casino.

Despite the use of tear gas and the arrest of a leader of the pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, which has an almost country-to-country border crossing procedure with mainland China, protests continue to oppose Beijing's attempt to dictate which candidates can run for election in 2017. (See the later blog post, "Hong Kong Update.") Though not secure from authorities, Hong Kong protesters are using the smartphone mobile app, FireChat, to communicate with each other without relying on Internet connections. President Xi believes foreign countries are involved in the protests.

The number of Chinese students, who once made up 33% of international grad students in the U.S., is decreasing. French speaking Chinese students are on their way to former French African countries to work for Chinese companies there. In English-speaking Africa, China is building a $12 billion, 1,400 km railway in Nigeria.

(For more about China, see the earlier blog post, "See the World.")

A Winter's Tale

Children love stories, and winter provides the perfect time to hear a new one, while cuddled up under a blanket at home or out in a darkened movie theater.

     Kids can follow Agatha, with her cat and bodyguard, as they solve international mysteries in The Curse of the Pharaoh, The Pearl of Bengal, and The King of Scotland's Sword by Steve Stevenson.

    In the prize-winning picture book, Nino Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales, kids can have fun learning about the colorful luchadores in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries who wear masks to hide their identities when wrestling. Or they can go along with a boy and his duck on a funny Japanese adventure in Dodsworth in Tokyo by Tim Egan.

     Although it's a child-tailored reference book, History Year by Year: The History of the World, from the Stone Age to the Digital Age, kids will like the "Child of the Time" features which describe the lives of children during various historical periods. The descriptions could lead to role playing using the book's quotations from primary and secondary sources or their own imaginations.

     Unlike last year's Oscar-nominated live action shorts (Described in the earlier post, "See the World at the Movies"), this year's fail to give a broad picture of the lives of children in foreign countries."Helium," which won the Oscar, focused on a dying child and "Aquel No Era Yo" (That Wasn't Me) shows the tragic life of an African child soldier. If the Oscar-nominated short animated films are being shown at a local movie theater, however, children (and adults) would enjoy the banter of the ostrich and giraffe "puppets" that introduce them. "Mr. Hublot," which won the Oscar, could inspire a child to draw a series of robots with a mechanical/robotic pet that gets bigger and bigger. Mr. Hublot eventually had to move to a warehouse. In one animated short, "Room on a Broom," which is also a book, a witch, cat, dog, frog, and bird prove no one should be excluded anywhere in the world.

     The credits of all foreign films show how names differ from one country to another. These new names may come in handy when a child is naming his or her doll, plush toy, or action figure. (See the earlier post, "What's in a Name?")

Take Your Best Shot

Like many mothers, I experienced a day toward the end of winter, when I couldn't think of any new ways to amuse my six-year-old daughter. That's when I bundled her up and sent her into the courtyard with my old Super 8 movie camera. What caught her eye? Did she learn not to pan too quickly? While she didn't develop an interest in becoming a photographer, exposure to the photographic and movie-making processes could help another student discover an international career.

     This week we'll see all aspects of the Sochi Olympics in magazines and newspapers, on TV, and on the Internet. We'll also see reporters broadcasting from Sochi. Look at the backgrounds behind them. Just as network correspondents tell viewers where news is being made by standing in front of a school, parade, or courthouse, young people can begin to pay attention to the backgrounds they choose for their photos.

     To get ideas for photography, young people can check out lightbox.time.com, photography.nationalgeographic.com, and the scenic wonders Ansel Adams captured in Yosemite National Park. Also, be on the lookout for a new book, The Photographer's Eye, from National Geographic. It includes the best photos from the 300,000 submitted by photographers around the world, as well as tips telling how these photos were taken. Street photographers just ask people they see on the street if they can take their photos. It's a good way to show how regular people look when they're just going about their lives.
Seeing a drone used to film surfers from overhead reminded me how photographers often view life from different angles. With YouTube, there also are different ways to project your views of life.

     At ngkidsmyshot.com, kids can find out how, with a parent's permission, to submit their own photos that might be featured online or published in National Geographic Kids. Students can learn about National Geographic's Traveler Photo Contest at NationalGeographic.com/TravelerPhotoContest/ or go to nationalgeographic.com and search "travel photo contest.".There are four categories for photos: portraits, outdoor scenes, sense of place, and spontaneous moments. Information about the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for photography is on an earlier blog post, "Young Voices." Free Spirit Publishing is sponsoring a "Words Wound Video Contest" for teens that ends April 15, 2014. A teen will win $250 by posting a short video on YouTube that shows how teens can use technology and the Internet to make schools kinder places. Details are available at freespirit.com. For information about future competitions designed to attract African feature movie and documentary cinema talent, go to afrinollyshortfilmcompetition.com.

     Sarah Stallings at National Geographic suggests a number of things to remember, when taking photos:
1. Hold a camera steady in both hands and brace upper arms against body.
2. Think of a tic-tac-toe grid over your picture. The horizon can be on a vertical line and key elements on the intersections.
3. Take a number of photos of the same object or scene by moving closer and closer.
4. Catch before and after scenes that no one else has by arriving early and staying late for an event.
5. Light gives emphasis to the important parts of an image. Inside, light from a window or a doorway focuses attention on a subject. A Luma company device enables a cellphone to obtain a light reading that makes it easy for photographers to set a camera's appropriate light setting.

     The field of photography has many branches. Besides sports, photographers travel the world to report the news; photograph fashion, nature, and landmarks; take photos for postcards and travel brochures; and win Oscars for feature films, documentaries, animated full length and short movies, and live action shorts. Museums, such as the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., now exhibit photographs. A number of fashion photographers, who not only know plenty about style and design but also have social media fans, have become brands, i.e. entrepreneurs whose prints appear on products. David Bailey for one offers T-shirts printed with the likenesses of Mick Jagger, John Lennon, and Grace Jones.

    Photography requires patience and technology. My grandfather was friends with an eye doctor who was a freelance photographer who waited for hours to capture the best light for a photo he took of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Steve Winter worked for 14 months and used a video camera equipped with infrared detection and external lights to capture the iconic "Hollywood" sign behind a puma in Griffith Park, California.

      In color or black and white, a photographer can have an exciting international career.

See the World at the Movies

Not every film that provides a glimpse of a foreign country or culture is a child friendly "Sound of Music." But it is worth screening new movies and animated features to find a "Brave" that introduces children to different countries.

     In fact, an amazing number of countries have been featured in Oscar-winning films: "ARGO" (Iran), "The King's Speech" (United Kingdom), "The Hurt Locker" (Iraq), "Slumdog Millionaire" (India), "Braveheart" (Scotland), "Schindler's List" (Poland), "The Last Emperor" (China), "Gandhi" (India).

     The Academy Awards also honor the best foreign language films. The 2011 winner, "A Separation" from Iran, provided positive recognition to a country sanctioned for its nuclear program and scorned in ARGO for holding U.S. citizens hostage. The director of the 2012 best foreign language winner, "Amour," is from Austria.

     Like foreign language films, animated and live action short subjects don't have wide-spread distribution, but, if they are shown locally, they can give youngsters insight into the lives of children in other countries. In "Asad," one of the 2012 live action nominees, we saw Somali children dealing with their dysfunctional world, and in another 2012 nominee, "Buzkashi Boys" opened our eyes to the limited opportunities for young boys in Afghanistan.

     Perhaps the best impact a film can have on a child is the realization that, not only can foreign be fun, but humor also can expose the foolishness of a situation by looking at it differently, the way a live action short about Rwanda's bloody Hutu-Tutsi struggle did a couple of years ago.