(Source: Xinhua)Nov. 23 - Five Hollywood film companies have filed copyright lawsuits against a Chinese movie download provider and an internet cafe for allegedly providing pirated film download service to internet users.

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures Corp., Columbia Pictures Industries, and Universal City Studios, accused Beijing-based Jeboo.com and a Shanghai internet cafe of violating their copyrights.

“The internet cafe provided movie download service through the software developed by Jeboo.com. Among others, 13 movies, including Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Charlie’s Angles 2, X-Men 2, and Night at the Museum, were distributed without authorization,” read the indictment.

The studios demanded compensation of some 3.2 million yuan (about 432,000 U.S. dollars) and required the defendants to immediately stop the practice and make a public apology.

The case will be heard at Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court on Nov. 29, according to sources.

Founded in 2004, Jeboo.com claims to be China’s biggest movie download provider, with a database of nearly 30,000 movies and TV series that have online certificates.

“All the audio and video products on Jeboo.com are provided by our partners. Jeboo.com has the right to provide download service through the internet for them according to contracts signed between Jeboo.com and our partners,” said the copyright statement of Jeboo.com.

Xie Jiangping, president assistant of Jeboo.com, said the company has been preparing for the hearing. Xie refused to comment on whether it had violated the film companies’ copyrights.

Early in March, 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and five other Hollywood studios filed a copyright lawsuit, saying that Beijing Yongsheng Century International Cultural Development Co. was selling pirated films including “Lord of the Rings” and “The Day After Tomorrow”.

They won the case in September and got 192,000 yuan in compensation from the company, under the verdict by Beijing Xicheng District People’s Court.

China has intensified a crackdown on pirated DVDs and other illegal duplications and plans fundamental changes to the situation this year, according to a circular jointly issued by six government departments, including the public security and culture ministries.

China confiscated around 110 million illegal CDs and DVDs in 2006, according to the Ministry of Culture.

Chinanews, Beijing, November 23 ¨C China has a very long history, and of course a large number of historical towns. Their names have remained unchanged through the years, recording both culture and history of ancient China.

For example, Zhuozhou in Hebei Province is said to be the place where Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu of the Three Kingdoms era (220 - 280) swore to their romantic brotherhood, and also the hometown of several famous philosophers. Now the word Zhuozhou is not only a name, but also a symbol of culture.

The name of Wanxian County, Hebei Province, means ¡°perfect and complete¡±. It was the frontier town in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), and its name shows the ancient people¡¯s good wish of protecting their territory. However, in 1993, an investor thought the name could imply ¡°doom¡±, and forced local government to change it into Shunping (smooth and peaceful).

¡°Some say it¡¯s natural to change the names of ancient towns at present, I believe it is ridiculous to do so, as their names have so rich cultural and historical connotations,¡± said Liu Baoquan, a researcher on the names of towns.

(Source: China Daily)Nov. 22 - The number of Chinese mainland students going to study in the United States hit a record high this year, up 40 percent from last year and double the figure in 2004, the US embassy said Wednesday.

About 51,500 student and exchange visitor visas have been issued to mainland Chinese so far this year, Michael Regan, US consul general in China, told a press conference, adding that the approval rate is about 80 percent.

Diane Sovereign, assistant press officer of the US embassy, said the increase reflects Chinese students’ growing interest to study in the United States as well as the rising visa approval rate.

Ministry of Education spokesman Wang Xuming said he welcomed the trend “that is conducive to the promotion of international student exchanges”.

After India, the Chinese mainland is the second largest source of overseas students for US universities. Frank Mok, an official with the American Center for Educational Exchange, said he is optimistic that more student visas will be issued next year.

Chinanews, Hangzhou, November 21 ¨C The students of a college in Hangzhou conducted a survey among their school mates, finding that the most interesting part about Chinese culture to college students is traditional snack.

32.4% of the respondents choose traditional snack, followed by folk art, (20.5%) and traditional festival. All the top three are attractive and entertaining elements of traditional Chinese culture, but ¡°dull¡± elements like literature and operas are not appealing to 90% of them.

Though traditional Chinese culture is under the impact of globalization, as Western cultures are considered to be better adapted to the modern lifestyle, most college students find a strong sense of belonging in traditional Chinese culture.

44% of the respondents think that China should invest more effort on the promotion of traditional Chinese culture to add vitality to it.

Chinanews, Shanghai, November 21 ¨C Nowadays, the works of modern Chinese artists have become more and more expensive.

A china lute is priced at 500,000 yuan, and an oil painting can be at hundreds of thousands of yuan. Though the standard of Chinese artists has not greatly improved, the price of their works has increased unreasonably.

The price hike started two year ago. Some critics describe Chinese artists as ¡°children with the income of adults¡±.

Art in China has finished the development in several years that took its Western counterparts nearly a century.

A mere ten years ago, there were hardly any collectors interested in modern artworks produced in China, but their overheated popularity today has also caused great panic among Chinese artists, as it is beyond their ability to control the situation.

¡°Though our paintings are more profitable today, a large proportion of art-lovers can no longer afford them. Art today has become a symbol of vainglory,¡± said Mr. Fang, the director of a prestigious art gallery in Shanghai.

Chinanews, Lanzhou, Nov. 20 ¨C Loong is a symbol of Chinese culture and it embodies Chinese people’s spirit. It also links Chinese people together spiritually. The legendary animal has been worshipped in China for more than 8,000 years now.

The conclusion was made by experts who attended the China Loong Culture Forum held in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, recently. About one hundred historians attended the 37-day forum.

Gansu is said to be the birthplace of Fuxi and Nuwa, who were considered as the legendary rulers of great antiquity. It is also viewed as the originating place of the Chinese Loong culture. In 2004, the first theme park that focused on Loong culture was set up in Lanzhou. In this park, people can learn a lot of knowledge about Loong culture through various carvings, paintings, papercuts and garden works inside the park.

According to historical accounts, Loong was a totem for ancient Chinese civilization. Its changing form well reflects the changing history of the Chinese civilization. In ancient times, basing on the shape of snakes, Chinese people created an animal called ¡°Loong¡± by combining the features of various animals together. From then on, they worshipped this animal and made it a totem of the Chinese people.

In fact, the legendary creature ¡°Loong¡± has been worshipped in China for more than 8,000 years now. It is said that in ancient times, all the pictures that bore images of Chinese ancient rulers, such as Fuxi, Nuwa, Huangdi, Yandi, Yao, and Shun, etc, were drawn in a way that resembled some features of this legendary animal. In China, the typical Loong culture contains elements such as unity, creativity and progress, etc.

¡°Some Westerners might mistake Loong for dragon. Actually, the two animals are very different. In China, Loong is a myterious animal and it stands for justice and good luck, while in the Western world, dragon is often described as an animal that is ugly, evil and always creates troubles for others. In light of this, dragon should be better translated as ¡®juegeng¡¯(by sound)while the legendary animal loved by the Chinese people should be translated as ¡®Loong¡¯,¡± experts attending the forum said in their declaration.¡¡