Chinanews, Changsha, Nov. 20 ¨C An official from Ministry of the Counstruction said that China plans to invest 1 billion yuan on protecting famous towns and cities.

Compared with Western countries, China is reluctant to protect their famous cities. Since the reform and opening-up policy was launched, many towns and cities have been changed beyond recognition and many historical sites are gone.

Sun Anjun, the official from the ministry said that the central government has now started to pay more attention to the protection of historical and famous towns.

Sun said that currently China had 109 historical cities and towns, and the ministry would launch a comprehensive survey on them together with the State Cultural Heritage Administration.

Chinanews, Guangzhou, November 16 ¨C ¡°Chinese calligraphy is like the face of the Chinese people, thus young people should learn it,¡± said Huang Xiping, a famous Chinese calligrapher, at an exhibition of his works in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province on November 13, 2007.

Huang also expressed his wish to teach college students Chinese calligraphy for free, as long as this good tradition can be preserved.

Huang is one of the most important researchers of the Chinese characters invented by Wu Zetian, China’s only female emperor who lived during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). Huang had made an inkstone inscribed with a poem all written in the characters invented by Wu Zetian, to commemorate her contributions.

Chinanews, Changsha, November 16 ¨C According to Wang Taihua, the director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the central government will continue to support the local animation industry, while no imported animations will be allowed to be broadcast in China at prime time.

Wang approved the achievements that had been made by local animation industry. In the first 9 months of 2007, more than 70,000 minutes of TV animations had been produced in China, a new high, and several animation movies had been made in China, too.

¡°The history and culture of China will serve as an inexhaustible source for animation production, and Chinese enterprises should strive to make animations with unique Chinese flavor,¡± said Wang.

Beginning 2008, there will be an award issued every year for good original animations and cartoons.

Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 15 ¨C According to available information, from January to September this year, China¡¯s animation production had reached 70,000 minutes. It is expected that animation production might reach a new high of 100,000 minutes for the whole year.

In recent years, Chinese animation industry has made a great leap forward. From 2004 to 2006, Chinese animation production had increased from 21,800 minutes, 42,700 minutes to 82,300 minutes. In 2006, the national animation production base had made 81 animations, with the total length of these animations reaching 50,000 minutes. These products accounted for two-thirds of the animations produced in China that year.

China has set up a basic broadcasting system for its animation works. These animation products are televised on the animation channel, on the children’s channel and in animation programs made by central and local TV stations. The animations are also shown in cinemas. The audience rating for animations climbs rapidly year on year. Now the number of audience watching animations has reached 600 million, six times the number when animation works were just broadcast in China.

Currently, there are four national animation channels and 33 local children’s channels in China. Every day, about 8,000 minutes of animation films are broadcast on TV.

(Source: China Daily)Nov. 15 - Eighty percent more students can take the Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) through the Internet at the end of this year, the US Educational Testing Service (ETS) has said.

Net-based test seats will increase from 1,950 in June to 3,550 at the end of the year, an ETS press release said on Tuesday.

The ETS and China’s National Education Examinations Authority worked jointly on their network to meet the increased demand for TOEFL in China.

Further improvements and technological solutions are being implemented by the ETS to monitor the TOEFL registration website to ensure an open and fair test registration process, according to the ETS.

More than 6,000 colleges and universities in 110 countries accept TOEFL scores. The number of students who want to take the test on the mainland has grown steadily in recent years, with the average staying above 70,000 a year.

“The ETS is committed to ensuring that everyone in China who wishes to take the test gets the chance to do so,” ETS’s global division senior vice-president Paul Ramsey, said in the press release.

Some Chinese students see the announcement as encouragement.

“It used to be very hard to get a chance to sit for the test, and I had to ask my friends to help take online registration on other computers,” said Chen Lu, a second-year postgraduate student of Renmin University of China who took the test a few months ago to apply for doctoral studies in the US.

But some say the increase is still not big enough. “More and more students are preparing for TOEFL to get a chance to study abroad or to prove their ability. So I still see a gap between supply and demand,” said Wu Qi, a final year undergraduate in Peking University.

Chinanews, Beijing, November 14 ¨C According to Li Yinhe, a sexologist of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, homosexuals in China are faced with much lighter pressures from the society than their counterparts in other countries.

A recent poll by Li shows that 90% of the respondents don’t think sexuality matters very much in employment, while the proportion in the US is only 86%.

Nowadays, homosexual websites, homosexual hotlines and homosexual bars have become more and more common in China. Some of them even dare to embrace and kiss each other in public places, and their behavior is no longer embarrassing to most Chinese. It is well accepted that homosexuals are equal to heterosexuals, and they are capable of doing all kinds of jobs.

Currently, there are more than 30 million homosexuals in China, about 2 or 3 out of every 100 people. They are better accepted by higher social classes, like white collars.

Only 20 years ago, homosexuality was a crime in China, and 10 years ago, it was still considered as a mental disease. Nowadays, the biggest pressures on homosexuals are from their parents instead of the society.

As a major researcher on homosexuality in China, Li Yinhe has worked hard to promote the legalization of homosexual marriage.

¡°China is improving on this issue, and we don’t have extreme conservative forces here against homosexuals, ¡± said Li optimistically.