The author is a columnist and culture critic with China Daily
As we all know, politics can be entertaining, and the entertainment business is full of politics. But when entertainers get into real politics, it raises eyebrows.
Call me snobbish but I have never hidden my disappointment with Chinese television. In general, that is. I am not ruling out the occasional decent show.
There are many ways to interpret the sex photo scandal of Hong Kong pop stars. But the core of the matter, as I see it, is the wrangling between the law and morality.
Eleven years ago, I took a train from Shanghai to Beijing during the Spring Festival rush, known as chunyun. I got a ticket in a hard-seat car, no other seats were available. As a result, I was squeezed into a space so small I could not turn left or right.
At a recent meeting in Chongqing municipality, deputy mayor Huang Qifan cut short a lower official who was reading from a prepared document: "There's no need to use these bureaucratic clichs on this occasion. It's totally unnecessary." After that, the others skipped at least half of their speeches.
The coming Oscars ceremony may be threatened by the ongoing writers' strike, but Chinese entertainment reporters and cineastes have one less reason to worry about it. This week, it was announced that all three Chinese language movies submitted for Best Foreign Language Picture consideration - from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan - failed to get on the nine-nominee shortlist.
I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I've always believed in the necessity of building a Grand National Theater in China. Yes, in terms of marginal benefit, the money would probably have been better spent on rural education or poverty alleviation. But a nation as culturally rich as China is needs a venue worthy of its performing arts.
What is the biggest cultural barrier for a Chinese to overcome when dealing with people from other countries?
Last weekend, Ruby Yang was screening several television commercials in a classroom at Tsinghua University. When the tagline appeared, there was a smattering of giggling in the crowd.
We know the standard of beauty varies from person to person, and from place to place. A psychology professor has offered new evidence in this regard, and in the process infuriated millions of people.
You may have never known how much Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Milan Kundera had in common - until an Ang Lee movie changed one name for the other.
Chinese tourists being photographed riding Wall Street's famous Charging Bull has sparked a controversy in China. A Beijing Television reporter spotted the scene and lamented in her blog about the lack of civilized behavior among some of our countrymen.
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