Show aims to develop the best and brightest

My Stage, My Show, a talent show aiming to identify the capital's untapped grassroots talents, was launched recently at the China Millennium Monument in Beijing.

Co-produced by Beijing Television Station (BTV) and the Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group, the program is open to all kinds of talents. Participants can join regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or profession. They can perform as an individual or as couples or as a group. The application deadline is June 30.

The show's top 20 contestants will be invited to appear on BTV's Showcase for the Masses, a program celebrating those with talent.

Dora the Explorer takes Monkey King Award

Dora the Explorer, a popular American animation series won the Monkey King Award for the Committee Special Prize at the recent 2011 China International Cartoon & Animation Festival (CICAF), held annually in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Produced by Nickelodeon, a cable television network, the animated series features a 7-year-old girl adventurer who embarks on a trip in every episode and shows children how to deal with different situations.

The animation's Chinese-dubbed version is now showing on CCTV's Children's Channel.

Tagore commemorated for boosting Sino-Indian ties

The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries held a conference in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian literary giant and first Asian Nobel laureate, on May 7.

Since his poetry anthology Gitanjali was introduced to China in 1915, Tagore has exerted substantial influence on the formation and development of modern Chinese poetry. He visited China twice and composed a poem entitled I Have a Chinese Name, to express his attachment to the Chinese people.

S. Jaishankar, Indian ambassador to China, described Tagore as a father figure for China-India relations.

As an important part of the 2011 Year of China-India Exchange, a series of commemorative activities are to be held around China, in the form of international symposiums, book launches, photo shows and poetry recitals.

Neighborly relations focus of new film

Under the Sky of Urumqi, a film set in the capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, arrived at theaters on Sunday.

The film focuses on life in a community where people from different ethnic groups, including Han, Uygur and Kazak, live together for decades.

Young actress Cao Xiwen and actor Yu Bin play a Han couple who move to the community in the 1960s and develop a life-long friendship with their neighbors.

Photo contest to revive old revolutionary bases

The National Red Tourism Photography Competition and Exhibition kicked off on May 6 in Beijing. Organized by China Cultural Heritage Foundation and endorsed by National Tourism Administration of China, the campaign aims to promote "red tourism", in a bid to revive the economies of the old revolutionary bases, mostly in the country's underdeveloped areas.

The competition welcomes photographs taken in "red tourism" areas, either of natural scenery or cultural resources.

The deadline for submissions is Aug 30. For more information, log on to www.chinartp.org.

Artist couples show off their works in exhibition

The Exhibition of Artist Couples from Chinese National Academy of Arts opened recently at the Chinese Museum of Women and Children, in Beijing.

The exhibition showcases works by five couples who are all professional artists with the academy, like Yang Feiyun and Peng Peng, and Cui Jin and Lei Miao. The works include both oil paintings and traditional Chinese paintings.

The exhibition is the first of a series of exhibitions by artists of the Chinese National Academy of Arts that will be held this year. Upcoming exhibitions will present paintings on porcelain, sculpture, seal carving and ceramic art.

Chinese National Academy of Arts, based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, is an institute attached to the Ministry of Culture and covers artistic research, creation and education.

China Daily