TV starlet hits silver screen

Actress Yang Mi, who rose to overnight fame after appearing in the lead role in the popular time travel-based TV series Palace, will star in four blockbuster films.

The 25-year-old's cinematic debut, Mysterious Island, has brought in 85 million yuan ($13.22 million) since July 8. The filming of two of the films, a kungfu flick and a spy thriller, will start in October. She will also play the lead in a horror film adapted from a novel by Can Jun and a film version of the opera Turandot.

Tibetan album released

After eight years of preparation and production, Tibetan singer Rongzhong Erjia recently released his latest album, The Mystery of Tibet - The Song of Shepherds, in Beijing. The album is the renowned singer-songwriter's third, after Plateau Red and The Mystical Jiuzhai.

The new album was inspired by the Tibetan tale of King Gesar, which is the world's longest epic. The singer-songwriter traveled throughout the Tibet autonomous region to learn local herdsmen's songs. Every song on the album tells a story about Gesar.

The new album has two versions - one in Tibetan and one in Mandarin.

Couple kissed by luck

A young Chinese couple has won the chance to attend the premiere of Perfect Baby, a romantic comedy to hit screens in late August, by kissing in public.

The film is set in Paris and deals with the relationship between a Chinese man and a French girl. Jean-Baptiste Maunier, the French actor known for his role in the 2004 film The Chorus; star of the 1992 classic The Lover Jane March; and French singer Clemence Saint-Preux star in the film. Chinese actor Deng Chao performs the leading role.

Park gets Rodin sculptures

Changchun World Sculpture Park will bring in two original works - Balzac and Bronze Age - by Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin from France's Rodin Museum in September. They will be displayed alongside Rodin's The Thinker, which is already in the park, at Rodin Square, near the park's main entrance.

Since 1997, Jilin's provincial capital Changchun has staged 11 international sculpture exhibitions. This year, the park has brought together the greatest number of artists yet - 111 sculptors from 101 countries and regions around the world.

And thanks to donations by Li Songshan and Han Rong, a couple living in Africa for more than 40 years, visitors can take a close look at more than 1,000 original African wood, bronze, stone and mud sculptures in the park's new African Art Museum.

TV special presents Qixi

China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast an 11-hour live program based on Qixi festival, known as "China's Valentine's Day", from 11 am to 10 pm on Aug 6.

The program showed Chinese wedding ceremonies, banquets and attire across several generations. It also presented the history and culture surrounding the Qixi festival. And the show featured vocalists singing love songs.

Olympic TV program airs

On July 27, China Network Television (CNTV) began airing London Action, a program tracking the run-up to the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Chinese actress Li Bingbing was appointed as the program's image ambassador.

CNTV will be the exclusive Internet and mobile broadcaster of the London Olympic Games on the Chinese mainland. CNTV aired 3,800 hours of footage about the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. It was the only media to air every Olympic event.

Whiz kids win big bucks

The 300,000 yuan ($46,564) award for the first Super Students Competition has been split between Bai Ke from Hainan Middle School in Hainan province and Zhu Hao from St Paul's School in Zhejiang province.

The top 20 students have won free consultations on study abroad opportunities from ChinaEdu, the contest's organizer.

More than 3,300 middle school and high school students applied to enter the contest, which started in May. Candidates underwent assessments by education specialists and recruiters from top US universities and colleges. Skills such as English, logical thinking and leadership, in addition to academic performance, were evaluated.

Ink art group founded

About 400 artists recently announced the founding of the Chinese Ink Painting Society in Beijing.

Veteran birds-and-flowers painter Guo Yizong was elected as the academic NGO's first chairman.

"In recent decades, Chinese ink art has made great headway, and the market is booming," Guo says.

He also said society has a responsibility to "advance the time-honored art form in the new century and introduce it to people all over the world."

Bilateral media forum held

A Sino-Pakistani media forum was recently held in Beijing. The event, co-organized by China International Publishing Group (CIPG) and the Pakistani Embassy in Beijing, drew more than 50 journalists from 20 media organization from both countries.

The media plays an important role in promoting people-to-people contact and intercultural dialogue between the two countries, CIPG president Zhou Mingwei told the forum.

Pakistan's ambassador to China Masood Khan expressed hopes that "media networks from the two countries intensify their contacts (and) have closer cooperation".

China Daily