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THIS IS A TRANSLATION I DID OF APRIL’S LAST WORD WITH DIRECTOR WANG QUAN’AN. AFTER MAY’S ISSUE IS OUT FOR A FEW WEEKS, I WILL PUT UP MY LAST WORD INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR WANG SHUO. FORTUNATELY, WANG QUAN’AN IS A TAD MORE CONSTRUCTIVE THAN WANG SHUO, THOUGH BOTH MEN FASCINATE ME.
好电影要有力量
Good Movies Need Strength
今年大年初一，中国导演王全安的《图雅的婚事》获得了柏林国际电影节金熊奖。王全安的作品都是反映当前的中国社会现实，重视真实感和纪实性。这次得奖，实现了他部份追求观众认同的理想。在他工作地点附近一家他喜爱流连的咖啡厅，王全安与《新闻周刊　中文月刊》的周敏见了面，谈到他对电影的取材、人物塑造和未来目标。
On [...]

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I don’t like Team America. I don’t like Don Imus. And I haven’t seen Borat, but I’m sure I wouldn’t like it either. I’m tired of cruelty passing for good humor. I’m sick of “comedians” using cheap racial, ethnic and sexual jibes to demonstrate their cleverness or moral superiority. It’s not empowering or elevating anyone. [...]

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APRIL EDITS AND TRANSLATION.
中国元代画家谢楚芳的《乾坤生意图》在流失海外多年后终于有机会探望“娘家”，陪伴这件珍宝“海归”的还有包括皂石关帝雕像、《牡丹蝴蝶写生图》以及多件景德镇出产的精美瓷器。上述共15件“华裔”血统精品正连同大英博物馆其他102件馆藏，于中国故宫博物院午门举办的大型综合性展览《英国与世界——1714～1830》中展出，直至今年6月。
故宫博物馆展览部副主任马继革表示，这是故宫博物馆与大英博物馆这两个世界著名的博物馆的首次合作，当中的《乾坤生意图》更是大英博物馆于1998年花巨资从英国私人收藏家手中购得的。马继革说：“大英博物馆相信该画卷是迄今为止，英国人最早收藏的中国绘画作品。我们这次的合作，就是想让中国人也能看到我们国家的艺术精粹。”
这个展览的主题是讲述英国在汉诺威王朝，于乔治一世至乔治四世（1714-1830）期间，如何从一个偏远岛国步步崛起，进而一度成为世界近代历史的焦点。展品中除了回来省亲的中国文物，还有一件在该段时期英国贵族从景德镇定制的“墨彩镀金盘”，上面描绘的都是希腊神话故事。以及一件上面印有中国清朝官员人物图案，但却产自18世纪英国本土的咖啡壶。来自天津的游客田丽说：“我从没有想过英国欧洲宫廷和上流社会这么喜欢中国的东西。”撇开历史，艺术创造和艺术分享无国界这事一点不假。
－周敏
Chinese-blooded Artifacts Visit Homeland
After being lost overseas for many years, Yuan Dynasty painter Xie Chufang’s “The Universe Gives Birth to Intent” finally has a chance to return home for a visit. Accompanying the treasure are 14 other high-quality Chinese artifacts, including a saponite Guandi statue, a peony butterfly sketch painting, as [...]

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A PERISCOPE PIECE FOR THE APRIL EDITION. THIS IS ALSO ONE OF THE BEST HEADLINES I’VE EVER WRITTEN.
It seems counterintuitive that three designers would construct a restaurant with a dining room no one can actually see, but that’s just what Shanghainese Century Xie (谢晶) and Shanghai-based Singaporeans Ken Lua (赖永升) and Bernard Pok (卜英伟) [...]

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Fallows does well.
I’m also happy to report that I will also begin blogging for The Huffington Post on China issues. My first post there should run in late May.
Also in May, one of my fiction stories will run on Identity Theory.

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The shooter has been identified as Cho Seung-Hui — a senior English student and permanent resident alien — read he’d lived most of his life in America — originally from Korea. I wonder where the Sun Times got their Chinese suspect. Damn, China has been given none of the kudos it deserves and many of [...]

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I only have a few minutes to devote to this right now.
Recent news from the Chicago Sun Times:
Authorities were investigating whether the gunman who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history was a Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a [...]

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April 12, 2007
By DINITIA SMITH
Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on [...]

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April 7, 2007 | Issue 43•14
NEW YORK—A feature on the New York Times’ website that lists the stories most e-mailed by readers is destroying morale and escalating tensions among the once-dignified and professional Times staff, sources within the newspaper of record said Tuesday.
Most Emailed
The New York Times office building, which used to house some of [...]

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As many of you know, I’m in a long-distance relationship. A and I lived here in China together for four years before he went back to the States to study law. Many people have asked me why I didn’t go with him. Basically, one thing that has always been important to both of us is [...]

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