Dream of the Red Chamber（winner of the 14th Wenhua Awards）

Cast： 140 actors Stage： 14-16m wide, 20m deep, 8m high, with 42-45 scenery and light battens Prop weight： flexibly subject to theatre conditions Schedule： available from September to October in 2014 and negotiable for other periods of time     

Chinese Steelyard Protected as Intangible Cultural Heritage

A Chinese steelyard is the measuring instrument used to measure weight. It uses a weight that moves on the scale stem and changes the ratio of the lever to measure, The steelyard consists of the following parts： an arm, a hook, lifting cords and a weight. The arm is graduated with the weight units. The hook, hanging from one end of the arm, is used to lift up the object to be weighed. Hanging from the other part of the arm is the free-moving weight, attached on a looped string. On the arm is fixed one, two or three lifting cords, placed much closer to the hook than to the other end. Anything to be weighed should be picked up by the hook, while the weigher lifts up the whole steelyard, holding one of the cords. He then slides the weight left or right until he finds a perfect balance of the beam. He then reads the weight from the graduation mark on which the weight-string rests.     

Red Sorghum

Cast： 80 actors Stage： 14m wide, 20m deep, 8m high, with 20-26 scenery and light battensProp weight： flexibly subject to theatre conditions     

Zhang Yimou＇s Turandot Hits Taiwan

About 30,000 opera lovers in the Taiwan city of Taichung went to see a version of Turandot on March 27 and 28, which its renowned director Zhang Yimou said has a special effect when staged by Chinese people：Performed at Taichung International Baseball Stadium, the March 28 show started at 7：1S p.m., with 150 singing and dancing performers marching out from both sides of a 20-meter-high LED screen,     

Architecture of Buyi Ethnic Group

Buyi ethnic group, one of the most populous ethnic minorities dwelling in southwest China, evolves from Yue people in the remote past and has long lived on paddy rice farming. As they are mostly distributed in mountainous areas, many houses of Buyi people are made of rock slates. However, over the sweep of history, Buyi people have developed a variety of forms of residence besides slate-made dwellings, such as those made of thatch or rammed earth or those on stilts. Their houses are built at riverside, in mountains, caves or in the fort-like manner. And walls of their houses are made of stone, wood, earth or bamboo.[第一段]     

SILK EXHIBITION PROMOTES CHINA-RUSSIA FRIENDSHIP

“Road of the Silk Kingdom： 5000 Years of Chinese Silk”, an important event in the Year of China, was on display from July 2 in Khabarovsk, Kazan and Moscow respectively.     

Memory of the Old Capital Exhibition on Beijing＇s traditional courtyard houses on display in Bangkok,Thailand

On March 29, “Memory of the Old Capital： an Exhibition on Beijing＇s Traditional Courtyard Houses”, co-hosted by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage and China Cultural Center in Bangkok, opened in China Cultural Center in Bangkok. Wife of Chinese Ambassador Chu Qingling, former Vice Premier of Thailand and Thailand-China Committee for Cultural Promotion, Chinese Cultural Counselor Chen Jiang,     

Online Cultural Training for Grassroots Employees

On July 31 st, two training courses over public culture were held in CentralAcademy of Cultural Administration in Daxing District of Beijing. The two lectures,＂The Task of Public Cultural Service Development of the Era＂ and Challenges for Libraries in Cities： Innovation and Future , were delivered by Li Guoxin, Professor from Peking University and Wu Jianzhong, Curator of Shanghai Library respectively. The training didn＇t have as many local trainees as before. But after the training, a large number of grassroots cultural workers in many regions of China discussed the contents of the training.     

CHINESE CULTURE SHINES IN RUSSIA

Editor＇s words： Co-initiated by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Putin, the Year of Russia and the Year of China were launched in 2006 and 2007 respectively. This is the largest cultural event ever held in each other＇s country in the history of China-Russia exchange. In September, the staff reporter had an exclusive interview with Mr. Li Dongwen, Director-General of the Bureau for External Cultural Relations, Ministry of Culture of China, who gave a comprehensive review of the Year of China in Russia.[第一段]     

Crossover Integration： Way Out for Private Museums

According to the statistics of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage （SACH）, China private museums totaled 811 as of the end of 2013. The rapidly increasing number of private museums reflects the soaring development of China＇s cultural sector. However, many private museums are not as in smooth water as imagined. According to Ma Shaohua, president of Zhongchuan Institute of Cultural Research, private museums should not wait for government support： instead, they should find a solution of crossover integration in order to achieve sustainable development.     

“Early China： the Formative Period of. Chinese Civilization” Disphyed in Capital Museum

Last autumn, the exhibition ＂Early China： the Formative Period of Chinese Civilization＂ was held in the Capital Museum in Beijing. The 210 sets or pieces of exhibits showcase the origin and early evolution of Chinese civilization from 3500 BC to 1400 BC.     

Chinese Lacquer Art （III）

The Chinese lacquer techniques in the Three Kingdoms Period： rhinoceros skin lacquer and inlayed golden line
The lacquerwares made during the Three Kingdoms Period are rarely unearthed. In 1984, 60 pieces of lacquerware were unearthed in a tomb of the Three Kingdoms Period in Ma＇anshan of Anhui Province. The lacquerwares which contain plates, cups, pots, spoons, rulers and so on show the highest art of lacquer-making of that time, and prove that the lacquer techniques in the Three Kingdoms Period gained its own progress on the basis of the achievement in the Han Dynasty. In the Three Kingdoms Period, the noble people were enthusiastic in the lacquerware, which is proved by the ＂lacquer plate about the life of the noble＂.     

An Oil Lamp that Lights up the Past and the Future Chen Lvsheng Art Museum Celebrates ItS Grand Opening

On September 22, 2013, Chen Lvsheng Art Museum was opened in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.Chen Lvsheng Art Museum is named after Chen Lvsheng, a famous art historian, painter and photographer.The main building of the museum provides approximately 2,000 m2 for use, including two exhibition halls and a studio.The museum staged two special exhibitions to celebrate its completion：＂The Exhibition of Chen Lvsheng＇s Paintings and Collection＂ and ＂Oil Lamps Depicted by Famous Artists＂.     

N. A. Speshnev： A Mix of Chinese and Russian Cultures

In conjunction with the Year of Russia, a largest-scale exchange event that Russia has ever organized in China, the Chinese edition of ＂Beijing： My Childhood Hometown＂ will be released soon in China by Oriental Press. The author N. A. Speshnev is a renowned sinologist, translator and professor with the Department of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg State University in Russia.     

Cai Guoqiang： I Want to Believe

For Cai Guoqiang, August 2008 means a time full of not only challenge but also grace. As the chief designer of fire display for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Cai demonstrated his aesthetics of gun powder in front of more than 4 billion viewers from across the world. Also in this month, his solo exhibition Cai Guoqiang： I Want To Believe＂ was opened in Beijing, which was co-presented by the National Art Museum of China, Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Center of International Cultural Exchange. Beijing was the second leg of this globa tour. Its exhibition tn Guggenheim in the first half of this year was acclaimed as one of the important cultural events in the world. From February to May,Gugcjenheim moved out all the exhibits, including Picasso＇s, and all its three storeys of exhibition space were used to display Cai＇s works created over the past two decades.     

The Rock Paintings of the Helan Mountains

THE HelanMountains sit ina corner of theNingxia Hui Autonom-ous Region of north-western China in a widearc running for 250 kmfrom north to south.Insome places the range is20 to 30 km across;the individual moun-tain peaks are on aver-age 1,400 m above sealevel and the high-est peak Shaguozhou,reaches 3,556 m intothe sky.When the YellowRiver enters Ningxia     

Experts Comment on the Translation and Spread of Chinese Culture

Translation is a major barrier to overcome in China＇s endeavors to bring its culture to the rest of the world. Translation does not simply mean the process of switching from one language to another： it means more the exchange of different ways of thinking and different expressions of culture, In fact, translation marks re-creation of original works by translators. We need not only master scholars knowing well about Chinese and.foreign cultures, but also a large number of high-end professionals capable of doing cross-culture exchanges and cross-culture re-creation, in particular, translators in lesser-known languages.     

Evaluation and Research： Habitat Setting of Qujiang New Area New Release of View Point Series of Qujiang Cultural Tourism

On June 6, Xi＇an Qujiang Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. held a ceremony to release its new book “Evaluation and Research： Habitat Setting of Qujiang New Area” at Overseas Chinese Art Gallery in Xi＇an. This book is the second collection of View Point Series of Qujiang Cultural Tourism planned and compiled by Qujiang Institute of Cultural Tourism （QICT）, following its first collection “Cultural and Historic Theme Attractions in China： Case Study and Analysis of Tourist Behaviors”.     

Sydney Fascinated by Chinese New Year Parade

Every year Sydney celebrates Chinese New Year, the most spectacular event outside Asia. The 2008 celebration lasted three weeks, attracting nearly one million visitors. On the morning of February 10, nearly 100,000 local residents and foreign tourists crowded along George Street in the downtown of Sydney, waiting with eagerness for the grand parade by performers from the northwest province of Shaanxi, China. Yang Zhangying, a 71 -year-old lady who emigrated from Shanghai more than ten years ago, dressed in a red mandarin gown, arrived at the City Hall in the early morning. She said with excitement, ＂I wear this dress only on grand and commemorative occasions.＂ At 11 a.m., Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney, in a red Tang-style dress,