Impressions del festival Nits de Cinema Oriental

A primers de juliol de 2013 a Vic (Osona) es va celebrar la desena edició del Festival Nits de Cinema Oriental. Qui hi va assistir en representació de Sinalunya va ser la nostra amiga osonenca Núria Sellarès, qui ens ha deixat una impressió del que va ser la seva primera experiència amb aquest festival:

Vic, segona setmana de Juliol, any 2013.

Una colla d'energúmens amb ulleres i etiquetes penjades al coll entren a un local on hi ha una pantalla gegant disposats a quedar amb la vista cansada durant una setmana. Comença el Festival Nits de Cinema Oriental de Vic. Un festival on s'hi projecten pel·lícules d'arreu dels països asiàtics i que enguany té Taiwan de país convidat. Bona part de les pel·lícules projectades són d'aquest país.

El festival de cinema oriental de Vic està pensat per ser vist des de molts punts de vista diferents. Hi ha sessions matinals de pel·lícules adreçades a nens i joves, un espai on es projecten pel·lícules retrospectives, un espai on les pel·lícules entren a concurs i finalment un espai obert al gran públic on hi ha també sopar temàtic amb gastronomia oriental (cada dia d'un país diferent).  Aquest festival arriba a molta gent diferent: els malalts de cinema oriental i fanàtics d'alguna tipologia de pel·lícula concreta, als joves, a la gent que, senzillament, li agrada passar una estona divertida veient una pel·lícula en una nit d'estiu o als tastaolletes que els agrada descobrir nous estils cinematogràfics i/o noves cultures. Aquest any ha arribat a la seva desena edició, no m'estranya gens i que per molts anys!

Finalment dir que és un festival molt recomanable per a tothom que tingui un mínim interès en el cinema i, ja no dir, pels cineastes tastaolletes. L'any vinent repetirem, no en tingueu cap mena de dubte!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="178"] Afro Tanaka, guanyadora de la desena edició del Festival Nits de Cinema Oriental de Vic[/caption]

En l'edició d'enguany i per votació popular, la comèdia japonesa Afro Tanaka es va endur el premi Gat de la Sort a la millor pel·lícula, tal com va anunciar el director del certamen, Quim Crusellas, durant la cerimònia de clausura. Afro Tanaka va ser la pel·lícula amb més espectadors als cinemes del Japó l'any 2012 i mostra les esbojarrades aventures d'un jove japonès que duu un pentinat afro en busca de la dona de la seva vida. El premi del festival, el Gat de la Sort, ha pres forma enguany gràcies a l’escultura dissenyada i creada per Jaume Sallés, qui ha impregnat el disseny de l’estatueta amb influències del folklore japonès.

La resta de posicions d'honor d'aquest festival han estat per a les pel·lícules Eega (Índia), que ha ocupat el segon lloc, i The Rocket (Austràlia, filmada a Laos i amb diàlegs en llengua lao), que ha ocupat el tercer.  Els octogenaris taiwanesos que van de ruta en moto per la illa de Go Grandriders! (Taiwan), van quedar quarts i When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep (南方小羊牧場) (Taiwan), va quedar cinquena.

Aquí us deixem el tràiler de la guanyadora, Afro Tanaka:



Per estar informats de cara a properes edicions del festival podeu fer-ho a través de la pàgina web oficial, http://cinemaoriental.com.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="521"] Festival Nits de Cinema Oriental[/caption]

 

"Pure views: Transformations of Chinese Contemporary Art" exhibition in Barcelona

From http://www.artssantamonica.cat/EXP/EXPOSICIONS/tabid/128/any/201307/language/en-US/Default.aspx#exposicio87 (in English)

[caption id="attachment_2466" align="alignleft" width="324"] Pure Views. Transformations of Chinese Contemporary Art[/caption]

From July 3rd to September 28th, 2013, Barcelona's Arts Santa Mònica will host an attractive and comprehensive survey of Chinese contemporary art entitled "Pure Views. Transformations of Chinese Contemporary Art" and curated by Lü Peng (吕澎), the prestigious Chinese art historian and director of the Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art (成都当代美术馆). Back in 1995, under the title "From the Country of the Centre. Artistic Avant-gardes in China", this same art centre mounted a seminal display of key, innovative Chinese artworks of the day, one of the first exhibitions of its kind in Europe. Since then, Chinese art has evolved significantly. Pure Views corroborates the developments experienced by Chinese art in the last thirty years. Starting from the final days of Socialist Realism, it charts the trend towards a diversity of techniques and styles, responding to the expectations of a new society that, at the same time, is reflecting profoundly on its tradition.

The exhibition is also hosting a series of conferences related to Chinese art:

July 3rd - Trends and evolution of the contemporary Chinese art

July 5th - The market of Chinese Contemporary Art. ¿How to explain its exceptional evolution?

July 11th - New readings of the tradition in Chinese experimental art

 

The forthcoming ones are the following ones:

September 18th, 7 pm - The Chinese cultural tradition: instructions for its use

From September 25th to October 11th - Film series "Transformations of the Chinese cinema", on the Filmoteca de Catalunya, Plaça Salvador Seguí, Barcelona.

Curated by: Lü Peng, assisted by Xu Sheng

Organized by: Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art (成都当代美术馆) and Arts Santa Mònica - Departament of Cultura, Generalitat de Catalunya

Produced by: Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art (成都当代美术馆) and Arts Santa Mònica - Departament of Cultura, Generalitat de Catalunya

In conjunction with: Chinart, L-Art Gallery and ARTANTIDE.es - Josep Soler Casanellas

Partners: Casa Àsia, Esade China Europe Club, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Filmoteca de Catalunya

Media partners: Arteallimite, Artlink, Asian Art Newspaper, Global Asia Magazine

Partners: Bodegas Torres, Skyteam, NH Hoteles

 

Barcelona chosen as site of the European laboratory of Chinese CCIC

From http://barcelonacatalonia.cat/b/?p=6089&lang=en (in English)

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="280"] Barcelona home to European certification and inspection laboratory of Chinese CCIC - image from the Barcelona Catalonia The Mediterranean Innovation Hub website[/caption]

Thanks to the negotiations started in summer 2012 during an official visit to China from the mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias, the China Certification & Inspection Group (CCIC), the Chinese state certification and inspection company, has chosen Barcelona as the headquarters for their European laboratory. Through their 2 million € investment in the Zona Franca Consortium (CZF), CCIC will inspect, verify and certify foreign products that want to enter the Chinese market. The China Certification & Inspection Group is the fourth most important inspection and certification company in the world, with six branches in Europe (Barcelona, Rotterdam, London, Bremen, Marseille and Moscow) aimed at facilitating their clients the certification and inspection services necessary for European products to enter the Chinese market.

 

Workshop on e-Commerce in China held in Barcelona

From http://agenda.acc10.cat/agenda/default.php?id=9318 (in Catalan)

The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce is organizing a workshop on the e-Commerce as a new and essential distribution channel for those companies willing to sell their products in China, either B2B or B2C. The session will be held on the morning of June 27th, 2013, and is aimed at dealing with the legal, technological and logistic requirements that are needed to open an online shop in China.

Programme

8:45 am - Registration of attendants

9:00 am - Welcome and opening session, by Josep Mª Cervera, International Director, Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation

9:05 am - "Legal aspects of e-Commerce in China", by Jordi Martin, Business Development Manager of Klako Group

9:35 am - "Technological aspects of e-Commerce in China", by Màrius Rossell, Director General at Trilogi

10:05 am - "Logistics of e-Commerce in China", by Álvaro Escribano, Director at  Logisfashion China

10:35 am - 11:30 am - Open discussion and coffee networking

The workshop will take place in the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation, 452 Diagonal Avenue, 08006 Barcelona. For further information (registration, etc.), please contact Judith Padrós at jpadros@cambrabcn.org.

Sinalunya interviews: GAS

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300"] GAS - Chinese Works (image from GAS website)[/caption]

GAS is a Catalan band hailing from L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona province) that is drawing some attention in the local rock music scene because not only of the quality of their music, but also because a peculiar choice they made for their most recent album: to use Mandarin Chinese as the language of their songs. Their lyrics are also available in Chinese on their website, a proof of their confidence on the quality of their writing, and they have already performed successfully for the Chinese community of the Fort Pienc quarter in Barcelona. After our recent post about the release of their record, we wanted to dig a little bit more into the reasons that motivated them to make such a bold move and we interviewed band member Salvador Mas.

Q: Where did you get the idea to make a record in Mandarin Chinese and how did you decide to actually make it?

R: It was by chance, on September 2012, during the rehearsal of our new demo. We asked our singer Jordi Riba how did it his Chinese exam go and then a friend of us that came to listen to our rehearsal asked him to sing one of the new songs in Chinese. He did that and we all liked it very, very much.

Q: To make a record in Chinese implies a deep knowledge of the language. Who are the members in the band that have it and how did you get it?

R: The only member that can speak Chinese is Jordi Riba, the rest of us we'd love to, but honestly we just know some few basic words. He is also a professional English translator and has been studying Chinese for five years. He is now in his last course at the Official Language School in Barcelona.

Q: Which artists do you know that are singing in Chinese and what are your favorites?

R: We listen to a lot of C-Pop music (中文流行音乐), specially from Taiwan and Hong Kong thanks to Youtube,  but we don't try to follow anyone's style because our intention is to play local pop music but with lyrics in Mandarin Chinese. We think that this mixture is the key of our project and, according to the comments we have received by email and on our Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/gasalacarta), we think that generally our fans and followers are pleased with our choice of blending western pop with the beautiful sounds of Mandarin Chinese.

Q: Is this an isolated project or will it keep on evolving in the future?

R: Not at all, this will not be an isolated project. The experience is being so positive at both personal and creative levels that from now on we plan to use Mandarin Chinese in all of our new compositions.

Q: Are you going to tour to promote this record? Are you planning to perform in the Chinese speaking areas?

R: For the moment the new record is just an EP, but we have the more ambitious project of making a whole album. We have published this EP just to test what was the people's reaction and so far it has been so good that we can't do anything else but go on with it. We are currently having conversations with some Spanish record labels to see which could be the most adequate way to distribute our work in Asian markets. We also plan to make a CD in order to promote our music in a more traditional way. Until now, though, the songs can be bought through our platform http://shop.gasmusica.com. We would love to have the chance to contact Chinese music companies in order to speed up this process, but we still don't know who they are and how to get to them. We would also love to be able to play in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and in the many Chinese communities all over the world.

Q: And finally, what is the reaction of your audiences when they notice you sing in Chinese?

Until now we have only made one concert for the Chinese community in Barcelona during the celebration of the Chinese New Year in February 2013. The audience, a mixture of Chinese and Catalan people, had a moving reaction and they encouraged us to go on with our project.



 

Projecte de promoció de les empreses catalanes a Xina

Josep Ramon Obis, empresari català afincat a Xina i expert en moda, lidera un projecte per ajudar a la introducció de marques catalanes de qualitat en el mercat xinès, vinculant-les a l'atractiu i la força de la ciutat de Barcelona. La ciutat de Barcelona és la principal marca comercial de què disposa Catalunya en aquests moments i cal rendibilitzar aquesta oportunitat fent que esdevingui un factor generador de negoci i d'ingressos per als seus habitants.

La via d'introducció de les empreses catalanes seria Taobao (淘宝网), un portal comercial a internet que és una de les pàgines web més emprades pels xinesos  i que  aporta una gran rendibilitat i visibilitat a les empreses que hi tenen botiga online. La vinculació de les diferents empreses catalanes amb la marca Barcelona -entesa en un sentit ampli i que, de fet, podria abraçar tota Catalunya- permetria un reforçament mutu que seria molt més beneficiós i productiu que no pas la promoció individual de cadascuna d'elles, desconnectades del seu marc geogràfic de referència.

Alhora, l'èxit comercial de marques catalanes de qualitat a la Xina milloraria el coneixement que el públic xinès té del nostre país i de la nostra realitat, i facilitaria un apropament cultural sobre el qual recolzar noves activitats de tota mena. Aquest enfoc s'inspira en el sistema xinès de combinar l'acció comercial amb la cultural, que permet el desenvolupament de la primera en sintonia amb les formes i els valors propis de la segona. Per Josep Ramon Obis, en un projecte d'aquesta mena cal cuidar els aspectes culturals i de relació personal tant o més que els comercials, atesa la idiosincràcia de la societat xinesa i el valor que per ells tenen la paraula donada i els acords assolits. La utilització del nom de Barcelona, a més, hauria de servir per allunyar qualsevol temptació de pràctiques deshonestes, no sols pel que representaria en cas de produir-se, sinó per l'efecte catastròfic que podria tenir sobre les relacions comercials i culturals futures.

Atenent al detallat coneixement del món de la Moda i de la comercialització d'aquesta mena de productes a Xina per part de Josep Ramon Obis, aquest sector productiu és el candidat per iniciar la posada en marxa d'aquest pla, degut al seu fort component d’imatge. Altres sectors que podrien seguir-lo són el de l'alimentació, especialment dels productes que es poden catalogar com a "gourmet", el turisme i les arts en tota la seva amplitud. En aquest darrer aspecte, artistes catalans i universals com Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró i Antoni Gaudí, entre altres, poden aportar nous i potents marcs de referència en els que ubicar-hi la promoció de les empreses catalanes actuals.

L'explicació detallada del projecte pot ser consultada en aquest document. Per més informació, les dades de contacte de Josep Ramon Obis són:

Telèfons: +86 13805766034; +34 629772202; +34 697490573
E-mail: obisgraells@hotmail.com
E-mail: 2418057778@qq.com
Skype: Josep.Ramon.Obis.Carrera

 

Catalan rock band from Barcelona releases record in Chinese

From http://lhdigital.cat/web/digital-h/noticia/-/journal_content/56_INSTANCE_txR0/11023/7430181 (in Catalan)

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="288"] GAS rock band (image from GAS website)[/caption]

GAS, a rock band based in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona province), has just released their first EP, "Chinese Works" that includes seven original songs sung in Mandarin Chinese. The band members are Salvador Mas (guitar and vocals), Pepe Zamora (bass), Jordi Riba (guitar and lead vocals), Israel Vela (keyboards) and Jaime López (drums) and their unique project started when Jordi Riba, a Chinese teacher, translated one of his songs into Mandarin and the rest of the band were amazed with the result. This made them consider the possibility of recording more songs in Chinese and the result is the release of this surprising album, Chinese Works. Their first performance for a Chinese audience happened in Barcelona on February 2013, during the celebrations of the Chinese New Year, and they were the only non-Chinese artists to perform. The song that the band is currently promoting is "Everlasting freshman" (永远的初学者).

To discover GAS's music, you can listen to the album on http://gasmusica.com/chinese-works/ and watch their videos in their own Youtube and on Youku GAS channels. The video on Youku includes lyrics in Chinese and English.