The Banquet (Ye Yan) - 2006

Also Known As:
The Banquet (International: English title)
Runtime: 131 min
Country: China
Language: Mandarin
Color: Color
Certification: Singapore:NC-16 / Hong Kong:IIB
Trivia: Gong Li was originally supposed to play Zhang Ziyi's part. Due to scheduling conflicts, the role was passed onto Zhang Ziyi and she gladly accepted because she thought the character was so interesting.
The Banquet has been described as a loose adaptation of "Hamlet"; it is a tale of fate and revenge set in 10th century China. A new Emperor has usurped the throne through murder. Zhang Ziyi plays the widowed Empress, who marries the new Emperor (Ge You) only to protect herself, but also secretly plots his death with the help of the Crown Prince (Daniel Wu) and the Chief Minister (Ma Jingwu). Yet the Prince and Minister each have their own plans for the throne, and, of course, so does the Emperor. All these intrigues are brought to a climax when the Emperor calls for a lavish banquet, where the murderous plans are set in motion. According to director Feng Xiaogang: "If Hamlet is about a prince who must make a choice involving life and death, then The Banquet is about how each character must face a choice of life or death... All are motivated by desire, but as soon as they have begun their plans must grow more extreme, and they move step-by-step towards the abyss... They do not intend evil, but turn to it out
of self-preservation and ever-growing ambition." more

Tang Jiali nude photos,beautiful women?

At the same time that the the Department of Culture is banning mildy pornographic network games, search engine Baidu reveals that actress, dancer and minor celebrity Tang Jiali (汤加丽) is currently the top search request on its list of "beautiful women".

The number of searches for Tang can probably be explained by her penchant for publishing books of nude photographs of herself. She also has a website, where you can find a gallery of images that would probably make the old farts at the Department of Culture blush.

There is some information and commentary on Tang and her books on Netease, here.

ADDITIONAL LINKS:
City Weekend: Profile of Tang Jiali (English)
Beijing Youth Daily Tang's copyright dispute with her photographer (English)
People's Daily: Tang Jiali profile and nude photos (!) (Chinese)
Wikipedia entry

UPDATE: Spelunker writes:

Recently the Tangjiali.com link has somehow changed into Tiyu.net. I wonder if those "old farts" at the Ministry of Culture are also big fans of Danwei.org as it seems Miss Tang's disappearance from the net coincides with her appearance on your site.

UPDATE:me

Her homepage URL:http://www.tangjiali.com/

And her blog's URL:http://blog.sina.com.cn/m/tangjiali

White Jade

Art of jade carving, which has a long history in Chinese traditional craftsmanship is more than seven thousand years old in age by the historical data. Jade article of each dynasty is the symbol of political thought and the art style, also the symbol of the mutuality and social status of each period. Every one of the jade articles is in the special condition, the ware shape and the pattern is in unique culture connotation as well. Furthermore, the jade in rigidity is used for the symbol of a man’s hardy integrity from of old and the jade in elegance stands for a man’s humility

Chinese Knot

Chinese Knot or Chinese traditional decorating Knot is a kind of characteristic folk decorations of handicraft art. Appeared in ancient time, developed in Tang and Song Dynasty (960-1229A.D.) and popularized in Ming and Qing Dynasty (1368-1911A.D.) Chinese Knot has now become a kind of elegant and colorful arts and crafts from its original practical use.

The characteristic of Chinese Knot is that every knot is made of a single rope and named by its specific form and meaning. By combining different knots or other auspicious adornments skillfully, an unique auspicious ornament which represents beauty, idea and wishes is formed. For example, "Full of joy". "Happiness & Longevity", "Double Happiness". "Luck and Auspiciousness as one wishes" and "Wish you a fair wind" are Chinese traditional pleasant phrases expressing warmest regards, best wishes and finest ideal.
To fit in with the needs of modern life, Chinese Knot has various products. The two main series are auspicious hanging and knitting clothing adornment. Auspicious hanging includes large tapestry, big room hanging, automobile hanging etc. Knitting clothing adornment includes ring, eardrop, hand chain, necklace and other woman’s special adornments.
Today, people are fond of Chinese Knot for its characteristic form, colorfulness and profound meaning.

Kite

Kites were once called Zhiyuan in North China and Yaozi in South China. The name "Fengzheng" came into use during the Five Dynasties (907-960 AD). According to the book, Xun Chulu by Lang Ying of the Ming Dynasty, Li Ye, who lived in the Five Dynasties, used to make and fly kites in the imperial court. He once attached a whistle made of bamboo to the upper part of his kite so that a "Zheng" sound was let out when the kite was flying. This was the how the Chinese name for kite originated

Scissor-cut

Paper-cuts from the folk art, Chinese paper-cuts are brightcolourful and fine handicrafts with along history, Most of which drawn their materials from local customs and landscape scenery.
With vivid and lifelike picture beautiful colour and strong rural flay our, The works have their unique style as mostbeautiful flowers in the garden of China’s paper-cuts art, It’s are ideal handiworks for decoration and collection