Shanghai Week

On Sunday, the Shanghai Bus Passenger Transport Center will begin selling tickets using a real name registration system for buses bound for Beijing. As there is only one Beijing-bound bus scheduled daily, the additional security measure will not cause too much trouble for personnel in the ticket sales and check-in process, according to Station Master Zhang Yongbin.

The Shanghai Bus Center deploys around 1,000 long-distance buses every day to various cities around China. To strengthen security checks against possible terrorist threats, the center has installed a new closed passageway for the purpose. Passengers have been cooperative in having their luggage thoroughly checked, and few have complained about the new security measures.

Starting July 12, armed special police forces began patrol duty at both of Shanghai’s railway stations to deal with any emergencies, and police dogs are employed to check for inflammables, explosives and drugs.

The Shanghai Railway is prepared to transport more visitors during the Games, as some Olympic Football games will be held in Shanghai. The Railway Police Department has already sent about 100 special police to guard railway stations and established its front-line command to ensure safety for railway transportation.

The city rail in Shanghai transports more than two million riders daily, which poses greater difficulty for security measures. More than two security check passageways have been installed at major terminals and stations to speed up the process.

In addition, it is reported, security measures are also being enforced at the airport, seaport and city-wide bus transport system.

Wong Kar Wai (Getty Images photo)

SHANGHAI — Wong Kar Wai will chair the jury at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festvial, where two Chinese movies will join 14 overseas titles competing for the top Jin Jue, or Golden Cup, award, organizers said Thursday.

Wong was named to step in to replace the late Anthony Minghella, the British director who died in March.

Minghella will be honored at the June 14-22 festival with a retrospective of his work. Also showing will be Wong’s latest movie, “Ashes of Time Redux.”

Joining the Hong Kong auteur and director of “My Blueberry Nights” on the jury will be German producer Ulrich Felsberg, Japanese director and actress Kaori Momoi, Israeli actress Gila Almagor, Chinese director Huo Jianqi, Chinese actress Joan Chen and Danish director Bille August.

The finalists for the Jin Jue Award also include 10 European films, five from elsewhere in Asia-Pacific and one from Argentina.

The two Chinese competition films are “Nick of Time” by director Gao Qunshu of Hebei Province and “Urtin Duu” by Hasichaolu, who, as an ethnic Mongol, goes by one name.

The festival will screen 260 movies in 23 cinemas around Shanghai, including Oscar winners “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood.”

Opening and closing films have yet to be announced.

The festival is one of the few times that citizens of China’s biggest city and commercial hub can view scores of imported films on the big screen. Law limits to 20 the number of imports allowed each year.

The SIFF Jin Jue Award competition films are:

“Mukha” by Vladimir Kott, Russia
“The Viceroys” by Roberto Faenza, Italy
“Women’s Conspiracies” by Vassilis Vafeas, Greece
“8 Days to Premiere” by Perttu Leppa, Finland
“My Mother’s Tears” by Alejandro Cardenas-A, Germany
“The Friend” by Micha Lewinsky, Switzerland
“The Taste of Fish” by Shingo Matsubara, Japan
“Love by Accident” by Ines Braun, Argentina
“Forever the Moment” by Yim Soon-rye, Korea
“Loss” by Maris Martinsons, Lithuania
“+1″ by Oksana Bychkova, Russia
“Vaclav” by Jiri Vejdelek, Czech Republic
“Second-hand Wedding” by Paul Murphy, New Zealand
“Paris” by Cedric Klapisch, France
“Nick of Time” by Gao Qunshu, China
“Urtin Duu” by Hasichaolu, China

SHANGHAI, April 27 (Reuters) - Darren Clarke set his sights on re-joining Europe’s Ryder Cup team after emerging from months in the wilderness with an emotionally-charged victory at the Asian Open on Sunday.

The 39-year-old Northern Irishman ended a five-year European Tour victory drought when he won the tournament at the Tomson Golf Club in Shanghai by one stroke from Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen.

Clarke, who lost his wife Heather in 2006 after a long battle with cancer and is ranked 236 having once been as high as ninth, declared himself re-invigorated.

“If anything, my win today has given me renewed vigour to carry on and keep working, because I want more of this,” Clarke told reporters.

“My focus is to keep playing golf as much as I can and I do desperately want to be at Valhalla so we will see,” said Clarke, whose last win came in Japan at the Taiheyo Masters in 2005.

Europe travel to the U.S. in September to defend the Ryder Cup at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

Clarke, whose record includes 11 European titles and a 2000 WGC-Accenture Match Play final victory over world number one Tiger Woods, helped Europe to an emotional victory weeks after his wife’s death at the Ryder Cup in Ireland in September 2006.

There have been few other highlights in a year-and-a-half recovery.

A long battle to find form saw Clarke changing shafts in his irons and hiring biomechanics experts in a bid to cure wobbly putting on the greens. But making the cut still proved elusive.

It had been frustrating, Clarke said.

“It is like anybody’s job where if you work and work and work on it but don’t see any tangible results it gets very difficult. That’s what has happened to me. I have been working away and not seeing the results.”

After finding it hard to watch the U.S. Masters and other invitational events on television, Clarke said: “I have spent a long period of time in that top 50 and I have dropped out of that list for obvious reasons.

“I am not used to sitting out and watching these events. The reason I practice and play and put in the time is so I can compete at the top level and I want to be back in the top 50 again.”

HONG KONG (Dow Jones) — Asian markets mostly tilted higher Monday, with expectations of a rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve and a higher finish for Dow Jones industrials lifting financials such as Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Australia’s Macquarie Group.

Shanghai-listed stocks dropped on weak quarterly earnings reports from heavyweights China Life Insurance Co. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.

“The possibility of a rate cut in the U.S. may further add to the strength of financials in the U.S., which I believe is being reflected across here in Australia,” said

The Nikkei 225 Average added 0.8% to 13,968.10, while the broader Topix index advanced 1.9% to 1,365.43.

China’s Shanghai Composite gave up 0.9% to 3,525.28, while the Shenzhen All Share index slipped 0.2% to 1,056.62.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index climbed 0.7% to 25,705.29 and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index advanced 0.7% to 14,321.53.

Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index gained 0.7% to 5,623.50 and New Zealand’s NZX 50 index added 0.6% to 3,636.68, 0.2% to 3,624.70 as trading resumed in both markets after an extended holiday weekend.

South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.2% to 1,829.08 and Taiwan’s Weighted index advanced 0.4% to 8,979.75.

Financials rally

In Tokyo, shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU) jumped 5.8% and Mizuho Financial Group (MFG) soared 5.6%.

Financials also advanced elsewhere, with Australia & New Zealand Banking Group climbing 2.9% and Macquarie Group advancing 4.1% in Sydney, and Kookmin Bank ( KB) rising 1.7% in Seoul.

Shares of Nomura Holdings Inc. soared 6.3% in Tokyo, after the securities firm Friday posted a $1.48 billion loss in the fourth quarter on a sharp increase in provisions on transactions with monocline insurers, as well as losses linked to mortgage-backed securities.

“Nomura’s increased monocline exposure and the 132 billion yen ($1.26 billion) provision were both negative surprises, but we believe with the provision, the company has succeeded in largely addressing the problem,” wrote Goldman Sachs in a note.

“Nomura may record further small losses, but the provision is likely to alleviate concerns regarding its credit transactions, (which is) an overall positive for the company,” they added.

Post-earnings movers

Shanghai-listed shares of China Petroleum, or Sinopec (SNP), gave up 3.8%, after the company reported a 69% year-on-year drop in first quarter net profit.

In Hong Kong, Sinopec stock declined 1.3%, while

In Tokyo, a weakened yen helped lift shares of Honda Motor Co. (HMC) 4.2%, although the automobile giant on Friday reported an 86% year-on-year decline in first-quarter net profit Friday.

Shares of Mitsubishi Motors added 2.5% after its annual profits nearly quadrupled on stronger vehicle sales and the commencement of a component supply contract with PSA Peugeot Citroen. (PEUGY)

Shares of NTT DoCoMo declined 3.8% after it forecast a lower-than-expected 3% rise in profit for the current financial year.

Advantest Corp. (ATE) stock lost 4% after it reported a decline in orders during the January-March quarter and didn’t offer a forecast for the full year.

Other movers

In Sydney, resource stocks declined in spite of higher crude-oil prices, as investors locked in profits after a strong recent run. Shares of BHP Billiton ( BHP) fell 3.2% and Rio Tinto (RTP) lost 2.8%.

In Tokyo, however, crude-oil prices lifted shares of Inpex Holdings 2.5%, while Nippon Oil Corp. stock climbed 1.9%.

Crude oil for June delivery climbed as much as 83 cents to $119.35 a barrel after jumping $2.46 to settle at $118.52 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar was quoted at 104.66 yen early Monday. Late on Friday, the dollar bought 104.24 yen in Asia and 104.49 yen in New York.

Friday on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 42.91 points to close at 12,891.86, while the Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) dropped 5.99 points to 2,422.93 after Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) reported a drop in profit. The S&P 500 index (SPX) added 9.02 points to 1,397.84.

Despite the resilience of Hong Kong’s exchange to the mainland’s woes, traders remain broadly cautious about the prospects for stocks there right now. After market hours Wednesday, Beijing announced it would raise the reserve requirement ratio — the percentage of money banks must hold vs. deposits — to 16%.

“I still haven’t changed my view. I remain negative,” says Miles Remington, head of trading for BNP Paribas in Hong Kong. “If you dig deeper, you get a little more truth. Consumer price inflation numbers are high, the reserve ratio has been raised again, and the major issues are still not certain.”

Remington adds, however, that hedge funds are not facing redemptions, which is keeping stocks higher as there is no forced selling.

Among commodities, gold rose to near a two-week high, at $945.02 an ounce, while oil was trading around $114.90 a barrel during the Singapore afternoon. Momentum behind key commodities helped the dollar rise to a two-week high vs. the yen, at 102.32.

Commodity stocks in Hong Kong rose, despite the poor performance in many dual-listings on the mainland. PetroChina rose 3.5% to HK$10.10, and Aluminum Corp. of China added 3.3% to HK$12.40. Both stocks lost between 3.5% and 5% in Shanghai.

FLYING THE FLAG: Adrian Zaugg will represent South Africa at the Shanghai round of the 2007/08 A1 GP series in Shanghai on April 13.

A1GP’s championship leader Neel Jani of Switzerland continued his sensational 2008 form to qualify on pole for Sunday’s Sprint and Feature races in Shanghai, China.

Jani, 24, set the fastest lap in the closing moments of the second 15-minute qualifying ahead of Portugal’s Filipe Albuquerque and Canada’s Robert Wickens, who only arrived here on Friday due to testing commitments in Europe, was third.

India’s Narain Karthikeyan will line up alongside Wickens and New Zealand’s Jonny Reid in fifth.

The USA’s Jonathan Summerton, who finished on the Feature race podium last time out in Mexico, will start sixth alongside Reid while Malaysia’s Alex Yoong and Ireland’s Adam Carroll will line up behind him in seventh and eighth.

Germany’s Michael Ammermüller and Britain’s Robbie Kerr rounded off the top 10.

Having secured the Sprint race pole, Jani stormed to the top spot for the Feature race after improving on his provisional pole time by a half-second.

Summerton will line up alongside Jani and Albuquerque leapt up the order to third alongside Carroll. Karthikeyan and Yoong will start the Feature race fifth and sixth respectively and Reid seventh alongside Kerr.

Kerr will line up alongside him in eighth, followed by South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg in ninth and France’s Franck Montagny in 10th spot.

Jani has now scored seven poles in A1GP career and two double poles this season, his first at round three in Malaysia. He star now holds the record for the most poles, with Zaugg second on five.

The penultimate round of the 2008 A1 Grand Prix World Cup of Motorsport takes place in Shanghai, China, this weekend, and South Africa will be aiming to improve on its fifth place among the 22 nations contesting this unique series.

Adrian Zaugg (21) has been at the wheel of South Africa’s Vulindlela (meaning “clear the way”) throughout this third season. He has established himself as a leading driver and will be making his first appearance at the Shanghai International Circuit.

It will also be a first-time experience for Wesleigh Orr (20), winner of the Rotax Max karting world finals in 2004 and 2005. He is A1 Team South Africa’s reserve driver and will do duty in Friday’s practice for rookies and developing nations.

The Shanghai circuit was built in 2004 at a cost of $30-million. It is breathtaking in its scope and design and gives true meaning to the term “state of the art”.

Situated 30km north-east of Shanghai in the eastern Jiading district of China, the circuit can accommodate 200 000 spectators (the main grandstand seats 29 000). It is built on 240ha of swamp land and rests on polystyrene blocks; it is, in fact, floating on this base.

The A1 cars will run on a shortened, 4,61km version of the 14-turn (5,45km) layout, which will include the 1,2-km straight between turns 11 and 12.

Team South Africa’s objective was to finish in the top five this season, and team general manager Mike Carroll is confident this can be achieved. “We were already up to fourth place after Adrian’s fine win in Australia in February and, had we enjoyed better luck in Mexico four weeks ago, we would have consolidated our fourth place,” he said.

“I was very impressed with the driving of both Adrian and Wesleigh and the performance of race engineer Humphrey Corbett and the entire team in Mexico City. “We have developed into one of the most competitive teams in A1.

“Adrian pulled off one of his most dominating performances to grab pole position for the sprint race [his fourth pole of the season] and was unlucky not to get pole for the feature race as well.

“Only a punctured rear tyre prevented him from winning the sprint race, which would have been his third victory of the season. We had the pace in Mexico and we are confident we can carry this through to Shanghai this weekend,” said Carroll.

Zaugg is keen to translate his quick pace in practice and qualifying into another race win in China. “I’ve put the disappointment of Mexico behind me and have concentrated these past few weeks on keeping fit — both mentally and physically — for this weekend’s races,” he said.

“I’m confident if we continue to work together as well as we have done so far, we can still finish the season in the top four or five. It will be my first time at Shanghai, I missed the race there last year because of a conflict with my GP2 commitments, but I’m sure I will learn the circuit quickly.”

Shanghai Eye decided to offer readers a ramble through the Chinese
language press on the topic of contemporary arts (frightening I know!)
You can see there is a general theme to almost all the articles- money
and art are inseparable foes.

No free lunch for museum visitors

Top of most state owned media’s art agenda is the current furore over opening museums for free.
After young snappers ran rampant on historic cannons and banana peels
piled up on top of sculptures and other incidents, the government has
backtracked a bit. According to the Beijing papers ‘free’ entrance on
peak times will likely be limited to those who register at least a week
beforehand, and museums and important sites will also have limited
access when VIPs are in town (especially during the Olympics period.)
Off peak times pensioners and others can visit more comfortably, and
the initial rush is expected to die down once the novelty wears off,
officials hope.

Christies art auctions, blah blah

Christie’s May 24-25 auctions in Hong Kong
“Asian contemporary art” and “Chinese 20th century art,” will feature
the selling of works by Zeng Fanzhi, Yue Minjun, Zhang Xiaogang, Cai
Guoqiang, et al, and a few newbies.
According the article Christie’s has been leading the way over the last
couple of years in auctioneering of Chinese contemporary art.

Chengdu vies to become art city number 4

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, is being touted as the ‘4th contemporary art city’
– after Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou of course. Why? They now now
have a “Chengdu 798” and a “Northern Art Village” in the city. Activity
looks to center on the Sichuan Music Academy Arts Dept. with some
famous graduates.

Who else is vying for the title of 4th art city? Changsha, Wuhan,
Shijiazhuang, and even Chongqing, apparently. As this article points
out, there is plenty of artistic talent in Chengdu, but little in the
way of a market.

European and American galleries targeting contemporary Chinese artists

Following the usual theme this long piece from Xinhua
gives a potted history of modern art in China, profiles a lot of
foreign collectors, and predicts a battle between Beijing and the West
over who will be the center of the Chinese art market.

“We are witnessing Chinese contemporary artists climbing the ladder
of the contemporary art world, and China’s contemporary art world is
gradually receiving approval.”

One interesting point from this art article is ‘China’s rich class
is only just emerging, and 1% only collect art. Indicating once this
rich class emerges, and gets into art, we’d better watch out. So if we
assume that the West’s ‘rich class’ get into a speculative art buying
war with China’s ‘rich class’ at some point, we on the sidelines will
be able to root for our rich boys to out spend the other guys. Yeah!
Looking forward to that one, patriotic spending wars, cool, that should
jump start the economy.

Some xian artists are hoping to make a splash with a show in beijing during the olympics

Xinhua has another go at the art market – commenting how the world’s economic crisis isn’t bothering art buyers

Shanghai securities news points out an interesting exhibition

Guy retires, takes up painting, now 68 years old his paintings sell for RMB 60,000 per meter!

Abstract Art or IPO unit?

This article rambles on a bit,
but essentially is about abstract art in China, and how its difficult
to judge if this kind of art is a blind investment or not. Apparently
there are five elements to judging a work- artistic originality,
aesthetics and “exquisiteness”, the Chinese cultural element, and the
creator’s qualification level.

It then goes on how about how a Jackson Pollock is now worth $2800
per gramme. Play your cards right and you’ll be quids in. The article
gets quite profound towards the end- “abstract art is the unique
personal expression of emotion……… there is no specific and clear
direction of the requirements and appreciation of abstract art….. Only
deep thought will bring about a true abstract art form in the future.”

Here’s a profile of Gu Zhenqing, founder of an art magazine and Doulun art museum.

he now hopes to set up a not for profit art foundation over the next two years.

And here’s a profile of Lu Hao, who just looks cool.

Shanghai Securities news carries a darn lot of art articles.

And here’s the last one- its analysis of China’s various art expos planned this year, like Art Beijing and SH Contemporary.

OK, one more article- following the Edison Chen scandal it now emerges that famous Chinese model

Shu Qi features in a nude showering mobile vid doing the rounds. And she knew Edison Chen! Aha..draw your own conclusions!

scene of the ceremony

Qi Wei (left) and Yuan Chengjie, two local
singers

World Expo 2010 is soliciting volunteer songs from university students with a grand ceremony marking the start of the exercise held at Fudan University last night.

Students are encouraged to upload their submissions through the Internet. Entries should embody the volunteer spirit which is devotion, fraternity, mutual help and progress and be in line with the Shanghai Expo theme,”Better City, Better Life.”

Shanghai is the first leg of the solicitation at universities and organizers plan to launch a series of activities such as seminars and salons at universities in several major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Xian, Wuhan, Chongqing and Guangzhou, to promote the search early this month.

Several local stars and bands sang some theme songs of previous Expos together with campus singers at yesterday’s ceremony.

October is the deadline for volunteer song submissions.

shanghai week support shanghai expo 2010

Construction workers have begun installing steel structure on the Expo Center, the first permanent pavilion in the World Expo 2010 site, the project’s engineers said on Saturday.

Installation of the 2,400-ton steel structure on the largest steel building of the Expo site is expected to be completed by November, according to the builder, Shanghai Construction Group.

The building is scheduled to be completed in November 2009.

The seven-floor Expo Center is the first project in the site to undergo steel structure hoisting among other permanent pavilions — the China Pavilion, theme pavilions, Expo Axis and the Performance Center.

Engineers will adopt environmentally friendly technologies, such as solar energy utilization, during construction in response to Expo organizers’ call for energy conservation. They will avoid using materials such as marble and granite that have poor performance in heat preservation and energy saving.

A skylight will be installed at a large conference hall in the center to brighten up the room.

The center, covering 142,000 square meters, will function as direction and information center during the six-month Expo period. It will also host a series of ceremonies, conferences and forums from May 1 to October 31 in 2010.

shanghai week support shanghai expo 2010