Results tagged “czechrepublic”

The Dalai Lama has been keeping the guys at the Chinese Foreign Ministry working overtime lately with his eight day tour around Europe. Last week, after telling Nigerians in Lagos that "sex invariably spells trouble", the Dalai Lama flew to Prague to meet Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and democratic hero Vaclav Havel. He then hopped over to Brussels to meet Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme and to address the European Parliament, which led China to scrap a summit with the EU at the last minute. Two days ago in Warsaw, the D.L. was given a rousing welcome by Polish anti-communist hero and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wałęsa, as well as Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz. We're not sure if the Polish premier Donald Tusk got to meet the Dalai Lama eventually but he did say he "would be honoured" if he had the opportunity to do so. And then this latest image of the Dalai Lama draping French President Nicolas Sarkozy with the traditional Tibetan kata totally had the Chinese foreign ministry and media railing against France. It will be interesting to see how French businesses in China will suffer from the new fallout and whether there will be a fresh round of anti-French boycotts. While it's unlikely that China would penalise the entire European Union for the warm welcome it gave to the D.L., it's not hard to imagine all the above-named nations taking a hit, with France bearing the brunt of it all as it currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

"People say they love hip hop, but then they go to Guandii. To me, we’ve never had hip hop in China. We just took things from the States. It’s never been homegrown. And I really hope we can have a scene to call our own."

That's what some people are saying. According to China Radio International, the Shanghai Morning Post reported earlier this week that Spider-Man 3, expected to be one of the summer's biggest blockbuster movies, got the seal of approval from China's censors and will "open in theaters on the Chinese mainland on May 1, even though it won't be released in the United States until May 4." Pacific Epoch also reports this, citing the Legal Evening News as its source. They say the movie will appear "in theaters in Beijing on May 1." If true, moviegoers in China will be the first in the world (aside from those at the Tokyo world premiere on April 16) to witness "a strange black entity from another world bond with Peter Parker and cause inner turmoil as he contends with new villains, temptations, and revenge."

A couple items of interest from the ever-unlinkable South China Morning Post's online Mainland news rundown. These are quick hits that often leave many facts open to interpretation:

Batman Begins has already begun for most of the world -- including Hong Kong and Taiwan -- and, actually, it's already arrived in Shanghai, too (thanks to some guy with a camcorder). But you may want to hold off on watching your pirated DVD just yet, because the movie of the summer is actually going to open in Mainland China this summer. In just six days to be exact. Batman Begins opens in Shanghai on June 29. Yes, it's a full two weeks later than most of our friends beyond our borders -- but it is two weeks earlier than much of Scandanavia and Eastern Europe. Ha! Take that Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. And poor Ukraine has to wait until August 4.