China Film Festival held in Nepal in celebration of 70th anniversary of the founding of PRC
Ramesh Tiwari —
Kathmandu: People from different strata of Nepali society are interested in the China Film Festival held here to celebrate 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949 following the address by the country’s first Chairman Mao Zedong officially declaring the formal establishment of the PRC in a ceremony in Tiananmen Square. The National Day marks the start of the only Golden Week in China.
Six Chinese movies – Operation Mekong , Wolf Totem, The Grandmaster, Running Like Wind, Go Away Mr Tumor and Battle of Memories are screened in the Chinese film festival.
Besides film screening, a lecture session on “Forty Years of Chinese Film in Reform and Opening Up: Historical Achievement and Current Pattern” was organized on the occasion.
Prof. Xuguang Chan, Director of Institute of Film, TV and Theatre of Peking University, threw light on different phases of promotion and development of films in China in the lecture session attended by various personalities and actors of film industry of Nepal.
Prof. Chan said that the Chinese film industry has developed too fast during the four decades after initiatives of openness and reform in China.
China has focused on production and exchange of films with the countries affiliated with “One Belt One Road “in recent years, he said.
China has signed 171 cooperation documents with 29 international organizations and 123 countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative ( BRI ) in the past five years after the initiative was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013.
Director of China Culture Center addressing the film festival ceremony
Prof. Chan stressed on strengthening cultural cooperation between China and Nepal, including exchanges and production of films between the two countries.
Prof. Chan highlighted on the topics – The 4th generation of Directors : progress with youth sentiment and reform ; Fifth generation of Directors : cultural introspection and visual modeling ; Transition of the turn of the new century : the trend of marketization ; New century of Chinese films 2002 ; New era of Chinese films 2014-15 and the New era of films , current pattern and outstanding achievements of film sector of China on the occasion.
“The nationwide screen has exceeded 60,000 by the year 2018 and the movie box office was even over 60 billion,” he said.
Earlier, the film festival was jointly inaugurated by Keshab Bhattarai, chairman of Nepal Film Development Board, Prof. Xuguang Chan, Director of Institute of Film, TV and Theatre of Peking University, Xiao Jiang, Director of China Cultural Center in Kathmandu and Nepali actor Hari Bansha Acharya.
On the occasion, Director of China Cultural Center in Nepal Xiao Jiang said that the film festival would contribute to consolidate and strengthen China- Nepal relations, specially people-to-people relations between the two countries.
President of World Culture Net Nepal Dipak Sarkar informed that the WCN plans to organize a Nepali film festival in China next year.
The three-day festival is jointly organized by China Cultural Center in Nepal and Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in cooperation with China Film Group Corporation and World Cultural Net.
Sept. 19 , 2019
