Nowhere is the conundrum of China’s film industry better illustrated than at the top of this year’s Chinese boxoffice charts. Released in late 2008 and playing strongly through January, “If You are the One” grabbed an astonishing RMB325 million ($47.7 million) to topple “Titanic” from the perch it has enjoyed for more than a decade. But only a few months later the new record was obliterated by the performance of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

Whether a result of smart decisions by individual producers or by clever central planning, the winter’s crop of commercial Chinese movies looks set to be huge. According to China Film estimates, there are more than a dozen Chinese-language movies with the realistic potential to each top RMB100, the symbolic figure that only a couple of years back was barely passed by two or three movies. Hong Kong has seen several of its biggest name directors simply relocate to Beijing, the center of political influence and the capital of China’s film industry. These include John Woo, Peter Chan, Tsui Hark and Gordon Chan. Still others including Teddy Chen and producer Raymond Wong are making big films in China.

This has led to an outbreak of worry that the former British colony has suddenly lost its place in Asian film. The truth is that its influence has been waning for several years as big studios like Golden Harvest withdrew from production and as old-school Cantonese-style pictures (that made a creative virtue out of working quickly on low budgets) have struggled to compete in Asian territories where tastes have become more sophisticated and globalized.

English has long united the ethnically diverse island-state but Singapore’s leaders now foresee a time when Chinese Mandarin will be the country’s dominant language and they are aggressively encouraging their people to become fluent in Chinese.

“Both English and Mandarin are important because in different situations you use either language. But Mandarin has become more important,” said Chinatown shopkeeper Eng Yee Lay.

Hit hard by the global slowdown, strengthening ties with China has taken on a strategic imperative in Singapore which seeks to leverage the bilingual skills of its ethnic Chinese majority to get a larger slice of China’s fast expanding economic pie.

“With the growing importance of China on the world stage, Chinese Singaporeans who are competent in the language and familiar with the culture would have a distinct advantage when working and interacting with Chinese nationals,” says Lim Sau Hoong, chairwoman of the Promote Mandarin Council.

The government-sponsored campaign to promote Mandarin began in 1979 to unite under one language Singapore’s disparate Chinese communities that spoke a multitude of dialects passed on by their ancestors who came from China in the 19th and early 20th century.

Unifying the Chinese majority in a country with sizeable Malay and Indian minorities was a priority and in the early days the Speak Mandarin Campaign discouraged ethnic Chinese from speaking the dialects that prevailed such as Hokkien.

Now, with a majority of Singaporeans speaking Mandarin in their homes, according to government figures, the focus is on improving fluency in spoken and written Mandarin.

“In two generations, Mandarin will become our mother tongue,” said Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew at the launch of the 2009 Speak Mandarin Campaign earlier this year.

1. Take some time to learn about Chinese culture and customs and, if possible, try to learn something about the language. This will increase the possibility of doing business successfully. As for cultural differences, Americans tend to be very aggressive in business, and the Chinese — as well as other Asians — often see this behavior as pushy and rude. It’s considered impolite.

2. It is important to take time to build relationships and develop trust. Americans should learn how to show respect through their gestures. For example, giving out business cards is a very important first impression. You should hand the person you’re meeting the card (Chinese language side face up) with both hands, and receive business cards respectfully with both hands, taking time to read the card carefully.

Throughout Asia there are different cultural variations. Learning about these cultures is important, and our chamber can provide assistance.

3. People in the United States expect people to speak English in other countries. And English is very common internationally. Of course, Chinese companies will try to accommodate foreigners. Sometimes the owners or senior executives at Chinese companies speak English and if they don’t, they’ll try to find someone who does. But businessmen have to be careful because of language and cultural barriers. If they are working on a deal with the Chinese, it’s always better to discuss issues in writing  than on the phone.

Some Chinese may speak English, but they don’t always have the best language skills, and phone conversations may lead to confusion. When you ask a question, they may reply ‘yes, yes,’ but this is not necessarily what they mean.  The Chinese don’t say ‘no’ directly, so phone conversations may lead to confusion.

At issue is an import-surge complaint, filed in April, against vehicle tires made in China. The suit is the largest of its kind, involving US$2.2 billion in trade. Lower-ranking United States officials have issued a ruling that would slap punitive tariffs, starting at 55%, on tires imported from China. The US Trade Representative (USTR) submitted his final recommendations this week, and Obama must make a final decision by September 17 on whether or not to press forward with sanctions.

Normally, petitions claiming unfair trade are brought by strugglingUS manufacturers, but this one is unusual. It was filed by a labor union, the United Steelworkers, who represent workers in about half of US tire-making plants. US tiremakers themselves – the companies that would supposedly be protected – oppose the union-initiated petition. 

The tire dispute is a high-profile issue in China, taking up space on newspaper front pages, and Chinese officials have vowed to retaliate forcefully against any tariff the US imposes. They see it as a betrayal of American commitments to free trade and an ironic twist on US efforts to open Chinese markets.

The China Daily English-language website, for example, reported that “unions are an active and important political factor for the first-year president, having reportedly donated approximately $400 million to his election campaign.

Chinese tire manufacturers “largely do not compete against their American counterparts in the US”, but target “the budget and no-brand replacement tire market for US consumers with severe budget constraints” – So says the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters.

Nor are Chinese tire imports into the US rising suddenly, gaining only 2.7% last year and declining in the first quarter this year, China Daily said. The report contrasts this with Chinese imports of more than $1 billion worth of automobiles from the US in the first six months this year, a 9.1% gain on the same period last year.

The Chinese aren’t the only people watching with great interest. South Korea, Colombia and Panama have all signed free-trade agreements awaiting Obama’s decision to submit them to congress. These and other trading partners are looking for signs of how they will be treated by this administration.

Writing in the Royal Society Journal, Proceedings B, scientists say a fossil from the Chinese province of Gansu is closely related to American specimens. The fossil consists of a series of articulated cervical vertebrae and the right pelvic girdle, plus several unidentified bone fragments. It was dug up in 2007 in Yujinzi Basin in the north west of Gansu province in China.

Hai-Lu You of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing and Da-Qing Li of Gansu Provincial Bureau of Geo-exploration and Mineral Development have identified it as a new genus and species of this group of dinosaurs.

The researchers say the specimen is closely related to the Sauroposeidon dinosaur fossils of North America and have named it Qiaowanlong kangxii after a Chinese emperor of the Qing dynasty.

The rock that yielded this dinosaur was formed in the early Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago. The scientists say the dinosaur would have been a relatively small sauropod about 12m long, 3m high, and weighing perhaps 10 tonnes. As a member of the brachiosaurid family, it had a long neck and relatively long forelimbs. Its neck would have been held aloft, rather like that of a giraffe.

The CLTA-Texas conference is open to Chinese language teachers, principals and administrators from public and private high schools, heritage schools and universities in San Antonio and the surrounding areas such as Houston, Dallas and Austin. Leaders from Chinese organizations in San Antonio and Austin and UTSA students also are invited to attend the conference.

This year’s conference, themed “Connecting Classroom Teaching to the Real World,” will include six panels and 16 presenters — all teachers, principals and language program coordinators from high schools, heritage Chinese schools, and colleges and universities. Panel topics will range from the establishment and development of Chinese programs to effective K-16 teaching methods.

Claudia Ross, a professor from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and vice president of CLTA at the national level, will present the keynote address titled “How Long Does it Take to Learn Chinese?” Ross is the author of “Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar” published by Routledge Press.

Four years after the waters began rising in the 410 mile-long Chinese reservoir, villagers tell of warped foundations and fissures snaking along the earth. Pollution in the once fast-running river is building in the turbid reservoir. Landslides, common in the rainy region, are occurring more frequently. The ships are nothing new, but now they are one more reason to worry.

In Meiping, a hamlet with mountainsides of fragrant orange groves, villagers are hurriedly building new homes after the government declared their old ones unsafe this past summer following landslides.

“We live in constant fear,” said Mei Changxin, 45, an orange grower who covers the cracked walls of his crumbling two-story home with newspapers. “When I work in the fields, sometimes fear grips me just thinking that my house may suddenly collapse.”

The $22 billion dam, the world’s biggest hydroelectric project, was supposed to end flooding along the Yangtze and provide a clean energy alternative to coal. Approved in 1992 and due to be completed in 2009, it will generate 84.7 billion kilowatts of electricity each year – the equivalent of what it takes to light the counties of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, according to figures from 2005.

Yet along the way, more than 1.4 million Chinese people had to be moved. Though critics and experts warned the environment and people would pay too high a price, their criticisms were ignored and suppressed by a government in thrall to large engineering projects.

Even a few officials are breaking ranks to predict catastrophe. Toxic algae is blooming, feeding off industrial waste and sewage and tainting water supplies.

Experts have warned that the waters in the enormous reservoir are undermining hillsides. Water seeps into loosely packed soil and rocks, making them heavier and wetter, and can trigger landslides on steep slopes like those rising from the Yangtze. Additionally, the huge weight of the water on the rock bed exerts a pressure that can lead to earthquakes.

Such tremors shook the area around the Hoover Dam after Lake Mead was filled up the 1930s, according to the book “Earthquakes in Human History.” A magnitude-6.4 quake near India’s Koyna Dam killed at least 180 people in 1967 and is thought to have been induced by the reservoir.

Chinese officials have denied it could happen at the Three Gorges site.

Among the people in Apple’s team is said to be Greg Joswiak, the VP of iPhone product marketing, who the International Business Times suggests may be leading negotiations. Joswiak was also responsible for talks when a China Unicom team flew to California in March.

A Chinese iPhone is reportedly very close to completion, having already been spotted last week in the form of a test model branded for Unicom. Shanghai Securities News in fact claimed that a three-year contract had been signed, only to be contradicted by a statement from Unicom itself. It has been suggested that the carrier may be prepared to pay Apple a subsidy of 3,000 yuan ($439) for each phone; devices may however lack Wi-Fi, in keeping with government restrictions.

The blockages continued through the 20th anniversary on June 4 of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and the recent ethnic riots in Xinjiang, with homegrown and overseas microblogging and photo-sharing sites among those targeted.

Although cutting off access to sites can often be traced to a specific trigger – such as the Tiananmen anniversary – experts say the fact that the sites are not coming back online shows that the harsh measures are part of a long-term strategy to pare back the power of the Internet and silence some voices finding expression here.

Digu and Zuosa, two Chinese Web sites that offer microblogging services similar to Twitter, were shut down for maintenance yesterday, notices on their home pages said. A Digu spokeswoman who would give only her surname, Zhang, said Digu was offline and would be down at least a week so it could be moved to a new server.

Some Digu users had recently tried to post politically sensitive material to the site, and the company was having to censor such content. Having two sites close the same day indicates pressure from authorities for them to shut down.

China has the world’s largest population of Internet users, more than 298 million, and the world’s most extensive system of Web monitoring and censorship. Despite those controls, the Internet’s role as a platform for sharing unofficial news and opinions has expanded rapidly.

According to legend, one fall season overabundant rainfall made all rivers run quite high. Many spilled over their banks into the Yellow River, which became ever broader, deeper and mightier. The Yellow River God was overjoyed and became cocky, imagining himself to be the mightiest body of water under heaven.

Traveling downriver, he came to the North China Sea. He looked east, but could not see the shoreline. From that moment on the River God was humbled and uttered to the God of the North China Sea, “I was boastful and overbearing, thinking I am greater than all others. Now I have seen the ocean’s might and recognize my smugness. Had I not traveled here, I would have remained unaware.”

Nevertheless, the North China Sea God remained unassuming and replied, “Between heaven and earth I am a mere small space between huge land masses. All the seven oceans taken together are nothing more than a grain of dust in the universe. I am far from being mighty.”

This story is the source for the Chinese adage, “Humbled before the great ocean,” which indicates that a person has discovered his limitations and is content with them.