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Exiled Chinese Writer Ma Jian Says That Those In Supposedly Free Countries Must Remain ‘Eternally Vigilant’

The author titled his new book after Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s slogan, almost daring him to have to censor his own key words. “The reality, Ma acknowledges, is that censorship is now so all-encompassing that the novel will very probably not be allowed to exist in Chinese, even in Hong Kong, which has historically provided a toehold for work by dissident authors banned on the mainland.”

Can ‘The Nutcracker And The Four Realms’ Bring Ballet To A Mass Audience?

Misty Copeland thinks so. “‘[People] feel comfortable sitting in a movie theater rather than walking through the doors of the Metropolitan Opera House; you feel that ‘Oh, that’s not for me.’ Especially as black people, that’s not a space for us,’ Copeland said. ‘Everyone goes to the movie theater, so this is an amazing way to do that.'”

Social Media May Be Squashing Human Spirituality, Not To Mention Hope

At least, that’s one thing that Silicon Valley expert Jaron Lanier claims – and it’s because of, well, Silicon Valley companies. “This whole architecture is on every level based on sneakiness and manipulation, often using weird behaviorist, hypnotic, unacknowledged techniques to get people more and more engaged or addicted and persuaded, or to get them into compulsive behavior patterns that aren’t necessarily in their own interest.”

How ‘Harry Potter And The Cursed Child’ Found Its Musical Backbone

The two-part show’s movement director was in rehearsals with the cast, using some Imogen Heap music as inspiration. Then he decided that he wanted more. “‘The first I heard about it was pushing my baby at the time in a very muddy field with a pram,’ Heap recalled. She got a call from Hoggett who said he was working on a project for which they had been temping her music in workshops; he wanted to know if he could keep using it.”

Jin Yong, Writer Of Chinese Martial Arts Epics, Has Died At 94

The Hong Kong-based author was so famous, as generations of Chinese read his novels, that there is a branch of academic study named for him: “Jin Yong, the pen name of Louis Cha, was one of the most widely read 20th-century writers in the Chinese language. The panoramic breadth and depth of the fictional universes he created have been compared to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and have been studied as a topic known as ‘Jinology.'”

This Festival Is Building A Theatre Audience From Scratch In Burkina Faso

“Founded in 2002, Les Récréâtrales takes place in a residential area of Ouagadougou. Plays are developed, rehearsed, and performed in family courtyards, bringing theatre to the people. Whereas non-festival performances at downtown cultural centers … attract audiences composed of Europeans, other artists, and the artists’ family members and friends, the festival’s audiences are locals of all ages who would not usually have access to or interest in theatre.” Writer and translator Heather Jeanne Denyer talks with the festival’s artistic director, playwright Aristide Tarnagda.

The Way ‘House Of Cards’ Killed Off Kevin Spacey’s Character Was Typical Of The Show’s Twisty, Turny Ways

Spoiler alert! “When the actor Kevin Spacey, who played Frank, was accused of sexual assault in October 2017, production had already begun on Season 6. Production halted, restarting in January 2018 for a revised, eight-episode season that Netflix announced would also be its final.” Unlike another show that had to handle a disgraced fallen star – The Conners – Netflix’s writing team came up with a very normal, for House of Cards, way of dealing with the issue of how Spacey’s character died.