School of Modern Languages

Newcastle University

Chinese @NEWCASTLE

EDITED BY Linda Cheng Winter 2015

Chinese New Year Film Festival

Tyneside Cinema is celebrating Chinese New Year with a special film festival of Chinese Art-house films.

The cinema has teamed up with The Confucius Institute at Newcastle University in conjunction with Heaven Pictures, the

leading art film production company in China, to present the Chinese New Year Film Festival.

The festival will feature three award-winning Chinese Art-house films – River, Single Man, and River Road – which are all

being screened in the UK for the first time.

Sabrina Q Yu, Senior Lecturer in Chinese and Film Studies at Newcastle University said:“We are delighted to offer this ex-

citing opportunity for Newcastle audiences to experience Chinese Cinema at its finest, and to gain a unique insight into a

rapidly-changing country.”

The three films focus on the outer margins of Chinese society and offer a rare glimpse into contemporary China. The festival

begins on Thursday February 11 with River, a moving story told through the eyes of a young Tibetan girl struggling to under-

stand the mounting troubles of her shepherd parents.

On Monday February 15 the festival continues with clever comedy Single Man which follows a man struggling to find love

in the Chinese village of Hebei in the present day where the men outnumber the women and struggle to marry.

The festival then comes to a close on Saturday February 20 with River Road a story of two brothers of Yugur, an endangered

ethnic minority, as they travel on the Silk Road in search of their parents who have moved to find pastures in the distant

grasslands for the family herd.

These film screenings are part of a series of events in the city to coincide with the Chinese New Year which takes place on

Monday 8 February.

Tickets for all the films are available from the Tyneside Cinema website at

www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/chinese-new-year , by calling 0191 227 5500 or in per-

son at the Tyneside Cinema Box Office.

Film : River - Date: February 11 , Winner of the 57th Asia-Pacific Film Festival

Best Youth Feature Film Award, River is a moving story told through the eyes of a

young Tibetan girl struggling to understand the mounting troubles of her shepherd

parents. Starring talented Yangchan Lhamu as the young Yangchen Lhamo, the film

covers three seasons and uncovers the historical and cultural wounds behind three

generations of father and child in a Tibetan family.

Film: Single Man - Date: February 15, A cleverly constructed comedy set in the

northern Chinese village of Hebei in the present day where the men outnumber the

women and struggle to marry. One man, Lao Yang, looks to tackle this problem by

having an affair with the girl he was forbidden to marry as a young man; even though

she is now the middle-aged wife of the village head. Single Man received the special

jury prize and the Kodak Vision Award at the Tokyo FILMeX Film Festival and the

NETPAC Easter Jet Award.

Film: River Road - Date February 20 ,Winner of the 29th Hong Kong Interna-

tional Film Festival SIGNIS Award, River Road tells the story of two young

brothers and their journey travelling on the Silk Road in search of their parents

who have moved to find pastures in the distant grasslands for the family herd.

Their journey, powered by dreams and anxiety, becomes a search for their identity

as Yugurs. The film is an elegy of the disappearance of ethnic minorities and the

destruction of nature.

Peter Tupper -A British sports instructor and musician in Beijing

After gaining a degree in Chinese and German at Newcastle university

and a series of Austrian Ski and Snowboard Instructor qualifications, he

spent four years in Beijing running ski holidays, water sports camps, rol-

lerblading courses and musical activities. He is sponsored by Flow Snow-

boards and plays in a band around China when time allows. He is now a

familiar face among the community of fun-loving families in Beijing.

Interview by City Weekend

How do you come up with all your ideas? What is the process between

coming up with an idea and making it become a reality?

Creative activities were a big part of my childhood. Most days we would

be outdoors, making tunnels, tree houses, bows and arrows, or playing mu-

sic with objects. The habit is so ingrained that I instinctively want to turn

everything I see into an activity.

When I found a sailing lake in Shunyi, I immediately pictured water bomb battles on boats and clues leading to bur-

ied treasure. I spent that evening designing the map, ordering treasure chests, monkeys, and cannonballs, and soon

kids were booking Pirate Parties!

What are some of the challenges of turning the ideas into feasible and safe activities?

Designing Knight School was an adventure in itself. Along the way

we’ve negotiated with castle owners, tried out dragon costumes, fired

arrows in the office, gone fencing and horseback riding, made proto-

type armor, and test-fired a trebuchet (a wooden stone-throwing ma-

chine). It’s not all fun and games, though. On every outing, I keep a

close eye on anything that could become a hazard, then write a detailed

risk assessment document

and use it to develop stand-

ardized rules for our camp

leaders.

What are some of the dif-

ferences between coming up with activity ideas for kids and ones for

adults? Which do you find to be more demanding, creatively?

When there is a requirement of developing soft skills in a corporate

group, I plan games to achieve this, and soon realized that many team-

building games are similar to those that I played as a child. Kids around

the world play similar games that develop life skills, and that’s what adults don’t have time for [anymore]. Half of

our team-building challenges are designed with a purpose; other times what a team needs is to bounce off each oth-

er inside giant inflatable balls and roll around laughing.

How did you get into this line of work?

I trained as a ski and snowboard instructor in Austria before studying Chinese in the UK. After graduation, I found

a job teaching skiing in China, then made the leap to start my

own ski trip company in Beijing. To fill the summer, I turned my

passion for action sports and

music into new camps, par-

ties, school trips, and team-

building days. Before long,

Imagine. became the hub of

activities that it is today!

The most common job opportunity is teaching. Since many individuals want to

learn Chinese, you can tutor them or perhaps teach online. Also in China, there is a

high demand for English speakers to teach the natives English. Your ability to speak

Chinese can also be put into good use since it can make your stay easier and you can

adapt to a foreign country faster.

Another job that you can have is a translation position. For

instance, those who have businesses in advertising, websites or customer service

specialists would like to hire someone who have the ability to translate English to

Chinese. Hence, you can have the edge over the others who doesn't know how to

speak Chinese.

Also you may get a job in international sales. It can be a great advantage for you

if you can travel and do business with Chinese speaking regions. And if you

plan to do import/export business, knowing how to speak this

language is extremely vital. Especially now that China is one

of the major trading partners of the UK.

Indeed, mastering the Chinese language can bring numerous bene-

fits. It is definitely worthy of investing time in learning Chinese. Find out

more on the other benefits that you can obtain from studying this language

can help you realize how useful it is.

How difficult is it to learn Chinese?

Actually, it’s not as difficult as you might think. Chinese grammar is surpris-

ingly straightforward, with none of the tenses, plurals, cases or genders that

can make learning European languages difficult.

The hard bit is mastering the tones. Mandarin is a tonal language, which

means the pitch or intonation in which a sound is spoken affects the meaning. For example, if you

say tāng with a high tone it means soup, but táng with a rising tone means sugar.

In Mandarin Chinese, there are four basic tones and a fifth neutral tone. You can tell

which tone to give a syllable from the marks above the vowels in pinyin, the writing

system that uses the Latin alphabet. The second difficult but potentially most fun and

rewarding aspect is learning how to write Chinese characters. The visually beautiful

and often poetic script can give the learner a useful insight into the Chinese mind. The

early Chinese characters mostly come from pictures. So there are ways to help you

recognize the characters faster—by knowing the key components, which are often the

pictographs of these early characters.

你好！ 你好！

EVENTS

2nd-4th February - Chinese Writing Exhibition

In partnership with the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and the National Museum of Chinese Writing at Anyang, Henan Province, the exhibition traces the evolution of Chinese Characters from their ancient origins through to modern-day digitalisation.

Location: Newcastle Civic Centre

Time: 2-4 February Contact: David Brough

All welcome. For further information, please visit http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/about/events/item/chinese-writing-exhibition.

9th February - Distinguished Chinese Lecture: “Confucian Values and English Constitutional Monarchy: Historical Routes of China’s Modernization”

Speaker: Professor Qin Hui, Tsinghua University, Beijing

Location: Partners Room (8.10), Newcastle University Business School

Time/Date: 9th February 16:00-17:00

The lecture will be delivered in Chinese, with English consecutive translation.

10th February - Chinese Research Seminar: “UK: China’s Best Partner in the West”

Speaker: Dr David Law, Edge Hill University.

Location: PERB G.13 (Percy Building) Time/Date: 10th February 2016, 16:15 - 17:30

11th – 20th February - Chinese New Year Film Festival

In collaboration with the Tyneside Cinema and Heaven Pictures, a rare opportunity for the UK Premieres of three award-winning Chinese Art-house films: River, Single Man and River Road.

Contact us For course information please contact Dr Joanne Smith Finley Tel: 0191 208 7485, or J.SmithFinley@ncl.ac.uk For information about admissions please contact Lesley Sherrin Tel: 0191 2085082, or sml@ncl.ac.uk

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