Headlines from China: Golden Horse Awards Overshadowed by Political Controversy

Golden Horse Awards Overshadowed by Political Controversy

The award ceremony of the 55th Golden Horse Awards took place in Taipei on November 18. Fu Yue, whose film Our Youth in Taiwan won the Best Documentary award, unexpectedly became the center of attention. In her acceptance speech, Fu hoped that Taiwan would be recognized as an independent entity, to which many mainland stars at the ceremony reacted with awkward expressions on their faces. Chinese actress Gong Li, who chaired this year’s jury, refused to go on the stage to announce the winner of the last award after hearing Fu’s speech. It’s also reported that many filmmakers from mainland China were absent from the post-ceremony dinner and many celebratory parties were cancelled. Read more on yuledujiaoshou

Zhang Yimou’s ‘Shadow’ Caught Up In Music Copyright Scandal

Renowned Chinese director Zhang Yimou won the Best Director award at the Golden Horse Awards last night for his film Shadow. Meanwhile, a group of teachers and students from China Central  Conservatory of Music just filed a lawsuit against the film’s producer Le Chuang Entertainment (aka Le Vision Pictures) for using their music without giving them credits. According to Dong Yingda, a teacher from the Conservatory, she was asked by Zhang Yimou to write music for the film back in February, 2017. She gathered a group of musicians to work on the project. She was then told that the music co-created by this group of musicians was not used in the theatrical version of the film. Therefore, they couldn’t be credited. However, when Dong finally saw the theatrical version of the film, she recognized that the music in the film highly resembled the music created by her group of musicians. Le Chuang Entertainment has denied Dong’s accusation and insists that the music is written by another musician named Lao Zai. Read more on Mtime

NetEase Reveals Overseas Gaming Revenues For The First Time

Recently, Chinese internet firm NetEase released the company’s unaudited financial report for the third quarter of 2018. According to the report, the company generated 16.86 billion yuan ($2.45 billion) in net revenues during the reporting period, a 35.1% jump compared to the same period last year. Online gaming generated 10.34 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) of net profits. The report also mentioned that the company’s net revenues from overseas gaming services made up over 10% of the company’s overall gaming profits. This is the first time the company reveals its overseas gaming revenues. NetEast’s stock price went up by 2.58% after the release of the report. Read more on entgroup.cn