Happenings Archive

Beijing Improv is China’s oldest and largest Improvised Theater organization. Its members come from around the world and have been trained in the best improv schools from New York, Chicago, California, the UK, France, New Zealand and more. Script-less, long-form is a popular type of improv that uses audience suggestions to create an extended scene. Attendees never know what is in store but there is always the guarantee of a laugh and a good time. Don’t miss this hilarious event!

Beijing Improv is a non-profit organization, so they donate all of their proceeds to a local charity Hua Dan which benefits migrant workers and children through the performance arts.

Tickets: 75RMB (65 RMB for members)

Order your tickets at: [email protected]

Come along for our Sunday sessions of reading, games, music and activities for little readers. Each week teacher Emily reads new and classic children’s books with the help of our storytellers.
Ages 4 and up.

50 RMB

Empire of the Sun is our October Book Club Selection, the classic award-winning novel made famous by Steven Spielberg’s film of the same name. The novel takes place in Shanghai in 1941 and tells of a young boy’s struggle to survive World War II in China, including deprivation and starvation, internment camps and death marches.

We are screening the Spielberg film, which stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers, on Wednesday, October 7 at 8 pm.

Those who buy a book at The Bookworm can enjoy a free drink at the book club meeting on Wednesday, October 14.

FREE

8 pm, FREE

There are fewer than 10 Chinese students accepted every year by the Columbia School of Journalism. This is the story of one such class.

–> With a Chinese journalism educational background, they go to New York to study American journalism. Besides adapting to a new life, they must deal with the huge difference between journalism in China and the US. Disappointed and depressed, they begin to doubt their choice to study in America, and consider dropping out.

Upon graduation, they stand at an intersection: to stay in America, where work, culture and language are all obstacles, or return to China, where they face an environment of censorship and possible rejection by the mainstream media? To stay or to go?

The director — who was part of this graduating class — tells the story of her classmates and herself in this 68-minute documentary.

About the director

Xiaoran Liu is a Chinese multimedia journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Beijing, a graduate of Tsinghua University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In New York City, she made the documentary The Noodle Guy; she was also a producer for the business show Outthinkers and a freelancer for PBS, Narratively, etc. Back in Beijing, she is an independent documentary filmmaker and a director working for CCTV, Phoenix TV, and Travel TV, among other places.

片名：米字路口

导演：刘逍然

类型：纪录片

时长：68分钟

《米字路口》（2013）

每年哥伦比亚大学新闻学院只招收不到十个中国留学生。带有中国新闻教育背景的他们，远渡重洋来到纽约，在这个“世界中心”接受美国新闻教育，他们需要迅速融入纽约社会，浸入美国文化之中，然而名校光环的背后，是无处言说的冲突和矛盾：巨大的课业压力让他们屡次萌生退学念头；中国新闻和美国新闻的不同亦使求学之路充满坎坷，他们开始质疑在美国读新闻的意义和价值。临近毕业，他们仿佛站在米字路口：双十字的路口，多一倍的选择，也多一倍的迷茫。留在美国，身份、文化和语言问题都是无可逾越的玻璃天花板；回到中国，接受美国式新闻教育的他们能否被中国主流媒体接纳？导演以当事人的角度讲述了几个中国留学生的艰辛新闻路。去和留，都面临着诸多的自由与不自由。

【导演简介】

刘逍然，本科毕业于中国人民大学新闻学、新媒体设计双专业，研究生毕业于清华大学新闻与传播学院、哥伦比亚大学新闻学院。在纽约时，拍摄制作独立纪录片《米字路口》和《拉面小子》，策划制作电视栏目《outthinkers》等，在纽约PBS电视台和Narratively等媒体播出。回到北京后，作为纪录片导演，为中央电视台、凤凰卫视、旅游卫视等制作大型纪录片，前后多次带领摄制组赴美国，英国，挪威，以色列等地拍摄制作纪录片。

Beijing native Chu Yibing began playing cello at seven, studied in Paris at 17, and became the principal cellist of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, but it wasn’t until he began conducting that he started loving music – at age 35! As head of Central Conservatory of Music’s Cello Department, he leads China’s first and only permanent chamber ensemble, the China Cello Philharmonic. Besides regular international touring, they have played for Chinese President Hu Jin Tao and US President Barack Obama; this month their Sunday Salon programme includes Gounod, Offenbach, and Bizet. This group usually sells out – book early!

80 RMB (Advance), 120 RMB (At Door)

10月10日（周五）20:00 –– 预售80 RMB/人 ，现场120 RMB/人

Tickets must be purchased in advance: http://e.mosh.cn/34384

(Chinese Language event)

China sees its relations with the West as absolutely crucial to its future. This wider relationship, between the new world and the old, is changing the global political and economic landscape. But can Europe and China overcome their cultural and political differences to develop a relationship of trust?

Veteran reporter Fokke Obbema has traveled through Europe and China and spoken with dozens of entrepreneurs, students, experts and politicians. He shows how mutual relations are affected by a feeling of superiority on both sides and sheds light on the thousands of interactions between people in finance, politics, economics and education. Above all, he shows how a fear of China has permeated the discourse in the West, and suggests we should instead take a balanced view of the future of China relations and even be excited by the change that is coming.

Fokke Obbema is a journalist and writer. He is the former Economic Editor and current Foreign Affairs editor for the major Dutch newspaper de Volksrant, and is a China expert who has traveled extensively throughout the country.

50RMB, 40RMB (members)

On October 14, The Bookworm and BCD will show Unwasted, a documentary that presents the alluring ideal of zero waste as a key element of the sustainable business model.

The film was produced in 2011 by Seattle-based green facility maintenance firm Sage Environmental Services2 in partnership with PorterWorks, a sustainable solutions company. It features interviews with industry leaders, policymakers, activists, scientists, and business professionals from the Pacific Northwest region who are leading the charge toward a “less wasteful, more profitable and environmentally sustainable society.”

50RMB, 40RMB (members)

Thinking though China, the latest book written by Professors Jerusha McCormack and John Blair, takes ten Chinese concepts that act as keys to Chinese worldviews, explaining how they relate to Western counterparts.  It then poses four questions which are asked repeatedly about China: Why is China not Christian? Why is it not democratic? What about human rights in China? Does China seek to rule the world?  Rather than Western terms, these ten Chinese concepts are then used to respond. Not surprisingly, the answers are quite different from the ones produced through Western categories. Finally, this newly altered perspective is used to look again at the West and how it has privileged concepts quite dissimilar from those active in the rest of the world. By changing the perspective through which China is usually viewed, the book promotes the recognition of China’s ancient and legitimate (if radically different) values. Such recognition is crucial if only because the West and China must come to some understanding of each other if they are to take effective action on the impending climate crisis.

50RMB, 40RMB (Members)

Global history has been confined to the way we’ve recorded it, mapped it and researched it. So Manuel Perez Garcia, a professor at Renmin University,  is tossing out the old analytical tools to unlock new
history. Please join Dr. Garcia as he unveils, through trade routes and socio-economic relations, new tales and twists of China, Macau and even Marseille.

free to FCCC members, 50 RMB for non.members, 40 RMB for members of the Bookworm

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Manuel Perez Garcia http://www.manuelperezgarcia.eu/ is Associate Professor at the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China. He was postdoctoral fellow at Tsinghua University (2011-2013). He obtained his PhD on Global Studies and relations between China and the West at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy). He has been
visiting scholar at UCBerkeley, UNAM (Mexico), Peking University, University of Tokyo, the Mateo Ricci Institute of Macau, Université Paris-Sorbonne, among others. His latest book is ‘Vicarious
Consumers’: Trans-National Meetings between the West and East in the Mediterranean World (1730- 1808). Among others he obtained the academic awards of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, 2014 and UKNA-Marie Curie Actions, International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University, 2013-2014.

“Tea with Kongzi: A Dialogue with Confucius Brought to the Modern Era” is a series of discussions, inspired by corruption in leadership, between “Pete” the author and modern-day manager Kongzi (Confucius), the great teacher spanning centuries and cultures.

It is a work of historical fiction based primarily on the Confucian Analects. The aim is to demystify the great thinker’s philosophy while entertaining and explaining in layman’s terms the wisdom of the great sage and the need for reviving his ideas in the modern world.

50RMB, 40RMB (members)

In the hard-hitting New York comedy world, D.C. Benny is a heavyweight contender. His unorthodox style of comedic story-telling, seasoned with original characters, has earned him a rabid fan base of all shapes, sizes, shades and ages over the last 26 years.

Many of his fans know him from his dramatic film and tv roles. He has been seen on multiple Law and Orders, had a long run on the soap As The World Turns, and has been in many feature films such as Freedomland with Samuel Jackson and John Singleton’s Illegal Tender.

He has also been in numerous national commercials for Verizon, Dell, Volkswagon, Wendy’s, and was the main character in the Budweiser “How You Doin’?” Superbowl spots.

His Comedy Central half hour is one of the highest rated in the networks history, and he was a top 8 finalist in season 8 of Last Comic Standing.

He will be in Beijing for one night only. Don’t miss this!

150RMB (in advance), 180RMB (at the door), 100RMB (Students) 

Get your tickets online: https://yoopay.cn/event/28939832

You can also buy tickets in person at The Bookworm, or reserve by emailing [email protected] or calling (10) 6503 2050.

Outspoken author and commentator Murong Xuecun, who the New York Times calls China’s “laureate of corruption,” will be at The Bookworm to give a talk on Dancing Through Red Dust, his first English-language book in six years.

You can purchase tickets at The Bookworm or online.

50 RMB (40 RMB members)

Chinese landscape lends itself to dramatic photography. He Yining will illustrate how contemporary Chinese photographers observe and interpret landscape, both natural and artificial. From the Chinese coastline to the Yangtze River, from expressways to the Great Wall, landscape has become an indispensable subject in contemporary Chinese photography. As represented through the camera lenses of Chinese artists, these images are closely related to power, memory and identity. He Yining’s talk examines how they connect with both the fast-changing Chinese reality and different Chinese and Western landscape traditions.

He Yining is a writer, historian and curator of photography. A graduate of the London College of Communication with an MA in  Photojournalism and Documentary Photography, she has wide-ranging experience in the media industry and has covered stories in China and Europe for magazines, newspapers and organizations. She is actively writing and translating photography-related articles and books while curating exhibitions across China.

RMB 75 for members of RASBJ or Bookworm, RMB 85 for non-members
RSVP:  [email protected], with payment option https://yoopay.cn/event/47151709