July 23, 2009
Three Chinese filmmakers, Jia Zhangke, Zhao Liang, and Tang Xiaobai have withdrawn their movies from the 58th Melbourne International Film Festival, in protest at the attendance of Uighur dissident Rebiyа Kаdeer and the screening of a documentary about an “‘East Turkestаn’ ethnic separatist group”, reports today’s Yangcheng Evening News.
In a letter to the organization committee of the movie festival, one of the filmmakers Jia Zangke wrote, “Many people have died in the serious violent incident which took place in Urumqi at the beginning of July. The relatives of most of the deceased believed that the World Uighur Congress headed by Rebiya has inescapable responsibility for the incident.”
In other news, Hou Yaowen, the brother of the late cross talk performer Hou Yaohua, was sued by the two daughters of the deceased for embezzling their family wealth shortly after the brother’s sudden death in 2007.
Finally, a woman who was a mistress of a government official in Zibo, Shandong Province went to the local TV station to air her grievances and showed the audience evidence including the man’s semen-stained underwear, after he failed to deliver his promise: a contract worth of tens of millions of yuan, a divorce from his wife, and remarriage to her (a local news clip can be watched on 56.com).
Her lover, Bao Zhenhua, a government bureau chief in charge of a district water bureau, has been taken into custody.
- Yangcheng Evening News via Chinanews (Chinese): Jia Zhangke withdraws from movie festival in protest at the attendance of Rebiya
- China News via Tom.com (Chinese): Woman exhibits her lover’s underwear on TV, leading to the removal of man’s job
- Beijing Times via Netease (Chinese): Who took Hou Yaowen’s money?