School of Modern Languages

Newcastle University

Chinese @NEWCASTLE

EDITED BY Linda Cheng Autumn 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 Instruc-

tor qualifications, he spent four years in Beijing running ski hol-

idays, water sports camps, rollerblading courses and musical ac-

tivities. He is sponsored by Flow Snowboards 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.

Sally Wilson from BeijingKids interviewed Peter ：

Peter Tupper manages the multi-activity company Imagine.

From the UK, he has been living in Beijing for the past 4 years,

and during this time has launched an array of after school activities, adventure camps, a choir, and

the infamous bubble football matches.

What do you coach?

Skiing, snowboarding, rollerblading, sailing, and kayaking. I also coach the kids at our Survival

Camps, Knight School, Pirate Parties, and Trash Bash.

How long have you been coaching? 8 years

What made you become interested in coaching?

The chance to turn passions into a lifestyle!

What coaching qualifications do you have?

Three levels of ski and snowboard instructing qualifications from Austria.

What was your favorite sport to play when you were a student?

My life at university revolved around running the snowboard club, coaching the team, and arranging

for us to attend championship events in France and Scotland. I loved it so much I wanted to bring

similar experiences to people in China!

Peter Tupper manages the multi-activity company Imagine. From the UK, he has been living in Bei-

jing for the past 4 years, and during this time has launched an array of after school activities, ad-

venture camps, a choir, and the infamous bubble football matches.

What do you coach?

Skiing, snowboarding, rollerblading, sailing, and kayaking. I also

coach the kids at our Survival Camps, Knight School, Pirate

Parties, and Trash Bash.

How long have you been coaching? 8 years

What made you become interested in coaching?

The chance to turn passions into a lifestyle!

What coaching qualifications do you have?

Three levels of ski and snowboard instructing qualifications

from Austria.

What was your favorite sport to play when you were a student?

My life at university revolved around running the snowboard club, coaching the team, and arranging

for us to attend championship events in France and Scotland. I loved it so much I wanted to bring

similar experiences to people in China!

The most common job opportunity if you have the ability to speak Chinese is

teaching. Since many individuals want to learn Chinese, you can tutor them or per-

haps you can also teach online. Also in China, there is a demand for English speak-

ers 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 faster to a foreign

country.

Another work that you can have is a translations 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 in international sales. It can be a great advantage for you if you can put it in

your resume since they can utilize you to travel and do business with Chinese speak-

ing regions. And if you also plan to work in the import and export jobs, 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 in numerous ben-

efits. Hence, find the time to learn it and earn the money that you need.

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

language as it can help you to realize how useful it is.

How hard is it to learn?

Actually, it’s not as hard 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. Find out how the tones sound.

The most 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. But be prepared for a long learning

journey as you’ll need to memorise over 2,000 characters to read a Chinese newspa-

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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