MOVIE DIRECTOR HONORED AT CANNES

Hou Hsiao-hsien， a famous movie director form Chinas Taiwan， won the Award for Best Director for Nie Yinniang （The Assassin） at the 68th Festival de Cannes on May 24.

Hou， born in April 1947 in Guangdong Province and moved to Taiwan in 1948， is a representative of Taiwanese cinema. He is well known for his full-length shots.

Nie Yinniang is adapted from a short story of ancient Chinas Tang Dynasty（618-907） featuring a female assassin. “I didnt direct at all！ I just gave them （cast members） the script and they read it. Then we didnt have rehearsals and they all played according to what they read，” he explained.

It was the seventh time that Hous movie competed for the Palme dOr. He won the Jury Prize in 1993 and the Technical Grand Prize in 2001， for his movies The Puppetmaster and Millennium Mambo respectively. “Only a certain number of films can get a prize，” Hou said. “If you believe in what youre doing， it really doesnt matter if you get a prize or not.”

Incubator for Chinese Costume Designers

Oriental Outlook May 28

Stores selling clothes selected by fashion buyers are gaining in popularity in China. Such stores first emerged in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. Under this business model， fashion buyers or store owners search for garments around the world according to their own aesthetic standards or the needs of particular customers.

China has lagged far behind Europe in the development of such stores. The first was established in 1996. In the 14 years that followed， only 18 more fashion store brands entered the market. This business experienced explosive growth in 2010， however， when 10 more such brands came into being， a prime example being Brand New China.

Profits are generally split between designers and resellers. Stock which fails to sell out is usually returned to designers. Besides making a profit， these stores aim to cultivate domestic fashion designers by offering them a retailing platform. Designers can develop and thrive only when their products are recognized by the market. The stores therefore serve as an incubator for indigenous Chinese designers.

Resellers are either experienced clothing retailers or costume design specialists who have graduated from overseas universities. They must have an acute sense of what kind of clothing will prove popular， because they are required to purchase clothes for a season several months in advance.

Car-Hailing Apps at a Crossroads

Caijing Magazine May 25 Hundreds of taxi drivers in the northern city of Tianjin staged a strike against questionable Internet-based car-hailing services on May 21. Globally， car-calling apps are encroaching upon the interests of taxi companies. In China， domestic apps such as Didi Kuaidi and American brand Uber not only enable passengers to call taxis online but also offer exclusive car pick-ups. Taxihailing app operators rent cars from carrental companies， which in turn hire drivers from human resources companies to provide these services.

Services of this nature circumvent the franchise fee and license requirement for taxis and are expanding rapidly. In China， all taxi licenses are issued by local governments. Taxi companies are required to pay license fees， which are then transferred to taxi drivers as franchise fees. To expand business， car-hailing app companies offer large subsidies to drivers and passengers. Some even cooperate with private car owners. However， private car owners are not legally permitted to carry passengers for profit in China.

The government has now taken action against such illegal practices. On April 30， three government departments in Guangzhou， south Chinas Guangdong Province， inspected the Uber offices in the city， seeking evidence of possible violations， temporarily confiscating company mobile phones and penalizing illegal behaviors. The Uber offices in Chengdu， capital of southwest Chinas Sichuan Province， were also sealed off on May 6. On May 12， the offices of Didi Kuaidi in Luoyang， central Chinas Henan Province， were closed down by local authorities.

New Bottled Water Labeling Standard

Beijing Youth Daily May 25

A new standard for the labeling of bottled water was put in place on May 24. As of January 1， 2016， all kinds of “functional water” will be removed from store shelves. Aside from “natural mineral spring water，”bottled drinking water will be labeled either as “purified drinking water” or “other drinking water.”

For a long time， the sheer variety of bottled water products has been a source of confusion for customers. Producers have bombarded customers with products claiming to have miraculous effects on the body， such as water rich in oxygen. The difference between the various products， however， is indiscernible. The real intention behind the bewildering advertising of bottled water is simply to sell the water at a higher price and reap more profits.

Although these “functional water”products cause little physical harm to consumers， their inflated prices do. By banning them from the market， the new standard has made it easier for customers to make a choice when buying bottled water. Rather than creating elusive brand names to win over customers， bottled water companies should focus on improving the quality of their products and making their water safe and clean.

EX-BEIJING TRAFFIC OFFICIAL ON TRIAL

Song Jianguo， former head of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau （BTMB）， stood trial on May 25 for taking bribes.

According to the Beijing No.1 Intermediate Peoples Court， Song was accused of taking advantage of his position by helping companies and individuals obtain license plates with the in-demand prefix of Jing A and accepted bribes worth more than 23 million yuan （$3.7 million） between 2004 and 2014. The “Jing A” （“Jing” represents Beijing） plates， which was the first batch of plates issued during the 1990s when private cars were rare， are considered by many as privileged because they are mostly owned by government and public institutions.

As Songs family members， a number of police officers at BTMB， and license plate “middlemen” enter the judicial process， the mysterious “hidden rules” about the BTMBs approval of “Jing A” license plates are coming to light.

Song joined the police force in December 1977. He became head of the BTMB in 2007. He was detained on corruption charges in August 2014.

“Everything about the U.S. education， from the curriculum system to the teaching approaches and question types in exams， is so different from China. ”

Andrew H. Chen， Chief Development Officer of WholeRen Education， a U.S.-based agency providing services to Chinese students， on May 28. An estimated 3 percent of Chinese students studying in the United States—or about 8，000—were dismissed last year， according to a white paper recently released by Chens agency

“Increasing the tobacco taxes and prices is probably the single most effective measure for reducing tobacco consumption， especially in the short term.”

Bernhard Schwartl？nder， World Health Organization（WHO） Representative in China， at an event marking the opening of the WHO Collaborating Center on Tobacco and Economics in Beijing on May 28， ahead of the World No Tobacco Day on May 31

“I am confident that the programs will give the American public access to everything exciting about China in the world of books and deepen the business ties between the worlds two largest publishing markets.”

Zhang Qiyue， Chinas Consul General in New York， at the opening of BookExpo America 2015 on May 27， which featured China as the Global Market Forum Guest of Honor for the first time

“Innovation in Chinas derivatives market is still at an early stage. However， the markets have huge potential and promising prospects.”

Zhang Shenfeng， Chairman of the China Financial Futures Exchange （CFFEX）， declaring on May 24 that CFFEX will soon launch the countrys first-ever stock index options