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The first night of the DC Chinese Film Festival was great, despite those of us who attended 老狗 feeling a bit shocked and ill at the end. Hope to see some of you at the other showings tonight!
And, if you appreciate what we do, please make a donation. It is important that we have as many members as possible contribute! $10, $20, $100...whatever you can. Thanks so much to those of you who donated last week! You should have all received your receipts for tax exemption purposes. (Yup, donating to us reduces your tax liability in April!)
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Weekly Readings
China's National People's Congress announced the new set of rules for the Hong Kong Chief Executive election in 2017. There will be competitive elections between two to three candidates, pre-screened by Beijing for their political suitability. As some Hong Kongers took to the street, armored vehicles of the PLA Garrison shifted between locations. This announcement, as the tear gas proves, only can exacerbate tensions that were already simmering in the Special Administrative Region.
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  Weibo Watch
While President Obama reassured NATO allies that the US would protect them from Russian aggression, Russian president Vladimir Putin proposed a seven-step ceasefire agreement between his country and Ukraine. Ukraine's prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called Putin's plan a "deception" which both admits Russian military incursion into Ukraine and hides plans to "destroy Ukraine and to restore the Soviet Union."
On Weibo accounts like BreakingNews (头条新闻) and MicroWorld (微天下), many commenters disparage Putin and his plan. "Putin is a thug and Russia is bad news!" says gs-orange. "Sino-Russian friendship? Dream on" writes 望开洲. Dotted among the comments are xenophobic calls to get "Russian dogs" (俄狗) out of China. Still, there are a few users who say the current situation is of Ukraine's making.
At the same time, not a few users mistrust the US and NATO. 心里暖只因有阳光 thinks "the prime minister of Ukraine is America's running dog," and several other users ask if the US doesn't enjoy seeing chaos in the world.
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成语 in Xi Jinping's speeches
艰苦卓绝
jiān kǔ zhu� ju�
Translation: extraordinary hardship
In a fiery speech delivered yesterday in commemoration of the 69th anniversary of the defeat of the Japanese, Xi reached into his Mao toolbox for this Mao-created 成语 (actually, he used it twice in this one speech!). The speech was pregnant with implications for today and is worth further study for those of you following China-Japan relations. Xi did give a shout out to U.S. assistance during the anti-fascist war by singling out the help provided by the Flying Tigers. Xi also directed his comments to Taiwanese 同胞.
原文： 69年前的今天，中国人民经过艰苦卓绝的浴血奋战，打败了穷凶极恶的日本军国主义侵略者，赢得了近代以来中国反抗外敌入侵的第一次完全胜利。AND later on: 在那场艰苦卓绝的反法西斯战争中，无数勇敢的人们为了胜利献出了宝贵生命，他们的英灵永垂不朽。
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2014-09/03/c_1112350359.htm
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 Documentary of the Week
This week's documentary, "Chinese on the Train (火车上的中国人)," is about a photographer, Wang Fuchun (王福春), and series of pictures that he took on trains from 1978 to 2000. The black-and-white photographs show some of the striking changes in China's everyday life. The documentary is interspersed with photographic slideshows and interviews with Wang, adding his thoughts and reflections to the China story told in pictures.
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