Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

Just as the country is itself emerging as one of the major players in the global economy, Mainland Chinese cinema is growing in international stature and recognition. Whilst in the past the film factory that is Hong Kong had dominated Chinese cinema, at least in export terms, in recent years many of the key productions which have earned worldwide release have in fact come from the Mainland, such as Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower.

On March 20, 2007, the Asian Film Awards held its inaugural Awards Gala in Hong Kong. Organized by the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) and held in conjunction with the territory's third Entertainment Expo - the umbrella event name for the HKIFF, the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART), and the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) - the Asian Film Awards (AFA) is certainly an unprecedented affair.

Although many top Hong Kong talents have started off in exploitation films, few can match the real-life Cinderella story of Shu Qi, whose career has seen her rise from porno starlet to internationally recognized A-list actress.

As a preview of the 2008 edition of the Hong Kong Arts Festival which will be held between February 14 and March 16, you can read this interview of Tisa Ho, executive director of the festival.

Hong Kong reminded me much of the west when it came to one important aspect: customer service. After finding service even at higher end Beijing and Shanghai establishments to be disappointing, Hong Kong was a breath of fresh air. What surprised me was the level of customer service in Macau. I expected Hong Kong. I was wrong.

I was shocked to hear from the news that the Hong Kong Canto pop song “At the foothill of the Lion Mountain” (獅子山下) was named the most well known “national affair song”(國情歌) in a survey among secondary students. How was it possible that the song is about national affair when the song, as every Hong Kong adult knows, is the theme song of a very popular TV series in the 70s about the lives of Hong Kong people? It is a song about Hong Kong, a city, not China, the whole country.

Entertainment is big business. Mariah Carey's troupe does not know how to do business in Hong Kong...or perhaps she just didn't want to make the trip after all.

Concerts Asia cancelled

2007 in review - A quick examination of how Hong Kong's air quality has deteriorated since the Hong Kong Observatory started collecting full data in 2000.

A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals.

The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications.