text:
Lock Him Up!!
Beverly Mann | November 18, 2016 9:06 am
Folks … this is crazy.
Even apart from the profound national security danger and, at least seemingly, breach of federal criminal law–hey, James Comey, wanna investigate this?–there is that little issue about, y'know, LOBBYISTS CONTROLLING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
And to think we thought the only conflicts of interest would be finance industry and fossil fuel industry cabinet department and regulatory capture. We were naive.
Will Fox News report this? Will this make it into all those circular Facebook feeds? Will there be a Twitter hashtag on it?
Look. Supposedly there are all these Democratic billionaires and near-billionaires poised to begin trying to start a rebuilding of the party from the ground up, beginning with state legislative races. Better extremely late than never on that. But the best way to begin that–and in any event–far and away more immediately important–is to force this gross, concerted bait-and-switch into the public's consciousness. Meaning massive information campaigns on this.
Every Republican senator up for reelection, and every Republican House member, needs to be put on notice that this–this–will be the dominant issue in the 2018 election cycle. But first and foremost, those in the Midwest and the Rust Belt need to know this. That's where the information campaign should begin. Tomorrow.
Tags: Donald Trump, James B. Comey, Michael Flynn Comments (15) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
Breaking: David Axelrod Switches Gig From CNN to Fox
Beverly Mann | November 7, 2016 12:41 pm
✔@davidaxelrod
Now Ds who were savaging Comey a few days ago will praise him & GOPers who were behind him will turn on him again. http://wapo.st/2fpVRCL
3:38 PM – 6 Nov 2016
Um … no.
No. No:
✔@MarkHarrisNYC
"HEY EVERYONE THERE MAY BE A FIRE I'LL CHECK HEY EVERYONE I CHECKED NO FIRE APPRECIATE THE CONGRATS"
-James Comey in a crowded theater
4:32 PM – 6 Nov 2016 · Manhattan, NY, United States
Mr. Axelrod, do update us on all those Ds who are praising Comey. From your new perch at Fox. Twitter waits breathlessly.
And, just to avoid, well, comments of a certain type: The title of this post is facetious.
Tags: David Axelrod, James B. Comey, Mark Harris Comments (3) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
Anyone still think that Comey and, separately, the NYC FBI 'indictment' fabricator DIDN'T violate the Hatch Act?* [UPDATED BY EDWARD SNOWDEN. SERIOUSLY.]
Beverly Mann | November 7, 2016 11:35 am
If so, Kellyanne Conway is not among you.
How many of those spiking early votes by Republicans last week in Colorado, especially, but also in Nevada and Arizona, can be attributed to Comey and the NYC FBI leaker? Apparently, Conway has a pretty damn good idea.
So do I. There's an extremely close contest for Colorado's 6th District House seat between uber-winger Mike Coffman and uber-progressive Morgan Carroll that I've been watching pretty closely. How much did Republican voting spike in that district between Oct. 28 and, well, yesterday?
One thing I've noticed in all this talk about whether Obama can, as a matter of practical politics, fire Comey, and if he does not, whether Clinton can—as a matter of practical politics—is how starkly ingrained it is in American political culture to consider only the right's political grievances.
But, guess what? That's now changed. BIGLY.
BIGLY.
And if the Dems do gain control of the Senate, the Judiciary Committee should hold hearings into this. Comey should be accompanied by a lawyer.
And the questions should not be limited to matters directly related to Clinton. This guy has some really strange views of the law itself. And not just the law concerning the actual legal mandate of the Director of the FBI, although he truly does. He also seems confused about the very concept of evidence.
And then there's that problem that, accepting him at his word, he doesn't know what the meaning and the purpose of testimony "under oath" are. (Which will be a convenient defense against Hatch Act violation allegations.) I mean … good grace.
For starters.
*I inserted the word "separately" into the title after initial posting, because Comey's acts are distinct from that NYC agent's. By last Wednesday, when that agent leaked that fabrication, Comey already was in the middle of the hurricane he had started the Friday before, and surely played no role in that leak. Added 11/7 at 11:56 a.m.
UPDATE: Update.
The FBI took its sweet time in updating Comey, or Comey took his time in updating Congress. Seems like a fielder's choice.
This while early voting was underway in most states.
Updated 11/7 at 12:07 p.m.
Here's a more comprehensive update, by William Oremus at Slate, posted about an hour ago.
Updated 11/7 at 3:18 p.m.
Tags: Edward Snowden, James B. Comey, Kellyanne Conway, Mike Coffman, Morgan Carroll, the FBI, the Hatch Act Comments (6) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
So, how'd that transparency thing work out for ya, Director Comey?
Beverly Mann | November 6, 2016 4:23 pm
Oh. But … wait. Wait. You must mean that neither Adedin nor Weiner had any idea that 30,000 of Abedin's personal emails found their way onto Weiner's laptop, notwithstanding that Abedin did not use the laptop and for the four years when she and Clinton were at the State Dept. spent most of the time out of the country with Clinton or in her State Dept. office. Using her own laptop for emails.
So the question remains: How did those emails get onto Weiner's laptop? Do tell.
Transparency, you know.
Tags: Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin, James B. Comey, the FBI Comments (14) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
I RETRACT MY RETRACTION: A cabal of NYC FBI agents (including, or solely, Bret Baier's false "indictment" leaker), may well have PLANTED those emails on Weiner's laptop–
possibly at the behest of Rudy Giuliani or James Kallstrom, or both, who ARE part of the cabal's conspiracy to violate the Hatch Act (to name just one of a slew of federal criminal statutes these folks have violated).*
Did NYC FBI Agents Plant Those Emails on Weiner's Computer Once They Gained Custody of It? The Evidence Appears to Suggest … Possibly.
— Me, in a post bearing that as its title, Oct. 30
I retracted that the next day, writing, "As for me, I want to forcefully retract my suggestion in this post yesterday that NYC FBI agents working on the Weiner case may have planted the emails of Weiner's computer."
And now I am retracting the retraction.
At 1:03 a.m. on Thursday, the Daily Beast published a detailed investigative report by Wayne Garrett titled "Meet Donald Trump's Top FBI Fanboy" and subtitled "Trump supporters with strong ties to the agency kept talking about surprises and leaks to come—and come they did."
The words "'Integrity Questioned'" appear above the title in small red lettering. It is a quote from this paragraph in the article:
Along with Giuliani's other connections to New York FBI agents, his former law firm, then called Bracewell Giuliani, has long been general counsel to the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA), which represents 13,000 former and current agents. The group, born in the New York FBI office in the early '80s, was headed until Monday by Rey Tariche, an agent who just retired from the New York FBI office. In Tariche's letter to the Association stepping down as president because he's retiring from the Bureau to take a job "within the Banking Industry," he wrote that "we find our work—our integrity questioned" because of it, adding "we will not be used for political gains."
The paragraphs preceding that one read:
Hours after Comey's letter about the renewed probe was leaked on Friday, Giuliani went on a radio show and attributed the director's surprise action to "the pressure of a group of FBI agents who don't look at it politically."
"The other rumor that I get is that there's a kind of revolution going on inside the FBI about the original conclusion [not to charge Clinton] being completely unjustified and almost a slap in the face to the FBI's integrity," said Giuliani. "I know that from former agents. I know that even from a few active agents."
I follow political news quite closely, yet it wasn't until late last night that I knew of the Daily Beast article, when I read a comment in the Comments thread to this post of mine, linking to it.
What did get a lot of publicity is Bret Baier's Wednesday announcements fabricated by what turned out to be the concoction of a single NYC FBI agent. Roger Stone may have played a role in it, but Kallstrom and Giuliani almost certainly did. Giuliani knew a couple of days before Baier's false reports that these would occur.
In addition to conspiracy to violate the Hatch Act, these people have violated a slew of federal criminal statutes including wire fraud, misuse of government property and personnel, and conspiracy to commit those crimes.
So here's what I would like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to ask millennials when they campaign today, tomorrow and Monday for Clinton AND Senate and House candidates: Why on earth do they think that the sudden discovery of Huma Abedin's email correspondence with Clinton on Anthony Weiner's laptop—however it got there—should entitle Donald Trump to control the FBI, the entire Justice Department, the Supreme Court, and the lower federal courts?
As well as painting with a Republican-controlled Senate and a Republican-controlled House?
Weirdly, apparently this isn't a rhetorical question. Read the comments of millennials in this article.
They're just too disgusted with politics, you know, to care who is president and who controls congress, who controls the federal agencies, who controls the Supreme Court, and who controls the entire federal bench, and their own state's legislatures, see.
Bernie and Elizabeth, please inform them on this. Loudly.
The transformation of the FBI into a government investigative arm and innuendo and false or partial information arm of the Republican Party during elections is a profound matter. And the decision by the FBI director to announce that federal and state law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies should be "transparent" by announcing raw, unformed, and uncertain information about candidates for public office on the eve of elections so that voters will know about it when they vote is serious banana republic stuff.
Comey almost certainly will resign shortly after the election. Succumbing to extortionate threats of leaks by some of the agency's agents and making a series of ridiculous claims that the devil, er, the law, made him do it, while also outright stating to the agency's entire employment roster and therefore to all the world that he acted as he did in part to provide voters with in formation he thought they should have before they voted, would, I assume, sort of make it hard for him to remain in that post.
And maybe these faint-of heart millennials should care whether or not it is Trump or Clinton who names the next FBI director. And whether its a Democratic-controlled, or instead a Republican-controlled, Senate that holds (or doesn't) confirmation hearings on this nominee. And Supreme Court an lower-federal court judicial nominees.
But if that involves just tooooo complex an analysis for them to engage in, there is that email thing that is a handy excuse.
Apparently.
*Post title edited for clarity. 11/5 at 3:23 p.m.
Tags: Anthony Weiner, Bernie Sanders, Bret Baier, Elizabeth Warren. millennial voters, federal conspiracy law, Huma Abedin, James B. Comey, James Kallstrom, Rey Tariche, Rudy Giuliani, The Daily Beast, the FBI, the Hatch Act, Wayne Garrett Comments (33) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
The New Transparency in Government Will Make America Great Again. Believe Me. [Links repaired, 11/5 at 11:29 a.m.]
The people familiar with the investigation said that senior officials had been informed weeks earlier that a computer belonging to former congressman Anthony Weiner, D-New York, contained emails potentially pertinent to the Clinton investigation. Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin, shared the computer with her husband, from whom she is now separated.
It is unclear what FBI agents have learned since discovering the emails in early October. But officials say they gained enough information from the email metadata to take the next step, seeking a warrant to review the actual emails. That legal step prompted Comey's letter to Congress, which has made him a central figure during the stretch run of the presidential campaign.
"He needed to make an informed decision, knowing that once he made that decision, he was taking it to another level," an official with knowledge of the decision-making process said.
— FBI leaders knew about new emails for weeks before Comey letter, Sari Horwitz, Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, Nov. 2 at 7:37 p.m.
When it was revealed last Friday that there had been a Comey recount and Clinton lost, Solomon turned into Torquemada. But, of course, Comey had no choice. How could he have sat on a trove of 650,000 newly discovered emails and kept that knowledge suppressed until after the election?
— Final days, awful choice, Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, today
The Horwitz and Yakashima article was published online not just by the Washington Post and in its print edition yesterday, but also (apparently) by other newspapers. The link for it that I'm using is to the Chicago Tribune website. Presumably, it appeared also in yesterday's print edition, along with all the good stuff about the Cubs' 10th inning Series victory.
I pause here to say to the Cubs on behalf of my late, lifelong-Cubs-fan relatives: Thanks.
But along with that big sports story, there was this: The three paragraphs I quote above contain two profound misstatements—the error in the first of those paragraphs the apparent result of a quick, (I believe) verbatim, copy-and-paste by these journalists from the original, breaking story on Comey's letter to Congress and quickly afterward, his email to FBI employees.
The letter in which Comey actually said he had sent the letter partly because he wanted to influence voters' vote choices by providing them with the information in the letter—a fact that has received little press attention and none, to my knowledge, from Clinton and down-ballot Democrats.
Information, during early voting in more than 20 states and absentee voting in every state, and 11 days from the election itself, that Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin, shared the computer with her husband, from whom she is now separated.
Information that Comey sent the letter to Congress after a search warrant was obtained and agents had had time to learn information about the metadata—inferentially including the approximate number of emails involved.
The first of those representations is almost certainly wrong, the second unequivocally wrong.
And Krauthammer, a nationally syndicated columnist, is unequivocally wrong, about two things: That, of course, Comey had no choice. And that all, or even remotely close to all, of the 650,000 emails on Weiner's personal computer were emails between Abedin and Clinton. The claim is logically absurd, and the leaks from the FBI since Friday estimate that about 30,000 of them are to or from Abedin.
The Washington Post's story on the emails issue today does not repeat those errors. But neither does it expressly correct its report from the day before, and say that it is a correction. It should do this, online today and in print in Sunday's paper.
Also widely reported over a period of several days, by many, many news organizations, was that Abedin had received a subpoena for all electronic devices she had used to send or receive emails about State Dept. matters, or to or from Clinton. Yesterday, it was reported that that, too, is false.
The news outlets that reported the misinformation should prominently correct it.
But my immediate point is this: Every one of these errors by the journalists who made them—with the exception of Krauthammer's—was absolutely understandable as inference from Comey's two public messages on Friday.
But the larger point is that Comey told all the world that law enforcement prosecutorial powers of raw information- and evidence-gathering via the various means available only to law enforcement—including search warrants, grand jury testimony, informants, and plea bargaining deals—are now available to the public if a law enforcement officials or rank-and-file employees opt for transparency. At least if a partisan legislative body has subpoenaed a law enforcement investigative-agency official about an ongoing or closed investigation, and in answering a query during his or her testimony, promises real-time release of any further information or evidence, even before it is known what, if anything at all, the information means that is relevant.
Presumably, this applies in investigations of pretty much anyone or anything. Irrespective of its political potential. But a rule of thumb is that, the closer to an election, and the less known about what the information actually is and whether it is relevant to anything other than political smear, and the higher the office of the candidate at issue, the freer law enforcement officials and rank-and-file employees are to make it known to the public.
As Krauthammer and Comey both say: Of course.
Hope y'all agree. Cuz this is a genie that may be impossible to put back in the bottle.
But I do wonder about this: Isn't it conservatives—Republicans—who are always raising shouting, "Separation of Powers! Separation of Powers!"
Guess that, too, is no longer true. Right?
Tags: Anthony Weiner, Charles Krauthammer, Daniel C. Richman, Ellen Nakashima, Huma Abedin, James B. Comey, Sari Horwitz, Separation of Powers, the FBI, The Washington Post Comments (25) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
Yup. Comey's a Goner.
President Obama briefly addressed the FBI's reopened investigation into Hillary Clinton's email practices for the first time, saying in an interview posted Wednesday that the agency does not "operate on innuendo" and emphasizing that there is no evidence that the Democratic presidential nominee had violated the law.
"I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations we don't operate on innuendo, and we don't operate on incomplete information, and we don't operate on leaks," Obama said in the interview with NowThis News, which was filmed Tuesday. "We operate based on concrete decisions that are made. When this was investigated thoroughly last time, the conclusion of the FBI, the conclusion of the Justice Department, the conclusion of repeated congressional investigations, was she had made some mistakes but that there wasn't anything there that was prosecutable."
— Obama on FBI: 'We don't operate on innuendo', David Nakamura, Washington Post, today at 11:46 a.m.
I'm sooo glad that President Obama reads Angry Bear.
Now, Mr. Obama, please read this post of mine. And this one of mine. Because you may be the only one who make these points and make them heard, before any more days of early voting go by.
And btw, although I certainly have some issues with Hillary Clinton but unequivocally supported her all along once she won the nomination, the intensity of my support is greater right now than at any earlier point.
I cannot–cannot–overstate the depth of my anger toward Comey.
Cannot.
Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, James B. Comey, the FBI Comments (12) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
The Mad Hatter Columbia U. Law Prof. Who Advised Comey That He Needed to Destroy the Village In Order to Save It* – UPDATED (His name is Daniel C. Richman.)
Daniel C. Richman, an adviser to Mr. Comey and a Columbia University law professor, argued that despite the backlash, Mr. Comey's decision to inform Congress preserved the F.B.I.'s independence, which will ultimately benefit the next president. "Those arguing that the director should have remained silent until the new emails could be reviewed — even if that process lasted, or was delayed, until after the election — give too little thought to the governing that needs to happen after November," Mr. Richman said. "If the F.B.I. director doesn't have the credibility to keep Congress from interfering in the bureau's work and to assure Congress that a matter has been or is being looked into, the new administration will pay a high price."
Former senior law enforcement officials in both parties, though, say Mr. Comey's decision to break with Justice Department guidelines caused these problems. Had he handled the case the way the F.B.I. handled its investigations into the Clinton Foundation and Mr. Manafort over the summer, the argument goes, he would have endured criticism from Republicans in the future but would have preserved a larger principle that has guided cases involving both parties. …
— F.B.I.'s Email Disclosure Broke a Pattern Followed Even This Summer, Matt Apuzzo, Michael S. Schmidt, Adam Goldman and William K. Rashbaum, New York Times, today
Gotta say, Comey comes off in this Washington Post article today as dumber than a rock.
— Me, here, yesterday
The particular part of that Washington Post article yesterday, by Ellen Nakashima, that I had most in mind was this:
Tags: Citizens United v. FEC, Columbia University Law School, congressional Republicans, Daniel C. Richman, James B. Comey, Lewis Carroll, the FBI, the Federalist Society, the Mad Hatter, The Supreme Court Comments (12) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
How Do You Use a Laptop Long-Distance?
On Tuesday, FBI investigators were continuing to examine the newly discovered emails and trying to discern how they ended up on a computer owned by Weiner. As of Tuesday morning, an official said, investigators had found no sign that the computer contained "new and bigger" evidence about Clinton. But the official said the FBI was deploying "all computers, all hands on deck" to sort through the high volume of emails and that "no one knows" what the emails contain.
— After another release of documents, FBI finds itself caught in a partisan fray, Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger and Sari Horwitz, Washington Post, tonight
Yesterday in this post, in (again) pointing out the unlikelihood that Huma Abedin would have put tens of thousands of her personal emails onto her husband's laptops hard drive, I mentioned that Weiner used that laptop for his own (very) personal things, of the sort that he probably wasn't hoping his wife would see.
But tonight, after recovering from the shock (literally) of reading in that article that the FBI, too, recognizes the improbability that Abedin would have put tens of thousands of her personal emails onto her husband's laptop, or that she would have used his laptop regularly for anything, much less for corresponding with Clinton–and that he would have let her use it regularly (all things considered)–something else occurred to me: Abedin was rarely at home during her years as Clinton's aide at the State Dept. or, for that matter, afterward.
Clinton traveled very extensively as secretary of state, and Abedin was virtually always with her. When not traveling, she was at work at the State Dept. most of the time. Weiner himself was in New York most of the time after (I think) early 2011, when he resigned as a House member.
Which raises the question: How do you use a laptop long-distance?
There are, of course, other questions, too, like: Why would you want to use a laptop long-distance, even if you could? But I think the first question suffices to make the point.
So I'm guessing here that the FBI will start matching up the dates of those emails with Abedin's schedule. For starters.
Doesn't sound to me like the Russian cyberhacking corps is likely to have thought about this beforehand. Big mistake.
Here's the honest statement Comey won't make.
Tags: Dana Milbank, James B. Comey, the FBI Comments (3) | Digg Facebook Twitter |


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Arts, Culture, Media - Film and Actors
CHINESE FILM INDUSTRY AND MOVIE BUSINESS
CHINESE FILM INDUSTRY
Bringing film to the villages in the Mao era China is the fastest-growing movie market in the world, with box-office receipts in 2011 rising 29 percent from the previous year to break the $2-billion mark. China is on pace to become the world's second-largest movie market after North America in 2012. Thanks in part to a moneyed middle-class willing to shell big bucks for movie tickets revenues are forecast to top $5 billion by 2015. While China's box office sales rose in revenue in North America, though still far larger at $10.2 billion, has fallen for two straight years.
According to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, China's box office receipts exceeded $1.6 billion in 2010, a 64 percent increase from the previous year. By contrast economic woes sent the 2010 US box office down 5.72 percent to a 13-year low of $10.57 billion. Much of the increase in Chinese receipts was attributed to the success of Avatar and Chinese blockbusters such as Feng Xiaogang's Aftershock and If You Are the One 2 . Chinese box office revenues surged 44 percent to $908 million in 2009 according to the state-run China Film Group. Chinese films accounted for 56 percent of the take. In 2005, China's box-office receipts totalled about $230 million.
China produces three main kinds of movies: commercial films, propaganda films and art films. They sometimes go through a similar screening process but are produced with different goals in mind and different relations with the government. Chinese art films are popular with the Western art house crowd but are often hard to find in China even on pirated DVDs. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Chinese filmmakers needed to sell a movie to Europe and the U.S. to make a profit. This is no longer the case, with China's robust box office.
Chinese films do well at international festivals. In 1995, Chinese films won 48 prizes at international film festivals but hardly any of them were shown in China. The Minister of Propaganda Ding Guangen said, the main characters were "ignorant, barbarous and unhuman" and the films failed to exhort "lofty ideals and beliefs and excellent working style of the Communist Party."
China is now the third largest film producer in the world, after India and the United States. China's film industry produced over 500 films in 2009, compared to just 100 in 2002. In 2010 more than 520 films were made---about as many as in America. Only India produced more. Only a small number of Chinese films make it to theaters, and many of these are produced by the state-run China Film Group and often play on a swelling national pride to attract wide audiences. Of the 330 films were made in China in 2006 less than half made it to theaters. Most went straight to DVD. Some were never seen, Blockbusters and romantic comedies dominated the box office. The Bureau of Film Administration is the government bureaucracy that presides over the Chinese film industry.
Flowers of the Motherland The number of Chinese watching Chinese films has declined significantly in the past three decades. In 1977, just after the Cultural Revolution, a peak of 29.3 billion people attended films. In 1988, 21.8 billion people attended films. In 1995, 5 billion movie tickets were sold, which is still four times the number as of the United States but about the same on a per capita basis. In 2000, only 300 million tickets were sold. In 2004 only 200 million were sold. The decline has been attributed to television, Hollywood and watching pirated videos and DVDs at home. In the 1980s, about half of all Chinese still didn't have televisions and virtually no one had a VCR.
The Economist reported: "Tickets to Chinese cinemas are costly---about 80 yuan at weekends. The lack of copyright protection means that almost all revenue must come from the box office rather than from DVDs or television. Audiences are paying for the experience of an afternoon away from their cramped apartments, rather than simply to see the film (illegal versions of which are widely available). Cinemas are clean and airconditioned. Many have state-of-the-art screens and sound systems. The snacks are quite good, too.
Top grossing films in China in 2011 (in US$): 1) Avatar; 2) Transformers: Dark of the Moon; 3) Let the Bullets Fly (local); 4) Aftershock (local); 5) Kung Fu Panda 2; 6) Inception; 7) Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf 2 (local); 8) Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides; 9) If You Are the One 2 (local); 10) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
The Golden Horse awards have been dubbed the Chinese Oscars. They are given out in Taipei to people in the film industry from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, with most of awards going to talent from Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Hong Kong International Film and Television Market, or Filmart, is one of Asia's biggest film industry trade show. It had 640 exhibitors in 2012---10 percent more than last year---hoping to sell their films to 5,200 buyers expected from around the world.
Good Websites and Sources: Chinese Movie Database dianying.com ; Internet Movie Database /www.imdb.com ; Shelly Kraicer's Chinese Cinema site chinesecinemas.org ; Modern Chinese Literature and Culture (MCLC) Resource List mclc.osu.edu ; iFilm Connections---Asia and Pacific asianfilms.org ; Love Asia Film loveasianfilm.com ; Journal of Chinese Cinemas intellectbooks.co.uk ; Wikipedia article on Chinese Cinema Wikipedia ; Senses of Cinema sensesofcinema.com ; Film in China (Chinese Government site) china.org.cn ; Directory of Interent Sources newton.uor.edu ; Chinese, Japanese, and Korean CDs and DVDs at Yes Asia yesasia.com and Zoom Movie zoommovie.com ; Expert on Chinese film: Stanley Rosen, a professor at the University of Southern California.
Links in this Website: HONG KONG MOVIE INDUSTRY Factsanddetails.com/China ; CHINESE FILM MAKERS AND THEIR FILMS Factsanddetails.com/China ; ZHANG YIMOU AND ANG LEE Factsanddetails.com/China ; HONG KONG FILM MAKERS AND THEIR FILMS Factsanddetails.com/China ; FOREIGN FILMS IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; CHINESE FILM ACTORS Factsanddetails.com/China ; JACKIE CHAN Factsanddetails.com/China ; BRUCE LEE AND JET LI Factsanddetails.com/China ;
Websites: The site, http://www.chinesefilms.cn, features news, film release dates, cast and crew details and plot outlines. There are also links to Chinese studios and the websites of film-makers, as well as independent English language reviews of movies.
dGenerate Films, a New York-based distribution company that collects post-Sixth Generation independent Chinese cinema.
Books: The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement: For the Public Record by Chris Berry (Hong Kong University Press, 2011); Painting the City Red: Chinese Cinema and the Urban Contract by Yomi Braester (Duke University Press, 2010); Adapted for the Screen: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Fiction and Film by Hsiu-Chuang Deppman (University Press of Hawaii Press, 2010); Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition by Stephen Teo (Edinburgh University Press, 2009); Speaking in Images: Interviews With Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers by Micheal Berry, associate professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies at UC Santa Barbara. Lights! Camera! Kaishi!: In-Depth Interviews with China's New Generation of Movie Directors by Shaoyi Sun and Li Xun (EastBridge, 2009) It features interviews with Jia Zhangke, winner of Venice Golden Lion for Still Life in 2006, and superstar blogger and female director Xu Jinglei and 19 other leading directors. Sheldon Lu of the University of California, Davis wrote: "It contains illuminating interviews...with the leading directors and sheds light on a whole range of important issues such as independent cinema, censorship, film industry, and globalization.
Rise of Chinese Film
"In the 1980s the film industry fell on hard times, faced with the dual problems of competition from other forms of entertainment and concern on the part of the authorities that many of the popular thriller and martial arts films were socially unacceptable. In January 1986 the film industry was transferred from the Ministry of Culture to the newly formed Ministry of Radio, Cinema, and Television to bring it under "stricter control and management" and to "strengthen supervision over production." [Library of Congress]
Crossroads (1937) Government statistics show Chinese revenues surged from 920 million yuan in 2003 to 4.3 billion yuan in 2008 ($703 million). Mainland China made about 330 films in 2006, up from 212 films in 2004, which was up 50 percent from 2003, and a figure exceeded only by Hollywood and Bollywood. In 2006, the United States produced 699 feature films. Film revenues in China reached 1.5 billion yuan, a 58 percent increase from 2003. The year 2004 was also significant in that the top 10 Chinese films outgrossed the top 20 foreign films in China.
In the next five to 10 years, the Chinese film market could well become the largest in the world. The market grew by almost 44 percent in 2009, and about 30 percent in 2008. In 2009, it was worth US$908 million - about a tenth of the $9.79 billion of US revenues in the previous year. At the current rate, the Chinese film market will outgrow the American market in five to 10 years.
Francesco Sisci wrote in Asian Times that two primary elements in the growth of Chinese film are "an increase in the importance of the Chinese domestic film market and a global appeal of certain "China issues". These two things will increase the impact of Chinese culture in our homes. We could then become culturally more Chinese long before China becomes a first-world economy, which could happen in 20 to 30 years. The cultural change could occur with or without critical sense, and possibly only through the almost subliminal impact of future blockbusters made in China or for the Chinese market. Times are tight for acquiring the necessary cultural tools to gain a critical sense of China's complicated culture, past and present.
Aspects of the Chinese Film Industry
The movie business in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan are all intertwined. A Taiwan financed movie, for example, might be filmed on mainland locations with Hong Kong actors. Taiwanese movies were shown for the first time in the 1980s. The takeover of Hong Kong by Chinese in 1997, led to forging of many deals involving mainland studios and Hong producers, anxious to take advantage of mainland's stunning locations, cheap labor and talented film makers.
Chinese films tend to feature more fighting and less sex than Western films. Miao Di, a professor of film and television at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute, told the Los Angeles Times, "The Chinese people have always been very sensitive about sexuality but not worried about violence." Nurtured on king fu. Many Chinese find American films less violent than home grown ones.
Some think films have had a significant social and cultural impact in China. Filmmaker Jia Zhangle told The New Yorker. "In the early eighties, many directors made films about women's rights---about their confinement, their unhappy marriages---and, through these films, Chinese people realized women must be respected and treated equally."
In recent years Beijing has been attracting much of China's film making and acting talent. The Beijing Film Academy is the top film making school in China. Shanghai hosts the Shanghai International Film Festival
Beijing Film Academy Professor on the Present State of Chinese Cinema
Meng Lijun (1940) Zhang Xianmin, Professor of Beijing Film Academy, film producer and critic, and organizer of the China Independent Film Festival wrote an essay on the absurdity of China's film culture and industry today called Daytime Booze, Nighttime Party: Thoughts on the Present State of Chinese Cinema . The essay is divided into four parts: the current cultural milieu, Chinese films, box office, international film festivals, and the role of the Internet. He argues that first, vibrant film culture exists only in a few major Chinese cities while zero film culture exists in all other places; second, mainland Chinese cinema is not competitive in the global market because it is yet to develop any unique and cross-cultural popular genres; third, award-winning Chinese films at various international film festivals do not have much influence on Chinese cinema but are heavily oriented towards China's social and political realities; and lastly, Chinese audience consume more foreign films than the other way around. To get his points across, he draws examples from his own experiences as a judge at several international film festivals. Though he can be extremely ironic at times, he shares his most honest thoughts about contemporary Chinese cinema with us in this essay. [Source: Zhang Xianmin, translated by Isabella Tianzi Cai, dGenerate films, September 29, 2010]
China's box office revenue generated by domestically produced films has increased rapidly in recent years. However, the money has come from a limited number of blockbusters which gave no respect whatsoever towards our traditional cultural values. The government is in favor of high movie ticket prices; it is making our film industry into a capital-intensive industry. If a director tries to make a film, he or she will only get the script approved if the film can help the relevant gatekeepers either get rich or get promoted. These gatekeepers don't care about the film industry. Their children study overseas, and their only wish is to wait until they have the money to emigrate. Ironically, they deem China not a good place for their children because of its bad culture.
I can outline three kinds of games that are played in contemporary China. First is the game of political leverage. For example, [Communist Party leader] Bo Xilai's son Bo Guagua studies in London. Guagua came back to China once and delivered a speech in Peking University about his determination to contribute to China's cultural industry. Many years ago Kim Il-Sung's son said the same thing to his father. Second is the game of money. Han Sanping said that he wanted to invest 6 billion yuan in turning Huairou into China's Hollywood. Jia Zhangke also said that he would donate 200 million yuan to support young Chinese filmmakers. Third is the game of fame. All of China's film critics in their 60s agree that the love story in Under the Hawthorne Tree (dir. Zhang Yimou, 2010) is absolutely romantic and touching. And the officials at our film bureau insist that Aftershock (dir. Feng Xiaogang, 2010) is a realist film. This is why we have midnight drinking parties followed by late night dancing parties. So cinema stands alongside alcohol and parties. Under this condition, it is meaningless if a film wins an award in an international film festival. Time has changed. Now is different from ten years ago. An award-winner has little influence on Chinese cinema. Awards matter less than more practical things. The general public lives under stress. They consume bad popular culture and they are in turn the shapers of that bad popular culture. At least that's their relationship with China's mainstream media.
Beijing Film Culture
Sons and Daughters in Time of Storm On the dominant yet insular nature of Beijing film culture, Shelly Kraicer of the blog dGenerate films wrote: "Beijing has long been the capital of mainland Chinese independent film and avant-garde culture. No less than half of the dGenerate Films catalog are by Beijing-based filmmakers: Jia Zhangke, Liu Jiayin, and Cui Zi'en, to name a few. And yet, despite its openness to progressive artistic activity, Beijing has an intensely policed view of the cultural other and the potential role of these others in its cultural discourse." [Source: Shelly Kraicer, dGenerate Films, July 21, 2010]
"There may be several reasons for this dichotomy. Beijing has been a more homogeneous Chinese city until quite recently (dating to probably the early part of this century, with the internationalization of Beijing's urban surface, at least, in the lead up to the 2008 Olympics). And Beijing remains (in a certain, conflicted, post-Cultural Revolution way), the incubator, curator, and protector of a certain idea of Chinese culture. This protective attitude leads Beijing's cultural workers to patrol (though, again, for completely understandable reasons having to do with resistance to various colonialisms and post-colonial hegemonisms) the boundaries of us (Chinese) and them (foreigners). This attitude often strives to keep our (i.e. Chinese-made) cultural works in a safe zone, circumscribed and patrolled by rather regressive definitions of the Other. I'm generalizing, obviously, but I hope not uselessly."
"There are clear exceptions: many Chinese intellectuals I know joyfully and productively bring Western cultural theoretical concepts into their work, and play, creatively, in the spaces between Western post-theories and the various streams of Chinese historical cultural heritages. Western voices themselves, though, talking about Chinese art and artists, are entertained somewhat problematically.People in Beijing are often curious about what I'm working on (film research, for example), and are curious to hear my opinions, though they often far too quickly take these as somehow representative of a particular template of what a Westerner thinks about our Chinese movies (which is rather often far from the case, especially with my willfully idiosyncratic readings of what I'm watching here). But there comes a point in most conversations I have with Chinese colleagues where things sadly grind to a halt, to a refrain something like there are just certain things you won't be able to understand, since you're not Chinese. You can almost hear the intended effect: the portcullis clangs down, the drawbridge ratchets up, and the castle is secure with you safely outside. What can a non-Chinese person say to that? Any attempt to argue the point circles back to demonstrate that you just can't know. It's a completely self-sealing argument."
Movie Theaters in China
Majestic Theater in Shanghai In 2012 the number of Chinese cinema screens reached about 10,000, up from 6,300 in 2011 and 1,500 in 2009, and was still rising at about eight movie screens per day, according to the China Film Group. The Chinese government has said it expects 20,000 screens to be operating by 2015 and 40,000 by 2040, bringing it on par with movie exhibition in North America.
As of 2006, there were only 1,118 (2,400) movie theaters in China for a population of 1.3 billion people. By contrast the United States has 36,000 movie theaters for about 300 million people. Chinese say the they don't go the movie theater because the ticket price are too high. Tickets at some theaters are as high as $7, a full week's salary for many workers. In an effort to attract more customer some theater have significantly lowered their ticket prices.
China had 4,700 screens, including 1,800 digital and 800 3-D screens, as of 2009. In 1995, there were about 3,100 theaters and 180,000 factory movie halls and outdoor theaters. Moviegoers often sat on wooden benches and watched the film on canvas stretched on the top of a truck. Ticket prices ranged from 75 cents to $2.00 and average around a $1.00. By one estimated that Chinese on average spend only 12 cents a year going to movie theaters.
New shopping centers have American-style multiplex theaters Time Warner opened about a dozen movie theaters in China but decided to sell them in 2007 after new laws required Chinese controls and because of limits on foreign films allowed. In the early 2000s, drive in theaters began popping up in a few places. They are mainly middle class phenomena because they are the only people that can afford cars. The drive ins not only give car owners a chance to see a movie it also gives them a chance to show off their car and spend time with it.
The majority of cinemas are dirty, rundown, dilapidated and empty: unheated in the winter and stuffy and hot in the summer. Describing one theater in Beijing, Mark Magnier wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "As soon as you walk in the door your senses are hit by the auditorium's damp, smelly air that evokes a warehouse. Many of the seats have holes in the upholstery, food stains or are broken outright. The speakers rattle when the soundtrack hits the high notes. And the doors don't shut properly, creating streams of light after the feature starts." It is no surprise that people prefer watching pirated DVDs in the comfort of their homes.
Hong Kong and Korean investors are increasing investing in theaters in China as European and American giants wait for for new policies that will offer better opportunities. In the long run, it is estimated that more than half of the Chinese theaters will be controlled by American capital in the future. At it stands foreign companies can build new movie theaters in China but they can't manage them. Some think that rule will be relaxed soon . [Source: Zhang Xianmin, dgeneratefilms.com, 2009]
Most domestic giants are tightly integrated with the reals state industry. Most noticeable is Wanda's general success. They manage to cover almost all the new development zones which didn't exist in the formal cultural map of China. In big cities, these development zones have hundreds of thousands people. Moreover, the residents are mainly young, white-collars, (Blue-collars don't buy houses. Mid-age white-collars tend to choose better developed neighborhood, and they don't go to cinema). [Ibid]
The payback period for new theaters is about three years, hardware deprecation is about 7 to 8 years, real estate contracts last about 10 years in general. [Ibid]
The scarcity of programming, in my own anticipation, will result a considerable percentage of empty seats in new cinemas in three years. This percentage will reach an unacceptable peak in five or six years, and the development will start to reverse, such as converting cinemas into billiard halls. Art cinema has to deal with the reality of the high rate of empty cinema seats. Some cinemas will have to depend on blockbusters to make money, others will rely on cultural activities and artworks to survive. [Ibid]
Film Business in China
Asia Film Company Studio China's film industry is the third biggest in the world, after Hollywood and Bollywood, in terms of films produced and box office revenues. Chinese box office takings surged 64 percent to $1.5 billion in 2010, with 44 percent of that going to American films. Chinese box office revenues surged 44 percent to $908 million in 2009 according to the state-run China Film Group.
Tian Jin, party secretary of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. said at the 18th party Congress in November 2012 that from January to October 2012, box office revenues amounted to $2.1 billion. Chinese films, however, lost their dominance in their home market, accounting for 41.4 percent of this gross. But Mr. Tian refused to blame the influx of foreign films, saying Chinese films needed to improve.Chinese films accounted for 56 percent of the take in 2009. [Source: Ian Johnson, New York Times, November 11, 2012]
"The immediate reason is the strong attack by the imported movies," Tian Jin said. "But the basic reason is that our competitiveness needs to increase." Mr. Tian also said that foreign films were not banned from Chinese theaters during national holidays when the theaters are often crowded, a claim often made by importers. He said that foreign distributors "voluntarily" decided not to show their products during this time "out of consideration" for local sensibilities. Chinese films, Mr. Tian said, have done less well abroad. In 2011, 55 Chinese films were distributed in 22 countries, grossing about $318 million. [Ibid]
There are 16 major studios and 32 distribution companies in China. About 150 to 350 films are made in China each years, with an average cost of $300,000. Most popular films produced in China are dramas and slapstick comedies. The movie market is still very small in China. A film that earns $15 million is considered a hit.
In the last decade, studios have suffered as a result of rising costs and declining attendance. Hardly any films reach a large market or make any money. Prints of all Chinese films are owned by the studios, which are concerned most about fulfilling their yearly quota of films and have little interest in getting the films to an audience. The studios have little or no money for marketing or promotion.
Stanley Rose a professor at the University of Southern California who is studying Chinese film, wrote in Foreign Policy, the Chinese system "pursue multiple yet contradictory goals...The state administers production targets and film licensing while the market determines production investment and film promotion. Thus, the state intervenes to ensure that politically correct films are made and distributed but resulting products must fend for themselves in a market concerned only with commercial viability."
These days about half the funding for new films comes from private sources But coming up with financing can be a problem. One director who made a film for $120,000 told the Los Angeles Times, "We got a lot of the funding from personal contacts we essentially had to lie to. If they really knew how risky this is, they'd never invest. Two of the top three private film investment companies have military ties.
In recent years as sources of investment have dried up at home Hollywood has been seeking Chinese investors flush with cash. Huayi Brothers Media Corp (See Studios Below) is said to be seeking a deal with Sony or another large Hollywood studio.
Film Investors in China
The Life of Wu Xun The late 1980s when private capital first entered the Chinese film industry. Some Chinese investors have investing in overseas projects as a way of laundering money.
Some wonder if a Chinese company might buy a major Hollywood studio as Sony did when t bought Columbia Pictures in 1989 for $3.4 billion.
Describing the evolution of investing in film in China, Zhang Xianmin of dgeneratefilms.com wrote: "Private investment in film production can also be roughly divided into three steps. The first step was the participation of local brands or enterprises through advertising, such as water pipe commercials for gunfighting films, Hainan real estate investment commercials for art films set on the beach. This also marked the beginning of the collapse of the big studio system. The phase when private investors insisted on their status as the exclusive copyright owner of films ended in 1995. Nowadays, no one does that any more except for the purpose of promoting an actress, and these kind of investors typically retire after their first film." [Source: Zhang Xianmin, dgeneratefilms.com, 2009]
"The second step is seeking cooperation. Everyone, including CEPA, is talking about overseas financing. The prevalence of overseas capital and money-laundering means that capital will follow abroad before it circles back. This kind of investor normally makes two to four films. The first one might be a small production, just to see how deep the water is. Once they get enough investment to test the water, they'll cautiously assess the chance of losing money. This phase is still going on. This is a process of transforming hot money into calm decisions." [Ibid]
"The third step appears to be the combination of Confucian merchants and MBAs. Financial experts rich in cultural capital enjoy great popularity these days. Although counterfeit experts are unavoidable, there are also real MBAs, or PhDs from the States, or intellectuals from the 80s. These people intend to work in the industry for ten years or half of their life, and aim to accumulate as least twenty, or even fifty film titles with their name listed as partial copyright owners. [Ibid]
"Many people, including those investors who were cheated through money laundering, start to consider film as something that can make them a shareholder. Meanwhile, financial and private investors are interested in investing in several major film companies, comparable to buying shares at a high price." [Ibid]
Chinese Film Marketing
A standard American blockbuster takes up about one-fifth of domestic screens when it is first released. But in China, an American blockbuster takes up three-fifths of theater screens; some domestic blockbusters can take up four-fifths.
Acclaimed director Zhang Yimou told NPR he thinks the rise of the mainland China cinema market is prompting Chinese directors to change their focus. He is no exception. Ten years ago, his films relied on the international market; some critics even sneered that his main audience were international film festival judges.[Source: National Public Radio, January 4, 2010]
Now, Zhang believes a Chinese film can earn domestic revenues that are 10 times what it makes overseas. His argument is that by being commercial, he is doing battle with Hollywood for the soul of Chinese cinema.
"Young people are the key," Zhang told NPR, "If they lose their interest in domestic movies, we will be in big trouble. Then China's film market will be occupied by foreigners. Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea are examples of this. The mainland is our last battleground. So in this case, it's not shameful to shoot commercial or funny movies," he says.
International Market for Chinese Film
Spring in a Small Town Few Chinese-language films - with the exception of Zhang Yimou's "Hero" and Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" - have done well in big Western markets. Earthquake drama "Aftershock", from Legendary's partner Huayi, fizzled earlier this year in United States cinemas, where subtitled films rarely perform well. Patriotic hits such as Founding of the Republic do not travel well either. Foreign bottoms are less biddable.
Despite the American market's perceived resistance to subtitled films, many are optimistic about new international demand for Chinese films. He says: "We need to work with smaller, independent distributors and outlets like Netflix. We have to be creative and think about how to supply our products using digital platforms."
Zhang Xianmin. Professor of Beijing Film Academy, wrote: Only Hollywood and a few other big conglomerates have the power to market domestically successful Chinese blockbusters in the international market; maybe one film per year with a box office revenue of $20 million gets that attention. China distributes two to four of its films in 20 countries worldwide, but the countries are small countries like the one that trapped its coal miners underground for over a month. There is nothing to be proud about the sales because they are basically effortless deals. China makes about 5 million yuan for each of these films. But the domestic Chinese audience cannot care less about them  either they cannot find these films or they will not watch them.
Chinese cinema is not competitive when it comes to box office. Westerners control almost all the channels for distribution. At the same time, Chinese cinema will not develop any particular type of popular film genre because of prolonged years of cultural suppression. The most influential genre we have had is kung fu films. Yet it was the Hong Kong film industry that first capitalized on them. What original genre can the mainland Chinese film industry come up with? If anyone knows the answer please let me know.
Film Studios in China
There are 16 major studios and 32 distribution companies in China. The world's largest film studio, Hengdian, is in China. It covers 35.5 million square feet.
The Shanghai Film Studio is one of the largest and oldest film studios in China. Run by conservative bureaucrats, it is known mainly for producing boring, risk-adverse movies. If these bureaucrats don't like a script the film doesn't get made. There are known for ditching entire project because they didn't like one little detail. These days, the funding it receives is so low, it can hardly make any films period.
Like other businesses in China, China's film studio have their fingers in numerous enterprises. A director at the Shanghai Film Studio told the New York Times that it wasn't necessary for his films to make big profits because the studio earns a steady income from a metal factory it runs. Studios are now beginning to seek financial backing from the U.S. and abroad now that they are getting less money from the Chinese government.
The Huayi Brothers Media Corp, which Morgan Stanley called "China's Warner Brothers for tomorrow, and China Film Group, are two of China's largest studios. Huayi produced one romantic film that triggered a travel boom by Chinese tourist to the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Three Chinese movie studios are aiming to get stock exchange listings. Huayi Brothers Media Corp. debuted on China's new small companies market in the southern city Shenzhen in late 2009, surging 148 percent on its first day of trading. The state-run China Film Group is planning to list in Shanghai. Beijing Polybona Film Distribution Co. is aiming to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in the second half of 2010. [Source: China Daily (11/3/09):
Polybona has already received funding from the venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners China, with the second company investing 100 million Chinese yuan ($15 million). Polybona's businesses encompass movie distribution, production and multiplexes. Among its recent productions are the upcoming Jackie Chan historical epic "Big Soldier," the historical thriller "Bodyguards and Assassins," starring Donnie Yen, the police thriller "Overheard" and "Mulan.." Polybona had 50 movie screens by the end of 2009 and hoped to increase that number to 100 by the end of 2010 and 200 in three to five years.
China boasts the world's largest outdoor film studio, called Hengdian World Studios, which includes a full-scale mock-up of the Forbidden City.
Film Distribution in China
The Spring River Flows East_ The most profitable branch of the Chinese film industry is distribution. Of the money taken in the cinemas, 50 percent goes to theater owner, 25 percent goes to the film studio and 25 percent goes to the distributor (it used be 30 percent for the distributor and 20 percent for the studio). One angry studio owner told Reuter he told his distributor, "We spend the money to make the movies, we take all the investment risk, while you do nothing. You make profits on the basis of almost no costs."
Films must obtain a new permit each time they travel. This money goes to the distributors, who are often slow to grant permits until they receive enough in bribes. An a few occasions, film makers have stole their own films from studios so they could be shown in foreign film festivals.
There are 32 distribution companies in China. Distributors often work together with studios and theater chains and increasing are becoming interested in making money.
Free Market Film Zone in Shanghai
In 2009, it was announced that Shanghai would set up a free market zone in Shanghai where controls on imported movies would be relaxed and more than 20 foreign films would be allowed to screened. The 'special cultural administrative region' in Shanghai's Wai Gao Qiao free trade district would be a testing ground for further reform of government policy on foreign imports. The aim is also to boost the number of Chinese films which perform well in western markets, of which there have been only a handful in the past decade. [Source: Ben Child, The Guardian, March 23, 2009]
China has adopted a strict quota for film imports since joining the World Trade Organization in 2002.
Hong Kong's Salon Films is advising the Chinese government on the creation of the zone. Salon chairman Fred Wang told the Hollywood Reporter: "The Chinese government will be using Wai Gao Qiao as a testing ground for its cultural trade policies and strategic reform for import and export of films and other cultural products."
Chinese Firm Buys Major American Movie Theater Chain AMC
Diao Chan (1958) In May 2012, China's Dalian Wanda Group's agreed to pay $2.6 billion for the cinema chain AMC Richard Verrier and David Pierson wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "The deal ---which pairs China's biggest theater operator with the second-largest chain in the U.S.---marks the largest investment to date by a Chinese company in the U.S. entertainment industry. AMC is owned by Apollo Investment Fund, Carlyle Group and other investors who bought the company in 2004 for $1.7 billion. [Source: Richard Verrier and David Pierson, Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2012]
Some analysts have questioned how the deal benefits Wanda, noting that AMC is a highly leveraged theater circuit. Wanda is assuming $1.9 billion in debt to acquire AMC at a time when theater admissions in the U.S. and Canada have been in a long-term decline. As for the growing Chinese market, Wanda's ownership of AMC may have no effect on the distribution of American movies in China, where the government maintains tight controls on the number of foreign movies it allows into the country. "I'm kind of scratching my head on it," said James Marsh, an entertainment industry analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. "I don't see the strategic synergies of the deal. I think this is more of a vanity purchase than anything else."
By creating the world's largest theater company, however, Wanda could use its size to negotiate favorable terms with major Hollywood studios in the world's two largest film markets. Wang Jianlin, the billionaire who controls Wanda, told reporters in Beijing that Wanda would invest as much as $500 million to upgrade operations and reduce debt at the Kansas City, Mo., chain, which has 5,034 screens in 346 multiplex locations in the U.S. and Canada. Wanda will keep AMC's management team in place. [Ibid]
Wanda said on its website that the deal received approval in March from China's National Development and Reform Commission. In the U.S., the deal will be subject to approval by the Federal Trade Commission. Although it is not required, Wanda also is seeking approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a federal interagency committee that reviews national security implications of foreign investments in the U.S. [Ibid]
Since the 2008 financial crisis, Beijing has encouraged Chinese firms to acquire under-valued Western assets as part of the nation's years-old "going out" development strategy. Culture, especially film, has been cited as a key component to China's ambition to wield more so-called "soft power." The deal for AMC could result in more Chinese movies being screened in the U.S. But Chinese features have done poorly in front of American audiences, in part because of weak distribution. Feng Pengcheng, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, called the AMC deal impressive. "This is special because it is going into a cultural industry," Feng said. "This carries more significance because of the huge cultural differences between China" and the West. [Ibid]
The New York Times reported: "Any deal, whether for the entire company or for a major stake, would probably put a current value of roughly $1.5 billion on AMC. That figure is based on its reported cash flow of about $181 million for the 52 weeks ended September 2012 and an industry expectation that theater chains in the United States will continue to sell for as much as eight times their annual cash flow. [Source: Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes, New York Times, May 7, 2012]
Founded in 1920 by three brothers with a single Missouri theater, AMC, based in Kansas City, later was a leader in building complexes to show more than one movie at a time. It now operates about 350 theaters with 5,050 screens. (The biggest theater chain is Regal Entertainment, which has 522 theaters with 6,580 screens.) AMC is known for having better locations than some of its rivals, which include Cinemark, the third-largest chain. Six of last year's 10 top-grossing theaters belonged to AMC. Apollo and its founder, Leon D. Black, also had a major stake in the chain before it was sold in 2004 to a group in which Apollo and J. P. Morgan are the largest holders, with about 39 percent each. [Ibid]
Wanda, the Chinese Firm That Bought AMC
According to the New York Times: "Wanda, a conglomerate whose interests include commercial properties, luxury hotels and department stores, is involved with film production and distribution in China. It operates a rapidly growing theater chain that now has 86 multiplex locations, and a total of 730 screens, including 47 large-format Imax screens. On its Web site, Wanda says it accounts for about 15 percent of China's movie ticket sales, which were about $2.1 billion last year. Wanda has said that by 2015 it plans to more than double its screen count to about 2,000. [Source: Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes, New York Times, May 7, 2012]
Richard Verrier and David Pierson wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "Wanda, based in the northeastern city of Dalian, commanded 13.6 percent of China's box-office market share last year---good for first place even though it ranks seventh in the number of cinemas (86) and fourth in the number of screens (730, including 288 3-D screens), according to consulting firm Artisan Gateway. "In terms of quality, I would say they're one of the highest-end chains," Wu Renchu, a Shanghai-based film blogger, said of Wanda. [Source: Richard Verrier and David Pierson, Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2012]
Wanda entered the cinema business in 2004 when it signed a partnership with Warner Bros. to build dozens of modern multiplexes---a pioneering deal at the time that sparked China's cinema-building boom. In 2005, Chinese regulators reduced the share foreign companies could own in cinema ventures. Warner decided to leave shortly after. Since then, Wanda has evolved into China's largest privately owned company, controlling a vast portfolio of luxury hotels, sports stadiums and shopping plazas. [Ibid]
Wanda-AMC Deal Could Spur Others
Richard Verrier and David Pierson wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group's landmark deal to buy AMC Entertainment Inc. for $2.6 billion could be a catalyst for similar acquisitions of American theater chains and other U.S. entertainment properties, industry analysts said. Most of the deal making has been Hollywood companies striking business deals in China. But Wanda's move to buy AMC could turn the traffic in the other direction, setting the stage for a string of similar moves by other Chinese investors looking to diversify and raise their global profile by scooping up blue-chip American entertainment properties. [Source: Richard Verrier and David Pierson, Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2012]
Some see parallels with the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Japanese companies acquired a number of prized U.S. assets, including Hollywood studios such as MCA-Universal and Columbia Pictures and crown jewels such as New York's Rockefeller Center and California's Pebble Beach golf course. "More and more Chinese companies are going to try to come in and buy American businesses, just like Japanese companies did in the 1980s," said Sean Yu, a Los Angeles-based executive director at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney who advises Chinese investors. "They want to increase their prestige and their reputation."
Wanda isn't the first private Chinese company to buy American. Chinese carmaker Geely Holding Group bought Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo subsidiary in 2010 for $1.5 billion. In 2004, Lenovo purchased IBM Corp.'s personal computing unit for $1.25 billion. "It's all about brand names and status, and AMC is a brand name," said Stanley Rosen, professor of political science at USC and an expert on China. "It gives [Wanda] instant credibility."
Film historian and author Neal Gabler agreed that the Wanda deal could presage another wave of foreign buying in Hollywood. "I would be almost certain that as the Chinese economy grows, you will see other incursions made into the American entertainment industry," Gabler said. Wanda "may be the first foray, but I guarantee they are not the only ones licking their chops at these American properties."
Problems Making Films in China
Some filmmakers complain of how difficult to is to work in China The actress Natasha Richardson told the Times of London, "The whole Chinese cultural barrier has made things really difficult. The simplest things seem to involve translations from three different people. Everything takes so much longer than usual." The producer Ismail Merchant said. "People don't like saying "yes" here. They think about things, and you can't do that when there's a shooting schedule to keep."
A number of films made in China are produced by China's illegal, underground film industry. These films vary in quality from great to crappy. They are shown almost exclusively abroad. The films are regarded as contraband. Film maker risk heavy fines if their film project are discovered or they are smuggling film out of the country. Some directors have had their film making careers taken away by the government.
Chinese Woman Sues over Cinema Ads
In 2010, a a Beijing woman is sued a local cinema for wasting her time. Chen Xiaomei claims she was unreasonably treated by the cinema's owners and the distributors of the film she went to see, because she was not warned there would be 20 minutes of adverts prior to the screening of the main feature. She is demanding a full refund (35 yuan), an extra 35 yuan in compensation for emotional damages and a written apology, reports the Xinhua agency. [Source: Ben Child, The Guardian, September 8, 2010]
In addition, Xiaomei is calling for the Polybona International cinema in the northern city of Xian to publish the length of advertisements on its website, in the lobby or on its customer hotline. In total, they should be less than five minutes, she says. Xiaomei's case has been accepted by the People's Court in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province. The film she went to see, Aftershock, has become the highest-grossing domestic film of all time in China, earning 650m yuan.
Pirated DVDs in China
Dog and Beauty, 1930 In 2007, it was estimated that 93 percent of the movies sold in China were pirated. Pirated DVDs, VCDs, (video compact discs, cheaper, low-tech versions of DVDs) and videos are widely available on the streets in China. The film industries in China, Hong Kong and Hollywood all lose billions to the pirating of films on videos, DVDs and VCDs that cost only a few cents to make and are sold for around $1 a piece all over China in markets, on street corners and subway station and in the backrooms of legitimate DVD and video stores. Stalls at Silk Street Market in Beijing display licensed DVDS with holograms and everything but when buyers purchase one they are given a pirated copy.
The latest Hollywood films often appear on the streets as pirated DVDs before the films open in theaters or soon afterwards. Pirated versions of the new Star Wars movies were available on pirated DVDs only days after they premiered at theaters in Beijing. In some places piracy is so rampant that even the pirates worry about their merchandise being copied. The selection of pirated material is amazing. Shops in Chinese cities often have a full catalog of classic films like old Hitchcocks, Truffauts and Hepburn-Tracy films as well as recent Hollywood releases. .
Some pirated DVDs are filmed with hand-held videos in American movie theaters on opening day, then taken to Asia by plane, copied on clandestine CD printing machines, and released on the streets within a few days. Others are made from high-quality screeners, advance copies given out members of the film academy and critics. In many cases the first copies to hit the streets are made with hand-held camcorders in theaters. Better quality ones show up weeks later.
DVDs are often pirated using copies that are available on the Internet. These days many viewers don't even bother with $1 DVDs they simply share digital file for free on the Internet. Many get them from the popular Chinese movie website Mtime.
Hollywood finds Beijing policy particularly unfair because it fails to crackdown on the pirated DVD trade at the same time it restricts the import of movies, DVDs and music.
Effect of Pirated DVDs on the Movie Industry
Pirated VCDs showed up large numbers in 1995. They robbed the Hong Kong film industry of 40 percent of its business, and forcing video shops and theaters to close down. Pirating costs the world film industry about $3 billion a year in lost sales. The biggest losers are Chinese filmmakers and distributors. The six major Hollywood studios lose around $250 million a year.
Competition is very fierce among vendors which is why prices are so low. In 2005, DVDs of recent films could be purchased for as little 60 cents a piece. The quality of DVDs has improved over the years. Sometimes customers prefer the pirated copies to the real thing because they have not been censored by the government and are available much sooner because the distributors don't have deal with government red tape. The selection at illegal shop is often much better the at the legal ones.
Pirated films are often versions that were shown outside China and thus are uncensored. Many of the foreign films sold by pirates were never even shown at neighborhood cinemas and those that were had scenes deleted from them. Newly released theater films have to make big money on the opening days because soon after that the film is widely available in pirated version.
Image Sources: Wiki Commons, University of Washington; Ohio State University
Last updated December 2012

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Revenue Commission Home
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Revenue Local Laws Index
Act No. 609 (Acts of Alabama, 1901; Page 1446)
Provides for the support of public schools in Baldwin County. Provides that 2 mills of county tax levy shall be paid to school board. (Amended by Act No. 89-482, page 1012).
Act No. 643 (Acts of Alabama, 1931; Page 303)
Relieves the Assessor from preparing books of assessment and allows an alphabetical list of assessments in lieu of books. (Code Section 40-7-33)
Authorizes an additional 5 mill school tax for public school purposes. Constitutional Amendment No. 162, ratified 12-18-61. Does not have to be voted on again, Section 2 of Amendment.
Transfers assessment and collection responsibilities of ad valorem taxes on motor vehicles from the assessor and collector to the Judge of Probate.
Act No. 1031 (Acts of Alabama, 1971; Page 1843)
Amends population requirements on Act No. 407, Acts of Alabama, 1969.
Authorizes a library tax of 4.5 mills, by County or City. Constitutional Amendment No.319; ratified 1-27-72. Not levied by County.
Transfers land redemptions from the probate judge to the tax collector.
Provides a system of serving delinquent tax notices.
Act No. 55 (Acts of Alabama, 1978; Page 1742)
Amends Act No. 581, 1977 Acts. Delinquent tax notices and notices of tax sales.
Act No. 83-545 (Acts of Alabama; Page 844)
Provides for a forestry tax not to exceed $.10 per acre, for assessments greater than five acres.
Provides for a 2 mill hospital tax in precincts 1-7, for a period of twenty years beginning October 1, 1987. Constitutional Amendment 471, ratified August 10, 1987. Twenty years beginning October 1, 1987.
Act No. 87-818 (Acts of Alabama; Page 1640)
Provides for zoning districts and a levy at $10.00 per parcel for a maximum of two consecutive years. Assessed by Commission collected by collector, 1989 & 1990.
Amends Act No. 6090, Local Acts of Alabama 1901. School system gives up 2 mill ad valorem tax so long as County levies sales tax for schools. Thus, county gets 2 mills.
Provides for 1 & 1/2 mill tax for fire departments. Refined 7-11-90.


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Лунпонос (устар. Лун-Понос) — река в России, протекает в Прилузском районе Республики Коми.

Вытекает из болота, течёт сначала на юго-восток, затем на северо-восток по лесистой, болотистой местности. Крупных притоков и населённых пунктов на берегах не имеет. Устье реки находится в 126 км по левому берегу реки Визинга (Большая Визинга) в 1,5 км от границы Сысольского района. Длина реки составляет 15 км.

Данные водного реестра
По данным государственного водного реестра России относится к Двинско-Печорскому бассейновому округу, водохозяйственный участок реки — Вычегда от истока до города Сыктывкар, речной подбассейн реки — Вычегда. Речной бассейн реки — Северная Двина.

Код объекта в государственном водном реестре — 03020200112103000019430.

Примечания

Притоки Большой Визинги
Реки Прилузского района

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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AMC Announces 'Walking Dead' Season 4; Loses Showrunner Glen Mazzara
by Kevin Yeoman
To the surprise of no one, AMC has renewed its ratings juggernaut The Walking Dead for season 4, but the news taking everyone by surprise is that the network will do it without current showrunner Glen Mazzara, who will part ways with the series after completing work on season 3.
Mazzara's rather surprising departure marks the second showrunner to suddenly exit the hit zombie series in just three seasons on the air. Of course, many recall Mazzara landed the showrunner gig after Frank Darabont's abrupt and contentious removal halfway through the series' divisive second season – which put Mazzara in the driver's seat for the second half of season 2, and all of season 3.
Since then, Mazzara has been applauded for his efforts on the series, which have steered The Walking Dead to its highest ratings to date (breaking cable television ratings records in the process). In addition to swifter, more action-packed storytelling, Mazzara's success can also be attributed to decisions that brought in popular characters like the Governor (David Morrissey) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), as well as his willingness to kill off several major characters early in the season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the split has been deemed "amicable," by both sides, but was once again rooted in a disagreement as to the direction of the show.
AMC stated:
"Both parties acknowledge that there is a difference of opinion about where the show should go moving forward, and conclude that it is best to part ways. This decision is amicable and Glen will remain on for postproduction on season 3B as showrunner and executive producer."
In making his own announcement, Mazzara was gracious regarding his decision to leave, and had this to say about his brief tenure as showrunner on The Walking Dead:
"My time as showrunner on The Walking Dead has been an amazing experience, but after I finish season three, it's time to move on. I have told the stories I wanted to tell and connected with our fans on a level that I never imagined. It doesn't get much better than that. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey."
While it's not entirely clear what AMC and Mazzara failed to find common ground on, the two sides have decided to file it under the obligatory heading of "creative differences" – which could be anything from storytelling disagreements to the much more likely scenario of issues regarding the show's budget.
It's worth noting that the network has had a troubling and somewhat touchy history with several of its showrunners. Many recall season 5 of Mad Men being delayed nearly 18 months after contract disputes could not be settled in a timely manner. A similar disagreement occurred prior to season 5 of Breaking Bad, which led to that series' final season being split into two 8-episode halves for revenue purposes. Most recently, such disagreements have led to a delay in season 3 of Hell on Wheels, which was briefly put on hold while the network searched for a new showrunner to replace the departing John Shiban.
Still, despite the network's disturbing pattern of clashes with creative heads, there's the future of The Walking Dead to think about. In a statement regarding Mazzara's departure, and what lies ahead, series creator Robert Kirkman said:
"I am in full support of both AMC and Glen Mazzara in the decision they have come to and believe the parties came to this decision in the best interest of the future of the show. I thank Glen for his hard work and appreciate his many contributions to The Walking Dead and look forward to working with him as we complete postproduction on season three. I am also excited to begin work on another spectacular season of this show that I know means so much to so many people. This show has always been the result of a wide range of extremely talented men and women working tirelessly to produce their best work collectively. I believe the future is bright for The Walking Dead. Thank you to the fans for your continued support."
Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd also stepped in to show a little solidarity regarding Mazzara's departure:
"I am appreciative and grateful to Glen for his hard work on The Walking Dead. I am supportive of AMC and Glen's decision and know that the series is in great hands with one of the most talented and dedicated casts and crews in the business. I look forward to the show's continued success."
At the moment there's been no word on whether AMC will be looking to promote someone from within the series to the role of showrunner, or if they will bring someone in from outside the network. At any rate, whomever is chosen to replace Mazzara might not want to unpack right away.
Screen Rant will keep you posted on all news regarding The Walking Dead. Meanwhile, new episodes will begin airing Sunday, February 10 on AMC.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Tags: the walking dead
WWE's Seth Rollins Donned New X-Men Era-Inspired Outfit During Extreme Rules


Wow- I thought I was aggressive!! 70% of you said I should behave like a lady...and jump him. As the votes rolled in I started thinking about how I'd handle being the one to kiss him first. I had a strategy all worked out: I'd get the smooch over with before the date even started just to alleviate my anxiety. Unfortunately (for HIM), the prude bailed on me hours before the date. Via text message.
And now I'm left wondering: Was it him? Was it me? Was it the blog? This guy has always been a total mystery to me and his reason for canceling was equally enigmatic. I'm SO disappointed. If he did ditch me because of my (rather complimentary) blog entry, well, I just keep trying to tell myself that I wouldn't want a guy without a sense of humor anyway. Even the 23 year old, who I'm seeing tomorrow night -- STAY POSTED -- could have been offended by our conversations about his age, but was cute and lighthearted about it.
Then we did some bar-hopping where I met some new guys, including a bad-boy bartender who wants to show me how to surf (will I EVER learn?), a few egotistical "agents" and a great guy who says he's straight but is definitely gay. Welcome to Hollywood.
I don't mean to sound like Debbie Downer but all night long I was thinking I'd rather be on an intimate date than doing the whole "single and mingle" thing. Whenever there's a bump in the road, I go right back to wanting to be with my ex boyfriend, the one who can never marry me. I won't belabor the point and ask you __again__if I can go back to him, but I'd really love to know how long you think it's going to take before every little romantic stumble brings me right back to wanting him. It's been 4 months. How long should I stay hung up on him before I need to worry that something is wrong with me?


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Who Is Google Webmasters?
July 6, 2022 Science
Within the SEO business, these approaches are referred to as white hat techniques. Earlier than we dive into strategies, I need to cowl black hat and white hat SEO. This part will cowl on-page SEO, which has to do with the issues you are able to do to your pages and site structure. Nevertheless, as journalists send cover site visitors to everybody, the bandwidth price will increase quadratically with the scale of the inhabitants, see Determine 4, middle, and turns into fairly heavy after reaching 2000 journalists. So, while your content material may be ranked first for the question being posed, the consumer could end up not ever reaching your webpage. Although the top of the podcast charts is an efficient place to start, don't be afraid to dive into the deep finish for much less-acquainted exhibits. For instance, settlement at the top result is extra important than that at the third or fourth outcome. For instance, Li et al. Most pages will enter a search engine's index, but spammy, blocked, or duplicate pages hardly ever get indexed.
If a phrase begins with "who", "when" or "what" followed by a verb phrase, WHVP would be the name of this subconstituent (e.g. Who developed). Though Google set a great precedent by doing so, "Governments can and can do issues that firms need to comply with," says Chris Sherman, govt editor of Search Engine Land, referring to the Chinese authorities pressuring Yahoo to turn over the name of a user who posted to a web-based forum. Because goat milk also has less lactose than cow's milk, it's an excellent choice for these who are lactose intolerant. With the very best variety of Twitter followers and its great spot on Trustpilot, Google is clearly standard with most of the people. Comparability findings: While Google seems to be different than each Bing and DuckDuckGo, the final two are indistinguishable from one another. It also goals to tell apart essential differences in search engine behavior that are not apparent with different rank-distance metrics, whereas viewing every search end result as it's; a unified piece of knowledge. Right here I need to elucidate briefly for a few of search engines that you may never heard of.
There are a lot of search engines and some of you may be wondering, which one to focus on first? The researchers used 250 queries to retrieve search outcomes from Ask, Google, and Yahoo. This paper describes a new approach for choosing the right queries partaking with opaque search engines. Inspected the highest-a hundred urls produced by eleven search engines. This search engine permits you to search numerous social platforms for things like mentions, hashtags, key phrases, and URLs. ATR-Vis proposes 4 methods of active studying (ambiguous retrieval, near-duplicates, leveraging hashtags, leveraging replies) to decrease user involvement in the process. In the identical method, excessive number of words decrease the number of retrieved results however most of these tweets are expected to be related to the given prototype document. First, we describe the imply relevance error (MRE), a easy measure that estimates the relevance of the results retrieved from an opaque search engine with respect to a given prototype doc.
All these approaches require information about the underlying corpus of the search engine. The proposed algorithm interacts with the opaque search engine to iteratively improve the question. Search intent (additionally referred to as "user intent") is the aim behind every search query. This step is performed by using a machine studying mannequin, additionally called surrogate model. This paper has argued these shortcomings may be overcome by merging ideas from both these domains, to give rise to a new discipline of software program engineering known as Data-Pushed Search-based mostly Software Engineering. Just lately we've far more success when it comes to novel research outcomes (and publications at SE forums) after increasing that assortment to incorporate fashions of, e.g., software product traces, requirements, and agile software program initiatives. Do some key phrase analysis to seek out out what search phrases persons are using to find solutions to their problems. In the final step, we set the MRE measure to estimate the relevance of the outcomes retrieved from an opaque search engine to a given prototype document. To take action, we collected search results utilizing a complete set of 300 unique queries for two time durations in 2016 and 2019, and developed a brand new similarity metric that leverages both the content material and the ranking of search responses.
google, webmasters


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Should infants be separated from coronavirus infected mothers?
By Angela Betsaida B. Laguipo, BSNApr 13 2020
Since the novel coronavirus infection emerged a couple of months ago, guidelines about its treatment and precautionary measures are still evolving based on evidence and research. For mothers and infants, there is contradicting information on whether they should be kept together or separated for fear of transmission.
A new commentary discusses the benefits and risks of separating infants from their COVID-19 diseased mothers after birth. Many health organizations recommend keeping these mothers together to establish breastfeeding and promote mother-and-infant bonding.
Dr. Alison Stuebe, the President of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine and a professor in infant and young child feeding at the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute, notes that there is no current evidence showing that early separation of infants and mothers with suspected or confirmed coronavirus infection improves outcomes.
She added that while there are benefits of separating mothers and their newborns during the hospital stay, it can negatively impact them, as shown in the report published in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that infants and mothers should remain together to practice skin-to-skin contact, kangaroo care, and rooming-in. This way, breastfeeding will be established and supported since it has lifelong benefits for both the mother and the infant. Nevertheless, mothers should regularly wash their hands, disinfect surfaces, and wear a mask if they have a cough.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, recommends separating the infant from an infected mother temporarily until the mother is no longer contagious. This way, the infant will not contract the viral infection. It notes that facilities should consider temporarily separating mothers from their infants. During separation, it urges mothers to continue breastfeeding through expressed breast milk to be given to the baby by a health caregiver.
The health agency also recommends that mothers can breastfeed their babies by wearing a face mask and washing their hands before each feeding. They encourage mothers to express breast milk by following the recommendations for proper pump cleaning.
Study: Should Infants Be Separated from Mothers with COVID-19? First, Do No Harm. Image Credit: Lolostock / Shutterstock
Separation risks
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The author noted that separation might not prevent infection. A study out of China conducted in March looked at infants born in Wuhan City, where the virus first emerged. The infants were born to mothers with active COVID-19 infection via C-section and were placed in strict isolation as a precautionary measure. While the babies were safe from infection during the hospital stay, these measures did not guarantee that the infant would not contract the virus after discharge.
For instance, not all families have the facility at home to promote social distancing and isolation. There are instances that other members of the family may be carriers of the virus, too. Separating infants may delay the infection, but not prevent it.
Kangaroo care and skin-to-skin contact have provided many health benefits for newborns. Infants who are separated from their mothers may have higher respiratory rates and heart rates, while their blood sugar levels may be lower. Lack of skin-to-skin contact may affect the baby's health.
Further, when infants and mothers are separated right after birth, the mother may feel high levels of stress. Stress levels may be high since she was diagnosed with a contagious and pandemic disease, and it can skyrocket when she cannot hold her infant or even breastfeed him or her.
Breastfeeding may also be affected due to separation. Breast milk is best for infants, while expressed breast milk provides the needed nutrients, latching helps establish adequate milk supply. Separation interferes with the provision of maternal milk to the infant, disrupting innate, and specific immune protection. Breast milk provides antibodies to the infant, which is essential, especially when a pandemic is ravaging across the globe. Also, breast milk contains innate immune factors that mitigate the impact of viral infections and essential oligosaccharides.
Breastfeeding also reduces the risk of infant hospitalization for pneumonia. When mothers and infants are separated, it decreases breastfeeding duration, which may make infants 3.6 times more likely to be hospitalized for pneumonia.
"Separating mother and baby immediately after birth may make the infant more vulnerable to severe respiratory infections, including COVID-19, in the first year of life," the researcher said in the paper.
Lastly, the commentary notes that separating mothers and infants may further impose a burden to the health system since they need to provide twice the resources such as hospital rooms, healthcare providers, and two sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) each time a health worker enters or leaves the rooms.
"At the time of writing, we have no evidence to show that early separation improves outcomes. As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, I am hopeful that we can center mothers and babies and remember to first do no harm," Dr. Stuebe added.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2020). https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/breastfeeding-special-circumstances/maternal-or-infant-illnesses/covid-19-and-breastfeeding.html
Stuebe, Alison. (2020). Should Infants Be Separated from Mothers with COVID-19? First, Do No Harm. Breastfeeding Medicine. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/bfm.2020.29153.ams
Posted in: Medical Research News | Women's Health News | Disease/Infection News
Tags: Antibodies, Baby, Blood, Blood Sugar, Breast Milk, Breastfeeding, Cardiology, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Disease COVID-19, Cough, C-section, Healthcare, Heart, Hospital, Medicine, Nutrients, Pandemic, Pneumonia, Research, Respiratory, Skin, Stress, Virus
Angela Betsaida B. Laguipo
Angela is a nurse by profession and a writer by heart. She graduated with honors (Cum Laude) for her Bachelor of Nursing degree at the University of Baguio, Philippines. She is currently completing her Master's Degree where she specialized in Maternal and Child Nursing and worked as a clinical instructor and educator in the School of Nursing at the University of Baguio.
Laguipo, Angela. (2020, April 13). Should infants be separated from coronavirus infected mothers?. News-Medical. Retrieved on January 21, 2022 from https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200413/Should-infants-be-separated-from-coronavirus-infected-mothers.aspx.
Laguipo, Angela. "Should infants be separated from coronavirus infected mothers?". News-Medical. 21 January 2022. <https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200413/Should-infants-be-separated-from-coronavirus-infected-mothers.aspx>.
Laguipo, Angela. "Should infants be separated from coronavirus infected mothers?". News-Medical. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200413/Should-infants-be-separated-from-coronavirus-infected-mothers.aspx. (accessed January 21, 2022).
Laguipo, Angela. 2020. Should infants be separated from coronavirus infected mothers?. News-Medical, viewed 21 January 2022, https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200413/Should-infants-be-separated-from-coronavirus-infected-mothers.aspx.
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