BEIJING TODAY
Bars, cafes at campus crossroads Kabuki’s here. Where’s Noh? Page 8
Pages 16-19
Swan song for singer Luciano Pavarotti, whose vibrant high Cs and ebullient showmanship made him the most beloved tenor since Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar, died yesterday at age 71. His manager Terri Robsonsaid that Pavarotti died at his home in Modena, Italy, at 5am local time. Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and treated in August. “The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life ... He remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness,” he said. Speaking from inside the singer’s home, his assistant Edwin Tinoco told Sky TG 24 television that Pavarotti’s final days were calm and spent at home. “Nessun Dorma” was Pavarotti’s last performance, sung at at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in February 2006. (AP)
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 13, 2007 NO. 327 CN11-0120 HTTP://BJTODAY.YNET.COM CHIEF EDITOR: JIAN RONG NEWS EDITOR: HOU MINGXIN DESIGNER: ZHAO YAN
Hey! Ho! Let’s go to pop fest! Pages 12-13
IC Photo
Foundation cries foul on horse head auction
By Gan Tian China’s Lost Cultural Relics Recovery Program (RRP) voiced strong opposition to the coming Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction of a bronze horse head pilfered from Yuanmingyuan, a ruined imperial garden. A spokesman for the foundation said this Tuesday the auction will upset the country, which claims ownership of stolen cultural relics. The China Foundation for the Development of Folklore Culture (CFDFC) holds that world culture heritage should be returned to where it belongs. Any auction company with basic professional ethics wouldn’t put up cultural relics stolen or lost in war, a CFDFC spokesman said. “They are starting the bronze horse head at HK$60 million – is
it a joke? We must reclaim all cultural relics lost overseas, but being made to buy them back is not right,” Xie Chensheng, president of Chinese Society of Cultural Relics, said. “I’m sure there will be a lot of [patriotic feelings] within China ... but I do not believe this time round the outcry will be as severe,” Kevin Ching, Sotheby’s Asia CEO, told Reuters. “That China’s growing affluence and ranks of antique collectors are keen to buy back historical heritage suggests the likely buyer will be Chinese.” The statue currently belongs to a collector in Taiwan, which means it may remain in China. Placing it on auction risks losing the head to a foreign collector, and chances of recovery will be slim, a CFDFC spokesman said. CFDFC also fears that malicious bid-
ders could drive the price beyond the reach of interested mainland parties. The horse head, one of twelve zodiac heads which formerly decorated the Yuanmingyuan water-clock fountain, is likely to fetch US$10 million at the Autumn 2007 Auction to be held on October 9. Currently, the tiger, monkey, ox and boar heads are on display at a local museum. The rat and rabbit heads remain in private collections in Europe. China’s RRP recovered the boar’s head from foreign collectors in September 2003 with a 6 million yuan donation from He Hongshen of Macao. Since the Opium War of 1840, 164 million Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas.
Under the auspices of the Information Office of Beijing Municipal Government Run by Beijing Youth Daily President: Zhang Yanping Editor in Chief: Zhang Yabin Executive Deputy Editor in Chief: He Pingping Director: Jian Rong Price: 2 yuan per issue 26 yuan for 3 months Address: No.23, Building A, Baijiazhuang Dongli, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China Zip Code: 100026 Telephone/Fax: (010) 65902525 E-mail: bjtoday@ynet.com Hotline for subscription: (010) 67756666 (Chinese) , (010) 65902626 (English) Overseas Code Number: D1545 Overseas Distribution Agent: China International Book Trading Corporation