Chinese film director Tian Zhuangzhuang walked away with the best director award at the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival that concluded on June 24.

Tian won the honor for his latest feature, The Go Master, a biopic of the legendary 20th century Chinese go game (weiqi) master Wu Ching-yuan, also known as Go Seigen. Wu, 93, who currently lives in Japan, is the most successful weiqi player in history. His devotion to Buddhism in pursuit of mental and emotional balance has made him a legend, both as a person and in his career. Tian said he had admired the weiqi master for many years.

Though some moviegoers have criticized Tian's prize-winning film for being boring, the director remains defiant about his choice of subject, saying the film has a specific audience and is of little interest to those who know little about weiqi. He said the production, based on Wu's autobiography Never Best in the World, aims to convey Wu's philosophy of harmony as opposed to conflict, and how this can be used to ultimately contribute toward world peace and harmony.

Tian, 55, was born into an artists' family with actor-and-actress parents, from whom he inherited his love for cinema. He graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982, together with Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, two signature figures of China's Fifth Generation directors. But what distinguishes Tian from his peers is his focus on the portrayal of ordinary people and controversial social topics, rather than entertaining blockbusters. His early directorial career featured The Horse Thief in 1986, an ethnic minority story, which fully demonstrates his artistic and emotional style. But the film was a box office failure, as have been most of Tian's films to date.

In 2003, Tian won the San Marco Prize at the Venice Film Festival for his film Springtime in a Small Town. His 2004 movie Delamu, a documentary, which depicts the ancient Tea Horse Road stretching along mountainous Yunnan and Tibet in southwest China, was also widely acclaimed.

"There are various criteria to assess whether a film is good or not. I never expected The Go Master to become everybody's favorite."
Tian Zhuangzhuang

"I like this movie with its boundless strength that emerges through serene visuals."
Japanese film director Kôhei Oguri, acclaiming Tian Zhuangzhuang's prize-winning movie The Go Master

"This would produce heavier pressure for the majority of developing countries and particularly for those newly emerging markets, but it will not affect developed countries much, so the impartiality of the decision cannot be proven."
Ge Huayong, Chinese representative to the International Monetary Fund's Executive Board, saying in an interview published on June 24 that China regrets changes to the fund's currency surveillance guidelines that were adopted despite objections from Beijing and other members

"The serious reduction of the dollar reserve is a small probability."
Yi Gang, Assistant Governor of the People's Bank of China, telling the media at the World Economic Forum in Singapore on June 25 that China will keep the "bulk" of its U.S. dollar holdings because the currency is one of its safest investment options

"China has enforced most of the WTO rules well, and has fulfilled most commitments prior to the accession. Of course China's performance is not perfect-for a country of this size, it would be hard to have perfect performance."
Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in an interview with Xinhua News Agency

"You want us to acknowledge the anger and division caused by Iraq, and we do."
Gordon Brown, pledging on June 24 to learn the lessons of Tony Blair's "divisive" decision to go to war in Iraq, as he was confirmed leader of the ruling Labor Party that qualified him for Britain's premiership

"Russia, with its increasing potential, is coming back to this region."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, talking to reporters at the end of a summit of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation on June 25, where member
countries from the Balkans and the Black Sea region agreed to increase cooperation in energy and trade

(Beijing Review July 4, 2007)