On September 29, 2024, the USC U.S.-China Institute hosted a workshop at the Huntington’s Chinese garden, offering K-12 educators hands-on insights into using the garden as a teaching tool. With expert presentations, a guided tour, and new resources, the event explored how Chinese gardens' rich history and cultural significance can be integrated into classrooms. Interested in learning more? Click below for details on the workshop and upcoming programs for educators.
Screening – Black Coal, Thin Ice
The Smithsonian's Museum of Asian Art presents a screening of Diao Yinan's film "Black Coal, Thin Ice" about an ex-cop who-five years after a botched arrest for a grisly murder-stumbles back onto his old case. Director Yinan casts Fargo-like noir compulsion and doom in the wintry coal-belt of northern China. Here, danger slow burns beneath the icy frost, and whodunit becomes a phenomenological question as perplexing as a show of fireworks in bright daylight
Where
After a botched arrest in a grisly serial murder case, small-town detective Zhang Zili is suspended from the force, taking a job as a security guard at a coal factory. Five years later, another series of mysteriously similar murders takes place, and Zhang recruits his former partner to finish their investigation. His sleuthing soon leads to a local laundromat proprietor named Wu Zhizhen, whose soft-spoken demeanor and enigmatic aura are compelling to Zhang despite her mysterious connection to the deaths.
Part film noir, part social realist portrait of industrial city life in Northern China, Diao Yinan’s atmospheric Black Coal, Thin Ice is a moody, quietly powerful thriller staged against the quotidian lives of a wintry industrial landscape, and winner of the top prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
Featured Articles
Happy Lunar New Year from the USC US-China Institute!
Events
Ying Zhu looks at new developments for Chinese and global streaming services.
David Zweig examines China's talent recruitment efforts, particularly towards those scientists and engineers who left China for further study. U.S. universities, labs and companies have long brought in talent from China. Are such people still welcome?