/ARTS WEEKLY/AUSTRALIA: Odyssey from Tiananmen to Down Under Goes Onstage

After the Tiananman Square massacre in 1989, Chinese actor Yang Li was once told by a fortune teller to place his trust in women if he wanted to advance in his career and never give up on life.

/ARTS WEEKLY/VENEZUELA: Theatre Festival Come What May

The "show must go on" at the International Theatre Festival of Caracas, one of the oldest in Latin America, which this year was rescheduled due to the high political tensions afflicting Venezuela in the past several weeks.

/ARTS WEEKLY/NEPAL: Trans-Himalayan ‘Thankas’ Pull in Crowds

Tenzing Norbu grew up watching and helping his father paint, on plain-white paper and clothes, the life and times of Lord Buddha and other Buddhist deities - against the backdrop of the breathtaking trans-Himalayan landscape.

/ARTS WEEKLY/INDIA: New Film a Tale of Talents

The celebrated painter M F Husain's latest cinematic venture, 'Meenaxi-Tale of Three Cities', might as well have have been a 'tale of talents', because of the way it converges Indian artistic talent at its inspired best.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ LITERATURE-ARGENTINA: It’s Gombrowicz’s Turn

Czech writer Milan Kundera considers the author's work the precursor to the modern European novel, and Mexico's Carlos Fuentes says one of his novels should be included among the 10 best of the 20th century, but Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz never imagined fame when he went hungry, living as an outcast in Argentina.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ POETRY-CUBA: Roberto Mendez, Patience in the Provinces

Twenty books published is a record for a Cuban author - the island's publishing industry can't keep up with national literary output - but it is even more astonishing for a poet from the provinces like Roberto Méndez, who has achieved this and much more.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ART-JAPAN: Nostalgia for Showa Period Is In

Nostalgic for the heady fifties and sixties when Japan embarked on its post-war economic miracle, 68-year-old Hidetoshi Yokokawa goes back to the past through his Showa Retro Products Museum, which displays collections of items from that era.

CULTURE-ZIMBABWE: Bulawayo’s Old Men of Jazz

A white-suited quartet slides onto a small stage in Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. There’s a flash of a smile before the grey-haired men step forward, their songs matching the rhythm of their feet. The Cool Crooners are on their way to charming another audience.

/CORRECTED UPDATE*/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-U.S.: ‘The Passion’ Incites New Divisions Among Neo-Cons

Increasingly split and defensive over whether the United States must cooperate more with the United Nations and Europe and whether Syria or Iran should be ''next'' in the war on terrorism, the neo-conservative movement is now beset by a new source of tension within its ranks - Mel Gibson's film, 'The Passion of the Christ'.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-VIETNAM: Filmmakers Question How to Develop Industry

Vietnam's movie industry is focused on the question of how to revitalise itself. Some directors say it should produce enjoyable films to appeal to local youth while others believe filmmakers should move away from traditional plot-oriented educative movies to more innovative ones designed to make a strong impression on audiences at home and abroad.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-U.S.: ‘The Passion’ Incites New Divisions Among Neo-Cons

Increasingly split and defensive over whether the United States has to cooperate more with the United Nations and the Europeans and whether Syria or Iran should be ''next'' in the war on terrorism, the neo-conservative movement is now beset by a new source of tension within its ranks - Mel Gibson's film, 'The Passion of the Christ'.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ TV-MEXICO: ‘El Chavo’ Vanquishes Time

'El Chavo del Ocho', the poor Mexican eight-year-old (really a 40-year-old man dressed as a boy) with a heart of gold and a bit on the clumsy side, was the star of a television series of the same name three decades ago, and today survives as a TV favourite for millions of viewers.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ARGENTINA: Bringing Classical Music to the Workers

Accustomed to playing for a small cultural elite in fancy theatres and churches, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Argentina, created in 1948, performed for the first time ever in a factory, as part of a novel programme aimed at reaching out to new audiences.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ SCULPTURE-VENEZUELA: Virgins Along the Highway

Fourteen sculptures of virgins and saints of the Catholic Church will be put on permanent display along the highways of the northwestern Venezuelan state of Yaracuy, the country's first "religious roadside museum", picking up on an arts initiative begun more than 20 years ago.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-INDIA: Traditional Basket Weaving Endangered

Kannama, a 70-year-old resident of Konapet hamlet in the arid Chettinad region of southern Tamil Nadu state, is among the last living master practitioners of the craft of making kottans, or palm-leaf baskets.

/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE-CUBA: Play Revisits Censorship of Beatles Music

A middle-aged Cuban rock 'n roll lover takes home the bronze statue of John Lennon that sits on a park bench in the Cuban capital, to make his biggest dream come true: to reunite his old amateur rock band and play for the former Beatle.

/REPEAT/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE: French Filmmaker Leaves African Legacy

Jean Rouch, the French filmmaker, ethnologist and explorer whose movies introduced the cultural richness of Africa to the West and beyond, died last week in a car crash in the African nation of Niger, aged 86.

/ARTS WEEKLY/PAKISTAN: Kite-Flying Heralds Spring’s Arrival, Can be Lethal

Colourful paper kites heralding the onset of spring dot the sky above this ancient fort city and provincial capital in a traditional celebration, for which authorities temporarily lifted a ban against kite-flying.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: When a Flooded Town Is a Laughing Matter

The fictional town of Javé is to be flooded by a dam that Brazil's authorities claim will generate electricity "and progress". The uprooting of its residents would be a sad tale, but it is told in a new film with such humour and human warmth that film-goers have no choice but to laugh.

/ARTS WEEKLY/ART: 20th Century Works Could Draw a Million

A new exhibition of 200 masterpieces of the 20th century at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in Berlin is expected to draw more than a million visitors over the next seven months.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM: India-Pakistan Peace Showing on Silver Screen

India's and Pakistan's governments are still flirting with each other at the diplomatic level, but their film industries are already falling in love - signing up artists from the country otherwise demonised across the border, planning joint productions and promising peace through silver screen.