MOSAIC
22 | Tuesday, July 30, 2019 CHINA DAILY
What’s on
Henry V
When: Aug 1-11, 7:30 pm
Where: Shanghai Dramatic
Arts Center
The Chinese version of Henry
V was jointly translated by the
Shanghai Drama Art Center
and the Royal Shakespeare
Company.
Henry V is a history play by
William Shakespeare, believed
to have been written about
1599.
It tells the story of King Hen-
ry V of England, focusing on
events immediately before and
after the Battle of Agincourt
(1415) during the Hundred
Years’ War.
Soon after he becomes king,
Henry is considering making a
claim to rule France as well as
England. He asks the Archbish-
op of Canterbury how strong
his claim is, but it’s when the
dauphin sends Henry an insult-
ing message that he makes up
his mind and decides to invade
France.
The evening before the bat-
tle, Henry tours the camp in
disguise, finding out what his
men think. It leads him to con-
sider the heavy responsibilities
of kingship.
In the French camp, by con-
trast, confidence is high. As
battle begins, Henry rallies his
troops and places them all in
God’s hands.
As an English victory is con-
firmed, Henry woos and wins
French princess Katherine to
ensure the linking of the two
countries through marriage.Project One China 2019
When: Aug 2, 8 pm
Where: Vas Livehouse, Shanghai
If you have to find an icon for
Hardstyle music, Project One
will certainly be on your list.
Project One is a DJ duo, Head-
hunterz and Wildstylez, from
the Netherlands.
Headhunterz started making
music in 2004, and was recog-
nized by Scantraxx’s founder
Dov Elkabas not long after he
was signed by the label. Wild-
stylez shared a similar experi-
ence.
He started to release music
under Scantraxx from 2007. In
2008, the two finally created
Project One and the rest is his-
tory.
For Hardstyle fans, the
Project One show is so rare
that you have to catch it when
it happens. The show’s sold-out
history has made it one of the
“must-go” shows.National Youth Orchestra
Jazz Asia Tour
When: Aug 6, 7:30 pm
Where: Shanghai Oriental Art
Center
This summer Carnegie Hall’s
National Youth Orchestra Jazz
returns for its second year after
a triumphant Carnegie Hall
debut and inaugural interna-
tional tour last year.
The critically acclaimed
ensemble features 23 out-
standing young jazz musicians,
ages 16 to 19, selected from
across the United States who
will come together for an
extraordinary summer of
music, culminating with the
group’s first-ever Asia tour
from July 29 to Aug 9.
Acclaimed trumpeter Sean
Jones returns to lead the
orchestra, joined by GrammyJuly 30, 1992 marked China’s agree-
ment to join the Universal Copyright
Convention. It formally joined in
October that year.
Solid progress has been made in
recent decades as the country has tak-
en a firm stance on protecting copy-
right and has cracked down on
various forms of infringement,
including piracy.
A photo published on June 2, 1998,
in China Daily showed law-enforce-
ment officials in Fengxian county,
Online
Scan to read
more on
chinadaily.
com.cnEditor’s note: This year marks
the 70th anniversary of the found-
ing of New China.
Wrestlers get to
grips with each
other during heavy
rain at the Torch
Festival in Butuo
county, Liangshan
Yi autonomous
prefecture, Sichuan
province, on July 22.
The festival is cele-
brated by the Yi
ethnic group.
JIANG HONGJING / XINHUA
Candid
camera:
Gripping
spectacle
It’s not as though humans must
kill whales to eat. In Japan, for
example, it’s down to “tradition”.
The only survival at stake is that of
the whales, some species of which
have been hunted to near
extinction.
Immediately after World War II,
things were different. At that time,
the Japanese people in their
bombed-out land, desperately
needed a reliable source of protein,
and whales provided it.
Today things are different.
Whales are no longer a necessary
food source anywhere in the world,
though they continue to generate
pocket change for a handful of res-
taurants or other businesses. It’s
like ivory making money for poach-
ers. But with whales, the devasta-
tion isn’t secret. It takes place in the
open, backed by the authority of the
Japanese government.
The whale hunts have not goneover well with people in China. For
example, more than 90 percent of
Chinese people in an online poll
reported by this newspaper in 2006
said the country should “resolutely
oppose Japanese whaling”.
When the International Whaling
Commission, of which Japan was a
member, imposed a global morato-
rium on commercial whale hunting
in 1986, a fig leaf was allowed for
so-called scientific research.
But let’s be honest: Science can
be about virtually anything — even
counting whale barnacles. Only a
handful of papers were ever pro-
duced by Japan.
Meanwhile, the science exception
in the rules allowed whaling to con-
tinue outside Japan’s economic
zones.
Scientists, of course, don’t need a
whole whale carcass if they’ve
killed it merely to count barnacles.
So the meat and blubber of thoseanimals was conveniently proc-
essed and sold commercially in
Japan.
No sense wasting a perfectly
good dead whale, right?
Now Japan has withdrawn from
the IWC, and full-bore commercial
hunting is on again, which makes
the hearts of those few who stand
to profit palpitate with joy.
I’ve been a hunter myself, and I
don’t object to the practice if the
conditions are right.
Killing animals should be done
out of necessity only, in my view,
and not for sport or tradition.
In my youth, I hunted deer many
times in the wilds of Utah in the
United States. I eventually figured
out that the expense and trouble of
hunting just isn’t worth it — the
game licensing, the preparations
for an extended camping trip, the
cost of fuel, the difficulty of finding
a deer and getting a clear shot witha rifle, then gutting it, cooling the
meat with snow and carrying it out
of a remote, mountainous area to a
butcher that can cut the meat prop-
erly (for a fee).
It’s cheaper to just buy beef from
the supermarket. And beef tastes
better than venison anyway.
And so I gave up big game hunt-
ing. The truth is, I really don’t enjoy
killing beautiful animals.
The only exception for me would
be eating. If I must kill to eat, I have
no problem.
But the Japanese don’t need to
kill whales to eat. They cite culture
as reason to kill these magnificent
animals of the deep — not even
profit or GDP. Were it not for the
$463 million received in annual
government subsidies, the whale
hunting industry would drown
overnight.
That’s because there’s no busi-
ness model.Few people want to eat whale
anymore.
Japanese whale consumption in
1964 was 154,000 tons. By 2017, that
had fallen to a minuscule 3,000
tons. That’s about one big bite of
whale per person annually.
Clearly, it’s a dying industry, or,
more accurately, it’s already dead.
It’s a zombie industry that has no
reason to keep staggering forward.
Traditions that are no longer
observed by any but a tiny fraction
of society are not really traditions,
are they? They are just so much
dead meat.
I understand that the whale
hunting tradition has its origins in
the need to eat. But time marches
on. It’s time to break with the past.
Some people in Japan need a good
shaking.Contact the writer at
[email protected]Why hunt if it’s not necessary? Japan has a bad reason
The chairman of a Japanese
whaling association was quoted
recently as Japan was lifting its
30-year ban on commercial
whaling.
“I’m so moved, my heart is shak-
ing,” Yoshifumi Kai
said on July 1, as
hunting ships
headed out to sea
on their mission of
death.
His was not the
only heart that was
shaking. Mine was
shaking, too, but
for different rea-
sons. I fear for the
endangered spe-
cies of the world — for the great
giants of our planet, the elephants
and whales, and for any creature
great or small that is the victim of
thoughtless human depredation or
greed.
Randy
Wright
Second
Thoughtsnational ranking improving from
13th position in 2017 to eighth last
year among 40 major countries by the
IP composite index, according to an
annual report released by the Intellec-
tual Property Development and
Research Center, affiliated with the
National Intellectual Property
Administration.Jiangsu province, explaining copy-
right to local residents.
Several administrative laws and
regulations devoted to copyright pro-
tection were enacted in the early
1990s. These include the Copyright
Law of the People’s Republic of China
and the Rules for the Implementation
of the Copyright Law, both effective
from 1991, and the Regulation on the
Protection of Computer Software,
which came into effect in October of
that year.
In preparation for China’s entry
into the World Trade Organization,
revisions were made to all these laws
and regulations at the start of the new
millennium.
Since then, China has joined sever-
al international conventions to
expand cooperation.
In 1992, it joined the Berne Conven-
tion for the Protection of Literary andArtistic Works. In
April 1993, it was
accepted as a mem-
ber of the Conven-
tion for the
Protection of Pro-
ducers of Phono-
grams Against
Unauthorized Dupli-
cation of Their Pho-
nograms.
In 2014, China set
up specialized intel-
lectual property
courts in Beijing, Shanghai and
Guangzhou, Guangdong province.
The move marked an important step
forward for the country in dealing
with counterfeiting and providing
greater protection.
Thanks to the efforts, China has
made marked progress in intellectual
property development, with its inter-This Day, That Year
years
onWeChat enables in-flight mobile payment
Social media platform
WeChat has made in-flight
mobile payment possible
by post-landing settle-
ment. WeChat Pay rolled
out a pilot in-flight mobile
payment service last week
for passengers taking two
flights with Spring Airlines.
Users with a credit score
above 550 can apply for the service, which enables them to make
purchases without access to the internet during the flight, and
pay automatically via their accounts after landing. The service
will be promoted to other flights to improve the in-flight shopping
experience, according to WeChat.
Climate change study shows faster warming
The Earth is warming faster and for a longer period than at any
time in the last 2,000 years, a new study says. Researchers from
the Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research at Switzer-
land’s University of Bern said their research debunks a hypothe-
sis — one often cited by climate skeptics
— that cyclical warming and cooling peri-
ods have occurred naturally across the
globe during the last 2,000 years, accord-
ing to the study published last week in the
journal Nature. Using a database from the
international research consortium Past
Global Changes, the researchers were
able to investigate the climate data of five
preindustrial climate epochs.
Online
Scan to read
more on our Sina
Weibo pageCulture: Museum
unveils beast books
The Palace Museum delved into
their records to create a series
of children’s books that focused
on real and imaginary crea-
tures. The three-book series
introduces 120 types of animals
recorded in the archives of the
museum. Most were real ani-
mals, while others were imagi-
native beasts with a profound
connection to culture. The
books are divided into beasts,
birds and marine animals. The
series is based on the ancient
books written and edited by
scholars and artists of the Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911).World: Sign-language
supermarket in UK
Food retailer Sainsbury’s has
unveiled the United Kingdom’s
first “sign store” in Bath, Somer-
set, as part of its 150 Days of
Community initiative. The store
makes shopping easier for cus-
tomers who are hard of hearing.
In the supermarket, staff com-
municate with customers both
verbally and through sign lan-guage. It is estimated that
around 11 million people in the
United Kingdom live with hear-
ing loss, approximately 35,000
of whom live in Bath.Tech: Smart pot tells
how plants feel
Thanks to a clever design, you
can now transform your favorite
houseplant into a virtual pet with
the ability to communicate its
needs. Created by Belgian
designer Vivien Muller of Mu
Design, the Lua smart plant pot
shows 15 different animated
emotions based on how the
plants are feeling. Sensors in the
pot trigger different animations
depending on the soil’s mois-
ture, light exposure and temper-
ature. The pot is connected to an
app that allows you to select thetype of plant and customize your
settings.Rankings: China rises in
global 500 companies
The world’s 500 largest compa-
nies generated $32.7 trillion in
revenues and $2.15 trillion in
profits in 2018. Together, this
year’s Fortune Global 500 com-
panies employ 69.3 million peo-
ple worldwide and are
represented by 34 countries. A
total of 129 Chinese companies
feature in the ranking, passing
the United States for the first
time, which has 121 companies
listed. Behind Walmart — whose
revenue was $514.41 billion —
Sinopec last year recorded a 26.8
percent growth in revenue to
$414.65 billion and profits of
$5.85 billion, a year-on-year
growth of 280 percent. Visit our
website to find out more.The newspaper and beyond
On our Sina Weibo On chinadaily.com.cn
Award-winning jazz vocalist
Kurt Elling as special guest
artist, bringing his signature
baritone voice and unparal-
leled prowess to the engage-
ments.Le Corsaire
Teatro alla Scala
When: Aug 8 and 9, 7:30 pm
Where: National Center for the
Performing Arts, Beijing
Le Corsaire (The Pirate) is a
ballet in three acts, with a
libretto based on the poem The
Corsair by Lord Byron.
It tells a love story of pirate
Conrad. Conrad seizes Medora
and declares his love for her.
Conrad’s right-hand man, who
is jealous of Conrad, sends
Medora back to the slave deal-
er who again sells her to Pasha.
Conrad and his men show up to
take Medora away again but he
is recognized through his dis-
guise, captured, and sentenced
to death.Let Love Win
When: Aug 10 and 11, 7:30 pm
Where: National Center for the
Performing Arts, Beijing
Hungarian shadow theater
group Attraction rose to fame
during a performance at the
London 2012 Olympics, in
which they depicted many tra-
ditional sports within the five
Olympic rings. They also won
Britain’s Got Talent in 2013.
The National Center for the
Performing Arts will see them
perform their production of the
new piece Let Love Win.
Starting with a boy’s growth
experience, this work presents
changes in his mood when he
grows from a son into a father.
The story centers on the
relationship between father
and son.Tegami
When: Aug 22-25, 7:30 pm
Where: Great Theater of China,
Shanghai
Based on Japanese author
Keigo Higashino’s novel of the
same name, the Chinese
version of the musical Tegami
(The Letters) tells the story of
the younger brother of a crimi-
nal who suffers discrimination
and prejudice from the people
surrounding him.
Takeshi’s letter is delivered
each month to his younger
brother, Naoki.
Takeshi is serving a life term
in prison for a crime he com-
mitted to save his brother.
But the crime’s consequen-
ces extend to Naoki, and,
branded as a “murderer’s
brother”, Naoki is deprived of
his love, career and dream.
His desperate situation grad-
ually changes when he finds
true love with Yumiko, who
always stands by him.
To protect the love that he
has finally found, Naoki begins
writing a letter to his brother.
It is the touching story of a
man who was powerless
against his irreversible fate, but
still tried to overcome it in the
quest for his dream.