Original by Chang Xu China Social Science Network China is one of the first countries in the world to discover and utilize oil. "Hanshu Geography" records that "Gaonu has water (fertilizer) that can burn", indicating that people had discovered oil in northern Shaanxi more than 2,000 years ago.
Do the candidates in Tianjin know which normal universities are there in Tianjin? What is their ranking? Let’s take a look with the YJBYS editor.
Under the sharp price reduction, lithium carbonate may take off the expensive hat of "white oil". At present, lithium carbonate has started a "200,000 yuan defense battle." According to Wind data, the average price of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate has dropped to 215,000 yuan/ton on April 6.
Recently, Mr. Jin from Shenyang reported to a reporter from Securities Daily that last month he held a joint credit card between a bank and a large supermarket, but 500 yuan was deducted by the relevant bank without notifying him. This money was the supermarket credit card refund he used to redeem his points.
Welcome to apply for Tianjin University of Finance and Economics!
Letters are a type of practical writing. Letters are also a tool for ancient communication. So how to write a letter essay format? Below is the relevant content compiled by the editor, I hope it will be helpful to you. Letter essay format: Generally, letters can be divided into title, body and conclusion.
Guangdong's bank card industry is relatively developed. According to data, Guangdong's bank card consumption currently accounts for 67.56% of the province's retail sales of social goods.
There is a high probability that Chongqing’s property market will experience a critical recovery in 2026. First, policies are being loosened across the board. In the first month of the new year, there are frequent signals in the real estate industry. First, "Qiushi" magazine published a blockbuster article "Improving and Stabilizing Real Estate Market Expectations"
The payment circle has been particularly lively recently. Payment institutions have changed from usual and have spoken out, clearly stating that they will strictly implement Document No. 259 and implement "one machine, one code, one machine, one account". It seems that the stubborn problem of code hopping and cashing out will be completely rectified. However, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that
Railways are an important means of transportation in our country. Our country is in the stage of rapid development of railways. At present, there is a large shortage of railway professionals in our country, and railway professionals are indispensable for training in railway schools. There are many railway schools in our country, but in the face of so many railway schools
Approval|Black Jade Red
It seems like it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a film in which the real-life encounter between the protagonist and the actor is so intertextual.
In December 2025, the movie "Marty Supreme" will be released in North America. The film, which tells the story of the gambler-like life of Marty Mauser, an American table tennis player who relied on his talent and arrogance in the early 1950s, has received widespread praise and has a Rotten Tomatoes fresh rating of 97%. Timothée Chalamet, who plays Marty, received unanimous recognition for his performance.
In January 2026, the North American box office of "Marty Supreme" broke the previous record of "The Universe" (2022), also produced by the American independent film company A24. In early February, the film's global box office exceeded US$147 million, and subsequently became A24's highest box office with a global box office of US$180 million. Starring Timothy won the 83rd Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy and the 31st American Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor. "Marty" also swept a total of 9 Oscar nominations this year from technical to acting categories. He is also regarded as the most powerful contender for Best Actor at this Oscar.
At the end of February, Timothy, who seemed to be dazzled by the victory, said casually on a talk show that "opera and ballet are arts that no one cares about" and he did not want to engage in such work. Realizing that the trouble came from his mouth, he immediately tried to make amends, but to no avail. He was criticized on a large scale, and world-renowned theaters such as the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Ballet, and the Los Angeles Opera, as well as a large number of ballet and opera singers, publicly criticized and boycotted him. Some theaters also mockingly use "Timothy" as a promotional code, which you can enter to get a discount when purchasing tickets.
In March, at the 98th Academy Awards, Timothy missed out on the Best Actor award. "Marty Extreme" scored "0 out of 9 nominations". As the film's producer and starring actor, he couldn't hide his disappointment. The Oscar's failure may have indirectly caused the film's box office failure in the mainland market. Despite Timothy's vigorous promotion in China, the film's box office in its first week was less than 3 million yuan, and the cumulative box office forecast as of press time was less than 4 million yuan.
Timothy's frivolous personality and experience of having tasted some sweetness with his talent, but was beaten by fame and fortune, are exactly the same as the Marty he played.
Marty is a dazed young man in a Jewish immigrant community, struggling all day long on the Lower East Side. He resists the worldly stability of being a shoe store manager planned by his uncle, and wants to use his table tennis talent to achieve a kind of success that will go down in history and be noticed by the world, where there will be champagne, luxury suites, and front-page headlines - this is exactly the kind of Upper East Side image that director Woody Allen created for Timothy in "A Rainy Day in New York."
With an outstanding performance, Timothy bid farewell to his previous literary and artistic image of "Sweet Tea" (this is the nickname given to him by Chinese audiences based on the pronunciation of his name and image and temperament), and found Josh Safdie, who has a very authorial image and style, as the director, and used table tennis player Marty Reisman. Reisman)’s experience and character’s spirit, and with a sleek and powerful new screen image, he customized this ambitious performance award-winning “Oscarbait” for himself.
Marty's thunderous speech in the film is no less controversial than Timothy's real-life remarks. Before the semifinals, he told reporters, "I am the ultimate product of Hitler's defeat." He also said before the finals against Japanese player Endo, "Tomorrow I will drop the third atomic bomb on their heads." But I don’t know if he was “guilty for his words.” Regardless of the so-called Academy Award wins, the judges of the Film Association wanted to use the result of no Oscars to teach him and this film a lesson.
This is exactly what the capitalist, pen and ink king Milton Rockwell does to Marty in the film.
After Marty lost to the Japanese player Endo in the London International Table Tennis Competition in 1952, Rockwell wanted to use match-fixing to hold a challenge match before the next international championship held in Japan, and arranged for Marty to lose to Endo again. It is intended to promote products in the Japanese market through the strategy of manipulating national emotions. Marty fiercely refused and attacked Rockwell's son who died in the Pacific War. "I find it funny that you want to please the Japanese so desperately and they kill your son." However, a series of chaotic events in the later period caused Marty to be unable to raise travel expenses to the World Championships in Japan, so he had no choice but to turn back. Finally, Rockwell asked Marty to take off his pants in front of everyone and hit him on the butt with a bat to humiliate and teach him a lesson, claiming that he was angry with his dead son.
Through the above carefully designed dangerous lines and character settings, "Supreme Marty" not only brilliantly demonstrates the subtle psychology and entanglements behind different positions, identities and ethnic groups after the end of World War II, but also vividly brings us back to the gap of an era and the life atmosphere where politics follows us like a ghost. Behind every action and choice, there is politics and position.
In 1952, the "San Francisco Compact" officially came into effect, and the occupation led by the U.S. Allied Forces ended. Japan regained its sovereignty and could re-participate in international affairs including sports events, so Endo appeared in international events in 1952. For Endo, a table tennis player from defeated Japan, and Japanese nationals, the court is a battlefield. After Endo defeated American player Marty, he was regarded as a national hero. The film shows this through a newsreel showing Endo being embraced after returning home from victory.
Entrepreneur Rockwell wanted to use Marty's failure to please the Japanese market. In his eyes, fascism targeted the Jews, but in the Pacific War, "my son died to liberate you." The Japanese and the Jews were respectively the direct and indirect causes of his son's death. Rockwell confuses the murder of Jews in the early days of fascism with the later Japanese-American War. This successful capitalist used the death of his son to package himself as a victim and a failed father. But in business, he was able to temporarily or selectively forget that his son died in the war with Japan, which shows the logic of capital that business overrides everything.
Marty, who lives in a Jewish community in the United States, has no "hatred of country and family" for the game like Endo. What he wants to achieve is the success of Vanity Fair, which is ancillary to winning the championship. He does not represent a group, only himself. In his own words, "I live in a community where it's every man for himself." Another Jewish table tennis player in the film, former world champion Kretzky, after Rockwell discovered the concentration camp number tattoo on his arm, told the story of how he narrowly escaped death in a concentration camp with his skills and how he covered his body with honey in the wild and returned to the concentration camp to be licked by his roommates to supplement nutrition. The contrast between the attitudes and behavior of the two Jewish players leaves nothing to be desired.
Kretzky's memories are presented through real-life photography. Although it may seem awkward, this was an intentional move by Josh Safdie, the film's director and co-writer. The film chose Géza Röhrig, star of the classic Nazi Holocaust film "Son of Saul", to play Kretzky. This time he no longer passively cleaned up the Jewish prisoners who had turned into corpses in the gas chambers, but took the initiative to save them.
Using restless images, tense rhythm, frequent scenes, fast editing and non-routine stories to express the disordered life of a morally flawed protagonist is what the directors Safdie Brothers are good at.
In 2025, the Safdie brothers stopped collaborating as a creative duo for the first time, and coincidentally both chose to shoot sports-character movies (brother Ben Safdie shot UFC legend Mark Cole, starring Dwayne Johnson). "Supreme Marty"'s grasp of the times and presentation of complex characters allowed the director to achieve new breakthroughs and meanings while continuing his personal characteristics and advantages. Therefore, "Supreme Marty" can surpass all his previous works and become the best of Josh Safdie's current career.
The films of the Safdie brothers have a distinct authorial attribute, and the core driving force of the characters in their lenses is a gambler's mentality. The protagonist who is full of complexity will always rationalize his gambling behavior in his actions, because what lies behind it is often the only glimmer of hope left after he has spent everything.
At the same time, in the gambling and struggle of life, the current situation of social life, which is mostly from the bottom, is also presented. In "Heaven Knows What," it's a drug-addicted girl's choice and wandering among dating partners. In "Good Time," it's a brother's desperate attempt to help his cognitively impaired brother escape from prison. In "Uncut," Gems) is about a drug-addicted diamond dealer who uses an opal that NBA players regard as having spiritual power to make a comeback in the casino. In "Marty Supreme", it is about the table tennis player who wants to win his future in a life that goes against his wishes.
Unlike the director's previous series of backfired O. Henry-esque endings, Josh Safdie has Marty win the game at the end, but his approach is still poignant. In order to make a comeback in the Japanese World Championships, Marty had to attend the exhibition match designed by Rockwell and lost to Endo again as agreed. When he learned on the spot that he had been disqualified from this year's tournament and was humiliatingly assigned to kiss a pig, he chose to reveal the truth about match-fixing on stage and challenge again. After experiencing the shock of the first failure and the humiliation of the second failure, this time he fought for himself.
The film arranges a wonderful paradox here. Victory will bring nothing to Marty. Rockwell warned that if he did this, not only would he not get paid, but he would not even be able to return to the United States on the plane he came from because he was penniless. So in this game, Marty no longer fights for the fame and fortune attached to success, but only fights for success itself. This kind of design also gives the characters a color of existential philosophy, making them more profound and vivid.
Marty, who returned to the United States on a US military withdrawal plane, saw his newborn child. He was filled with tears after refusing to acknowledge the child before. Will he embark on a new and stable life path this time? Is this path actually good or bad?
Marty achieved nothing but success after failure in previous competitions and life. "Marty" failed to win an Oscar after winning awards with a bright future. Between the two intertextualities, we cannot measure the excellence and success of a film solely by the Oscar, because treating the Oscar as the ultimate victory is as ironic as the stories Safdie wants to tell us in his film.
China News Service, Beijing, April 10 (Reporter Wang Enbo) China's National Bureau of Statistics announced on the 10th that China's industrial producer price index (PPI) in March increased by 0.5% year-on-year from a decrease of 0.9% in the previous month, which was the first increase after 41 consecutive months of decline.
Dong Lijuan, chief statistician of the Urban Department of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that in March, international imported factors affected the year-on-year price increases or decreases in China's related industries. For example, prices in the non-ferrous metal mining and processing industry increased by 36.4% year-on-year, and prices in the non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry increased by 22.4%, an increase of 6.2 and 0.3 percentage points respectively from the previous month; prices in the oil and natural gas mining industry increased by 5.2% from a decrease of 12.9% in the previous month.
At the same time, the supply and demand relationship in some industries in China has improved, and prices have risen. As the market competition order continues to optimize, the manufacturing prices of photovoltaic equipment and components and lithium-ion battery manufacturing have increased by 5.2% and 2.5% year-on-year respectively; "artificial intelligence +" has accelerated its expansion and the demand for computing power has grown rapidly. The price of optical fiber manufacturing has increased by 76.1% year-on-year, and the price of external storage equipment and components has increased by 21.1% year-on-year.
From a month-on-month perspective that better reflects recent price changes, China's PPI rose by 1.0% in March, rising for six consecutive months. The increase expanded by 0.6 percentage points from the previous month, the largest increase in 48 months.
Among the major industries, affected by the sharp rise in international crude oil and other prices, prices in petroleum-related industries rose rapidly. Among them, the price of oil and natural gas extraction industry increased by 15.8% month-on-month, the price of petroleum, coal and other fuel processing industry increased by 5.8%, and the price of chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing industry increased by 3.6%. The increase was 10.7, 5.4 and 2.3 percentage points respectively compared with the previous month. This was the main reason for the expansion of PPI month-on-month increase.
Pang Ming, a distinguished senior researcher at the National Finance and Development Laboratory, analyzed that China's PPI turned from negative to positive year-on-year in March. The main driving force came from disturbances in the international energy market and the recovery of domestic production means prices, marking that the profit improvement in the industrial sector has entered a period of substantial realization. The subsequent PPI is expected to enter a moderate expansion range, but whether the trend can continue still needs to be observed in the dual changes in the global energy market and domestic industrial production. (over)
Author | China Business News He Tao
During this year’s Qingming Festival, two pieces of news about sacrifices formed an intriguing contrast.
One is "Cao Cao's tomb is filled with ibuprofen" which is a hot search topic. Historical records record that Cao Cao suffered from migraines all year round, so many young people "prescribed the right medicine" and brought various kinds of ibuprofen to worship him. Similar examples include bringing wine to Li Bai, potato chips and spicy strips to Huo Qubing, paper to Cai Lun, and "Ma Yinglong" to Zhang Juzheng...
Another video in Liaoyang, Liaoning, that appeared to be "buried with a Mercedes-Benz" sparked heated discussion on social platforms. On April 10, the Gongchangling District Government of Liaoyang City announced that the person involved, Jin, violated the law and illegally buried the vehicle due to feudal superstition. After criticism and education from relevant departments, the parties concerned have deeply realized their mistakes and actively cooperated in rectification. Suspected violations of laws and regulations are being dealt with seriously.
It is also an "unconventional" way of offering sacrifices, but judging from public reactions, most of them smile knowingly at the former, but are generally disgusted with the latter. Behind this, it reflects contemporary society's redefinition of the core value of sacrificial behavior: the vitality of sacrificial rituals does not lie in the luxury of material forms, but in the sincerity of emotional expression and the consistency of civilization orientation.
In traditional sacrifices, burning paper money and offering sacrifices are common forms. The logic is that "death is like life", trying to provide material security for the deceased in another world. However, the young man sending ibuprofen to Cao Cao was obviously not based on this superstitious logic.
Qingming festivals are often solemn and solemn because they evoke heavy thoughts of the deceased loved ones. Perhaps because the ancients were not relatives, young people's memorials to them were less heavy and more relaxed, so they offered all kinds of imaginative sacrifices.
The core of this kind of sacrificial behavior is more of a kind of ideological empathy and stress relief. They may have projected the hardships they encountered in their lives onto the ancients. As someone on the Internet lamented: Give Cao Cao ibuprofen and you will be cured.
"Burying a Mercedes-Benz with a car" is a continuation of the logic of material offerings, and highlights the tendency of the parties involved to advocate the ancient idea of "thick burial". Regardless of whether a luxury car can really be "used" by the deceased, this behavior actually extends the mentality of material comparison and showing off wealth in the real world to the field of funerals.
Funeral civilization undoubtedly needs to keep pace with the times. Today in the 21st century, how to bury and worship one's ancestors is no longer purely a matter of "personal freedom" and how one wants to do it, but must comply with public order and good customs, and act in accordance with the law and regulations.
Our country’s funeral management regulations clearly stipulate that funeral management adheres to civility, frugality, and green ecology, and encourages the adoption of funeral methods that meet ecological environmental protection and land-saving requirements. The cost of "burying a Mercedes-Benz with a car" is exaggerated, requires a lot of land, and may pollute the environment. It is obviously contrary to these regulations. The official notification also pointed out that the parties involved were suspected of violating laws and regulations such as the Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, the Forest Law of the People's Republic of China, and the Funeral Management Regulations.
In contrast, the "fancy memorial" behavior of the ancients, although the sacrifice itself is not a traditional thing, consumes very little material, does not occupy additional land, does not cause environmental pollution, and does not violate any laws. More importantly, it conveys knowledge, humor and warmth rather than showing off wealth and superstition. Today, when land resources are becoming increasingly scarce and the whole society advocates "thick maintenance and poor burial" and green and ecological funerals, it is self-evident which behavior is more in line with the direction of civilization.
Looking at the deeper level, the reason why young people "sending ibuprofen to Cao Cao" is widely accepted and even regarded as a cultural phenomenon is because it may create a new paradigm for dialogue with history and tradition. In addition to the traditional ancestor worship culture, young people began to use their own thoughts and actions to complete their tribute and identity to the nation's "cultural ancestors". This is also a kind of spiritual self-comfort.
Faced with "bringing ibuprofen to Cao Cao" and "burying a Mercedes Benz with him", the reason why we have a clear distinction between love and hate is because we clearly see that the dignity of sacrifice comes from the sincerity of the heart and the civilization of the behavior. A box of painkillers worth a few yuan is extremely precious because it carries understanding and care spanning thousands of years; a luxury car worth hundreds of thousands is vulgar because it is full of ostentation, superstition and disregard for the law.
This enlightens us that the key to changing customs is not to simply deny tradition, but to return to people's true emotional needs on the track of the rule of law and public order and good customs. This is a more vital way of cultural inheritance.
Translator: Chen Sihang
Proofreading: Yi Ersan
Source: Sight & Sound
Translator's note: There is no doubt that Jean-Luc Godard is a living cinematic myth. From "Breathless" during the French New Wave in the 1960s, to a series of political modernist films later, and then to the jaw-dropping "History of Cinema", it can be said that Godard has been subverting tradition and overturning people's definition of "cinema" from beginning to end.
In 2018, Godard's "Book of Images" won the "Special Palme d'Or" at the Cannes Film Festival. It's certainly special and it's difficult to juxtapose this film with other Palme d'Or nominees.
"Book of Images"
Like all of Godard's middle and later films, "The Book of Images" challenges traditional film concepts from various angles and seems difficult to be understood by the vast majority of audiences. This film review from the famous film review magazine "Sight and Sound" may provide the audience with a way to understand Godard.
The first image we see is Leonardo da Vinci's "John the Baptist." In this painting, John the Baptist is gazing at the viewer with something of a smirk. His right hand points to heaven, to salvation. There is still debate even among art historians, but according to the most common view, this mysterious painting is considered to be Leonardo da Vinci's last work.
Eighty-eight-year-old Jean-Luc Godard quoted one part of this oil painting at the beginning of "The Book of Images", which is the hand pointing to heaven. The hand is severed from the composition and enlarged until it fills the entire screen. Godard drained it of color, leaving a pattern of light gray on a black background, like the result of a photocopier repeated several times.
"Book of Images"
"The Book of Images" is full of ambiguous intertextuality. However, in this first "gesture", the central idea of Godard's sad image essay is already clearly discernible.
Godard scoured all kinds of multimedia resources and reorganized these image fragments in unique ways, turning them into some kind of strange replicas. He sacrifices the authenticity of the image and pursues a certain kind of abstraction, damage and imitation, which refers to the flexibility and changeability of contemporary visual culture.
Throughout the five chapters of the film, the idea of "manipulation" - etymologically speaking, "manipulation" comes from the Latin "manipulus", meaning "handmade" - is ubiquitous, which is closely related to the digital form of the film ("digital" comes from the Latin "digitus", meaning "finger" or "toe").
Throughout the film, "The Book of Images" ponders what possibilities are contained in redemption and beauty, which can allow us to survive in this terrifying and uncertain world for a long time. Until the end, Godard coughed and declared his own way, calling on us to have the "most earnest hope" when facing this "deepest night".
"Book of Images"
In his epic series of films "The History of Cinema" (1989-1998), Godard turned to digital video media and a collage-like creative method to "shoot" a special, non-linear film history.
His "History of Film" is a story about degradation and redemption, mainly based on the tradition of European and American films, serving more the director's personal views than the facts themselves. Godard called it "La réponse des ténèbres" (The Reply to Darkness). The darkness he spoke of was not just catastrophes like the Holocaust, but the growing sense of disappointment and frustration in the postwar era.
However, all this did not erase his love for movies. Godard has always shown a passion for those unforgettable images, as well as a certain unique belief. This belief can be defined in the discussion of film critic Serge Dardenne: "Cinephilia does not refer to the relationship between people and movies, but to the connection between people and the world through movies."
"Book of Images"
One way to approach "The Book of Images" is as an extension of the "History of Film" series. Of course we can't forget the short film "Origins of the 21st Century" (2000), which also uses this technique.
In The Book of Images , many of Godard's concerns, many of the images he uses are the same, and even the stylistic elements of the film are the same. In his hands, montage was a form of expression of thought.
The title of the first chapter "Remake", as well as countless cases in his previous films, can be evidence of this. Generally speaking, the task of viewers of Godard's films is not only to find the sources from which he quoted the films, but also to find the place of these sources in "Godard's universe": "quotes for quotation madmen".
At the end of The Book of Images, Godard expresses some kind of utopian hope in a black screen. The need for counterargument and defiance, he claims, will never go away. After that, he cut into a dance scene from Max Ophuls's Euphoria (1952).
An old man disguising himself as a young man and dancing on the dance floor until he faints from weakness - this is a perfect example of the expression just mentioned, and the old man can also be seen as an incarnation of Godard himself.
Our interpretation can stop here, but it can also go one step further: this exquisite image shot by the Jewish director who just returned from exile depicts the joy of burning and the depletion after the flames burn out. The melancholic soundtrack to this image comes from Hans Otter’s piano.
In "The Origin of the 21st Century", we also heard Hans Otter's piano music, accompanied by a subtitle board indicating "1900". Godard's first article for Cahiers du Cinema was about "Pleasure" (but it was rejected).
In 1962, Godard called Euphoria the best French film since the end of World War II. This beloved film by Godard, with its inferior and dirty copy, carries many layers of time and meaning - from the birth of cinema, to World War II, to the French New Wave, and to today. Film history became a way to discuss politics and Godard himself.
"Happiness"
In the late 1960s, Godard issued a call to "return to the origin"; and at the end of "The Book of Images", he made another declaration of returning to nature.
The second and third chapters of this film make a lot of references to World War II, trying to demonstrate how civilization became an accomplice of barbarism. This is also the core proposition of "Film History". Through Godard's montage, the Lumière brothers' train picks up the train transporting people to the concentration camps. We also see traces of Hollywood films: Hitchcock, Aldrich, Browning and so on.
However, The Book of Images also touches on new themes. Because Godard has long adopted the method of "remaking", the authenticity of the image has never been his highest ideal - this is the connection created between "The Deserter" (1954) and "The Little Soldier" (1963) in the early stages of the film. If "The Book of Images" is indeed a recreation of history, then this "repetition" must contain some differences.
"Book of Images"
Godard rethinks his early creations, when "cinema" was understood as a kind of architecture, a technology or a site of practice. Today, this concept is replaced by the new concept of "image". Images are regarded as independent individuals, not bound by any rules, separated from any real material materials, and can be circulated around the world. With the click of a mouse, they can be compressed, uploaded, and changed in form.
The collision between image and text embodied in the title of The Book of Images is more than just a tribute to Alexander Aschuk’s caméra-stylo. Godard gives equal importance to how digital imaging essentially becomes a means of writing. Based on the code, the film's images become a field of change and transformation under the author's instructions.
Although Godard did not deny the documentary power of indexical images, he was more inclined to express the various ways of manipulating images: including suddenly changing the frame of the film, making the image appear highly unnatural colors, animation-like effects and intermittent "glitches."
"Book of Images"
The sky suddenly turns orange or vermilion; the movements of characters are broken down into intermittent still images. High-definition images are mixed with heavily processed copies, just as masterpieces of film and art history are mixed with vulgar videos of sex and death.
In The Book of Images, Godard explores the unique plasticity of these new images and the highly variable effects when they are mixed together. It can be said that this film simultaneously understands the evolution of media history from two levels: "rupture" and "continuation."
Cinema was no longer a dictatorship, for Godard used all his techniques to create a broader catalog of images. Like digital visual culture itself, The Book of Images is confusing, highly overloaded, extremely mixed, intermittent, layered, and endlessly repetitive. The film's soundtrack shares these characteristics: it is both multichannel and multilingual.
At times, many different sounds appear simultaneously, vying for the audience's attention, while staccato music plays. Godard’s murmurings are heard throughout, but they are less of a lead-in and more like another element in this chaotic hodgepodge of sounds, with the same status as the other sounds.
"Book of Images"
The geopolitical scope of The Book of Images is completely different from that of The History of Cinema. Perhaps in response to the new conflicts of the twenty-first century, and in response to the increasingly prominent issues surrounding Eurocentrism, Godard chose a more global image.
Images discussing the Middle East occupy a very prominent position, especially in the fifth chapter "Central Area". It can be said that almost half of the images in this film are related to the Middle East.
And this fifth chapter is the closest that The Book of Images comes to any other kind of narrative form. The film tells the story of the fictional Gulf kingdom of Dofa, a country that unfortunately - or fortunately - lacks oil resources and is home to a failed revolution.
In this chapter, Godard spends a lot of time collecting evidence and analyzing the concept of "Orientalism," a prejudice against the Middle East that pervades many cinematic representations of the region. A subtitle board reading "In Western Eyes" flashed across the screen several times.
"Book of Images"
We see passages from the films of Pasolini and Raoul Walsh, and we even ride on a magic carpet from classic Arab films like Youssef Suchin's The Algerian Girl (also known as Gamila, 1958) to new, high-definition images of everyday life.
Godard abstracts a common stereotype from these images and points out the important role of the photographer's subject, who exists outside the subject. In the narration, Godard points out the violence inherent in the act of "speaking on behalf of" others, contrasting this brutal essence with "the inner calm of the act."
If most of the fifth chapter of "The Book of Images" is mainly an indictment of the West and its films, then its tone suddenly changes in the last few minutes of the film. Even before the end, the quote to Elias Canetti is so sad and true - "If we always want the world to be better, then we will never stop grieving" - but Godard ends what may be his final film with a plea.
This plea is not just about the movie, but about every action for justice, every moment of life: "This fact does not affect our hope even if it does not change anything."
All county and district people's governments, and all relevant departments and units of the municipal government:
"Several Policies and Measures to Support the High-Quality Development of Bengbu Comprehensive Bonded Zone" has been approved by the municipal government and is now issued to you. Please implement it carefully.
October 9, 2024
(This article is released to the public)
Regarding supporting the high-quality development of Bengbu Comprehensive Bonded Zone
Several policy initiatives
In order to better leverage the platform advantages of the Comprehensive Bonded Zone (hereinafter referred to as the Comprehensive Bonded Zone), coordinate and mobilize resources, accelerate the acceptance, construction, investment and other aspects of work, lead and serve the city to actively integrate into the new development pattern, promote high-level opening up to the outside world, and assist industrial transformation and upgrading and high-quality development, the following policy measures are proposed.
1. Concentrate efforts to cultivate bonded industry
1. Clarify industry positioning. Focusing on leading industries such as new displays, electronic information, new energy, new materials, and equipment manufacturing, we will create an industry-based comprehensive bonded zone with bonded processing as the core, bonded logistics as the support, and bonded services as supporting services, and innovatively develop high-end service formats such as industrial design and professional exhibitions. (Responsible units: Municipal Investment and Foreign Cooperation Center, Municipal High-tech Zone Management Committee, Municipal Commerce and Foreign Affairs Bureau, Municipal Development and Reform Commission)
2． Strengthen investment promotion. Give full play to the role of the existing fund jungle, support the joint establishment of industrial development funds in the Comprehensive Bonded Zone at the urban and municipal levels, and implement special support for key enterprises that have established national or regional (provincial level or above) headquarters in the zone, or high-quality projects that have made outstanding contributions in functional innovation, business development, industrial improvement, import and export volume, etc. (Responsible units: Municipal High-tech Zone Management Committee, Beng Investment Group, Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal Investment and Foreign Cooperation Center) Encourage foreign investment projects to settle in the Comprehensive Bonded Zone and implement corresponding support policies. (Responsible units: Municipal Commerce and Foreign Affairs Bureau, Municipal Finance Bureau)
3. Strengthen municipal coordination. Support other counties and districts (development zones) in attracting industrial projects in the Comprehensive Bonded Area by purchasing land or leasing factories, and promote major export-oriented high-tech, high value-added manufacturing and producer service projects to settle in the Comprehensive Bonded Area. Strengthen policy publicity and training, and support and guide enterprises and projects in the city that are in line with the industrial positioning and business characteristics of the Comprehensive Bonded Zone to enter the zone for development. [Responsible units: Municipal Investment Promotion and Foreign Cooperation Center, county and district governments (Municipal High-tech Zone Management Committee, Municipal Economic Development Zone Management Committee)]
2. Improve the level of innovation and development
4. Support R&D and innovation. Support the construction of innovation platforms such as various industrial innovation centers, corporate technology centers, engineering research centers, new R&D institutions, and key laboratories. Enterprises in the zone that successfully create national and provincial innovation platforms, win national, provincial and ministerial science and technology awards established in accordance with the "Regulations on National Science and Technology Awards", are approved for invention patents, and participate in the drafting of national or industry standards will be rewarded and subsidized in accordance with current municipal-level policies. (Responsible units: Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Industry and Information Technology Bureau, Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, Municipal Finance Bureau)
5. Expand trade formats. Promote the development of processing and manufacturing enterprises in the zone to the high end of the industrial chain such as R&D, logistics, sales, maintenance, and remanufacturing, guide various large-scale enterprises such as processing trade, logistics warehousing, and e-commerce to set up financial centers and settlement centers in the zone, and actively develop new bonded service formats such as cross-border e-commerce, display transactions, and inspection and maintenance. (Responsible units: Municipal High-tech Zone Management Committee, Municipal Commerce and Foreign Affairs Bureau, Bengbu Customs)
6． Encourage joint innovation. Promote the construction of smart comprehensive bonded areas and improve the digital management level of comprehensive bonded areas. Support the innovative "region-port integration" path between the Comprehensive Bonded Zone, water transport ports, railway freight yards, etc. to achieve coordinated development. Deepen the coordinated development of comprehensive bonded areas and free trade pilot zones, and strengthen the replication and promotion of institutional innovation results. (Responsible units: Municipal High-tech Zone Management Committee, Municipal Commerce and Foreign Affairs Bureau, Bengbu Customs)
3. Optimize customs supervision and service guarantees
7. Optimize regulatory services. Innovate customs clearance supervision service models to further simplify business processes and facilitate the flow of goods. Support enterprises in the zone to apply for advanced certification enterprises (AEO), give priority to credit cultivation certification, and expand the scope of guarantee exemption for advanced certification companies. Support customs, market supervision, taxation, financial institutions and other departments to provide more convenience to enterprises in the zone in terms of registration and filing, tax collection and management, foreign exchange receipts and payments, and cross-border guarantees. (Responsible units: Bengbu Customs, Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, Municipal Taxation Bureau, Bengbu Branch of the People’s Bank of China)
8. Strengthen talent introduction and education. Support the allocation of personnel to strengthen the comprehensive protection zone management agency and improve the level of professionalism. Support key industrial enterprises in the zone to introduce high-level talents and basic industry talents, provide classified housing rental subsidies, house purchase subsidies and other policies, and provide qualified high-level talents in the zone with services such as children's education, family employment, and medical care. Support key enterprises in the area to apply for national, provincial and municipal key talent projects, and provide financial support to selected talents and teams. (Responsible units: Municipal High-tech Zone Management Committee, Municipal Party Committee Organization Department, Municipal Party Committee Editorial Office, Municipal Party Committee Talent Work Bureau)
9． Strengthen financial support. Guide financial institutions and government financing guarantee companies to increase service support for enterprises in the region. Encourage financial institutions, insurance, guarantee companies, industrial investment institutions and comprehensive bonded area management agencies to carry out docking cooperation, innovate financial support methods, develop targeted financial products, and meet the diversified financing needs of enterprises in the area. (Responsible units: Bengbu Branch of the People's Bank of China, Bengbu Financial Supervision Bureau, Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal High-tech Zone Management Committee)
10. Ensure project implementation. Coordinate resource elements such as land and funds, and give priority to supporting the construction of comprehensive protected areas. Encourage the adoption of standard land transfer methods to improve the performance of industrial land in the region. For high-quality, major and traction projects, energy-saving review will be guided and supported by the municipal level. (Responsible units: Municipal High-tech Zone Management Committee, Municipal Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Finance Bureau)
11. Promote exchanges and cooperation. Support cadre exchanges, project discussions and other pairing and co-construction activities with Anhui University of Finance and Economics and other universities, institutions and other comprehensive bonded areas. The Comprehensive Bonded Zone will be incorporated into the on-site teaching sites and practical training bases of the Municipal Party School, Bengbu Cadre School and other institutions. (Responsible units: Municipal High-tech Zone Management Committee, Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Municipal Education Bureau, Municipal Party School, Bengbu Cadre School, etc.)
4. Supplementary Provisions
This policy applies to operators who carry out production and business activities in Bengbu Comprehensive Bonded Area in accordance with the law, have a complete financial management system, good accounting credit, tax credit, etc., and have no accidents in safety production, environmental protection, etc., as well as illegal issues in fire protection, customs declaration and inspection, taxation, etc.
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 10th: Sports Commentary: Don’t let utilitarianism ruin the future of Chinese football
Xinhua News Agency reporters Xiao Shiyao, Wang Haoyu and Li Chunyu
Recently, a serious false match incident broke out in the men's U10 group of the Beijing Division of the 2026 Fifth China Youth Football League. The report showed that the 16-year-old Orange team of Dongcheng Sports School and the Kickers Blue team tacitly shot own goals at each other in the competition center. The goalkeeper deliberately let go and acted absurdly.
As soon as the news came out, public opinion was in an uproar. Why would a child under ten years old kick the ball into his own door?
The truth is not complicated, but it is dazzling enough: both teams have qualified in advance before the game. According to the schedule, the winning side will encounter a stronger opponent in the knockout round. As a result, the coaches of both sides unanimously chose to "take the initiative to lose." What is even more outrageous is that the on-site referees and game supervisors failed to stop this obviously unsportsmanlike behavior in time and allowed the farce to continue.
Unreasonable competition system design, useless on-site supervision, distorted and misplaced sports values —the three intertwined, eventually led to this farce that should not have happened.
The youth football league, which is supposed to be a pure land for nurturing dreams and a classroom for cultivating moral character, has now once again been tainted by the "match-fixing" scandal, which is heartbreaking.
A match-fixing ruins not only a game, but also the values of a group of children. At an age when children most need to cultivate a correct outlook on life and values and develop a sense of rules, coaches should have taught them that they must try their best no matter whether they win or lose, and they must be upright no matter whether they succeed or fail. Instead, for the sake of a seemingly glorious report card, they instigate children to take advantage of the rules and deeply embed the utilitarian thinking of "winning is everything" into the children's growth trajectory. This not only seriously distorts children's love and understanding of football, but also overdraws the public's trust in youth football competitions and shakes the foundation on which Chinese football is based. After all, when the youth stadium is polluted by utilitarianism, the future of Chinese football loses its purest hope.
After the incident, the Chinese Football Association and the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau quickly set up a joint investigation team and imposed a "football ban" on the team leader and coach involved. The reaction was not unpleasant and the attitude was not firm. It is important to severely punish the parties involved, but more important than treating the symptoms is to treat the root cause.
The match-fixing incident in the men's football B Group A final of the 2022 Guangdong Provincial Games is not far away. At that time, relevant departments also issued severe penalties, but in just a few years, similar scandals were staged again, which is enough to show that simple case-by-case punishments are just "pressing the gourd and raising the pot", and it is difficult to fundamentally curb the unhealthy tendencies in youth sports. Only by carrying out all-round and deep-seated changes can the cancer be completely eradicated.
First of all, the shortcomings in youth competition supervision and competition system design must be made up. The standards of youth events are not as good as those of professional events, but the bottom line of sports fairness cannot be lowered and supervision standards cannot be relaxed. Event organizers must be deeply vigilant, scientifically design schedule rules, plug speculation loopholes, strengthen on-site supervision, allow referees and game supervisors to truly perform their duties, have "zero tolerance" for violations, use thunderous means to stop unhealthy tendencies, and return youth football to a clean field.
More importantly, the misconception of some practitioners must be reversed - the first mission of youth football is never to rush for results, but to educate people. The sports arena is a small human society. Football teaches children not only passing and shooting, but also a sense of rules, fairness and justice. A correct outlook on winning, losing, and sports is the starting point for a correct outlook on life. If you teach your children to cheat in order to win, they may give up their bottom line for profit in the future; if you teach your children to rely on calculation to get "good grades", they may rely on speculation to take shortcuts in life.
In competitive sports, there is nothing wrong with pursuing victory, but we should resolutely oppose the abnormal orientation of "results only". Only by sticking to the bottom line can we have a future. Football starts from childhood, but also from conscience, and returns football to purity, love, and growth. This is responsible for every child who plays football, and it is the right way for Chinese football to get out of the predicament and move towards the future.
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