China

Global ethics and moral perspicacity were the main items of conversation at the James Thomas home in La Crescenta on a recent Sunday when a reunion luncheon was given for friends who attended the International Global Ethics and Youth Ambassador Symposium in Beijing, China this last July. Among the guests were friends from La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Glendale, Montebello, Temple City, Sierra Madre and China. They recalled their many experiences beginning in Shanghai where they first visited a deaf school for children to see spectacular dance performances presented by them in spite of their inability to hear.

China, formally known as the People’s Republic of China, is over 2,000 years old and has the world’s largest population, 1.3 billion people. China is quickly becoming a world power and travel is increasing between the US and China. The Chinese belief is through harmonious relationships, their whole society will become stable. As they are a collective society, relationships between people (Guanxi) is the fundamental glue of Confucianism principles of honor, loyalty, duty, and respect for senority and age. Understanding these principles will help foreigners to understand the culture and etiquette in China.

GLENDALE — Between this summer and last, the Flintridge Prep boys’ basketball team is racking up the frequent flier miles in bunches. The Rebels board a plane bound for Beijing today for a nine-day tour of China that will also include stops in Shanghai and Xi’an for some friendly exhibition games against club and recreational teams from each city. Overseas road trips are becoming a regular summer occurrence for Prep, which spent a week at a basketball tournament in Maui last July.

A Disney theme park in Chao Hu, China? It might happen someday. And if it does, Glendale — as the home of Disney’s theme park creative division — will become a more familiar city to those living half a world away. Looking for investment opportunities, a delegation from Chao Hu met with Glendale city officials Wednesday. Chao Hu, located in the eastern part of China, is next to Lake Chao, the fifth largest fresh-water lake in China — a natural resource that officials there are using to their economic advantage.

Filmmakers doing business in China are often advised to avoid the three Ts, as in Taiwan, Tibet and Tiananmen Square. But that warning doesn't apply if you happen to be Jeffrey Katzenberg, the animation mogul who has been at the forefront of Hollywood's push into China. The chief executive of DreamWorks Animation was in Beijing on Friday to attend a news conference announcing a China film project called "Tibet Code," an adventure movie based on a popular Chinese book series set in ninth-century Tibet.

The Walt Disney Co. and its Marvel Studios subsidiary said Monday that "Iron Man 3" will be a co-production with China, as the Burbank company teamed with DMG Entertainment of Beijing to co-finance and distribute the film. Robert Downey, Jr., Gwynneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle will return for the third movie in the hit franchise, whose two films grossed more than $1 billion worldwide and $42.8 million between them in China. The third installment of the movie will be directed by Shane Black unlike the first two installments which were directed by Jon Favreau.

Amid China’s rapid economic growth, the government’s control of religion has reportedly softened slightly. What does the prospect of a religiously free China mean to you and your faith? There are many societies that claim to afford certain freedoms to their citizens while at the same time silencing the voices of those who challenge the status quo.   China has a long history of religious oppression. Jesuit priest and native of Glendale John Houle was imprisoned there more than half a century ago. His crime: his Christian faith.

Best selling author Lisa See returns to Pacific Asia Museum on Sept. 12 at 2 p.m. to discuss and sign her third international thriller "Dragon Bones," a fast-driving narrative set against the backdrop of the building of the Three Gorges Dam, the largest and most expensive project undertaken in China since the Great Wall and the subject of great interriational debate. When the body of an American archaeologist is found floating in the Yangzi River, Ministry of Public Security agent Liu Hulan.

Jim Riggio FLINT CANYON TENNIS CLUB -- It's hard to find that a UC Berkeley Bear and a Stanford Cardinal agreeing on something. But Amanda Augustus and Julie Scott have been able to put their college preferences aside to form a fine doubles team. Friday in the $25,000 Flint Canyon Classic U.S. Tennis Assn. Women's Challenger, Augustus and Scott advanced to the semifinals with a 6-0, 7-5 victory over Jackie Trail and Saori Obata. "Coming out of college it's nice to see a familiar face.