Dramaturgie im zeitgenössischen Tanz ist ? positiv gemeint ? ein heißes Eisen. Idealerweise sind Dramaturginnen und Dramaturgen während der Erarbeitung eines Stücks die besten Freunde der Choreografen. more
Chinese dissident Liao Yiwu escaped into exile in Germany in July this year. His new book about his life in Chongqing prison has just been published in German as "Für Ein Lied und Hundert Lieder". Both book and author have a life-threatening odyssey behind them. I am overjoyed that Liao Yiwu is here with us and not at home in prison. By Herta Müller
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German museum director Martin Roth, who has just organised the exhibition "The Art of Enlightenment" in Beijing, belittles the attention focused on Ai Weiwei. His response to the arrest of the Chinese artist is alarming and clearly shows how marketing takes precedence over ethics in the world of culture. A commentary by Rüdiger Schaper.
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In a letter to the Nobel Foundation, Herta Müller expresses her support for the nomination of Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize, "because in the face of countless threats from the Chinese regime and great risk to his life, he has fought unerringly for the freedom of the individual."
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Ai Weiwei - the modest megalomaniac, the relaxed rebel. Hanno Rauterberg met China's most interviewed man in the cellar of Munich's Haus der Kunst, where the artist was preparing to turn the place into a battlefield.
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Since the beginning of the year, the German feuilletons have been probing the relationship between architecture and morality. Their interest was kindled by the publication of Deyan Sudjic's book "The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful Shape the World", which came out in 2006, and examines the role of European architects in non-democratic states such as China and Libya. We take a look at how the debate developed.
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On Saturday, the Lettre Ulysses Award, the only international prize for literary reporting, will be awarded in Berlin. We are offering a sneak preview of one of the texts: Li Datong's report of the legendary career of a Chinese village tyrant. It was one of the several critical texts for which the Beijing-based journalist lost his job.
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There is more brutality on any street corner in China than in a splatter porn film, yet Chinese films are still subject to censorship. One example is director Lou Ye, whose film "Summer Palace" has him threatened with a professional ban. But if you ask around, you get the impression no one is really incensed about censorship because it can do very little to curtail the truth. By Susanne Messmer
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"Humanism in China" is a reproduction of an exhibition of over 600 photographs that toured the People's Republic and has now opened in Frankfurt's Museum of Modern Art. No other contemporary exhibition has managed to get this close to the ordinary life of the nation that makes up a quarter of the world's population. By Tilman Spengler
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Does the future of classical music lie in China? International stars like Lang Lang and Yundi Li are just the tip of the iceberg. On tour with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmoniker, Claus Spahn reports on the classical craze in the People's Republic. (Photo: Berliner Philharmoniker/Andreas Knapp)
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