The first Chinese folk song that gained popularity outside China

There are folk songs titled Molihua Jasmine Flower in many parts of China with different melodies and lyrics. Among them the version sung in Jiangsu, a province in southern China, is the most popular one. By eulogizing the jasmine flower, the song celebrates the sweetness and beauty of romantic love. At the end of the 18th century, its lyrics were translated into English. In 1804 the score of the song appeared in the book A Travelogue from China written by John Bellow, a British diplomat, making it the first Chinese folk song that found its way overseas. The gentle, pentatonic melody of Jasmine Flower creates a soothing background ambience as the story of Jasmine Women slowly unfolds on the screen.

 

A tip about Chinese films

The Chinese film industry was born in 1905 when the first film—some scenes of a Peking Opera named The Battle of Dingjun Mountain—was shot. Today Chinese films with distinctive Chinese characteristics have become an inseparable part of the world of films. In the past three years over thirty Chinese films have won awards at more than forty international film festivals.

In June 2006 the first Chinese Film Week was held at the UN Headquarters in New York. It was the first time the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations organized such an event at the UN. During the Film Week the organizers showed four Chinese films made in recent years, namely Breaking the Silence, Jasmine Women, No one Less and The Treatment.