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Oscar Winner for Best Visual Effects “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Shaped with Autodesk Technology

For the 14th consecutive year, every film nominated for the Best Visual Effects Academy Award was shaped with Autodesk, Inc. digital filmmaking tools. Autodesk congratulates Matte World Digital for its Oscar-winning visual effects work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. ‘This year’s Academy Award nominees continued to push digital imagery to new heights — from intricate and complex computer-generated characters to pyrotechnical marvels to invisible effects so realistic they deceive the eye,’ said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment […]

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China Consumer Behavior Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: India, China, and Brazil sees highest jump in millionaires

India, China, and Brazil saw bigger growth in the millionaire population last year than anywhere else, and wealth in the Asia-Pacific is expected to grow nearly 8 percent a year to 2012 despite a slowdown in the world at large, a survey showed. The number of millionaires in the Asia-Pacific grew 8.7 percent from a year ago to 2.8 million people and their combined wealth soared 12.5 percent to $9.5 trillion US dollars, excluding the value of their homes and consumables, Merrill Lynch and Capgemini said at a news conference in Singapore recently…

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China Consumer Behavior Economics

Living in China: Cost of food drives up Consumer Price Index to 8.5%

China’s consumer price index(CPI) rose 8.5 percent in April, mainly driven by uncurbed food costs, the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) said recently. The figure, compared with 8.3 percent in March and a nearly 12-year-high of 8.7 percent in February, was broadly in line with most forecasts.
The NBS attributed the figure to a low base of comparison: the CPI rose just 3 percent in April 2007. Another factor was the rapid increase in world grain and commodity prices…

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China Trend Watching

Chinese media revenue to reach 77 billion US dollars in 2008

Chinese media industry revenue is expected to increase 13.1 percent to 554 billion yuan (about 79.14billion U.S. dollars) in 2008, said a report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently. The figure was 481.1 billion yuan (over 68 billion US dollars) in 2007, up 13.6 percent year on year, according to the report, which was based on data collected up to February 2008. Mobile and online media saw rapid growth, earning a revenue of 105.3 billion yuan (around 15 billion US dollars) and 29.7 billion yuan (almost 5 billion US dollars) in 2007 […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: Shanghai GDP increases 13.3% in 2007

Shanghai, the most powerful economic hub of China, achieved GDP of US$1.2 trillion in 2007, up 13.3% from a year earlier, marking a double-digit growth for 16 consecutive years, the Shanghai Statistics Bureau announced recently. The city’s 2007 GDP per capita stood at US$8,594 in the local calculation method, said Pan Jianxin, director of Shanghai Bureau of Statistics. And in accordance with the international standards, the figure would hit US$8,949, said Pan…

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China Consumer Behavior Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: 15 million private cars on chinese roads

According to the China’s National Bureau of Statistics report — 2007 national economic and social development statistical communique — China’s total number of privately-owned vehicles increased 32.5% to 15.22 million. The communique points out that by the end of 2007, the total number of civilian vehicles reached 56.97 million (including 14.68 million three-wheel motor vehicles and low-speed vehicles): a growth of 14.3% over the previous year. Among them, 35.34 million are private cars: an increase of 20.8%. There are 19.58 million civilian cars, an increase of 26.7%, 15.22 million of which are private cars.

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

Finance industry employees in China top salary rankings

Employees in the financial sector earned much more than workers in other industries last year thanks to the lucrative financial market, an annual salary report has revealed. The report, released by leading human-resources service provider Zhaopin.com in Shanghai, was based on a survey of more than 1,000 companies across all sectors throughout the country last year. It found workers in the financial industry were paid an average salary of 4,987 yuan (US$694) per month. The figure is about 40 percent higher than the national average […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior

With the opening to new markets and the growth of the Chinese economy, a new social class has emerged — to some extend, unthinkable in a Communist China: the millionaires. According to a survey from Cap Gemini/Merrill Lynch, the number of millionaires (in US Dollars) in China have reached more than 230,000. The large majority of these new riches choose Shanghai to invest their money and also spend their money

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China Economics Information Technology Innovation Trend Watching

China: Technology, Innovation and the Environment

Since the beginning of its economical opening — when the first 5-year plans were devised in 1979 — China has being growing at an incredible speed, with its GNP numbers jumping from 44 billion dollars to 1.6 trillion dollars in just 20 years. Such growth has pushed the Chinese manufacturing industry into devouring huge amounts of natural resources in a alarming way: in 2004, China — the 8th largest economy in GNP scale — consumed 8% of all the oil, 31% of all the coal, 10% of all the electricity, 30% of all ore, 30% of all steel, 19% of all aluminum, 20% of all the copper and 40% of all cement produced in the world […]