Denise Richards is an American actress, television personality, and former fashion model. Her most recognized roles are Carmen Ibanez in Starship Troopers (1997), Kelly Van Ryan in Wild Things (1998) and Bond girl Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough (1999). She has also appeared in films Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Valentine (2001), Undercover Brother (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Love Actually (2003), and Madea's Witness Protection (2012).
The Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as the Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE/NOGE) or the Five Percenters, is a Black nationalist movement influenced by Islam that was founded in 1964 in the Harlem section of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, by Allah the Father, who was previously known as Clarence 13X and, before that, Clarence Edward Smith.
Mazu or Matsu is a Chinese sea goddess also known by several other names and titles. She is the deified form of the legendary figure Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. Revered after her death as a tutelary deity of seafarers, including fishermen and sailors, her worship spread throughout China's coastal regions and overseas Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia and even to the United States, where some Mazuist temples are affiliated with famous Taiwanese temples. She was thought to roam the seas, protecting her believers through miraculous interventions. She is now generally regarded by her believers as a powerful and benevolent Queen of Heaven. Mazu worship is popular in Taiwan as large numbers of early immigrants to Taiwan were Hoklo people; her temple festival is a major event in the country, with the largest celebrations around her temples at Dajia and Beigang.
The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday which occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which corresponds to late May or June in the Gregorian calendar.
Dou E Yuan, commonly translated as The Injustice to Dou E, and also known as Snow in Midsummer, is a Chinese play written by Guan Hanqing during the Yuan dynasty. The full Chinese title of the play is Gan Tian Dong Di Dou E Yuan, which roughly translates to The Injustice to Dou E that Touched Heaven and Earth. The story follows a child bride turned widow, Dou E, who is wrongly convicted of crimes by a corrupt court official for actions perpetrated by a rejected suitor, Zhang the mule. After her execution, three prophesied phenomena occur to prove her innocence, including blood raining from the sky, snow in June and a three-year drought. After a visit from the ghost of Dou E, her father eventually brings the corrupt court official, a doctor and Mule Zhang to justice, thereby vindicating his daughter. Today, the phrase "snowing in June" is still widely used among Chinese speakers as a metaphor for a miscarriage of justice. The story was repeatedly used and modified by later dramatists and remains one of Guan's most popular works.
The Emperor Wen of Sui, personal name Yang Jian (楊堅), Xianbei name Puliuru Jian (普六茹堅), alias Narayana deriving from Buddhist terms, was the founder and the first emperor of the Chinese Sui dynasty. The Book of Sui records him as having withdrawn his favour from the Confucians, giving it to "the group advocating Xing-Ming and authoritarian government." As a Buddhist, he encouraged the spread of Buddhism through the state. He is regarded as one of the most important emperors in Chinese history, reunifying China proper in 589 after centuries of division since the independence of the Cheng Han and Han Zhao dynasties from the Western Jin dynasty in 304. During his reign, the construction of the Grand Canal began.
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award-winning stage actress. For 23 years, she was the host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. She is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Diet for a Small Planet is a 1971 bestselling book by Frances Moore Lappé, the first major book to note the environmental impact of meat production as wasteful and a contributor to global food scarcity. She argued for environmental vegetarianism—practicing a vegetarian lifestyle out of concerns over animal-based industries and the production of animal-based products.
The Nine Emperor Gods Festival or Vegetarian Festival or Jay Festival is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar, celebrated primarily in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand by the Peranakans. It takes place at the same time as the Hindu festival Navaratri.
Reincarnation is regularly mentioned in feature films, books, and popular music. The similar concept of transmigration has been used frequently to the point of cliché in the sense of people "switching bodies", in which the identity of a character transfers to another's body, either unilaterally or by exchange, or to an animal or object. This concept has been used many times in various films, particularly in Indian cinema and television.
Yvette Lu, M.D. is a Canadian independent film and stage actress, filmmaker, singer, composer, writer and producer, as well as a licensed family physician. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Lu has starred in many independent films, most notably Food for the Gods and Servants of War. She is best known for her starring role as "Sheenyana" in the 2007 short film Food for the Gods. She co-composed the film's musical score and is the lead singer on its soundtrack. Lu has starred or held major roles in various stage productions, including The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In addition to her University of British Columbia medical degree, Lu has training in acting and music from UBC, Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York, Vancouver's Schoolcreative, and the Royal Conservatory of Music.
H. Scott Hughes is a Texas-born writer and filmmaker, as well as singer/songwriter, and film/stage composer.
Beverly Vergel is an actress and film writer, director and producer, who now lives and works in Canada after many screen appearances in the Philippines during the 1980s and 1990s.
Jessica Yu-Li Henwick is an English actress and writer. She is known for her roles as Nymeria Sand in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2015–2017), X-wing pilot Jessika Pava in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), the character Colleen Wing in Iron Fist (2017–2018) and her role as Bugs in The Matrix Resurrections (2021).
Legend of Lu Zhen is a 2013 Chinese television series based on the novel Female Prime Minister (女相) by Zhang Wei. Directed by Li Huizhu, Zheng Wei'en and Liang Guoguan and produced by Yu Zheng and Mu Xiaohui, the series stars Zhao Liying and Chen Xiao. It was first broadcast on 5 May 2013 in China and subsequently aired in other Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan.
The Wasted Times is a 2016 Chinese-Hong Kong thriller film directed by Cheng Er and starring Ge You, Zhang Ziyi and Tadanobu Asano. It was released in China and the United States on December 16, 2016.
Novoland: The Castle in the Sky is a 2016 Chinese television series based on an original story created by Shanghai Film Media Asia and Tencent Penguin Pictures. Set in an ancient world (Novoland) where humanity is separated into several races, the series centers on the souring relations between the Humankind Tribe and the Wingkind Tribe. It aired on Jiangsu TV from 20 July to 1 September 2016.
Wu Assassins is an American supernatural action streaming television series, created by John Wirth and Tony Krantz that premiered on Netflix on August 8, 2019. The series stars Iko Uwais, Byron Mann, Lewis Tan, Lawrence Kao, Celia Au, Li Jun Li, Tommy Flanagan, and Katheryn Winnick. The first season received positive reviews, with critics praising the fight choreography, although there was criticism of the plot.
The FFTG Awards Film Fest is an annual international digital film festival organized by Dot & Feather Entertainment. The event spans over two weeks in end of November and includes competitive categories like 'Film of the fest', 'FFTG Spirit award', 'People Choice award', 'Female filmmaker', 'Student filmmaker', 'Screenplay writer' as the top winners of the fest. The festival gives The Grand Jury Choice Awards in various categories including feature films, documentaries, screenplay, shorts.
