To celebrate the centennial of Chinese cinema, nearly 300 cinema experts from home and abroad gathered Monday for a symposium in Peking University.

The symposium titled "National, Transnational, International: Chinese Cinema and Asian Cinema in the Context of Globalization," has drawn scholars from China's mainland, Hong Kong, the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan and India.

The discussion topics deal with Chinese cinema history, style, cultural construction, critiques and the new generation of Chinese directors and their films. The symposium also will feature talks about women's films, Hong Kong and Taiwan films, kungfu, the "hyper cinema" and the Chinese film industry.

The conference is hosted by Peking University, Shanghai University and Asian Cinema Studies Society in the United States.

After the two-day gathering in Beijing, the conference will move to Shanghai University for further discussion Thursday and Friday.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2005)