On what would have been the 100th birthday of one of Hollywood’s most iconic and enduring stars, Marilyn Monroe, hundreds of adoring fans came together to honor her legacy in a spectacular, record-breaking fashion. The event, organized to celebrate the screen legend’s centenary, brought together dozens of lookalikes who donned Monroe’s signature platinum blonde curls, red lipstick, and the classic form-fitting white dress that catapulted her to global fame in *The Seven Year Itch*. When organizers counted the participants, it was confirmed that the gathering had officially broken the Guinness World Record for the largest assembly of people dressed as the legendary actress, beating the previous mark set more than a decade ago. Attendees, who traveled from across the country and even from several international locations to participate, shared stories of their admiration for Monroe, recalling her comedic talent, her magnetic on-screen presence, and her lasting impact on pop culture. Many noted that even 61 years after her untimely death, Monroe remains a cultural touchstone, inspiring new generations of fans with her timeless style and complicated, human story. Event organizers called the record-breaking turnout a fitting tribute to a star whose influence has stretched far beyond the golden age of Hollywood, proving that her star power has not dimmed in the century since her birth.
分类： entertainment
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50 years on, Fela’s legendary ‘Zombie’ album still resonates in Nigeria
Half a century after its 1976 release, Fela Kuti’s iconic protest album *Zombie* still stands as one of the most fearless acts of political defiance in African musical history, a work that not only reshaped global music but also laid bare the deep inequalities and authoritarian abuses that continue to plague Nigeria decades after the end of military rule.
To understand the stakes of *Zombie*, one must look back at the turbulent context that birthed it. Nigeria had won independence from British colonial rule in 1960, buoyed by the discovery of massive oil reserves that promised widespread prosperity for the resource-rich West African nation. Just six years later, the first of a long string of military coups ousted the civilian government, followed by a brutal civil war that claimed at least three million lives. By 1976, the military had held unelected power for a full decade, with successive juntas embedding authoritarian control into every layer of public life — including deploying soldiers to secondary schools across the country to enforce state-mandated discipline under then-ruler Olusegun Obasanjo.
For Yunusa Yau, a 16-year-old student in northwestern Nigeria at the time, growing anger at soldiers’ heavy-handed abuse of power on campus led him and his classmates to embrace Fela’s searing new track as their anthem. Decades later, Yau — now a 66-year-old political activist based in Abuja — told the Associated Press that Fela had already become a beacon of resistance for young Nigerians tired of authoritarian overreach. “In a way, we saw him as a symbol of our own nascent attempt to protect our limited horizon of freedom,” Yau said, noting the song quickly became a protest against both unaccountable soldiers and the unpopular school officials complicit with military rule.
Fela Anikulapo Kuti, born under colonial rule in 1938, is widely regarded as Nigeria’s greatest modern artist, with a 40-year career that stretched from the late 1950s until his death in 1997. Earlier this year, he earned a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards in recognition of his lasting cultural impact. He co-created the iconic Afrobeat genre alongside legendary drummer Tony Allen, blending polyrhythmic traditional West African percussion with Black American jazz and funk to create a signature sound entirely his own. But far more than a musical innovator, Fela built his legacy as a relentless chronicler of everyday life under military rule, which dominated Nigeria from the 1966 coup until the return of civilian democracy in 1999.
*Zombie* was unlike any of Fela’s previous political work. Released as a 25-minute two-track album, the title track cut straight to the core of military authoritarianism, with lyrics that mocked the unthinking obedience of soldiers to unelected rulers: “Zombie no go turn, unless you tell ’em to turn (Zombie) / Zombie no go think, unless you tell ’em to think.” Layered over Fela’s driving polyrhythms, the track mimicked a military parade, complete with chanted commands to march, salute and fire. The B-side, “Mister Follow Follow,” expanded the critique to call out widespread blind obedience to authority and the status quo across Nigerian society.
Lemi Ghariokwu, the artist who designed the *Zombie* album cover and collaborated with Fela for decades, called the record Fela’s definitive work. “It was one of his boldest moments on record,” Ghariokwu told the AP. “He was very much vexed by the actions of the military government. When he was composing the song, we asked him if it was going to be a direct attack song, and he said yes.”
Interestingly, the zombie archetype that Fela used to devastating political effect originates from traditional West and Central African mythology, where it describes a figure stripped of free will, controlled by external forces. The imagery would later be popularized globally by Michael Jackson in his iconic 1982 *Thriller* music video, but Fela was the first to weaponize it for mass political protest.
Fela’s unflinching attack on the junta drew brutal, immediate retaliation. The military government dispatched 1,000 soldiers to Fela’s self-declared independent Lagos compound, which the artist had claimed was outside Nigerian state control. Troops burned the compound to the ground, badly injured Fela, and left his mother — Funmi Ransome-Kuti, a prominent Nigerian activist in her own right — with fatal injuries. The album was banned from all state-run radio, and ordinary Nigerians were arrested for defying the junta by playing *Zombie* in public venues, at parties or on personal speakers.
Critics note Fela’s foresight in calling out the long-term damage of military rule has proven entirely accurate. When the military seized power in 1966, junta leaders justified their coup by ousting a civilian government they accused of corruption and mismanaging Nigeria’s oil wealth. Decades after the end of military rule, that same failure of shared prosperity persists: official data from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics shows 63% of Nigerians currently live in multidimensional poverty, lacking access to basic amenities, with sky-high youth unemployment. The country also faces a sprawling, ongoing security crisis, with militant and criminal groups carrying out widespread killings and kidnappings across large swathes of the country. Just this year, six people including soldiers and police officers were charged with plotting a coup against democratically elected President Bola Tinubu, a reminder of the military’s enduring oversized influence on Nigerian public life.
“Fela was actually ahead of his time, because he seemed to have foreseen the kind of rot and decay that the military class would leave Nigeria in,” said Dami Ajayi, a prominent Nigerian music critic. “Fela was already saying to everyone that these guys who are here are going to ruin your country; you cannot allow a zombie to be in charge of everything around you.”
Fifty years after its release, *Zombie*’s impact remains unmatched in Nigerian popular culture. While other Nigerian artists across reggae, fuji, pop and other genres have criticized government overreach, none have matched the open, uncompromising confrontation Fela pulled off with *Zombie*. Today, mainstream commercial success in Nigeria’s large music industry rarely makes space for overt political protest, even as the grievances Fela sang about remain largely unaddressed.
Ayomide Tayo, a Nigerian music and pop culture critic, said Fela’s bravery has yet to be replicated by modern artists. “The consequences of that record are well-documented, and I don’t think anybody is that brave to critically criticize the government like that,” Tayo said. “The epic scale at which Fela did it has not been replicated.”
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‘AI simply can’t replicate it’: Japan embraces zine trend
In a Kyoto print factory, the steady hum of machinery and rustle of freshly printed paper fill the air as two creators watch their collaborative photo essay roll off the press onto thick broadsheet newsprint. For artists Kazuma Obara and Akihico Mori, this physical, tactile process is more than just a production choice—it is a deliberate stand against the homogenization of digital content and artificial intelligence in the modern creative landscape.
Their project is one small thread in a rapidly growing movement across Japan: amid the decades-long decline of traditional print media, handmade self-published zines are winning legions of new fans, particularly among young creators and audiences. This renaissance underscores Japan’s enduring cultural affection for tangible paper media even as digital platforms and AI-generated content reshape the creative industry globally.
Obara, a 40-year-old photographer whose ink-stained hands betray his hands-on work, explains that unlike algorithm-driven social media feeds, print engages all five human senses. “Mobile phones are very insular,” he told AFP during a visit to the factory. “Print media is incredibly open. You can hand it to someone, you can read it together.” His creative partner Mori, a 44-year-old writer, echoed that sentiment, noting that holding a handmade zine lets readers directly feel a creator’s unique passion. “That’s what makes it so appealing,” Mori said. “AI simply can’t replicate it.”
The pair’s finished work went on to display at Kyotographie, the popular international photography festival that wrapped up in Kyoto this past May. Their printing was made possible through a new program from Kyoto Shimbun, a major regional newspaper that has opened up its underutilized printing presses to independent creators as traditional newspaper subscriptions continue a steady decline.
Yoshihiko Okazaki, a representative of Kyoto Shimbun Printing, said the program has drawn creators across generations, from teenage artists to creators in their 70s. “Surprisingly, it resonates with younger people,” Okazaki said. “I even hear comments like, ‘it’s interesting precisely because it’s old.’”
Japan’s broader print industry has faced steep contraction for decades. Data from the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association shows national newspaper circulation peaked at 53.76 million copies in 1997, and has fallen to less than half that number by 2025. Overall book and magazine sales have dropped even more sharply, sliding to just 40% of the industry’s 1996 peak of 2.6 trillion yen ($16.3 billion). Fears of further disruption from AI have spread across the global creative industry: a 2025 UK study found half of all novelists believe AI will likely replace their professional work in the coming years.
But unlike traditional mass print, the small-scale, DIY zine sector is expanding rapidly. Zines, which first emerged in 1930s United States among science fiction fan communities, have seen explosive growth in Japan in recent years, especially among younger creators. Forecasts from a Japanese private research firm, cited by public broadcaster NHK, project the total Japanese self-publishing market will reach 150 billion yen in the 12-month period ending March 2026—nearly double the market size just four years earlier.
This growing popularity was on full display at a recent Tokyo zine fair, where hundreds of visitors crowded aisles lined with handmade publications of every size, format, and theme—from abstract art collections to personal photography zines and raw personal essay monologues. For 22-year-old attendee Harumi Kikuchi, zines offer a diversity of perspective that algorithm-driven platforms cannot match. “AI and social media are driven by algorithms that feed us nothing but what we want to see or what suits us best,” she explained. “But the fact that many zine makers are here suggests there are many different worldviews.”
Watashi Kishino, a zine creator who draws hand-illustrated comics about her daily life in black and white, agrees that digital and AI tools have their place—but argues tangible print has an irreplaceable charm. “People can make a lot of things with AI and digital technology,” Kishino said, gesturing to her stack of hand-bound zines. “But I believe there’s a charm in having something tangible to hold in your hands like this.”
Even established traditional book retailers are leaning into the zine boom, as younger audiences move away from mass-produced physical books. Sanseido, a 145-year-old bookstore located in Tokyo’s historic Jimbocho book district, added zine sections to its shelves nearly a year ago. “We felt that zines could appeal to a different audience than traditional readers,” said Masato Sugiura, deputy head of the store’s sales promotion unit. “Everyone is looking for something that really speaks to them. Readers are perhaps drawn more to zines, which are niche and cover a broader range of topics.”
For creators like Kishino, the zine renaissance offers a hopeful sign that physical paper media will persist even in an increasingly digital world. “There’s warmth that only paper can offer,” she said. “There’s definitely people who are looking for that.”
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Hollywood honors Marilyn Monroe, 100 years after her birth
One hundred years after the birth of one of Hollywood’s most enduring legends, Los Angeles’ entertainment hub is launching a month-long series of tributes to honor Marilyn Monroe, the platinum-haired star whose short life and decades-long cultural legacy continue to captivate global audiences.
Centennial events officially kicked off Monday at the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre, the historic Hollywood landmark where Monroe’s hand and footprints have been preserved in cement alongside those of Jane Russell, her co-star in the 1953 classic *Gentlemen Prefer Blondes*. Fans will gather at the site to serenade the late star with “Happy Birthday” — a deliberate nod to Monroe’s legendary sultry performance of the song for President John F. Kennedy in 1962, just months before her death. Organizers have placed 100 roses and a commemorative cake at the location, a spot that draws millions of tourists each year and stands as a defining landmark of Hollywood’s golden age.
Pre-empting the official opening, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures launched its major retrospective *Marilyon Monroe: Hollywood Icon* on Sunday, a blockbuster exhibition that explores both the star’s trailblazing film career and the tragic personal story that cut her life far too short. Monroe, who rocketed to global fame in the 1950s, died of a drug overdose at her Los Angeles Brentwood home in August 1962 at just 36 years old.
Throughout June, the Academy Museum will host special screenings of Monroe’s most acclaimed performances, pulling titles from her extensive filmography that span the breadth of her career. The lineup includes her breakout supporting turn in 1950’s *The Asphalt Jungle*, her star-making leading role in 1953’s *Niagara*, the timeless comedy *The Seven Year Itch* (1955), the critically adored *Some Like It Hot* (1959), and her final completed film, 1961’s *The Misfits*. The exhibition, which will run through February 2027, features hundreds of original personal and professional items, many of which have never been displayed publicly. Among the centerpieces is the iconic pink gown Monroe wore for her legendary performance of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” in *Gentlemen Prefer Blondes*.
Later this week, on June 4, Julien’s Auctions will host a dedicated “100 Years of Marilyn” sale, featuring nearly 200 pieces of rare Monroe memorabilia up for auction. Highlights of the collection include never-before-published candid photographs of the star, an annotated script from her final, unfinished production *Something’s Got to Give*, and deeply personal items ranging from handwritten dessert recipes to a tube of her favorite Elizabeth Arden lipstick.
Born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926, Monroe’s early life was marked by instability. She spent her childhood bouncing between foster homes and orphanages after her mother was institutionalized, and married for the first time at just 16 years old. Her first introduction to the entertainment industry came in 1944, while she worked in a Los Angeles factory supporting World War II production efforts. A military photographer visiting the plant to shoot photos of women war workers spotted her, kicking off a rapid transition into modeling.
Within months, she made the decision that would change entertainment history: she divorced her first husband and dyed her natural brown hair to the iconic platinum blonde shade that would become her trademark. She earned her first studio contract with 20th Century Fox, and by the age of 30 had cemented her status as a global household name and defining sex symbol of the 20th century.
Far from just a on-screen star, Monroe was a trailblazer behind the scenes of Hollywood’s old studio system. She defied studio expectations to found her own independent production company, trained at New York’s prestigious Actors Studio to refine her craft, and openly pushed back against exploitative studio practices. In the 1950s, while still under contract with 20th Century Fox, she refused the lead role in the musical adaptation *The Girl in Pink Tights*, arguing the script was mediocre and her pay — one-third that of co-star Frank Sinatra — was unfair. Decades before the #MeToo movement exposed systemic exploitation of women in entertainment, Monroe publicly spoke out against the predatory “wolves” in Hollywood who targeted young female talent, making her a cultural proto-feminist icon long before the term entered mainstream discourse.
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Grammy-winning director explores his Nigerian grandfather’s role in the Biafran war
Meji Alabi has built a global reputation as one of the most innovative music video directors of his generation, crafting viral, visually striking work for A-list artists from Beyoncé to Davido, Stormzy to Burna Boy. A 2021 Grammy win for co-directing *Brown Skin Girl* cemented his status as a powerhouse of the industry, but for Alabi, the biggest creative and emotional challenge of his career would come not from a chart-topping pop hit, but from the quiet, unspoken traumas of his own family’s past, and a chapter of Nigerian history that has long been sidelined from public conversation.
Born in London to Nigerian parents and raised and educated in the United States, Alabi grew up hearing fragmented anecdotes of the 1967-1970 Nigerian Civil War, also called the Biafran War, from his grandfather Godwin Alabi-Isama, a former commando who fought for the Nigerian federal army against Igbo separatists seeking to form the independent breakaway state of Biafra. It was only when he teamed up with his uncle, fellow filmmaker Leke Alabi-Isama, co-founder of Lagos-based production outfit PriorGold Pictures, that the pair began to unpack how little they truly knew about the conflict that shaped modern Nigeria.
“It was very much an eye opener for me. I just grew up not knowing much about the war at all, or who was fighting who,” Alabi shared in an interview.
For Leke, who grew up in southwestern Nigeria hearing his father framed as a war hero for his role as chief of staff to a top federal army commander, that reckoning came decades later when he began deep diving into archival research. What he uncovered upended every assumption he had carried about his family’s legacy: mass starvation, allegations of war crimes against federal troops, and the unacknowledged suffering of the Igbo people who made up the Biafran separatist movement.
“I only just saw it from a Nigerian [federal army] perspective. I never knew of the horrors. I never knew of the suffering and the pain of the other side,” Leke explained. “When you find out that, you know, your truth is not the only truth, it was a humbling moment.”
Rooted in this desire to unpack multiple narratives, the pair’s new documentary *Surviving Biafra: Voices from the Nigerian Civil War*, produced by BBC Africa Eye, pulls back the curtain on one of Africa’s bloodiest post-independence conflicts. The film includes never-before-seen frontline footage, and centers first-person testimonies from surviving veterans and civilians, most now in their 70s and 80s, many of whom have never shared their experiences publicly before.
The Biafran War erupted after a series of military coups and targeted massacres of Igbo communities in northern Nigeria pushed more than a million Igbos to retreat to their ancestral homeland in the country’s southeast, where regional leaders declared independence for the Republic of Biafra. The Nigerian federal government responded with a full military campaign and a total blockade of Biafra, cutting off access to food, medicine and all foreign supplies. Over 30 months of fighting, an estimated 500,000 to 3 million people died, most of them children killed by widespread famine. The conflict was the first televised humanitarian disaster in global history, with shocking footage of starving children broadcast into homes around the world, before Biafra surrendered in 1970.
To this day, this traumatic chapter remains largely absent from formal Nigerian education: the civil war was removed from the national school curriculum for more than a decade ending in 2025, and even today, the full scale of suffering is rarely taught. For Leke and Meji, this erasure is part of what made the project urgent.
“This generation of survivors is slowly fading, and if we do not preserve their testimonies now, we risk losing not only their memories, but the chance to fully document this history in a way that can contribute to understanding and healing,” Leke said.
Unlike most mainstream retellings of the war, the documentary centers underrepresented voices, including two female former soldiers who fought on opposite sides of the conflict. It also draws on contributions from across the region: Meji recruited Ghanaian composer Ray Michael Djan Jr, who previously worked on the *Black Panther: Wakanda Forever* soundtrack, to score the film, while the BBC’s Igbo service and independent Igbo historians provided contextual expertise to ensure the narrative centered community perspectives.
One of the documentary’s most raw, pivotal moments comes when Leke confronts his 90-plus year old father Godwin with archival black-and-white footage of emaciated Biafran children. For the first time, Leke said, he heard his father’s voice shake. During the conversation, Godwin also revealed a shocking personal detail: unknowingly, he had eaten human flesh while serving in occupied Biafran territory, after local villagers served the meat to his unit. The federal army’s 3 Marine Commando brigade, where Godwin served, has long faced allegations of systematic war crimes including the execution of civilians, and the BBC’s editorial team pushed Godwin to respond directly to those claims during the interview.
In a response to the upcoming documentary, Nigeria’s federal government noted it hoped the film would serve as a reminder of how far the country has progressed in the 59 years since the war ended, and of “the enduring importance of dialogue, reconciliation and shared purpose in building a stronger nation for generations to come.”
For Meji, who has spent much of his career elevating Nigerian popular culture to a global audience, this project fills a different critical gap. The war has long been a topic discussed only in whispers in Nigerian society, he said, never confronted head-on by a younger generation of creators seeking honest answers.
“It hasn’t been attacked head on and, you know, presented from an inquisitive younger generation like this before,” he said.
Both filmmakers share a core hope for the project: that the documentary will open the door for broader national reckoning, encourage more survivors to step forward with their stories, and help Nigerians confront the darker parts of their shared history with honesty and empathy.
“We really hope this documentary encourages more survivors to tell their stories and document our history further. It’s up to us to do it,” Meji said.
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‘Backrooms’, based on YouTube horror series, breaks box office records
A viral online horror phenomenon has made a historic leap to the big screen, shattering long-held box office expectations and cementing a new milestone for young filmmakers across the industry. Adapted from the wildly popular YouTube horror series that launched a global internet cultural trend, A24’s *Backrooms* delivered a staggering $81.5 million opening weekend across North America, breaking multiple industry records in its debut, U.S. entertainment outlets confirmed over the weekend.
Helmed by 20-year-old writer-director Kane Parsons, who first created the *Backrooms* web series as a teen creator, the film’s opening haul marks the largest domestic debut ever for an original standalone horror production, according to entertainment industry trade publication Variety. The opening weekend gross also more than doubles the previous record for the biggest domestic opening in independent studio A24’s history.
Beyond its box office achievements, the feature film debut makes Parsons the youngest director ever to launch a first feature at the number one spot on the North American box office charts. Starring Academy Award nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, the big-screen adaptation carries forward the eerie, unsettling core of the original web series: Ejiofor stars as a small furniture shop owner who stumbles upon a hidden, labyrinthine, otherworldly complex lurking beneath his store. When he disappears without a trace, his therapist, played by Reinsve, ventures into the uncanny, liminal space to track him down.
The *Backrooms* franchise originated in 2022 as a viral internet project that grew out of the “creepypasta” cultural phenomenon – a genre of short, shareable horror stories that are reposted, reworked, and expanded by online communities, with users adding new lore ranging from monstrous entities to hidden interdimensional spaces to the core narrative.
In a surprising turn, the second spot on the North American box office charts also went to a horror feature: Focus Features’ *Obsession*, which has built steady momentum through strong critical acclaim and word-of-mouth from audiences in its first three weeks of release. Directed by 26-year-old Curry Baker, the film added $26.4 million in domestic ticket sales in its fourth weekend, bringing its estimated global total to nearly $150 million on a production budget of less than $1 million. Lead actress Inde Navarrette has earned widespread praise for her performance as a young woman who becomes dangerously obsessed with a man, played by Michael Johnston, after he makes a magical wish for her affection.
Disney’s big-screen expansion of its hit sci-fi franchise, *Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu*, rounded out the top three in its second weekend, plummeting nearly 70 percent in ticket sales from its opening to take in $25 million. The feature marks the first theatrical Star Wars release since 2019’s *Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker*, and brings the popular streaming series to the big screen for the first time.
Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic *Michael* held its spot in the top five for its sixth consecutive weekend, adding $11.7 million in domestic sales. Directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson, the late pop icon’s nephew, the biopic has now grossed $340 million domestically and more than $845 million globally, per box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
Closing out the top five was Sony’s new comedy *The Breadwinner*, which opened to $7.5 million in its first weekend. The film stars popular American stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze, a top-grossing live performer known for his deadpan, family-focused comedy, as a stay-at-home dad forced to manage childcare alone while his wife travels for work.
The remainder of the weekend’s top 10 highest-grossing films were: *The Devil Wears Prada 2* ($5.9 million), *Pressure* ($5.8 million), *The Sheep Detective* ($4.6 million), *Passenger* ($2.6 million), and *Mortal Kombat II* ($2 million).
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Singer Dua Lipa marries actor Callum Turner: media
One of Britain’s biggest pop music stars, Dua Lipa, has reportedly said “I do” to British actor Callum Turner, in a low-key private civil ceremony held in London over the weekend.
Multiple British tabloid outlets, including The Sun and the Daily Mail, have confirmed the Sunday wedding, sharing photographs of the newlyweds exiting London’s Old Marylebone Town Hall, where the official registration of their marriage took place. Only a small group of close family members and friends were in attendance for the intimate ceremony, aligning with the couple’s desire to keep their nuptials out of the global spotlight before a larger celebration.
Thirty-year-old Lipa, the Grammy-winning singer who rose to global fame after the 2016 release of her breakout hit *Be The One*, wore a custom white dress and matching hat from luxury fashion house Schiaparelli for her big day, according to on-site reports. Her 36-year-old husband Turner, who earned international recognition for his role in the *Fantastic Beasts* film franchise, opted for a tailored dark blue suit for the occasion.
The couple first went public with their relationship in January 2024, and Lipa first confirmed their engagement and marriage plans in an interview with *British Vogue* last year. Following the official London ceremony, the pair are set to host a lavish multi-day celebration for their wider circle of loved ones later this month. Sources cited by The Sun confirm the newlyweds are planning a “sumptuous” three-day wedding party in Sicily, scheduled to kick off at the end of next week.
Agence France-Presse reached out to official representatives for both Lipa and Turner to confirm the wedding news, but did not receive a response ahead of publication. Beyond his work on the *Fantastic Beasts* franchise, Turner has long been the subject of media speculation as a leading contender to take on the iconic role of James Bond in the next installment of the legendary spy film series.
Lipa, who is the daughter of Kosovo-Albanian migrants who settled in the UK before her rise to stardom, has built one of the most successful careers in modern pop music, with multiple chart-topping albums, Grammy Awards, and sold-out world tours to her name.
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Along the river, before the fall: China pre-Renaissance city life
What begins as a seemingly tranquil snapshot of 12th-century Chinese urban life opens with a moment of unspoken tension: a heavy commercial river barge drifting toward an arched stone bridge, its crew shouting commands, ropes straining under tension, and a tall mast still in the process of being lowered as onlookers crowd the banks and railings, holding their breath. This opening moment, tucked at the heart of Zhang Zeduan’s iconic handscroll *Along the River During the Qingming Festival*, is far more than a decorative detail—it is the key to unlocking the work’s enduring, layered meaning, one that challenges common assumptions about one of China’s most celebrated cultural treasures.
Housed today in Beijing’s Palace Museum, the Beijing scroll is widely recognized by scholars as the oldest surviving complete version of the Qingming Shanghe Tu composition. Historians broadly attribute the original work to Zhang, a Northern Song dynasty artist active in the early 12th century, who set out to capture daily life along the Bian River cutting through Kaifeng, the dynasty’s prosperous capital.
To place this work in global context, the early 12th century was a period when nearly all high art in Western Europe centered on religious themes, from the Romanesque masonry of Durham Cathedral (under construction between 1093 and 1133) to the sacred metalwork of Ireland’s 1123 Cross of Cong. Gothic art, the first major shift toward more secular naturalism in Western art, would not emerge for another three decades, when the chevet of Saint-Denis was finally consecrated. It is this contrast that makes Zhang’s masterpiece so radical: when Western art prioritized divine salvation as its central subject, Zhang centered an entire living, breathing city.
Commonly dubbed “China’s Mona Lisa” for Western audiences, the comparison falls flat. Where the Mona Lisa revolves around one individual’s quiet mystery, the Qingming Scroll is a living portrait of a complete urban ecosystem, mapping everything from the city’s semi-rural outskirts to its crowded commercial core, all anchored by the tense near-disaster at the central bridge. Its modern feel does not stem from its depictions of ancient architecture or costumes—it emerges from the work’s unflinching focus on logistics: the invisible systems that keep a great city alive.
The Bian River is no decorative landscape feature; it is the capital’s lifeline. Grain, tax goods, and everyday supplies flowed into Kaifeng along its waters, moving from boat to cart to porter to shop stall in an unbroken rhythm of movement. Zhang’s genius lies in capturing that prosperity is not a static state of wealth—it is a constant, fragile process: loading, unloading, pulling, steering, buying, selling, navigating. Even the iconic arched bridge is more than a picturesque landmark; it is a pressure point where every part of the city’s interconnected system converges. Under its arch, the near collision of the barge condenses the core challenge of any great pre-modern metropolis: too many people, too much commerce, and almost no margin for error.
This reading of the scroll as a subtle portrait of urban fragility, not just celebration, has been advanced by Chinese scholars including Palace Museum researcher Yu Hui. Yu argues that the work is laced with quiet signs of systemic unease that casual observers miss: an unmanned fire-watch tower, negligent slow-moving officials, weak city defenses, and commercial development encroaching on public space. Whether one accepts every element of this interpretation, it is impossible to view the scroll as a simple, flattering panegyric to imperial prosperity once these details are spotted. Zhang does not condemn the Northern Song state; he observes it too closely to merely glorify it.
One easily overlooked detail elevates the scroll from a masterpiece of social observation to a critical document of global technical history: the yaolu, or yuloh, a specialized Chinese stern sculling oar. Most Western viewers fix their attention on the crowd and the endangered boat, missing the large oar mounted at the vessel’s stern. Unlike traditional rowing oars that lift repeatedly from the water, or simple steering oars, the yuloh operates with a steady lateral, push-pull motion that delivers continuous thrust and precise navigation, even in narrow, crowded waterways.
Historical records make this detail particularly significant. While Western vessels used basic steering and rowing oars in antiquity, the earliest written record of a stern sculling oar for propulsion in English dates to the 14th century, per both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster. By contrast, visual evidence of the Chinese yaolu dates back to at least the 10th century, centuries before the first Western written record, and the technology was widely documented as a mature system by medieval Chinese scholars and artists. That Zhang could seamlessly include the yuloh in his composition, as a routine, unremarked tool of river transport, proves that the technology was already standard for moving large craft through Kaifeng’s crowded waterways by the 12th century—a level of nautical innovation that is often overlooked in modern analysis of the work.
For the scroll, the yuloh is more than a technical detail: it is evidence that Northern Song prosperity depended not just on poetry, politics, or markets, but on the skilled, uncelebrated labor of workers who kept the city’s supply lines moving. What makes Zhang’s approach so innovative is that he never treats technology as a separate, labeled diagram. He embeds it in daily life, where indispensable tools belong—doing their work quietly, without fanfare.
Another radical choice that sets the scroll apart from medieval art across cultures is its rejection of power as a central subject. There is no emperor, no imperial palace, no grand ceremony, no divine mandate on display. Instead, civilization is revealed through the ordinary acts of ordinary people: a herder driving livestock, a vendor arranging his goods, a doctor seeing patients, a porter carrying a heavy load, a fortune-teller meeting with anxious imperial examinees, a crew of boatman fighting to avoid a collision. Zhang captures the full spectrum of Song society, from gentry and officials to beggars and homeless children, recording (not erasing) social hierarchy while capturing all lives in equal motion.
Again, the contrast with iconic medieval Western works is striking. The 70-meter Bayeux Tapestry, one of Europe’s greatest secular medieval works, tells the story of conquest, royal succession, and war. Zhang’s scroll centers a completely different kind of drama: not the seizure of a kingdom, but the daily work of keeping a city alive. One celebrates the making of political power; the other exposes the quiet pressure that sits beneath every period of national prosperity.
What adds a final layer of humility to the work is the near-complete disappearance of its creator. Unlike Renaissance masters such as Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo, who left behind detailed biographies and cultivated personal reputations, almost nothing is known for certain about Zhang Zeduan’s life. He vanishes almost entirely into the city he painted, leaving only his work to speak for him. The painter is gone, but the city he captured remains—not the physical Kaifeng, which was transformed and damaged by centuries of history, but the city as a universal idea: a living structure built on movement, labor, commerce, and constant risk.
The later history of the work only deepens its meaning. Over the centuries, *Qingming Shanghe Tu* became one of the most copied and reimagined subjects in Chinese art, with roughly 100 different versions held in museums and private collections across the world. Later copies, particularly those produced during the Qing dynasty, often revised Zhang’s original to make the city cleaner, more orderly, more festive, and more palatable to imperial audiences. Where Zhang’s original exposes the strain and vulnerability beneath prosperity, copies flatter by erasing those tensions. This tradition of revision is no footnote—it is part of the work’s legacy, revealing how different generations have chosen to frame the idea of urban prosperity.
Zhang’s original endures precisely because it refuses to settle for surface celebration. It does not only show a prosperous capital; it asks a question that remains urgent centuries later: what has to go right for prosperity to hold together? A mast must be lowered on time, a boat must be guided safely under a bridge, supplies must reach market, roads must stay passable, watchtowers must be guarded, officials must do their jobs, goods must keep moving, and citizens must trust that the city will function when they wake each morning.
It is this universal question that lets the scroll speak across cultural divides. It is unmistakeably a product of 12th-century China, but its core subject is universal. Every great city, from medieval Kaifeng to modern New York, London, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, relies on the same fragile miracle: millions of independent individual actions held together just tightly enough to feel like order. The Qingming Scroll endures not because it shows a perfect world, but because it shows a living one—allowing us to see civilization before it becomes history: crowded, ingenious, commercial, anxious, beautiful, vulnerable, and unaware that the future is already approaching from beyond the frame.
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Oscar-winning Star Wars editor Marcia Lucas dies aged 80
The film community is mourning the passing of legendary Hollywood editor Marcia Lucas, the Academy Award-winning creative mind behind the original *Star Wars* saga, who died at the age of 80. Lucas, whose career reshaped the art of film editing and blazed a trail for women in the industry, passed away Wednesday at her Rancho Mirage, California home, surrounded by family, following a battle with metastatic cancer.
Born Marcia Griffin in 1945 in Modesto, California, Lucas launched her entertainment career as a film librarian before rising to become one of the most respected editors in 1970s Hollywood. She married *Star Wars* creator George Lucas in 1969, and went on to contribute to many of his early landmark projects, including *THX 1138* and *American Graffiti* — the latter earning her first Academy Award nomination for editing. Beyond her work with George Lucas, she also collaborated extensively with acclaimed director Martin Scorsese on a run of iconic 1970s features, among them *Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore*, *Taxi Driver*, and *New York, New York*.
Lucas’ most celebrated contribution came with 1977’s *Star Wars* (later retitled *A New Hope*), where she shared the Oscar for Best Film Editing with co-editors Richard Chew and Paul Hirsch. While her work largely happened behind the camera, her impact on the early *Star Wars* franchise is widely regarded as foundational to its success. George Lucas himself publicly credited her with structuring the massive, complex Death Star final battle sequence, a sequence that wove narrative plot into an aerial dogfight in a way that had never been attempted before. “Nobody really has ever tried to interweave an actual plot story into a dogfight, and we were trying to do that,” George Lucas told *Rolling Stone* shortly after the film’s 1977 release, noting Marcia brought the 40,000 feet of raw pilot footage into a cohesive, thrilling sequence. Beyond that iconic battle, she infused the original trilogy with sharp narrative clarity and unexpected emotional depth that turned the space saga into a global cultural phenomenon.
Lucas returned to the franchise for two more installments, 1980’s *The Empire Strikes Back* and 1983’s *Return of the Jedi*. In her personal life, she and George Lucas adopted daughter Amanda in 1981, before their 14-year marriage ended in divorce in 1983. She later married Tom Rodrigues, a production manager at Skywalker Ranch, and the couple had a second daughter, Amy.
In a statement released Friday to U.S. media, Lucas’ family remembered her as both a revolutionary artist and a beloved presence. “A true trailblazer for women in film and one of the most influential editors in cinematic history; she helped redefine what film editing could be,” the statement read. “Her influence on film is indelible, but those who knew her best will remember the way she made life feel more vivid, more beautiful, more fun and more full of love. Her work was known for its emotional intelligence, rhythm and humanity — a rare ability to find the truth of a scene and bring heart, momentum and clarity to the screen.”
Lucas herself once summed up her approach to her craft in a comment shared by Lucasfilm: “I have an innate ability to take good material and make it better, and to take bad material and make it fair.”
Tributes have poured in from across the film and *Star Wars* communities following news of her death. Lucasfilm said in a statement Saturday that it was “deeply saddened” to learn of her passing, adding that it “joins the global filmmaking community in mourning the loss of Marcia Lucas.” Mark Hamill, the actor who originated the role of Luke Skywalker in the original saga, also shared a remembrance, writing that he and his wife Marilou were “deeply saddened by the loss of our lifelong friend. Not just a gifted, innovative artist, she also happened to be a genuinely nice person. Smart, funny and just plain fun to be around. Thankfully, her memory lives on and we will never stop missing her.”
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Italy bans Kanye West and Travis Scott concerts over security concerns
In a decision that marks the latest in a string of performance cancellations for controversial rapper Kanye West (now legally known as Ye), Italian authorities have blocked two scheduled July concerts headlined by West and fellow rapper Travis Scott in the northern city of Reggio Emilia, citing urgent public order and safety concerns.
The announcement came Friday from Prefect Salvatore Angieri, following a formal request from Reggio Emilia’s local Jewish community to scrap West’s planned appearance. Community leader Nicoletta Uzzielli had pushed local officials to scrap the event and replace it with a performance that would center music as a unifying, inclusive force for all people.
West has sparked global outrage over the past three years for a repeated pattern of antisemitic, racist, and openly pro-Nazi rhetoric, a controversy that already led to the UK government barring him from entering the country earlier this year. The two cancelled Reggio Emilia shows, scheduled for July 17 and 18 at the city’s RFC Arena, were set to feature West and Scott alongside a roster of major A-list acts including The Chainsmokers, Rita Ora, and Swedish House Mafia.
In an official statement, the regional prefecture outlined the multiple factors that guided its final call. Among the top considerations were the wave of concert cancellations for West already implemented across other nations, and the very real threat of large-scale counter-demonstrations targeting the event. Officials also noted that the close scheduling of the two back-to-back events, combined with projections of massive crowds gathering at the venue, created additional unmanageable public safety risks.
Travis Scott, the co-headliner of the events, has also faced ongoing intense scrutiny over his role in the 2021 Astroworld Festival tragedy in Houston, Texas, where a crowd surge during Scott’s headline set left 10 attendees dead between the ages of 9 and 27, and injured thousands more when panic spread through the over-capacity crowd pressed against the stage.
The Italian cancellation is just the latest domino to fall in a series of scrapped shows for West this year. Last month, London’s high-profile Wireless Festival was called off entirely after West, the announced headline act, was denied entry to the UK amid widespread public backlash over his inflammatory remarks. West’s pattern of problematic comments dates back to 2022, when he posted on social media that he would go “death con 3 On Jewish people”, and in May 2023 he released a track titled *Heil Hitler* and sold merchandise emblazoned with swastikas.
Following the UK entry ban, cancellations quickly spread across mainland Europe. In mid-April, West announced the Marseille stop on his European tour would be postponed “until further notice”, with French media reporting at the time that Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez was actively moving to ban the scheduled June 11 show. That same month, a planned June 19 concert at Poland’s Silesian Stadium in Chorzów was also cancelled, with venue officials citing unspecified “formal and legal reasons”.
West has made recent attempts to rebuild his standing in mainstream entertainment after stepping back from public view. In January, he published a lengthy apology in *The Wall Street Journal*, claiming “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite” and asserting “I love Jewish people”. He also attributed his past harmful comments to his bipolar disorder diagnosis, writing that he had “lost touch with reality” during the period when the remarks were made.