VIDEO CHANNEL

There are many expatriates (foreigners) living and working in Shanghai-over 200,000 in a recent estimate. Many Chinese wonder what all these Europeans, Americans, Canadians and others do in their spare time after work. This short documentary focuses on an Irish lad, Bryan McCloskey, who first worked in Taiwan for a few years, and then moved to Shanghai to help found and run an English language training center, Kai En. The language school has had great success, with several centers and over 12,000 students, and so has Bryan. He has married a Chinese woman from Taiwan, and is very busy with the school, but he has found time for his second love-football (soccer).

We get an up-close and personal look at Bryan's daily life, and especially with the Shanghai Lions, the very successful, winning team that Bryan coaches.

This documentary focuses on some young British recent university graduates who have come to China to teach Englsh in Chinese schools for 1 year. One young man, Ben Ryan, has studied Chinese in college so his language skills are good, but he is not prepared for how hot the weather is in Shanghai when he arrives. Naomi Zola, another young teacher who doesn't speak Chinese, feels she can't get some resistant young boys in her class interested in the English lessons. Most of the young novice teachers try to get the feel of Chinese culture by eating with chopsticks, taking Tai Chi lessons and practicing their Chinese word pronunciations. They remain excited about being in China and take advantage of their breaks to have a look around the city. We experience the larger classrooms of students with the young teachers when they get their school assignments. They begin to miss their families back in England once Christmas-time comes round, but they go have fun at a TGI Friday's restaurant with karaoke music and lots of conversation. The film includes good views of Shanghai as well as putting the viewerright into the lives of these young teachers as they find their way in their new jobs.

The hospital in Shanghai has invited a group of cardiac specialists from Massachusetts Hospital in the U.S. to perform a life-saving heart and vascular procedure on an 81-year old gentleman in their care. He has 3 almost completely blocked arteries to his heart. It is too dangerous, given his age and other diseases, to do bypass surgery. Harvard University in China has cooperated with Huashan before in teaching and consulting roles-this is the first time for Harvard's doctors to actually perform procedures on the operating table. You will have to watch, to see the outcome.

We will also see the doctors working on other patients and passing on their advanced planning and surgical techniques to the hospital staff. This is a remarkable documentary that gives you a glimpse into the customarily very private world of life-saving doctors.

Kevin may be just 11-years old and an American visiting in a country very foreign to him, but he knows what he wants to do-attend the Shanghai Qingpu Wushu College, to learn all he can about his favorite subject-Kung Fu. Kevin is lucky enough to be able to study with a young master of the martial arts, Huang Shaoxiong, who treats him like the others in this stiff training, despite his young age. Kevin wouldn't have it any other way, and wants to show that he is up to the challenge. Kevin works hard at the training throughout the week, only coming home to his parents on weekends.

The life of a Shaolin student from Germany.