"Every country has censorship," David Buckley, executive director of a delegation of Chinese filmmakers traveling through Houston on a whirlwind tour of the U.S., tells Public News by phone. "You have to respect their feelings about what people say about them. Our system under McCarthy in the '50s was not acceptable; nonetheless, we lived under that era."

Buckley went to China a few years ago with the expressed interest of bringing Chinese films to domestic audiences. "They have a way of doing business in China that clashes from time to time," admits Buckley, adding that the Chinese "consider their film industry a national treasure." Bradley is quick to correct misapprehensions, such as, there only being ten American films allowed in China per year. In reality, American films are widely available, both in theaters and on laser disc or video tape. Only ten American films per year are allowed revenue sharing.

Certainly, artists like Richard Gere and Martin Scorsese--whose Kundun was playing down the hall durin glast week's reception--are still banned in China (effectively preventing their visiting Tibet), yet that country's strance on American culture doesn't negate the importance of their films and directors. No less an internationally renown director than Zhang Yimou (We can't properly pronounce his name either.) whose films include Raise The Red anter, Shanghai Triad and To Live, and who rarely makes foreign appearances, is traveling with the contingent. "Yimou wants to depict Chinese life," states Bradley, "The only place he can do that is China."

Anyone familiar with history will find the Chinese depiction of British imperialism handled with a fine set of chopsticks. As seen in Red River Valley (British invasion of Tibet in early 20th-century), or Opium Wars (1840 British invasion of mainland China), isolation could only hurt China, which had otherwise flourished for thousands of years.

When China refused the importation of British opium, the Brits seized that opportunity to declare war in the name of fair trade and look over Hong Kong. That's tantamount to South American countries declaring war on America for not letting enough cocaine across our borders. Now Hong Kong is