The powerful film took a further two years to make.
After their win, prominent Government official, our longtime and dear friend, Madam Yang, shared a comment on her blog. She simply stated: "Gratified! Congratulations! Salute!"
Cameraman Chen Yuan Zhong spoke for the film crew, supporters in China and across the world, and all in the team of Animals Asia when he commented on his blog: “Moon bears, you got the award, do you hear?”
Elsa Xiong Jun Hui, Chen Yuan Zong and Tu Qiao – thank you from the bottom of our hearts – we salute you.
Elsa (whose surname "Xiong" means "bear") and Chen Yuan visited our sanctuary on their return from the film festival. They wanted to share with the bears the beautiful trophy they had received for their film, which has been viewed over 1.4 million times across China. And they wanted the chance to experience, even just for a moment, how it felt to be confined to a cage so small.
The whole crew has been so utterly committed and dedicated to this film – and we are endlessly grateful for all the help and publicity they have given to China's tortured bears. It was a great privilege to have Chen and Elsa on site. Chen later sent us these beautiful, moving photos of that very special day.
And here with Elsa, Chen and our Beijing team from left – Susan, Dan Fang and Toby.
Elsa micro-blogged about the photo of the trophy in a cage – a barbaric contraption that had once trapped a moon bear for many long years. Elsa’s comment was:
Glory in a cage
The glory was born from the cage, and yet it’s still trapped by the cage – moon bear, when can you breathe freely?
Click here to watch “Moon Bear” and to read all about Elsa, Chen and Tu Qiao and their heroic filming under conditions that risked their lives – and the justice of China's film industry that awarded them for their bravery.
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We saw quite some interest about the little bird "nesting" in Mutzi's fur recently (see my blog of August 25th). One of our ex Bear Managers and keen birder, Falk, kindly wrote with his view on why Mutzi was so attractive to this member of the avian species at our centre in Chengdu.
It is not unusual for adult birds to use animal hair for nest building, as you know. What is interesting here is that the bird is a juvenile Tree sparrow. This bird is definitely not intending to build any nests any time soon but indeed just enjoying a nice place to rest. It's certainly one of the safer places as long as it stays away from the bear's teeth and paws. Maybe it was raised in a nest made of bear fur, and just daydreams a bit?! Who knows...
So with thanks to Falk, perhaps the most simple explanation is the right one too.
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The husband of our Board member, Anneleise, is an enthusiastic car racer in his spare time. Boyd and Anneleise live in Shanghai together with their little boy, Felix, where Boyd has recently been racing in a car that flies the Animals Asia flag.
Please read the update below from a fellow racer, who was not only impressed by the skill of Boyd's racing, but also by the charity he proudly represented on the day.
Thank you Boyd for bringing the plight of the animals of Asia to the attention of thousands of potential new supporters to the cause.
"During the second week of August the second 2012 Tianma Lunjia race festival took place at Tianma Lunjia race track close to Shanghai, China. A race festival comprising of official bike and car races in several classes of competition for talented amateurs.
In the 1.3liter engine car competition, the ASR cup was a separate class. The ASR cup exists of Geely Panda’s that are equally tuned, making it always a close and sensational race. One of the cars bears the name, colors and logo’s of the Animals Asia Foundation – a real eye catcher for the public as it is not so common to have logos from charitable foundations on sports cars.
Boyd Mulder, a rookie race enthusiast and employee at Philips Electronics, decided that his car colors and livery should be something he believes in, bringing a message to the China audience, rather than representing an actual sponsor or his own company.
Finishing a good second in his class and with a podium stage in his first official race, the exposure had several people and co-drivers asking Boyd for the meaning of Animals Asia. Besides loving the colors and livery, people really were impressed by such a good cause and admired the work being done by AAF in China.
We hope to see many more podium places for Boyd with increasing exposure of the AAF branding and such a good cause in the near future!"
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Life is never dull at our sanctuary in Chengdu - and just recently female bear Mutzi caused quite a stir when a bird decided to nestle in her fur. Heidi, our Bear Manager, and the team saw the bird in the enclosure and watched as it made a beeline for a bear.
As Heidi said, "the bird was fluttering about the log pile whilst the team and I enriched the enclosure. It could definitely fly because as I approached, it flew out of the enclosure. We let the bears out to forage and no sooner were they out there did the little bird fly straight in and perch on Mutzi's back. Mutzi seemed completely none-the-wiser and went on her way gobbling up whatever treats she could find. The funny thing was, as she moved about, the bird would flutter about to continually reposition itself in the thick fur near her shoulder blades. The team watched the bird do this for a good 30 minutes or so before it flew away again. I guess it was nice and warm there."
Vicki took the pics.... and here, quite remarkably, perhaps the first documented pictures of a bird trying to nest in a bear.
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Just recently our China team held our fourth summer camp in Chengdu where people from across the country joined in various activities, over two and a half days, promoting animal welfare. In a combination of hands on activities and classroom techniques, the time on site saw them all fired up to spread the message of pro-active help for animals once they returned home. You can read more about the camp here.
Huge congratulations to the whole team who have, once again, mobilised another group of enthusiastic welfarists, changing hearts and minds of generations to come.
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