Chinese Hocus Pocus

The Independent summarises the recent graphological analysis of the Brontës:

Graphologists examining the handwriting of the Brontë sisters say they have garnered a deeper impression of the siblings' personalities. Diane Simpson, with The Brontë Parsonage Museum, has concluded that Charlotte was a fiercely motivated workaholic, Emily bore signs of TB years before anyone realised, and Anne was intellectually superior to her sisters. Searing biographical insights or hocus pocus?(Arifa Akbar)

The Daily Yomiuri (China) reveals an unexpected Brontëite. The Chinese pop star Jane Zhang (Jane Z. or 張靚穎):

"If you say my name in Sichuan pronunciation it's like 'Ja-in,' it's quite close to Jane," she said.
But the main reason for calling herself Jane comes from a very different and very surprising source. "Jane is from a book I loved--Jane Eyre. I really like the heroine in the book," she said.
Charlotte Bronte's classic Gothic novel tells of the rise of Jane Eyre, a poor orphan girl in England in 19th-century England. More than 150 years since its publication, another Jane from a humble background on the other side of the world will be hoping that, like that of her literary role model, her story will have a happy ending. (Stephen Taylor)

And The Nation talks about the poet and novelist, Fanny Howe:

She recounts stories of people who have moved her--the obscure young adult novelist Antonia White; Emily Brontë; the documentary filmmaker Henry Hampton (...) (Ange Mlinko)

Huntington News talks about the diversity in the US and uses Wuthering Heights 1939 as an example:

Which brings me back to Old Hollywood. When I was growing up, I used to take great joy in reading the credits at the end of old movies, remarking to myself, “Only in America.” Singling out just one, let’s take a look at “Wuthering Heights.”
It was produced by Samuel Goldwyn, born in Warsaw, Poland. Directed by William Wyler, born in the French region of Alsace. The costume designer was Omar Kiam, born in Monterrey, Mexico. Makeup was by Blagoe Stephanoff, born in Macedonia. The stars, too, were a wonderful casting-call of counties. Merle Oberon was born in Bombay, India. Laurence Olivier, in Dorking, England. Geraldine Fitzgerald, in Dublin, Ireland. Granted that the screenplay was written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, born respectively in New York City and Scranton, Pennsylvania, but their script was based on a book written by Yorkshire, England’s Emily Bronte, so that sort of evens things out. (Shelly Reuben)

We are quite confused about the following Brontë mention in Las Vegas Weekly:

In these troubled times, what could be more important than what we think about stuff? (...)
Mr. Bamboo
Who is Mr. Bamboo? My cat. He is from a shelter, and has dark patches, but is mostly white. He purrs every time he is picked up. And so why is the Mister (as he is called in an insincere tribute to the Bronte sisters) more worthy of five stars than your cat (or, my other cat) or your car or toe? He isn’t. Just take a look around, and you may be surprised at how much perfection you find in your life. (Richard Abowitz)

A Harvard Crimson article (probably only understandable by Harvard students) contains a Brontë reference:

Jingoism aside, we do not care to profile the Houses. We are not in the architecture business, and you probably already know that if you get Dunster, you’ll spend the next three years inside an irregular dodecahedron cell in Roger Porter’s attic. (Daniel K. Bilotti & Vicent M. Chiappini)

Music & Vision celebrates John Joubert's 82th birthday in this article:

His most popular works are the carols Torches and There is No Rose of Such Virtue, but he has written more than 160 works, including the opera Jane Eyre and the oratorio Wings of Faith. Commissions include those from the Three Choirs Festival, the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts, the BBC and the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Imperial Valley Press insists on the Twilight-Wuthering Heights connection:

Somewhere a pair of tween or teen girls, maybe even boys, is giddy with anticipation over tonight’s midnight release of the film “Twilight,” the modern-day “Wuthering Heights” about the rated-PG love affair between a human high school girl and her 108-year-old vampire B/F, who just happens to be frozen in time as a picture perfect 17-year-old. (Richard Brown)

On the blogosphere: 3 demonios enjaulados posts about Wuthering Heights (in Spanish), Happy Times posts several pictures of a family trip to the Brontë fall and Bulletin Board of the Brain reviews Villette (4 of 5 stars)

Categories: Brontëites, In the News, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Music, Opera, References, Villette, Wuthering Heights