A Chinese Wedding for Charlotte

A couple of upcoming Yorkshire festivals include Brontë-related events in their programmes. We read in the Halifax Evening Courier about 'Treasures Revealed' at St. James's Church in Hebden Bridge:

It was with interest that I read 'Your Say', August 10th: 'Charlotte Brontë came to Halifax for Wedding Dress' [regrettably this article is not online, as far as we know]. The article was handed to me by a friend some days later.
The marriage ceremony was indeed conducted by the Rev Sutcliffe Sowden, incumbent of St James's Church, Hebden Bridge from 1841-1861, until his untimely death by drowning in the nearby canal.
The choice of vicar for this important occasion was not accidental, as Sutcliffe Sowden and the Rev Arthur Bell Nicholls were intimate friends. Indeed, after Sutcliffe's death, the Rev Nicholls remarked in a letter of condolence to George Sowden, Sutcliffe's brother, that he had regarded him more as a relative than a friend.
In later years, Sutcliffe Sowden officiated at Charlotte's funeral, and the Rev Nicholls at the service and burial of his dear friend Sutcliffe, whose grave and head-stone occupy a prominent place in our churchyard at St James's.
These Brontë links will form an important part of our forthcoming festival 'Treasures Revealed', which takes place at St James's Church, Hebden Bridge, from the 11th to the 19th of September. Indeed, the festival begins on Saturday 11th with a showing of the film Jane Eyre within the church building. We invite you to join us for the film at 7.30pm, after which, supper will be served. (Anna Lomas)

The other one is the South Pennines Walk and Ride Festival which according to Grough:

It’s the landscape that inspired the Brontë sisters and the late poet laureate Ted Hughes and, though not as well known as the national parks that sandwich it, it offers landscapes and villages steeped in history. (...)
The fourth South Pennines Walk and Ride Festival opens on 11 September with walks on Ilkley Moor, cultural heart of the West Riding and setting for the unofficial Yorkshire anthem On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘At. (Liz Roberts)

A Brontë Connection Walk is going to be celebrated next September 18th.

The Times has an interesting article about China's weakness for Jane Eyre and the Brontës:

When Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre, her gothic Victorian tale of love and insanity in rural England, it is reasonable to assume that she was not tailoring her prose for readers in 21st-century China. But the Middle Kingdom has become so keen on the story of the archetypal madwoman in the attic that a Chinese broadcaster has bought the digital rights to to the BBC’s adaptation of the book.
Sohu.com, an internet broadcaster, has acquired Jane Eyre along with four adaptations of novels by Jane Austen, four by Charles Dickens and William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. The deal, which is the BBC’s first sale of digital content in China, is the latest Chinese flirtation with Brontë after a stage adaptation of Jane Eyre in Beijing last year. The popularity of Brontë’s love story also prompted the winner of China’s equivalent of The X Factor to name herself “Jane Z” after the Victorian heroine. A spokeswoman for BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, was at a loss to explain the popularity of period dramas in China, but said that the bestselling BBC DVD in the country is Pride & Prejudice.
Some Chinese have identified with Jane Eyre because of her egalitarian principles, in particular her wish to be treated as an equal by Mr Rochester despite her lowly status as an orphan. Yuan Quan, who portrayed Jane Eyre on stage at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, said that the title character captured the experience of all girls who were born into poverty. “In my personal opinion, what Jane affirms is her position in society, even though she aspires for equality, she is also realistic,” she said. “It’s a conflict we all encounter, especially in today’s society. How other people view her doesn’t matter. If Rochester loves her, he must treat her as an equal.” Chinese enthusiasm for the Brontë sisters ates back to the 1930, when Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights was first translated as Xia Lu Yuan Jia. Brontë’s novel Villette appeared in China in 1932 (as Luoxue Xiaojie Youxueji) and Jane Eyre followed three years later (as Guni Piaolingji, which translates as A Record of of an Orphan Girl who Drifts About Alone).

STV (with video) interviews the comic duo Frisky and Mannish and comments on their parody of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights:

“For example Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights, which is a big song in the UK, is also massive in Australia, which we didn’t know, and though the Australians didn’t understand who Kate Nash was, they understood what we were trying to do with the song and loved it."

The Advocate takes a different approach criticising the Twilight series:

Of course the books are well written, not to mention cleverly paced, but with all the comparisons to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, there is a sinister theme throughout: the hopelessness of women and the all-saving power of men. (Catherine Gale)

Vue reviews Vampires Suck, the Friedberg & Seltzer parody of the vampires-are-cool phenomenon:

Drac knows there's plenty of pints in the teen vampire-horrormone Twilight Saga to mock: formulaic shots, cheesy F/X, the bizarre effort to merge Bram Stoker and Wuthering Heights in 21st century America, the Mormon sucktext, the series' anti-feminism. But since this is a goof-spoof from the Friedberg and Seltzer factory (Scary Movie, Epic Movie, etc.), the movie tosses off some blunt-force one-liners, coasts on character impersonation, riffs off the originals' plot points, and pretends its cheap imitation of the Saga's mopey, slow scenes are parody. In other words, Vampires Suck bites. (Brian Gibson)

We read this funny thought in the Worthington Community Newspaper:

From Brontë sisters to Musketeers, in the literary world, good things come in threes. (Hillary Kline)

Saltaire Daily Photo now visits the Brontë Falls; w/e is on my mind, haha is reading Jane Eyre; Dreaming of Books awaits the release of April Lindner's Jane.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Books, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights