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Last weekend, Ruby Yang was screening several television commercials in a classroom at Tsinghua University. When the tagline appeared, there was a smattering of giggling in the crowd. It was not a comic sketch. The line was: "Use condoms. Protect yourself." It was a public announcement for AIDS awareness. Yang had made three such spots. The first one stars the folk singer Peng Liyuan. It is subtle, with college students shuffling in the background, and her tagline is "Life is precious, so please use protection." The second one features Pu Cun-xin, the actor who was the mainland's first celebrity to lend his name to the cause. The "night version" of his spot is the most provocative I've seen. There was a shot of a pair of young men frolicking on the street, another of a blouse blowing in the wind, and a third one of a young man and his girlfriend sharing a bike. Then came the "punchline" that elicited the nervous laughter. The third spot makes clever use of a visual pun as it stars action hero Jackie Chan. While he instructs a beautiful lady doing a stunt on a movie set, he talks of the importance of using protection. It is typical Jackie, humorous and sensible. These television spots were commissioned by China's Ministry of Health, and all of the celebrities involved donated their services. But the choice of Ruby Yang as director of the project was the real surprise. Yang, who gained instant fame early this year when her film Blood of Yingzhou District won the Oscar for the best short documentary, was not really an insider in Beijing's film circle. She is a Hong Kong native and worked mostly in the United States before settling down on the mainland. | 
