China film director hailed for harming environment

BEIJING, Nov 1 (Reuters) Chinese director Chen Kaige, whose movie ''The Promise'' harmed a pristine Himalayan lakeside during shooting, has been nominated for a ''Green Chinese'' award for raising environmental awareness.

In May, China fined producers of ''The Promise'', at 35 million dollars the most expensive film in Chinese history, 90,000 yuan for destroying vegetation at Bigu Lake in the southwest province of Yunnan, Xinhua news agency said.

The producers' failure to conduct an impact assessment and secure permission to build roads and buildings caused a media storm in China and led to regulations punishing film makers who cause environmental damage.

''Sometimes a negative example can serve as a warning,'' Xinhua quoted Wang Panpu, deputy director of the awards committee, as saying.

Chen's nomination for the annual award, which selects five to 10 Chinese for their ''great contribution'' to protecting the environment, drew fire from Internet users.

''How can Chen be nominated? If a bad example like him can be nominated, then traitors should be nominated as heroes in the same sense,'' fumed a post on Web site Netease.com.

Apart from Chen, whose 1993 movie ''Farewell My Concubine'' garnered an Oscar nomination, the 253-name shortlist for the award includes Zhang Jizhong -- a Chinese director whose adaptation of Louis Cha's martial arts novel ''The Legend of the Condor Heroes'', caused environmental damage in China's World Heritage-listed Jiuzhaigou National Park.

Reuters MS DB0958