Green Book wins over Chinese audiences

The film Green Book,which has swept the top film festivals in the West,unsurprisingly conquered Chinese audiences after its debut on Friday.The road-trip drama reveals the dark era ofsegregationin US history but it is also comic.

Its name Green Book refers to a real book of the same name written by African-American postal employee Victor Hugo Green in 1962,which guides black people to hostels（招待所）and restaurants that welcome them.In the second year,the book was published,Martin Luther King Jr.delivered the famous speech I have a dream,pushing the civil rights movement to aclimax.

Adapted from a real story,the film describesagrowingfriendshipbetweenAfrican-American classical pianist Don Shirley,and his Italian-American driver Tony Vallelonga,during their trip into the racially discriminatory Deep South in the US.

The topical story won a reputation at its worldpremiereat the Toronto International Film Festi-val last September,and achieved numerous（许多的）awards afterwards.

With itwinningbigattheAcademy Awards ceremony across the Pacific,the film,which was scheduled to officially hit the Chinese mainland four days later in March 1,saw a soaring pre-sales,from 956,300 yuan on February 25 to 1.83 million yuan on February 26.

With the Chinese co-producer Alibaba Pictures,the movie unit of the Chinese e-commerce giant,the film attracted Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma to a Beijing cinema on February 25.Claiming he had watched the film three times already,two times fewer than that of Hollywood's best-known director Steven Spielberg,Ma said that“the world is sometimes cruel and is bothered with troubles and violence,and yet what we could learn from the film is that humanity still makes us feel warm.”

Chinese audiences echoed （附和）his words on the Internet,giving a high score of 8.9 points out of 10 on Douban,China's leading film review website.An online user,named Taotaotaodianying,said, “We tend to believe such story,because we hope people can be kind,mutually understood and equal to others.It is a beautiful wish.”

Word bank

1.segregation n.种族隔离

2.climax n.高潮；顶点

3.premiere n.首映