This week the Harvard Film Archive pays tribute to Chinese director Xiaowen Zhou, who has come to Harvard to speak and attend a preview of his film Common People, which has yet to pass government censors in China.

Two Harvard Chinese language instructors, Zhijie Jia and Lanting Xu, were instrumental in winning sponsorship for Zhou's visit from the Harvard Film Archive, the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research and the Asian American Association.

Zhou graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1985 and has since won critical acclaim on the international film circuit for his directing ability. His visit to Harvard will offer China scholars a rare opportunity to discuss these important films with the director, according to the tribute's sponsors.

"Mr. Zhou's visit to Harvard...represents a rare opportunity for the students and China scholars in the Harvard community as well as the general public to meet the director and see the works of two important Chinese filmmakers," Jia and Xu wrote in a September letter to the Fairbank Center asking for sponsorship.

Saturday night the film archive showed East Palace, West Palace, a film directed by Yuan Zhang that was banned in China because it includes homosexual themes.

Zhang did not attend the screening. Zhou will attend an 8 p.m. screening tonight of The Emperor's Shadow. Government censors in China have not yet approved his film Common People, which will be shown Tuesday at 4 p.m. Zhou will lead a discussion after the film.

Jimmy Tan, Zhou's creative director for Common People, will also attend the screening and discussion.

Last night more than 90 people attended a screening of Ermo, a satire about a peasant woman obsessed with owning the largest television set in her village. The film won Zhou international acclaim. ,

A largely Chinese-speaking audience attendedthe subtitled film.

The audience included students, Harvard staffand Chinese families from the Cambridge area.

"Ermo, in particular, secured [Zhou's]reputation as one of the most important filmmakersworking in China today," Jia and Xu wrote, addingthat the film was voted the best feature film atMexico's Cancun Festival in 1995.

"We had 30 people [in the audience] in thefirst five minutes," said Bill Westfall, a HarvardFilm Archive employee. "Somehow the word got out."

The audience on cold Sunday nights generallynumbers less than 30, according to Westfall.

He said he expects even larger crowds when Zhouattends the screening