people who watch a television movie are seeing a form of art.

[sitifan]

1. By this definition of art, people who watch a television movie are seeing a form of art. (quoted from an English textbook published in Taiwan)
2. By this definition of art, people watching a television movie are seeing a form of art. (English Grammar, by Yan Sihua, page 213)

Are the above sentences acceptable to native speakers?

 

[GoesStation]

Yes.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm not sure where your question leads you but okay, fine.

 

[sitifan]

1. By this definition of art, people who watch a television movie are seeing a form of art. Teenagers who buy and play records of popular music are listening to a form of art. And the millions who read romance or adventure novels are enjoying art in still another form. (quoted from an English textbook published in Taiwan)
2. By this definition of art, people watching a television movie are seeing a form of art; teenagers buying and playing records of popular music are subscribing to a form of art; and the millions who are reading romance or adventure novels are enjoying art in still another form. (English Grammar, by Yan Sihua, page 213)

Yan Sihua thinks #2 is much better than #1. Do native speakers agree with Yan's opinion?

 

[jutfrank]

Absolutely, yes. Much better.

That's a much more useful question, sitifan.

Yan's point about the grammar is a good one, but unfortunately, the example sentence is very badly written. Let me correct it:

By this definition of art, somebody watching a television movie is seeing a form of art, and a teenager playing a pop song is listening to a form of art.