Our blog has moved here along with a FORUM. It’s unfinished atm, but we hope that it can be a forum that can grow to discuss Chinese-language entertainment from all over so please join! The original forum is here and will be supplemental to the main one. Secondly, I need writers for Cfensi, which does not mean literacy in Chinese. See the forums for more details.
Sorry – the new site and forum is being fixed and worked out. We’ll make an announcement on this site when it is more complete.
In the meantime, here’s a list of modern day romance movies to look forward to in 2010, because these films are covered less than the ancient/wuxia/martial arts films by English-language media and yet, China has completely nose-dived into this genre in the past year. Cinema goers in China want the choice of light-hearted entertainment from the cinema, and the Chinese film industry is rapidly accommodating that niche in the market.
Last year, there was only a small selection – this year there’s much much more. With China’s total box office up 44% in 2009, and 1.65 cinema screens added per day, with no signs of slowly down, this should only be one sign to look forward to of the growing diversification of China’s rapidly rising film industry.
The whole Hunan TV show was uploaded at MyChineseDrama@yt. Part 1 here. For tons of pictures of the performers go here.
My favorite performance from Hunan: Yu Haoming + Liu Xijun – Bei Ji Xue
More vids of what happened at Taipei aiyatheydidnt has a great post with most of those.
For Jiangsu TV no one really uploaded vids, so here’s Sina’s vid of my most anticipated performance from Jiangsu:
Joanna Wang out of semi-hiatus
Fayewongtoday has a post on Faye Wong attending her friend Na Ying‘s much anticipated New Year Concert.
Yesterday afternoon, Guo Jingming appeared at Dangdang.com for the first national internet signing event for Tiny Times 2.0. His influence was so large that, as of 5PM of yesterday, Guo Jingming signed 38,553 copies of his new book. In order to grab a chance to talk with the idol online, his crazy fans spammed the screen nonstop to the point of causing a server shutdown of Dangdang.com.
The first installment in Guo Jingming’s Tiny Times series, was released over a year ago, showing a sharp change in direction from his previous style, focusing on Chinese urban youth. Despite the fact that Tiny Times 1.0 already dealt with dark subject matter like rape, Guo Jingming has said “Tiny Times 1.0 is like a fairytale compared to 2.0.” Hunan TV acquired the copyrights for a drama version last year, although it has not started production.
– partly translated by ixiedin
This post is a bit late too, sorry!
On Dec 24th Xie Tian Xiao (incidentally also from Shandong for those keeping tally) gave his fans a memorable Christmas Eve, coinciding with the release of his new EP Chinese Zither Reggae Vol 1, with four new songs. XTX, who started off grunge, influenced by Bob Marley later became fascinated with reggae, and incorporated it into his latter albums. In this new EP he blended in zither instruments like the Gu Qin to create a style of “Chinese reggae”. A full album of “Chinese Zither Reggae” is in the works to be released later.
Li Qin (Young Xue Baochai), Jiang Mengjie (Lin Daiyu), and Yang Yang (Older Jia Baoyu) in InStyle
Even though there have been many trailers already for The New Dream of the Red Chamber, the previous ones tried to only convey an moody ambiance. This new trailer actually had dialogue, and shows off the beautiful camerawork and sets. The total costs of production for the 50-episode series reached 118 million yuan (for comparison, even the elaborate sets of The Message cost around 50 million yuan), but the producer, sounding much more confident than in previous reports, said that the costs should be definitely recoverable.
Vid thanks to fountainpark723.
We first read about this group in a fascinating article in the business section of the entertainment news. In it mainland label Tai Rye talked about the costs of producing the boyband, first spending a year going to various art schools and talent locations in China to select from thousands. Then they picked 50 kids aged 15-17 to go to Beijing and train, eliminating a few each week. Finally, after three years, the group MIC was formed with 6 members, with a long-term investment of millions including choreographers for American artists like Madonna. The only thing they have mentioned in their upcoming lineup however is LG Lollipop phone commercial for the China market, which has emerged recently.
Making of LG Lollipop CF for the China market (with girlgroup f(x))
Continue reading
Li Yuanxi, Pan Chen and Liu Xijun in China's coastal city Sanya
This week I’ll be in and out, intermittently, and idarklight will be going to China soon as well for a month. Even when she’s not posting, she does a lot of stuff behind the scenes so don’t be surprised if the site falls into the crapper when she’s gone.
However idarklight will still be posting some things before she’s gone, including the big Chinese ethnic minorities in Chinese entertainment post (including Han Geng) so please be on the lookout for it. Otherwise, just talk amongst yourself and keep everything civil.
Jacky's 4th Album Went On Sale a Week Ago
Xue Zhiqian just released his My Athena MV for his compilation album, NOT Completed Song. When I started this site, I thought he was just another pretty boy with minimal talent. Then I found out he composed almost all of his songs. Then I realized how everyone else under his record label Universal has essentially failed because Universal barely gives him promotion opportunities. He deserves so much credit for getting where he is today, by being so hard-working, whether it be composing hit songs that get him on the charts, or taking the initiative to learn to dance to vary his style.
My Athena (Co-composed and Written by Xue Zhiqian)
Court papers to void contract
According to South Korean sources, the only Chinese member of South Korean boyband Super Junior, Han Geng formally submitted papers to Seoul’s Central Court requesting termination of his exclusive contract with SM company. The details of the termination lawyers have said can not be conveniently disclosed to the public at this time.
Source: Sina (Sina is an entirely credible source for Chinese news, one of the most reliable for Chinese entertainment so I assume this is true.)
Source for Court Paper to void contract : Sina
Please no one do anything rash because of this news. Please.
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The rest of the article is background info about DBSG’s lawsuit, Han Geng in China etc. I see both bad and good in this.