Category: Music

Rap for Youth Live Stages Round-Up

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Rap of China is really boring this year so far, but luckily Rap for Youth has stepped up to the plate. The casting and editting is hilarious, and the arrangement and production level of this show is absolutely stunning. Each of the stages for the first round features at least one live instrument working with the rappers on stage, and many flawlessly combine Chinese instruments with the beats.

Here’s my favorite song of the round, a battle song that samples Eminem’s Lose Yourself while using Chinese drums. The chorus for this is ridiculously well-written, and the whole performance is perfect.

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Category: Music/Photoshoot

THE9 releases debut EP SphinX shoot

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  • Zhao Xiaotang was probably my least favorite pre-debut, but she and Lu Keran always have the best photographs
  • An Qi giving off strong Jolin Tsai vibes here.

I love it. It’s bold and somewhat risky, but they all look so good. Youth With You 2’s debut group THE9‘s first EP, titled SphinX, will reportedly have a mythology X outer space theme (hence Xu Jiaqi’s alien ears). chose a decidedly girlcrush route for a group of women with equally bold personalities.

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Category: Music

Live Stages Round-Up

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Bai Bing, Ning Jing, Wang Likun, Yu Kewei and Wang Feifei are definitely making waves in this zhongguofeng-styled banger.

R1SE in a rendition of Roles have no big or small 角儿无大小. This is really their best style – mostly rap + some opera. Yan Xujia and He Luoluo are missing for college examinations. Yan Xujia got into Beijing Film Academy, not sure about He Luoluo. Congrats to Yan Xujia for being the final member of X-Fire to get accepted into college!

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Category: Music

Live Stages Round-up: Chuang 2020, We Are Blazing, I’m CZR

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Whoever designed Miss Freak should work on the next Tim Burton set.

A round-up of a couple of my favorite stages since the last post. If you missed it, XDramaX also did a Sisters Who Make Waves round-up.

A Tim Burton film turned into a stage, Miss Freak is easily my favorite since River. The make-up and costumes, the stage, and the choreography are all perfectly on theme, as is the performance.

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Category: Music

Stages round-up: 618 and We Are Blazing

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The 9’s Hunt by 白夜森林·陆柯燃

A round-up of eye-catching stage performances, mostly from stage competition We Are Blazing (it’s like mixed-gender Queendom) and 618 galas.

Sing girlgroup in maybe their best live performance yet, a tanbur cover of Despacito. The opening with the gold dust is so beautiful and left me in wow the same way their fans first did on Produce 101.
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Category: Music

Chuang 2020 finally has a good stage and it’s worth it

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This stage might be better than every other stage on Chuang added together. I honestly didn’t think they could pull off this song when I first heard they were doing it, but Zhao Yue, Wang Yiqiao, Xu Yiyang, Hua Chengyan, and Ma Sihui all pulled it off perfectly. They could honestly debut this group and I would stan. I think this might have a run for my top three favorite stages if it were on Youth With You 2.

Category: Music/Television

Youth With You 2: Lu Keran appreciation post

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Lu Keran embodies the undefined and unlimited theme of Youth With You 2

Remember the attractive pink-haired leader from the androgynous group Acrush three years ago? She got even more attractive. This is an appreciation for Lu Keran, leader and lead dancer of Fanxy Red (the revamped version of Acrush) and the embodiment of the undefined and unlimited X factor of girl group survival show Youth With You 2.

Lu Keran exudes a sensuality that can be defined as neither masculine nor feminine, but uniquely hers. She is confident but sensitive, childish but mature beyond her age, traditional but a rule-breaker, sweet but aloft. In every performance she’s in, she is able to mend her style to fit the song without ever losing her uniqueness. The only thing that defines her is perhaps her intro to the song No Company, “if you try to define me, you’ll find no company.”

I know iQiyi videos doesn’t let you watch it embedded but this is really my favorite performance of hers yet and probably my favorite performance of the season so far: 

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Category: Music

“Live Stages” Round-Up

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None of these people are even in the top nine and they all need to debut.

I don’t think I’ve ever stanned as many people (30+) in a competition as I have in Youth With You 2. Despite its flaws, it has really lived up to its theme of the “No definition girl group”. They didn’t try to define what a girl group should be, nor what any member should be, and as a result everyone has the opportunity to shine.

I know iQiyi disabled the embedding but this group is too sexy and powerful for me to not start with this. I especially recommend Lu Keran, Zeng Keni, and Ge Xinyi‘s focus cams because a lot of their fierceness aren’t shown in the full video since too many of them are amazing at the same time. There’s also the dance studio version here (this show has the best studio camerawork).

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