Rene Liu’s directorial debut Us and Them 后来的我们 stars Zhou Dongyu (Thousand Faces of Dunjia) and Jing Boran (Monster Hunt 2) as two strangers who fall in love after meeting on the train when travelling back to their hometowns during the Spring Festival holidays.
Huang Xiaoming’s triad boss in the Shanghai Bund is so handsome, he can’t resist trying to hit on himself. Too bad the triad boss looks so murderous.
With the recent drama Prince of Orchid Hills/Lanling Wang coming to an end, most viewers have already reconciled themselves with Feng Shaofeng’s pretty-boy general. But on that note, which other actors might have made a convincing case for feminine beauty? (Sorry, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan. I can’t look at your female forms without wanting to laugh). Take a look below to see a selection cross-dressing men in Chinese entertainment. Wallace Huo dresses up as a Victorian lady (and puckers up for a kiss as his wuxia counterpart stares in disbelief). Nicolas Tse sports two braids and what looks like a schoolgirl outfit. Throw in Tony Leung, Du Haitao, Sammul Chan, Li Yugang, and Eason Chan, and it’s a field day – you’ll find a list of contenders to be the fairest of them all.
Although, if you’ll remember this music video (where Ma Tianyu, after being ditched by Deng Sha for her best friend on their wedding day, dresses up as a woman to seduce the said girlfriend, in the end winning back his own fiance/girlfriend…) you’ll know who the winner is before we even begin. Update: Chen Xiao (giving Ma Tianyu a run for his money), Kimi Qiao Renliang, and Jimmy Lin have joined our list of crossdressers. Du Haitao has a real schoolgirl costume, replete with little flowers in his hair… Continue reading
Tibetan pop diva Alan Dawa Dolma 阿兰·达瓦卓玛 attended Hunan TV’s X-Factor auditions accompanied by a five-person entourage.
This time, the professional singer was immediately recognised by judge Zhang Ziyi. “You’re the one who sang the theme song for the Red Cliff movie, right?” she asked as the audience oohed in recognition.
The former Avex star acknowledged her professional credentials but confessed her dislike for being known only as a soundtrack singer. “I don’t like that everyone qualifies my identity with something in front of my name,” she lamented. “‘Oh, she’s that Red Cliff singer, Alan.’ ‘Oh, she’s that InuYasha singer, Alan.’ ‘Oh, she’s that Bu Bu Jing Xi singer, Alan.’ I don’t like it.”
She continued: “I came here because the past is the past. I want to start anew. I hope everyone will support me.”
Alan belted out her own song, Hū Huàn 呼喚, while judge Eason Chan looked on, unimpressed, as Alan hit her signature high notes to the audience’s applause.
Eason cares little for Alan’s Tibetan-style vocals
I like how their walk totally fit their public persona
X-Factor China officially took over I Am a Singer‘s time-slot on HNTV last week. The three professional judges are pop music legend Luo Dayou, rocker Zheng Jun, and popular singer Eason Chan… Zhang Ziyi also sat at the judges’ table. You can watch the full episode here from HNTV’s official youtube channel.
Yang Chengxi performed “The Only One In The World”. Watch more selected performances below the cut
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Almost 20 years since her passing, is Teresa Teng still the best Chinese singer?
Last week, Liang Huan 梁欢, who is probably a man, compiled a list of Chinese singers on her his Weibo, allocating points in increments of five, alongside some brutally honest criticism (e.g., Jolin Tsai: “dance moves accompanied by bad vocals”). Since then, her his post has been retweeted—or the Weibo equivalent—tens of thousands of times. Some fans, notably those of Han Geng, have derided the low scores of their idols.
How do your favourites stack up? Continue reading
Crowd Lu = Adorable
So I was going to put up the nominations the day before the ceremony to refresh everyone’s memory before the awards were announced, but then I forgot myself because I’ve been busy. But I’m still not too late to put up the winners list, so check it out and see if you agree or not.
ee media 2009 family portrait
Wang Leehom, Jolin Tsai, SJ-M, Mayday, Fish Leong, Zhang Liyin, Rene Liu, and the entire ee media family will all spend New Year’s Eve on Hunan tv and ctv’s new year countdown concert. Rumored guests include the new and original F4 as well as David Beckham. Continue reading
Music awards can be given out rather liberally in the Greater Chinese-speaking region, and sometimes, it’s simply a popularity contest. But the Music Media Awards has always been classy, always recognized some of the best talent out there, and this time they gave the recognition not to idols, not to mainstream talent, but to some of the best indie. There’s nothing wrong with mainstream popular music, but it’s still pretty nice to see these artists get recognition at a major awards event. In honor of this, I’ll be adding some of the winner’s songs to the music box on the main page.
Peng Tan, winner of Best Mandarin Newcomer
Guo Jingjing auctioned the swimsuit she wore at the Olympics for charity, with the help of Liu Xuan former Sydney 2000 gold-medal gymnast (not under suspicion by IOC, unlike her teammate Yang Yun). The suit sold for 300,000 yuan, which you can divide by something like 7 to get the US amount. In the good old days, before the US economy started failing dismally it was something like 8.
Liu Xuan, who looks remarkably like Guo at times, has been ubiquitous during these Olympics, seen almost more than the actual Olympians. A telecommunications major at university, she was on site as a reporter for TVB, interviewing all the Chinese gymnasts after their routines, interviewed Korean star Rain for his surprise closing ceremony appearance, and was one of the special guests for Eason Chan’s concert in China a few days ago, singing with the 2008 gymnasts. One of the male gymnasts from China’s 2000 team, Xing Aowei also was at the concert as a special guest singer, and was busy this year promoting the olympics not only in Movies but also music videos. Whoever said the fame of athletes fades quickly after their time doesn’t know Chinese athletes. Here’s hoping in 2016 we can still see the stars from 2008 out and about.
