Ren Suxi’s live performance in Hunan TV’s new live musical show, Phantacity 幻乐之城，is full of childhood wonder but also made me cry like an idiot at the airport.
The series features Faye Wong as she overlooks the production of four 10-minute mini-live musicals per episode. Episode one featured Yi Yangqianxi and Hu Xianxu, Huang Xiaoming, Ren Suxi, and Lei Jia. Yi Yangqianxi and Hu Xianxu’s work with Peng Youlun was visually stunning and a decent watch, but the breakout performance was definitely director Xin Shuang and actor Ren Suxi’s “Time Machine.”
Shadowing Your Heart 如影隨心(lit.) is based on the eponymous novel by reporter and author An Dun, and tells of the romance between a talented violinist (Chen Xiao) and interior designer (Du Juan). The pair get married almost immediately after meeting each other, though they soon find out that a passionate romance isn’t enough to keep a marriage going.
Faye Wong and Na Ying first performed theme song Time 岁月at this year’s Spring Festival Gala (English lyrics).
Fan Bingbing tops the Forbes China Celebrity List for the second year in a row, which means I get to reuse the same photo as last year.
Riding on her foray into Hollywood, actress Fan Bingbing has retained her top-ranking position on the Forbes China Celebrity List. The list, which ranks the top 100 Chinese celebrities based on media exposure and income, sees more Mainland stars this year than ever before, with 60 (or so) of the listees basing their careers in Mainland China. Aside from a handful of actors, however, the biggest A-listers were overwhelming from Hong Kong or Taiwan, with 14 of the top 20 hailing from either of the two islands.
According to Forbes, Fan raked in nearly $20 million last year, putting her on par with Jennifer Aniston and Kanye West. The celebrity with the deepest pockets, Jay Chou, banked $25 million, around the same as Ben Affleck or Buffy creator and Avengers director Joss Whedon.
Despite the success of China’s biggest stars (this year’s top 10 took home $20 million more than last year’s), the overall earnings of the Celebrity 100 decreased for a second consecutive year, accumulating $65 million less wealth than the year before. However, the celebrities still managed to bring home more than half a billion dollars between them.
Actors and actresses made up the bulk of the list, accounting for 72 of the celebrities. It is common for celebrities to both sing and act in the Chinese entertainment industry, however, and several were identified as both.
Of the 29 singers and musical groups on the list, only six were from Mainland China. Of those six, five were involved in reality television singing competitions, with the exception of Hong Kong-launched Faye Wong.
Mainland Pianists Lang Lang and Li Yundi maintained their presence on the list, with Li (ranked 56) overtaking Lang Lang (57) for the first time.
New entrants to the list include Tiny Times author Guo Jingming who debuted at 27, model Zhang Liang of Where Are We Going, Dad? fame, and I Am A Singer runner-up G.E.M and Taiwanese actor Kai Ko just sneaking onto the list at 91 and 97 respectively.
Meanwhile, notable dropouts include Taiwanese film director Ang Lee (previously ranked 29), Hong Kong funnyman Stephen Chow (24), Jet Li (41), Nobel laureate Mo Yan (16), Olympic gold medalist Sun Yang (31), former Super Junior member Han Geng (87), and Super Girls Chris Li (15) and Jane Zhang (45).
Lu Yi wants to take his daughter on adventures for the show
As “Where are we going? Dad” becomes the cutest show of the year, celebrity dads are all expressing interesting in taking their “little monsters” on adventures around China. So far Li Yapeng (daughter with Faye Wong) , Yu Quan‘s Chen Yufan (son with Bai Baihe), Wen Zhang (daughter with Ma Yili), Lu Yi (daughter with Bao Lei),Julian Cheung (son with Anita Yuen), Xu Zheng (daughter with Tao Hong), and Huang Lei (daughter with Sun Li) have all indicated to the press that they would be interested in going future seasons if their kids agree.
Hunan TV plans for two seasons of the show next year. Which pairs would you like to see the most? Which ones are your favorites this season? I’m personally hoping that one of the seasons will be the currently pair and then one season the new pair.
The big news these past two weeks was obviously Faye Wong and Li Yapeng‘s divorce, a topic that continues to trend on Weibo. I don’t have much to say about it, except that I was not expecting it at all. But even a divorce can’t cover up the happiness of marriage, and we were lucky to get not one, but TWO celebrity weddings in the first half of September!
First up are actor He Ziming and Super Girl He Jie, who wowed us with their proposal, their wedding photoshoot, and now their actual wedding ceremony. The two of them tied the knot on September 12th, and their wedding photos are absolutely gorgeous. Check out these twophotosets, courtesy of Nice Wedding, for some ideas for your own wedding! ;)
Today, we happily got married! After we came down, friends asked me if I was tired. To tell the truth, I was so happy that I’d forgotten everything else. The two people who went through the most difficulties these past two months actually wasn’t us, but all of the employees and our friends in the media. On behalf of me and my wife, we thank everyone, as well as the friends who could and couldn’t make it! Thank you all for your blessings, because only with you as your witnesses could our wedding seem especially meaningful! In short, engraved in my memory and heart, thank you.
Faye Wong sings the theme for “So Young,” Zhao Wei‘s directorial debut and masters thesis featuring Mark Zhao, Han Geng, Yang Zishan, Tong Liya, Zheng Kai etc.
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.
Be impressed, like me, that Bazaar chose this photo for the cover instead of one of the less attractive ones.
We actually have an almost equal ration of guys to girls in this photo shoot round up (how monumental; who knows when I’ll achieve this again?). The shoots seem to have matured with the seasons; look below to find that most of them are sophisticated and elegant, rather than cutesy. (Even Hai Lu went boy style in this photo shoot.) This roundup features photo shoots from singer Wang Fei (Faye Wong), photographed by Chen Man, actress Deng Jiajia of iPartment 3 fame, and actor Du Chun with Zhang Li. A picture from one of Yan Kuan‘s photo shoots was also added, to balance out the male-female ratio, and also for a little humor (just look at his pose.) Continue reading →
On April 12th, Alan’s new single River of Eternity placed first on the Oricon’s Singles Chart, successfully beating Faye Wong’s record as the most highly ranked Chinese artist on the Oricon Charts. River of Eternity is the Japanese theme song to Red Cliff, and the single includes both the Chinese and Japanese versions of the previous songs.
Alan was so happy that she shed tears of joy. At the same time, she was very humble, crediting her success to that of Red Cliff.
How do Faye Wong, an undisputed diva of Asia, and Chris Li Yuchun, the controversial and popular “Asia’s Hero” relate to each other?
In a recent TV show, Zhang Yadong, one of the most distinguished music producers in China, and the man most associated with both’s music, made the following comment comparing the two artists:
Those singers that everyone thinks is great, I really don’t see how great they are. Artists need their own style. Chris Li Yuchun is very similar to Faye Wong in many ways, especially in their unique musical personalities.
Zhang Yadong released the first Chinese album that features a producer rather than a singer last month. In the album, released on the internet only and titled “Ni Liu/flowing backwards,” Faye Wong sings song “I love you,” the theme song of a movie of the same name. This is her first new song in over five years.
