Three years ago, a car crash left Hu Ge hospitalized for about half a year. In that same car crash, a colleague of the Shanghai Tangren company – Zhang Mian – died. Upon recovery, Hu Ge published a book about the accident. He took the money earned from the book and used it to build a hope school. The school recently opened and was named after Zhang Mian.
From Hu Ge’s blog, last week. All HQ photos by Hu Ge:
Today is your birthday, we all remembered.
I was organizing pictures of the children at home. Their smiling faces made me forget all unhappinesses.
Today, should’ve always been a happy day.
One of my favorite Taiwanese indie bands 1976 released their new album “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” today. I haven’t listened to it yet, but considering I’m usually the late one on the block with indie news I thought I would seize the moment, in keeping with their theme of, in this fast-paced world of today, emphasizing the moments as we travel through time rather than trying to reach a particular destination . You can listen to the 10 tracks from the album here. Buy it at yesasia here.
1976 – 流浪者之路 MV (Their main plug )
More release and concert news below on Milk@Coffee, SuperVC etc.
Xue Zhiqian composes almost all the songs on his albums, including his hits singles. But why not all? Because while he likes dance, his compositional forte are pretty ballads, and so he leaves the one or two fast-tempo tracks for others to make. But this time he co-composed one track from his upcoming album along with two others. It could be better, but it’s at least as good as the lackluster Let U Go from his third album, so there is no downside to his trying to diversify and learn how to compose them. If it’s not your thing, you can listen to his ballad Unfinished Song, the first single from his upcoming fourth album.
Zhang Jie released his album two days ago with friend, but much less active singer, Wang Yuexin helping by giving him traditional Chinese winter snack, Bing TangHulu to eat. Zhang Jie sang his second track live, a day later at Hunan TV’s “Trend Night”, paired with sand drawing. Both his voice and the art were beautiful.
Jason Zhang Jie – Chuan Yue Ren Hai + Unknown Artist doing Sand Art
After Chen Lin’s death, there was a general sense of loss amongst the mainland community over the “Golden Age” singers, the singers from the 90s. However Na Ying, after a 7-year break suddenly released her new single, called Love’s Journey which she first revealed at the 2009 Mid-Autumn show and will be one of the big draws of her upcoming New Years concert. Na Ying, also Faye Wong’s best friend, is one of China’s most famous artists and perhaps the symbol of the “Golden Age” singers. Her return was a very welcome, comforting thing for many.
This is not from the same era, but Age of Water and Wood have been going strong early 2000s despite some member changes, and used their success to help other singer-songwriters like Wang Zheng emerge. And this new song and beautiful MV are so befitting for this time, post-Chen Lin’s suicide.
Age of Water and Wood - The Meaning of Life MV
There seems to be a lot of music releases converged in the next few months whether they be the younger soloists, newer indie artists, or the boybands. But with how warmly Han Hong’s return was welcomed along with the excitement over Na Ying’s comeback it’s nice to know that the Golden Age singers are welcomed whenever they feel like returning.
Chengtian (Orange Sky’s) Entertainment’s two young Shanghainese stars, singer Kimi Qiao Renliang and actress Tang Yan appeared in a smaller magazine, World Life in a simple shoot. China really needs more youth-oriented magazines since right now the magazines reuse the same well-established stars. Or perhaps I should say, China needs more famous youths that can sell magazines. Right now, the younger group of talent are largely unknown to the general populace, but perhaps that will change.
Kimi is set to release an album, including the themesong he did for Windows 7 China release (In China there’s nothing you can’t have a themesong for!), which is certain to boost his visibility. Tang Yan, having shown a very solid start in acting, is next starring in the much anticipated Chengtian-finaced HK filmStorm Warriors II , and she’s also supposed to appear in one of Kimi’s MVs. Chinese companies are really getting the hang of cross-promotion.
On Monday, Jane Zhang and Universal Music held a press conference for their joining on the anniversary of Faye Wong’s debut. In attendance were our beautiful Jane, Eason Chan, legendary lyricist Lin Xi and Universal Music Asia VP Sam Hole.
It’s uncertain how Universal will affect Jane’s career. As of now, she has yet received any epic theme songs like she once did under Huayi. Meanwhile, her performance outfits lost their class. Hopefully, those will be temporary and Jane can find what she wants under Universal – ie. more capable composers who don’t simply write for movies but also for her album. A change that Universal is certainly pushing for is the increase of the amount of fast and powerful songs over ballads that Jane will sing. I’m not yet sure how that’ll work with Jane. She has proven to excel at both, but I think it is far easier for her to find good ballads than fast and powerful songs in Asia, which means Universal’s connections will be useful. On the movie theme side, though, it’s unlikely Jane will get as many good ones she once did under Huayi, which is known for major films and series.
Either way, getting a personal message from Mariah Carey was probably worth everything for Jane.
Yesterday this was all over all the news portals. Pop singer Chen Lin, 39, known for hits in the 90s, apparently leaped from an apartment in Beijing to her death. The singer from Chongqing, Sichuan rose to fame in the early 90s with her hit album, “I Can Never Understand Your Love” that sold 1.5 million copies. The reasons are unclear and she had only remarried earlier this year . I’ve never heard of her, but all the same the suicide is shocking and saddening. And it was almost a year ago, that the suicide of Li Chunning, One Million Star contestant occurred. Seeing how people can struggle against the feeling of having no other alternatives at different places in their life, both the inexperienced and experienced stages, is incredibly humbling and sad, and something that I hope that others would not have to face, and if they do I fervently hope they would choose another path. RIP Chen Lin.
We were going to post the pics when EASY magazine came out with their professional pics, but what’s the point when BOBO is so much cuter behind the scenes and not doing forced poses? Plus, EASY has boring photography. I gave up hope on an album for this year, considering they’re stuck in that big Hua Yi-produced, Wing Shya-directed, romance movie extravaganza, but apparently they filmed an MV (pic included below too), so hopefully, maybe.
