I just wish Asian entertainment could be looked at as good when it's just normal, rather than something you can't get from America.

The wuxia people can be pretty elitist, and that's the problem.

I dunno; have you been keeping up with the overseas J-sector in recent years? Initially, Japanese entertainment was marginalized to anime/manga and the bizarre, but now, it’s expanded – from J-horror to J-drama to J-comedy to J-sci fi to J-game shows, and with J-rock, J-indie, J-pop, J-electronica, etc. I don’t prefer either fangirls or fanboys; I guess I’d just rather have both.

Aside from K-horror, Korea entertainment’s range in global eyes seems to be pretty limited to the pop/drama stuff. I think it’s that which distresses me with the fangirls concerning Chinese media – it might be off-putting to non-fangirls of both genders and non-Chinese people in general. A crude example – in the early days, there were fangirls of Sailor Moon and fanboys of DBZ. The former go on to J-drama and J-pop; the latter go on to J-games and J-rock, leaving room for a wide spectra of influence. Korean media aborad, however, seems so saturated with K-drama and pop that the guys and non-fangirl types just ignore it.

As for the quirky – well, that kinda goes for every nation regardless; as the Japanese are known for their type of quirky (which has its own range overseas, from weird humor to giant mecha to animation to horror), the French have their “mindscrew art” flicks, India has its Bollywood style, and Britain has its “Brit-humor”. I’m sure the US has its own overseas. However, I feel like Korea is especially pigeonholed, because coverage seems focused on drama, without much sign of expansion, at least as far as I can tell.

And the problem with the wuxia community is that they’re too focused on wuxia. I’d love for some of those folks to diversify, because they do their research and are well-versed. Thing is, a lot of ‘em seem only interested in that particular aspect of Chinese culture. Their existence does make me hopeful that there will be a broader range of Chinese media/culture flowing outwards, though.

As for the gory stuff, I mean, I’ve got a strong stomach for it (though I’m on Twitch for its artsy stuff more than its horror), and even I was shocked by how gory some of Asian media is… It’s not even rated in China? That’s a little disturbing…

A lot of Asian movies do go out even more than American ones. And Japanese horror films are a lot scarier than American ones.

For supposedly being so liberal, the US really does self-censor its movies. I remember it being Kill-bill being called bloody, but I mean the Asian movies are way more disgusting. I watched Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and I was like 0_0. I really did not need to see the revolting prison lesbian rape in such graphic detail. That kind of stuff would never fly in the US.

And so it seems those in the US like to get their fix elsewhere, namely Asia, and Asia gets kind of built up as some sort of quirky-film factory, rather than a normal functioning movie industry with a lot of variety.

I’d rather take the fangirls tbh.

And I think South Korea pigeonholed themselves, which was what in turn made it easier for fans to get into kpop, because it was so commercial and about idols.

I wasn’t talking about blood and guts, specifically (do I come off that way? ^^;) – and there’s more of that than I’d really want in some of the period/wuxia shows, really. I was wondering about the ratings system (or lack thereof), since some of those shows seem to be airing during the prime-time hours…

I think fangirls will be the first thrust of overseas promotion, but I can’t say I’m happy about it, haha… It’d be kind of distressing to me if the effect ends up being that Chinese entertainment coverage gets a kinda pigeonholed reputation like Korean entertainment, rather than somewhat more diversely covered like Japanese entertainment, and one of the reasons for the difference, far as I can tell, is that Japanese entertainment’s first thrust was through anime/gaming, drawing in fanboys at least as much as fangirls. Certainly, fanboys can be just as active, if in different ways.

I dunno. I suppose it all evens out in the end, and maybe the difference between the two is just a function of time. Any coverage, certainly, is better than no coverage. Or else, like you said, without sites like yours, people like me who have a spark of interest would just lose it.

I always went to Twitch even though I didn’t really like most of the things they covered, but it was still a source of Asian news. But then I started arguing with one of their posters for posting too much tv news and stopped visiting. Ahem.

I guess if we’re talking weird blood and guts type stuff then yeah, China doesn’t have that, mostly due to the lack of a rating system which I despair at. They better get one in the next year or two years or it will be ridiculous for country with their market to not have one.

Not that I was thinking about this when I started Cfensi (I had no concrete plans then) but I think I want cater to fangirls now. Why? Because they are they best at being active for their fandom. They will be the ones subbing, the ones promoting artists the most, etc. I do not plan on running Cfensi forever, and I really want more people to be active.

There are lots of people who know Chinese, but they’ve never had anywhere to channel their efforts (except for subbing Korean vids from Chinese subs -_-) because like you they didn’t think there was anything. I blame this in part because of the diversity of Chinese-language entertainment…HK, TW, SG …etc.

And agreed, they do. I just like the galas because they’re something that I don’t see on US television aside from ones from the capital on PBS – an organized performance and festivities without an annoying awards show in between.

And yeah, lol, that’s why I’m afraid of watching Princess Returning Pearl.

@nepheliad – What other Chinese websites are you speaking of? This is really the only one I know…except for the ones on my blogroll which are more topical.

I feel like foreign-run websites on Asian cinema, like twitchfilms.net for example cover more of the stuff you’re looking for.

The galas are…. a tradition I guess? They really need to start getting younger artists on there.

And I remember seeing the espionage stuff while in China, and I’m just lukewarm towards that genre. You cover it well enough, anyhow, by just mentioning it every now and then. As for what else there is, I guess I simply meant to see more variety (or quality/notablity therein, and in the industry, not your blog), and shows more tilted towards their own genres than in the drama genre (because as noted, that can encompass a lot). I’ll be looking deeper and playing a waiting game, it seems.

Haha, I know I’m kinda the odd one out when it comes to the demographics of these sites covering Chinese media. Makes me feel kinda isolated when looking around on them, but they keep me interested in Chinese entertainment. And yeah, I know you couldn’t possibly cover so much; the trend of comments on the site made that pretty clear what people are usually interested in, and besides, no point in covering what you’re not interested in, anyway. ^^;

I love the big galas – so lavish!