Music Monday: May 20, 2013

Mondays are always hard…

This week’s playlist includes: a Sichuan all-star dedication to their hometown, a Bibi-style track from Bibi Zhou Bichang, a dance track from Vivi Jiang Yingrong, a retro pop track from Kiki Hu Ling, an English song from Jeno Liu Liyang, a hometown dedication from Ji Jie, a track from post-90s singer/songwriter Ah Qiao, and a track from returning singer Ruan Danqing. In addition, this week’s relevant OSTs include theme songs from Yu Zheng costume drama Female Prime Minister, costume action drama Hero, a modern romance drama Marriage Article 22, and upcoming movie American Dreams in China.

First, Sichuanese artists want to remind you that Sichuan is Still Beautiful.

RTA Youth releases Funny Honey/Classmate MV

Even though RTA youth is actually now the same age as many boyband members when they debut, somehow they all continue to look like tweens.

Boy group RTA Youth released a new MV, Classmate/Funny Honey. The MV is actually produced by 13N+ Studio, which is an eeMedia-affiliated visual production company who also does amazing stage visuals (New year concerts and Super Girls 2011) that we can look forward to seeing in this year’s Super Boys.  I think they’ve really raised the visual standards for mainland production companies at lower budgets. Some of their other works include Super Girls’ Baby Sister,  Su Miaoling’s Time Portrait, Wei Chen’s Moonlight, Zhang Jie’s First Lady, all of which are not super high budget but looks wonderful.

Also, SJZGloria wants to add that Zhu Yuanbing recently auditioned for Beijing Film & Central Drama. Kind of surprising since he went to the Shanghai Drama-affiliated high school.

Cue music. Chinese Idol is coming

Left-to-right: Show Luo (host), Huang Xiaoming, Han Hong, Coco Lee, Wang Wei-chung

With last season’s American Idol ratings the lowest in the show’s history, Shanghai’s Dragon TV will be hoping the Idol format hasn’t come too late to impact China’s airwaves.

Amongst the latest in a slew of Chinese reality singing contests, the Chinese version of Britain’s Pop Idol will make its debut on Sunday evening. Hosted by Show Luo, Chinese Idol 中国梦之声 is set to feature a panel of celebrity judges, including singers Coco Lee and Han Hong, actor Huang Xiaoming, and Taiwanese television mogul Wang Wei-chung. The program is one of the few Idol productions to have hosted international auditions, so expect to see American, Canadian, and Australian contestants on the show.

Feng Shaofeng, Ni Ni share dreams with kids

Feng Shaofeng and Ni Ni’s future family will be the most adorable thing ever.

As a part of Huayi Brother’s free movie theaters initiative, actors Feng Shaofeng and Ni Ni visited a school in Yunnan to play with the kids at one of the theaters set up and to film a short clip focusing on the dreams of children in underprivileged regions.

More cute pictures of the couple with kids below.

Kimi Qiao’s Austria Vacation Photos

Kimi Qiao Renliang took a much needed vacation at the end of 2012, but his European vacation also doubled as a business trip. Kimi was picked by the Austrian National Tourist Office to perform “You are Beautiful“, a song to promote Austria as an ideal vacation destination. Upon his return from the trip, Kimi quickly returned to his busy schedule; He released a brand new album “Pin.K”, and starred in a new microfilm “Le Chao” for Jeanswest.

Kimi also starred in Yu Zheng’s new drama, Female Prime Minister 陆贞传奇, which I totally recommend. There are three other dramas that Kimi starred in, which have yet to air. The first being the drama version of Tiny Times 小时代, which already have it’s own viki sub team. Kimi will be plays the part of Zhou Chongguang; He will star alongside Peter Ho, Ivy Chen (Black & White), Li Yifeng, Jiang Kaitong, and Yang Yang. The other two dramas are New Detective Squad 新神探联盟 and SOP Queen II 胜女的时代/Sheng Nv De Shi Dai (starring Zhang Han and Zheng Shuang).

“The Four” releases trailer

Not to be lonely in ancient times, Zhang Han starts a new “F4″ in the Ming dynasty.

Touting to be one of the best produced ancient series of the year, detective/romance series The Four released its first trailer today.    In addition to clips of the leads Zhang Han, Mao Zijun, William Chan, Yang Yang, Zhang Junning, Jia Qing, GuiGui, and Hao Zijia, there’s also intros of the antagonists and guest stars Han Dong, Heaven Eternal Earth Everlasting lead Huang Ming, and Mickey He, Butterfly Lovers antagonist Ma Wenlong, Bounty Hunter lead Qin Yongchen, and Zong Fengyan.

Zhou Xun in Chanel

She looks like she’s a part of the ad.

Actress Zhou Xun recently attended the N°5 Culture Chanel Exhibition  in  a cute Chanel Couture.

Jet Li opens a kung fu school

Jet Li speaks at the opening of Taiji Zen martial arts school.

Action movie star Jet Li and online retail tycoon, Jack Ma, have joined forces to found a martial arts school. The new academy was unveiled in Hangzhou, hometown of Ma, who stepped down as CEO of Alibaba Group last week to focus on education and the environment.

Music Monday: May 13, 2013

Mondays are always hard…

Happy Belated Mother’s Day! In honor of Mother’s Day, it is only appropriate to start this post with a song dedicated to mommy. But should I post the traditional “Lu Bing Hua“, which has been performed by people like Jane Zhang and Top Combine, or should I post something more modern, like Jay Chou’s “Listen to Mom” or Vanness Wu’s “Mama“? But then I stumped across this song by Kindergarten Killer (ft. Shen Yi and PD Doggy). “Stars Don’t Talk“, which sounds like the name of a lullaby, is from Kindergarten Killer’s second street album Sketch This City. There is also a solo version of the song here.

“Bu Bu Jing Qing” stills are still in grayscale

“Excuse me, ma’am, I think you broke the grayscale-only dress code. ” – Zhao Chulun to Liu Shishi

Stills from Shanghai Tangren’s latest business intrigue idol drama starring Liu Shishi, Nicky Wu, Sun Yizhou, Jiang Jinfu, Ye Zuxin, Ye Qing, Annie Liu, Zhao Chulun, Zeng Yike and Chen Xiang.

Ye Zuxin showing off his curves; Liu Shishi frightened.