Ok… because someone asked me who China’s entry into Miss Universe was:
Name: Wang Jingyao
Height: 182 cm
Measurements: 81/61/90
I don’t know anything else about her but this particular request reminded me of another request, by another commenter to translate Miss World 2007, Zhang Zilin’s blog entry in defense of Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang, which deeply impressed me when I read it; it was beautifully written. Not to mention that she took her time to write an essay about the matter because she could help, and I think that’s the beauty of these “beauty pageants”, they find people who in general love helping others.
So I’ve put the translation below the cut, and I also talk about the difference between Miss World vs Miss Universe as it pertains to China.
With all the concerts coming up in China that I want to go to badly, and me still not anywhere close to achieving the big trip across the pond, let’s live vicariously and take a look at how China is celebrating her Christmas. China’s northern city of Harbin is ambitious… not only is it mulling over a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, but for is annual world renowned ice festival where an entire small town is created out of blocks of ice with embedded lights, it’s also building the world’s largest snow Santa Claus.
This bit of news is really, really old and I was not going to post on this at all, but I began writing an introduction to another post that eventually evolved into its own long-winded post, and so here we are with me talking politics all over again because I couldn’t bear to just drop what I had already spent time on. Btw, Epic post basically means political post now.
China, as you may know from reading other sites, has recently decided to ban lip-synching from commercial performances, which in my opinion was a decision that came from older people in the industry frustrated by the recent flood of idol singers and not for other reasons that western news sources like to conjecture about, such as the lip-synching girl, Lin Maoke at the Olympics. Basically the first 3/4 of this post talks about why I am so pissed at how the articles that came out about this revelation (revealed by Chinese committe head himself) were so ridiculously flawed, as the articles often were during the Olympics, and I think it’s ridiculous that this is still being stated as truth, like the Variety article I linked to. The last 1/4 talks about the Chinese entertainment circle and how and whom the ban would affect. Beware, this is even longer than my Gong Li Epic Post. (more…)
Gong Li thinks I spent way too much time on this post
I hate discussing politics because discussing politics on the internet is akin to throwing away valuable hours, years of your life, and discussing Chinese politics is even more stupid because it changes so rapidly. I know this from experience, and I know a lot more about Chinese politics than I do Chinese entertainment. But I rather love Gong Li (more so in To Live, less so in Miami Vice) and was happy to see her become a Singaporean citizen, because I’m sure it meant a lot to her to share that with her husband who is a Singaporean. I didn’t post it on this site, because I was sure it was already translated to English and I don’t like to repeat what’s posted a lot unless I have something to add it. But then I was really surprised to the way this news was posted…instead of just reporting it, people were spinning a story, using Gong Li as some sort of way to critique the mentality of Chinese citizens, and doing it erroneously. (more…)
I think Jackie Chan is. He posted massive amounts of pictures on his blog about the good times he had as a volunteer for the Olympics, and the famous people he got to meet. Feast your eyes on this quartet you boyband lovers.
These guys know no generation boundaries: L-R Emil Chau Jackie Chan Liu Huan and Andy Lau
But unlike most of us, Jackie doesn’t have to go cold turkey. He will be performing at the first concert event of any kind held at the Birds Nest, along with people who can actually sing/make music, including world famous pianist Li Yundi, old school Chinese singer Song Zuying, and Supergirl Li Yuchun. This is a show for charity.
Tickets will be tight probably since they’ve covered a broad range of fans from the classical to folk to pop to “other” (whatever Jackie Chan’s music would be called) , but don’t worry, if you can’t make the Birds Nest, you can still get tickets for the Musical Watercube Extravaganza.
I’m an idiot and didn’t realize the previously mentioned auction charity event the Olympians were at was for Sichuan school reconstruction, but it was. Twenty-three atheletes including the previously aforementioned Guo Jingjing and Zou Kai were there.
Chinese gymnast Zou Kai originally decided to auction one of his three Olympic gold medals at the party. But he changed his mind and will auction off it later in Hong Kong, along with teammate Yang Wei’s silver medal. I know he bagged like three, but still. WOW. I’m impressed.
The 23 Olympic gold medalists who attended the auction raised a total of 19.18 million yuan for the earthquake victims.
Behind the cut is the full article detailing what other charitable shenanigans went on there. Lin Dan should have kept his shoes to auction instead of throwing them to the crowd.
We all know that the best way to ingratiate yourself with Chinese fans and non-fans alike is to be seen chummy with some of China’s finest!
Cantopop singer Leo Ku posted pics of himself on his blog with Chinese gold medalists at the same charity benefit Guo Jingjing auctioned off her suimsuit at. His expression doesn’t change much in these pics, so it’s like seeing different Chinese athletes photoshopped with the same image of him over and over. I wonder if he knows how to photoshop?
With Chinese Badminton Couple Xie Xingfang and Lin Dan (aka SuperDan), silver and gold medalist at the games respectively
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.
I thought I should have a BOBO post since they are the current header for the site, which was simply because they were the only ones of whom I had a large enough pic to make the header with. They are a singing duo whose name comes from the similar-sounding words in their names, Fu Xinbo and Jing Boran.
Despite that unfortunate moniker I like them, because they can actually sing well and are fun to watch. This is their newest MV, for a remake of an old song, Big China. It’s not on any of their albums and think it’s just a promotional video. Usually I find them pretty cute but when Lin Hao, 9-year old Earthquake survivor and Olympic mini-flag bearer, is in the MV, there’s really no competition. He’s there in the beginning and end, bald patch and all.
They also sang their song “Guang Rong” at the end (or should I say after?) of the Paralympics opening ceremony, though that was not televised live. You can hear it being sung however, at the video found at universalsports.com
Yang Yun, former Chinese gymnast and currently under International Olympic Committee invesitgation for being underage wayyyy back in 2000 in Sydney has updated her blog with pics of her and her fiance, All-Around gold-medalist Yang Wei, busy preparing for their wedding in San Ya, a beach place in China that I had not previously heard of but am now definitely putting it on my list of places to visit. The IOC better watch out. Yang Wei is not going to like anyone messing with his future wife, although here they simply look like they don’t care.
