Archives For Chinese

Re-pimping this old list~ xD

It’s always been tough to be a working actress on the big screen, as you turn a little older, offers often seem to be linked to “being someone else’s mother,” but cable television seems to be becoming more and more attractive to not only writers – because they get to write more challenging stories and skip censors – but also to women who were movie actresses and have found new complex roles to take on.

you can read the whole thing on YAM Magazine~

I just finally burnt Zhong Ping Huang’s (黄­中平) name in my head.

Because of A-Mei’s latest MV.

Having realized that he’s made my favorite Faye Wong video, I just spent all night “curating” a list of 77 MVs of some of the music videos he’s directed since 1997… but only of the artists I follow… otherwise the list is just endless~

Most of the time, his style is described as just about style, emotion and composition. Though, I have seen a few of those that have something resembling a plot.

Faye Wong – Bu Liu/ Nothing Left

I think that video captures what I essentially love about Faye Wong.

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YAM Magazine Weibo

April 22, 2011 — 2 Comments

So… after my Weibo Fail almost 2 months ago, I finally was able to setup the yammag Weibo account.

Except for the loading problems, which is a given in Chinese-based websites (because of the number of people?), Weibo seems to be pretty cool to use… even if I haven’t figure out all things yet.

One of them is that I can’t make the profile open to the public. People who are not logged into Weibo, get an invitation code… which I don’t really want. I want it to be open to the public, but no one seems to know what I mean.

If you already use Twitter, it’s easy to get use to Weibo~ but there are a few things that are kind cool/kinda not so cool in it. The first one that’s cool and not so cool at the same time is… use of emoticons. LOL I know people who don’t like them, and might find them odd using in a microblogging site-

BUT… Weibo isn’t really a microblog. It seems much more complex than Twitter.
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My purty iTunes Library~

April 22, 2011 — 4 Comments

I’m a dork, you can’t deny it.

I’m a dork, and I’m proud of my -mostly- tidied up iTunes library.

As with my CDs, and my DVDs… a little bit of books, and mostly with computer files, I like to know where my things are. Of course, iTunes makes it way easy to keep things organized with their “copy to folder” and “keep things organized” options, but then we’ve got album covers, song names, artists names… and music can get a little messy.

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Let’s start off by saying that my Chinese/Hong Kong film viewing… isn’t, just isn’t. LOL Of all the nominees, I have only seen two. Hahaha, I’m a little ashamed of that considering I’ve seen over 120 movies last year. Though, there were 3 other films I wanted to watch before the nominations were announced: Love in a Puff, Gallants, Under The Hawthorn Tree, and Detective Dee ;D

And I’ve decided I should watch Reign of Assassins with my dad, and Hot Summer Days with my mom. LOL

Also, Tetsuya Nakashima’s Kokuhaku was crowned as Best Asian Film, beating the likes of Aftershocks and Monga.

Anyway, we’re here because of the Best Song category, which had the most artists I was familiar with, and we’re going to be looking at each of them and their respective songs~ First, the winner:

Jun Kung’s Here to Stay from Merry-Go Round

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The first edition of the Global Chinese Golden Chart was held recently in Taipei, Taiwan.

Besides Leehom performing All the Things You Never Knew, Bibi was also there performing a medley of her i.Fish.Light.Mirror singles, including a bit of Canned Fish (like… the intro LOL), Single Mirror, and finally closing with I Miss U Missing Me.

I’m happy that BiBi performs her best when there’s important people. LOL Like… she sounds pitch perfect when musician, producers, and actors are in the room. She doesn’t even need fireworks, outrageous clothing or flashy stuff, just her singing.

There’s this funny thing about fandom, they just don’t care about anything else that doesn’t directly affect fandom. So unless X-member of boy/girl group is directing a movie, you won’t hear who’s directing a film.

But then again, that’s what generally happens anywhere.

I just wished, at least, that labels would care to put this information down in their description fields… to make it easier. I know Chinese/Taiwanese music videos have the information — most of the times — of who wrote the music, the lyrics and who directed all in the video… but it makes it really REALLY SUPER REALLY hard for us, who don’t read character. For a two paragraph post, I have to spend 1hr (maybe) getting the character on paper, then using Japanese handwriting input or the Kanji dictionary to get the characters into a browser, and then search for it. And that’s just the bit where I get the names xD

Anyway, I feel illuminated because I have discovered 5 important names that I will highlight in this post. But since no one is more important than the other, it will be from most recent mentioned in the blog.

First, Bounce (比尔贾) of Bounce Visual Creative… the director of one of my latest fave music videos: Stefanie Sun’s The Kingdom of Fools, a song which bring me to… Francis Lee (李焯雄), a Taiwanese lyricist who wrote Sun’s lyrics for that song, as well as being in charge of many of the songs in BiBi’s NOW/WOW album… as well as the Canned Fish song.

Then theres’ COSMOS, aka. Yingzhi Chen (陳映之) who directed Elva Hsiao’s Let Love Fly, other artists… and has recently directed this new girl group called Dream Girls and their MV for Tears Should Also Be Beautiful… a song which was written by famous Taiwanese songwriter Yao Ruo Long (姚若龍), who is the one who wrote one of my 2010 faves- Broken by Jing Chang.

And finally, another video for Dream Girls (this time I’m Your Dreamgirl) directed me to Yi Ren Chen (陳奕仁), the MV director of such gems such as Incomparable Beauty and Little Love Song – all by Sodagreen ;D

I feel like I learned something important these past few days of posting CMusic MVs. LOL Too bad I still haven’t finished Chinese homework and it’s nearly 4am.

Dear, Bang Bang Tang members~

I stalk your douban page from time to time, even if I don’t really read Chinese characters. I heard your music once featuring on CNN’s CNNGo programming, and I was hooked.

Anyway… enough with the fan message. xD

I am aware Bang Bang Tang — not the Taiwan boyband — just get together when they feel like playing, and actually study… or I guess already have jobs. I know the indie music scene is really tough… imagine such a huge market like China.

I wish someone who sign them already. Anyone, even an international indie label. Sighs. You know, instead of debuting a new girl group a week, they should fund BBT’s album.

Suffering fan,
amy xD

Here. I leave you with the video for  Bang Bang Tang (棒棒糖) – 我最爱缺陷男 (Wo Zui Ai Que Xian Nan) – My Favorite Male Defects, which was included in my Top-Rated Songs of 2010, even though it’s not a 2010 song. Only one exception to that rule. xD

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Top-Rated Songs of 2010

April 7, 2011 — 3 Comments

I know it’s pretty late, but I guess that I always put the list off because there was always that “haven’t listened to that yet” issue. I will be probably adding 2010 stuff later on, but it won’t hurt to put my top rated songs — according to iTunes and iPod numbers.

Surprisingly, or not surprisingly… the majority of top-rated songs that are equal or greater than 5 stars are Asian artists with their Asian songs and albums. LOL As you know, I’m trying to mix everything up with languages, so I’m also trying to pick one song per artist xD

I hope you like this compilation, there are links to preview the tracks… and also links to buy the albums via affiliate programs, so if you like anything – please support this blog (or YAM)

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I don’t recognize you.

I swear that if I ran into this video without knowing what your name is in characters, I wouldn’t know it’s you. I also have stated that when you released Time, and many people complained that it was boring, I said that it was a well-produced album expanding your vocal range.

I like your two last albums, but your performance of the songs is not up to par with what you’ve previously performed, and it’s because you’re letting the production overpower your talent. And I don’t mean it so you stick to R&B – I actually really REALLY love your duet with Priscilla Chan. One of the most quality presentations vocally you’ve ever done.

FYI, I’m aware this is a fan-shot video.

But even if production and video quality are better than the other between the examples, you have to admit that the big dress and big hair is overpowering her presence on that stage, and the song is too mellow to be presented like that.

I’ve said her album Time would be better suited for an acoustic.