Category: Chinese

  • I love you Bibi, but…

    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.

  • MissTer 101

    There’s a pretty personality-insightful making-of article in regards of Taiwan’s first and brand-new Boi-band, who in their second single Super Lover are urging a pretty lady to not give up on love.

    I think I’ve finally figured out who is who. Ha!

    First, there’s leader Jin Tai (the one with the glasses). Then there’s Qiu Qiu the former dance instructor (top third on the left), Milk is the one with the blueish tones on her hair, Chris (? Zi Lun?) (the one with the humping face), and finally Chiao (Qiao) the one with the blond hair.

    And I’ve already picked my favorite. LOL

    (more…)

  • China, today I’m proud of you~

    Today, while watching Chinese news — yes, I know… hardly unbiased opinion — I saw that China had deployed military airplanes, cargo ferries, and commercial flights in order to mobilize over 35k people out of Libya.

    While violence and unrest is rampant, and expats from everywhere in the world are trying to get out, and people outside are “celebrating” freedom of speech, people are left without jobs, and families are left without income. Chinese expats have been uncommunicated with their families since the unrest began, waiting in the airports that have no running water.

    Now, they’re back home.

    When trying to look for the news to post, googling “China” to check the latest news from there, I only ended up seeing negative items. I ended up with Xinhuanet.com and by looking for “China Libya” I found some tiny articles from the West barely mentioning this.

    I thought it’s an important news item to highlight.

  • Weibo Fail

    So I was browsing around to see if I should setup a Weibo (aka. China’s microblogging a la Twitter), and I was fine. I was able to open an account, and got an email for confirmation. The problem began later.

    I was supposed to pick a nickname, and setup my profile… but there was an issue. I thought it must be me not reading characters, so I google it up and ended up with this Tutorial on how to setup a Weibo account (to follow CNBLUE, ha!).

    And it seems like the “Location” option tab — which is the first rectangle in my screencap — is set automatically, but in mine shows nothing! Then, I don’t have the confirmation code either! So I can’t move on from that setup page!

    To make matters worse, servers in China are sooooo freaking slow. What’s up with that China? You’re awesome and all, but the slow internet, and slow response for people outside China of Chinese sites is kinda sad. =(

  • First week of Mandarin Lessons~

    Don’t think it’s too shabby, is it?

  • New Google Translate Features

    Listening and watching… and trying to keep up with Asian entertainment means that I use Google Translate often. This is why I think these are new features. I knew Google Translate could read out loud English… and German, but this is the first time that I’m aware it can read Japanese, Mandarin and Korean too.

    Of course I chose BiBi’s Just to Meet You song to test, because that’s one of the songs that I butcher whenever it plays on my iPod. And it not only “translates,” but now you can also read it phonetically…

    and you can listen to it read it out loud. O_O

    Three very important things about this:

    1. This is amazing… if you’re starting out a language.

    2. A lot of sites that dedicate themselves to pinyin, romaji and Korean romanization just got their work cut down… or have some serious competition. With this, anyone can post lyrics…

    3. This just made a whole new generation of lazy.

  • Old BiBi Interview with English Subtitles

    I think this is the only video of Bibi with English subtitles. It’s short, barely three minutes of it… but makes me miss BiBi circa her NOW/WOW albums… which reminds me, gotta review those.

    [iframe src=”https://www.tudou.com/v/_H6cID-4vsU/v.swf” width=”480″ height=”400″]

    Her last bit singing gives me the shivers.

    From the last few performances she’s done, something is amiss. Her voice is quite not right, and I think it might be due to the production of her last album.

    *sighs*

    Forgive the lack of updates, but then again… you do know there’s YAM, right?

  • Classes begin…

    *drum roll*

    Guess who’s going to begin Mandarin lessons?

    Crap, I’m nervous about it. I hope I can get the tones right. I don’t want to end up frustrated with it, and give up on all the Chinese music I own.

    Honestly, Mandarin is the most difficult — sound-wise — language to me. But then again, I know nothing about Arabic… and I’m pretty sure I will have issues pronouncing anything resembling Hebrew.

    What I hate about Chinese – any of the dialects – is that it’s like playing charade with a language.

    Wish me luck.

  • The Best Mistake I’ve Ever Made: Sholly

    Ahh fandom… NSFW fandom.

    Shane and Molly have Asian fans! It figures~ I wonder if some pairings are more popular in each region just because of cultural preferences. The fact that Shane wanted to become a better person… more studious, more knowledgeable for Molly is what sold me on the pairing. I also think it’s a very Asian thing xD

    Plus, they’re hot… but Shane and Carmen was hot– but too much drama.

    I liked they used a song by a Taiwanese singer called Joanna Wang. She reminds me of the style of those easy listening tracks by Kendal Payne, or those tracks used so often in Grey’s Anatomy xD And the ending of the video, so sad.

  • The BiBi Discography

    I told you BiBi was going to be my first post of 2011! xD

    It’s common knowledge I don’t buy singles… or usually “best of” compilations — unless it’s an artist with too many albums that I don’t want to “catch up” on with.

    Julz also knows I don’t do mini-albums.

    But I do own all of BiBi’s albums ;P I have named myself her biggest fan living the farthest away. LOL Unless BiBi has a fan living in the Patagonia, I’m taking the title, thankyouverymuch.

    Bibi’s latest albums are far from perfect. Really respect that she’s trying to expand her style, her vocal range, as well as her image. Though it sometimes feels like her label doesn’t know what to do with her, like they need to change her style (from Time to i.fish.light.mirror) to sell well in Taiwan and Hong Kong – where she probably did sell well after the change.

    I sat today listening to her first album (not counting her EP), Who Touched My Violin String?, and it was really quite good. Very strong, except for maybe two skippable songs.

    Her second effort, her double album NOW and WOW — UMPH! They’re a killer combo. After over two years of listening and discovering Chinese pop music artists, I have learned to appreciate NOW a lot more. But WOW blew me away right away for its hard to figure out sound.

    In NOW, she is a lot more traditional sounding… a few “Chinese” or I guess zhongguo feng songs, nice ballads with tight vocals, great production values, and lyrics. In WOW, she does the opposite. She’s R&B without sounding R&B, she’s a bit Rock without being Rock, she’s Pop without being truly Pop — she’s got funk, soul… her lyrics are whack, and she sounds like no one else.

    If Leehom coined Chinked-out style, BiBi was able to pull it off in WOW.

    I really believe those two albums have been the highlight of her career, and hope that her new contract with Gold Typhoon lets her — as an artist — experiment with those styles more.

    Hopefully, I will be able to get the pinyin for Bibi’s songs. In the meantime, you can check the one that’s already done for the WOW album. If you’re lucky, I will learn Chinese hahaha… tough luck!