I’ve just published a list of 100 songs in Chinese (mostly Mandarin, but also Cantonese… and maybe Hokkien… can’t be sure of that) that’s a great cheat sheet for anyone wanting to show off their knowledge of the scene. There’s definitely a wide variety of artists, so you’re sure to find something you enjoy.
Visit YAM Magazine for the list with a link included to the YouTube playlist.
Oh, Happy Chinese New Year! Let’s start my (supposedly) bad-luck Goat Year with the now-mandatory Letterboxd list of my film collection~
I have a really weird history with films– born in the late 80s, you’d think I would’ve grown watching loads of 90s kids stuff, but I actually grew up with a lot of Silly Symphonies (which were released in the 30s) and loads of Disney 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s stuff, plus a lot of more grown up 80s movies. Poltergeist, The Thing, The Fly and The Stuff were particularly scary stuff (and I’m pretty sure I was scared of yogurt or white stuff at some point).
I don’t ever remember buying any original VHS tape, except for the rare birthday gift of a Disney’s Sing-Along Songs chapter or that X-Men tape I have. My first DVDs buys were Coyote Ugly, She’s All That and Loser — you can’t blame me. I was a 15-year-old girl. The collection grew bigger, and possibly exploded during my years abroad. I’m nearing my 500th movie.
A little bit more than ten years ago, Anita Mui passed away leaving a legacy of music and movies that will be remembered. Even my dad knew Anita Mui (besides from Jackie Chan movies), he told me he knew her from her singing the Song of Sunset (夕陽之歌) [1][2], which he loved both in this version and its Japanese original.
Ten years after her passing, her (very famous) friends got together to put something really special… a super performance to remember her by. Titled Anita Mui. 10. Longing. Music. Concert (梅艷芳。10。思念。音樂。會), the event garnered an array of Hong Kong (and overall Chinese) best — of the best for a night of music and memories.
Jacky Cheng, A-Mei, HOCC was there, Miriam Yeung, Sammi Cheng. Eric Tsang being melancholic, Jackie Chan throwing a joke… Eason Chan with his hair~ Maggie Cheung was freaking there, Aaron Kwok swung his hips, and Carina Lau introduced her hubby Tony Leung, and Tony SANG! People cheered. At a point in the concert, I told my mom “the only one missing here is Andy Lau.” Lo and behold, who turns up for one of the last numbers~
The only one I missed was Faye Wong. Just coz.
Anyway, my dad would’ve been happy with this show. I hope he and Anita are sharing a drink together up above.
Happy new year, everyone!
Sorry for the lack of posts last month. To make up for it, here are five posts so you can catch up to my 2013 and to get you going this 2014.
Dudes, so they finally released a finished version of the music video [1] xD which has atrocious rainbow-colored English lyrics xD But you can check some funny remarks and a quickie English translations from Beijing Cream.
You can also check a slightly better quality version of the video on YinYueTai — but still not crisp enough to be able to read the tiny English caption xD
I’m rather surprised I only know a little over +30 names xD and a little more of the faces, including a brief apperance by Ajia [1] and Li Yu Gang (李玉刚) whom… you know, you can’t totally tell from just the audio. I’m also rather SHOCKED that I didn’t get Song Zuying from early on the song but her later bit xD
Judging from the song alone (okay, and a bit of the video), Sa Dingding did great. This was her Beijing Welcomes You [MV] 5-sec Bibi moment for me. xD The song is no Beijing Welcomes You, though. And I love some of Chang Shilei’s stuff. His 2008 Niu China album was my favorite that year, and he does produce some great songs like I Would Say to Them (对他说我愿意) [1] or HIGH歌 — OMG, are you watching The Voice of China [clip] [1]? xD
Also, the video is pretty cheap. Walking down a shelves of book of… what I supposed is the Beijing library or something. xD And also the people that weren’t in Beijing and obviously couldn’t be flown to shoot for the video because of budget. I’m looking at you guys, Eason and Aaron~~~ and Kelly Chen xD
Another four years, another Olympic ceremony [1].
After the Mandarin-class-favorite song of Beijing Welcomes You [1], Jackie Chan — ever the eager kid in class — has managed to gather even more artists willing to lend their voices than for the Beijing Welcomes You song, which boasted an impressive number of music stars.
No music video of Beijing Blesses You (北京祝福你) has been released… yet. But there are clips of the making of the MV [1] doing their rounds on YouTube and Sina Video, so we’re all up and guessing who’s singing which line in the massive 8min. song. It wasn’t enough for Jackie to get more names than the Olympic committee… no, he needed a song that’s even a bit longer.
I think it’s pretty fact that Han Hong is at 1.11. The rest are up for grabs from the likes of Leehom, Chris Lee, Sa Dingding, and BiBi~ going through the voices of Li Bingbing and Fan Bingbing. So there you go. xD
Video is here, if you’re interested. xD
BiBi’s Sherlock Holmes
I am just in love with this new track 福尔摩斯, which apparently is Sherlock Holmes’ name in Chinese xD. Can’t wait for the new album, and actually get hands on lyrics on WHY it’s called like that… like I did with Canned Fish~~~ LOL
The arrangements on the song is quite simple compared to other more elaborate BiBi songs, but that styles suits her great because her voice sounds quite amazing. At first I was struck at how soft the song started, which then builds up. After a few listens — yes, I’ve listened to it multiple times already — it struck me like a really soft version of Eason Chan’s Exaggerate [1] which then turns into this classical sounding Stefanie Sun-type song. I love it. At the same time, you can listen to BiBi’s voice and it’s all the much better xD
Am I starting a series? Nah… I don’t think I can come up with a Jpop list xD
Unlike the Kpop list which it focused 99% of the time on dance pop friendly tracks that went beyond American commercial pop, this “Cpop” list is… not really pop.
Popular music in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China (but mostly Taiwan) tends to be pop/rockish flare. Sure there are dance pop friendly, but even they have moved or are moving more towards pop/rock. They also love indie flavor, and accept not particularly attractiveness in their idols… even though there are some very good looking people who are immensely popular.
To be completely honest, compared to Korea’s pop music charts, Chinese music charts have a broad variety. But then again, compared to Japan’s pop music charts (which is comprised of AKB48 and Arashi xD), even Kpop charts (mostly 2NE1 and Big Bang now that DBSK is gone) seem to have some variety. xD
So this list of great Chinese music includes varying genres from R&B, pop/rock… more rockish, ballads (regular and of the indie type), etc. once again listed by year of release.
Again, it’s a bit weak on the earlier years… but you are welcome to make suggestions (for any year). A few guidelines would be that they cannot be too indie (I couldn’t fit Cheer Cheen or Mavis Fan in the list because they don’t feel completely pop, if you know what I mean), must include MVs (so songs released as singles), not older than late 90s.
Also… song must work as MV too. So no awesome songs but tacky videos. Sorry.
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL0C06C35FA9FC1C64&hl=en_US”]
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What do you like about the Cpop industry?
Who are your fave artists?
This is so amazing.
Or how do you say it? 好看，好听！！我喜欢~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99QVa8Q1F4g
-edit-
added Cantonese lyrics
Once again, if you were subscribed to the YAM Magazine RSS Feed, you would know about this two-part post with LGBT music videos from around the world.
Also, you probably missed our LGBT Blogathon, didn’t you???
Here’s:
