Results tagged “celebrity”

The computer worker who allegedly distributed the 1300 sex photos of Hong Kong film star Edison Chen has now been declared guilty! Sze Ho-Chun is expected to be sentenced in two weeks at Hong Kong's Kowloon City Court. He was convicted on three charges of obtaining access to a computer in order to make dishonest gain. Sze gained access to Edison Chen's photo collection when the actor brought in his Macbook for repairs. The pictures, which surfaced on the internet in Feb 2008, caused Edison to quit showbiz (at least for a while) and many actresses to do teary shame-faced interviews. Source: BBC

We'd heard rumors of Edison Chen receiving death threats over sexy picture-gate last year, but this is the first time we've actually seen real evidence of it. The Hong Kong star was threatened with a gold-colored bullet, sent to a Hong Kong television station on Thursday with a typed letter warning Edison not to appear in public after April 4. "We hope Edison Chen will take this warning seriously, otherwise his personal safety will be threatened,” the letter allegedly said. Not quite as dramatic as a decapitated horse head, but we do like the gilded touch. Source: The Standard

Some woman in Southern California was so upset by Miley Cyrus' “chink-eye” pose that she decided to file a class action suit... for $4 billion. Because that's the number of Asian Pacific Islanders who live in L.A. County (a little more than 1 million) times the minimum damages for a civil rights violation ($4000 USD - about 27,340 yuan).

With less than 3 weeks to go before the Games, some of the most famous stars in show business are lending their voices to the latest stand on behalf of Tibet — a move that's sure to anger the Chinese government. Sting, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Alanis Morissette, Moby and a host of others are performing on an album entitled "Songs for Tibet," the International Campaign for Tibet announced in a press release on Tuesday. "We wanted to express our support for the Tibetan people and their message of peace through music, a fundamental means of expression, at a time when the eyes of the world are on China," said Michael Wohl, one of the album's organizers. The album's global release on iTunes is scheduled for August 5, three days before the Olympic opening ceremonies.

Baidu has released its video search report, and Kaiser Kuo of the Ogilvy China Digital Watch translates and summarises some of the key findings. Interestingly, “adult-related” search terms account for 34.14% of daily search volume, followed by celebrity-related (14.74%), TV serial related (12.48%), and animation-related (12.21%) searches. Google is reportedly under investigation in China for tax evasion, says Paul Midler of The China Game.Chinese Skype users now exceed 25% of the global total.While venture capital...

The massive NBA marketing machine rumbled through Shanghai last night in the first of three “China Games,” the latter two to be held in Macau beginning tonight. The pre-season game between the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers was held at the Qizhong Sports Stadium in the Min-hang district. Some observations:

Yup, that’s the guy, the face representing millions of Chinese retail investors chasing a red hot market.

... at least that is what Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas would have us believe (h/t to Danwei). She recently wrote in to China Daily columnist Raymond Zhou after reading his opinion piece on recent comments by Chinese celebrity Sun Haiying (孙海英) who not too long ago ignited a huge debate with his comments that homosexuality was unequivocally "criminal in nature" ("同性恋就是犯罪“):

Dear Raymond

Continue reading "God hates China?"

Video of Thai pen-spinning club in action [h/t to Asian Offbeat]

On the left, you have an image submitted by the Yangzhou Evening News to the 17th Annual Chinese Journalism Awards, for which it won a Class I award in the Best News of Jiangsu province, as well as a Class III photojournalism award in the national round. Lots of inspiring pictures and smart captions that would befit any award-winning page (see details of pictures here on ESWN). Some smart chap then decided to do some sleuthing, and went to hunt for the physical printed copy of Page A5 of the October 16, 2006 issue of Yangzhou Evening News, and what he found was the page on the right. Yep, that's right, the page sent in by the editor had been FAKED. And while we're wondering what sort of rigorous checks the Chinese Journalism Awards has in place, the next one takes the cake!

This documentary programme entitled "The Secrets of the Direct Sales Industry Exposed" shown on CCTV12 recently did an exposé on the sad lives of three young women involved in direct sales, one of whom eventually committed suicide by jumping out of a speeding train to avoid going home with her parents. Typical sad, sob story you find on CCTV. The programme showed the above three photographs of the poor girl, her image blurred to protect her identity [h/t ESWN]. Well, one viewer found the pictures looking very familiar and also went on to do some sleuthing...

These were the pictures that he found, and they are the pictures of model and celebrity Yang Bingyang (杨冰阳), better known as Ayawawa. Obviously, Yang is not amused, but in her latest blog entry has said that she has no intention whatsoever of taking legal action against CCTV. At the end of the day though, the number of journalists in China who think they can get away with plagiarism and fake news in this day and age is simply astounding!

Queen Elizabeth II is shown walking into a room in Buckingham Palace - which is cluttered with camera equipment - wearing her crown and her Order of the Garter robes.

Continue reading "Update your website, China Daily!"

Much has been said about the Shanxi province slavery scandal, and China (and the world) has been shocked by footages of child slaves being beaten and whipped and forced to work under harsh conditions in brick kilns.

Shanghaiist is not one to visit the many, various, countless, plentiful, and numerous gossip sites on the internet and saved in our bookmark folder. However, after an accidental click or two while innocently surfing the internet at work, we stumbled upon several interesting reports claiming that Christina might be performing at her upcoming Shanghai concert with a "noticeable bump". Could Christina have a bun in the oven? The speculation has the celebrity gossip blogs in...

Killer bashes, knifes victim. Local prosecutors yesterday charged a 71-year-old man with killing a 76-year-old woman by bashing her with a spade, trying to suffocate her with a quilt, and then attempting to strangle her. Finally he knifed her in the face and neck, prosecutors allege. Messy, messy!

U.S. avoids labeling China 'manipulator'. China is not intentionally manipulating its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage but its massive buildup of foreign reserves raises risks for the global economy, a U.S. government report said Wednesday.

Wikipedia unblocked? Every version of Wikipedia that is, except for the Chinese version. We're just keeping our fingers and toes crossed it doesn't get blocked again by tomorrow. It gets a bit tiresome after a while.

Gymnast Falls, Likely Paralyzed. Wang Yan, whose age was given as 15 or 16, fell from the bars headfirst during Sunday's final in Shanghai, breaking her neck and losing consciousness. Doctors said she was fortunate to have survived her injury, the Shanghai Daily reported yesterday.

Google Shanghai R&D center to open at end June. Google Inc's engineering research centre in Shanghai will open towards the end of June, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Old 'worms in the eyes' trick comes back in city. A man is playing an ancient trick called "worms in the eyes" to cheat elderly people in a street in downtown Jing'an District, Shanghai Morning Post reported today.

Honor for the vein glorious. On World Bood Donor Day, the city honored 103 top blood donors, and a collection of stamps with the images of 17 people who have donated platelets 25 times or more was released.

China to apply brakes again after economy speeds up. China's economy is set for another round of measures to prevent overheating, premier Wen Jiabao said as official data Thursday showed industrial output had defied cooling efforts in May.

Shanghai cracks nearly 1,500 commercial bribery cases in 16 months. Discipline inspectors and law enforcement agencies in Shanghai dealt with 1,468 commercial bribery cases, involving 495 million yuan in this leading metropolis of China in the 15 months ending April this year, authorities said on Thursday.

Guanxi website promises links. Since its founding in March, Zhike.com has been seeking out the kind of connections that can help people enroll a child in the right primary school, get help from the government with business and even meet a celebrity - for a price.

Patrol team reports 46 cheating cabbies. A team of officers tasked with patrolling the entrances to 27 of the city's top hotels to keep an eye out for taxi drivers who try to cheat foreign passengers has reported 46 drivers since going on duty earlier this year.

KFC in deal to open more restaurants along expanding Shanghai metro. KFC has formed a strategic partnership with the Shanghai Shentong Metro Assets Management Co Ltd to build more of its fast food stores around Shanghai's growing number of subway stations over the next several years.

Bodies related to Ming artist found in Shanghai. Four bodies found in two ancient tombs unearthed at a construction site in Jiading District are probably the relatives of Li Liufang, a famous artist during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), archaeologists said yesterday.

Tradeshows are big business in China and here in Shanghai there is at least one trade show per year per industry, regardless of how obscure it maybe. However, the one tradeshow that is sure to catch people’s attention and make Bund partygoers salivate next weekend is this one.

This is a little old, but we have a feeling many of you haven't seen it yet. From what we have read and seen (front row last month at Yunfeng Theater) of ?uestlove, drummer for The Roots, we always thought the man also known as Ahmir-Khalib Thompson would be a pretty cool guy to hang out with. And then someone told us to check out his blog on MySpace and now our new goal in life is get invited to one of ?uestlove's cookouts should we ever leave Shanghai and move back to rockin' Conshohocken. His blog is an entertaining and honest glimpse into the life of a celebrity, although it seems as though he's not really sure if he feels like a celebrity yet.

We've all seen those fancy-shmancy bidet/toilet combos from Japanese-brand Toto. Heck, we have even enjoyed using one every once in a while (that seat-warming feature is really nice on a cold winter's morn). We believe Kelly Chen, the Hong Kong starlet who informed us (via danwei.org) that she trusts her private washing to Toto's premium bidet technology. But we have always felt that something has been missing from Toto's tech. After pondering long hours in the library (bathroom), unable to get our thoughts (feces) out, we realised just what it is that Toto lacks.

Famed Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee has found himself in the centre of a controversy over the launch of his latest photobook and exhibition, SuperStars, featuring 300 top Asian celebrities — many of them almost nude — a project that has taken him two years to complete.

Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you ask, are indie film makers, screenwriters, R-Rated movies, and indie rockers.

Give me a platform, and I will show you the miracle that takes place from virtuality to reality. I want to be on stage, and you will see that I am more than just an "Internet celeb". You will see a talented individual rise from an Internet celeb to a real-life star. I will not disappoint you.

We admittedly don't know much about Robbie Williams' music -- we lived a sheltered existence in the United States from 1973 to 2002 -- but we do know the guy is huge (as in a huge megastar ... not in any other way ... as far as we know). We also know he is coming to Shanghai on November 4 -- and that show also will be huge. Some 26,000 people are expected to pack Hongkou Stadium. That's not too shabby. Earlier this year, we called the Black Eyed Peas playing Shanghai a "historic moment" because they were the first major contemporary foreign act at the height of their celebrity to stage a show in the city. Scratch that. This is the historic moment.

Manchester City become the latest big European club to swing by China, as more fat cat chairmen attempt to stuff a slice of the lucrative East Asian football market pie in their already obese and money-obsessed faces. The English Premier League side take on Shanghai Shenhua on Friday night in the 2006 Shanghai International Football Tournament.

Meanwhile, at Shuffle Bar, a supposed “stolen” mobile phone led the lead singer of the Cuban band to shout a few obscenities from the stage and storm off. Also, a bachelorette party showed up totally expecting “Shanghai Latin Power” to be a different kind of show.

There's an interesting piece in the Shanghai Daily today about the habits of China's rich, who, instead of learning from the moral paragon that is Warren Buffett, are spending more money on themselves. Says the report:

Blame it on the World Cup, but it’s a testament to the steady improvement of the Shanghai music scene that we now consider a weekend with four live shows “slow.” We unfortunately missed the Beijing rockers, Camel, at Live Bar on Friday night, but heard from reliable sources that they put on a fun, up-beat, pop-punk set. On Saturday, Hackbuteer played a wild show worthy of a crowd of 400 people at Yuyintang, except that there were only 40 people there. The highly underrated six-man band from Xi'an experimented with everything from straight-up rock-and-roll to an Incubus-esque combination of guitars and turntables. Best secret of the weekend, they were. And what’s better than drinking warm beer from a can in a dirty warehouse in the middle of nowhere?

Miss World, Miss USA, Miss Hong Kong, and now here comes Miss Blogger PRC! Earlier this month, BlogChina, a poupular -- you guessed it -- Chinese blog site held a nationwide beauty contest for female bloggers. Both the public and a panel of celebrity judges took part in deciding the outcome. In addition to the usual “hotness” factor, contestants’ writing/blogging talent also played a significant role, supposedly. One look at the final awards had us convinced that was indeed the case: Cash prizes between 10,000 and 20,000 RMB were given to the “Most Beautiful”, the “Sexiest”, the “Most Popular”, the “Most Fashionable”, and last which may or may not be the least, the “Most Talented”. Where Shanghaiist just had a few chuckles, some of the more self-righteous web crawlers felt compelled to opine. One male blogger, “Idai” had this to say:

Shanghaiist is sure your eyes glaze over, like ours do, when we hear of a celebrity buying a house worth several million dollars. Or maybe they don't, because you're rich, in which case we hate you. Still, some things manage to really shock and awe us. Some "Middle Eastern" person, with the help of Gateway Capital, just bought some apartments where the average price was 40,000 yuan per square meter. So what, you ask? Well, it's not that they just bought one for them, and one for the kids -- they bought 102 apartments, worth about 600 million yuan. It's not uncommon for corporations or groups to buy large swaths of property, but according to this report (in Chinese), this was an individual, though it doesn't disclose anything about his/her identity.

Forgive us while we turn into a celebrity gossip blog for a moment. Adam Clayton, bassist for U2, arrived in Shanghai last week ... without a visa. So, his agent called Ireland's Vice Consul here in Shanghai (in the middle of the night) and she pulled some strings and got Clayton and his girlfriend into the country -- just like she would have done for any Irish citizen, we assume. Another perk to being a rock star. Clayton, who, we were told, flew to Shanghai from Fiji, is staying in one of our city's luxury hotels in Pudong. We're not going to say which one -- stalking isn't cool.

For whatever reason, Hong Kong locals just don't like our Zhang. They claim that she speaks English with a funky Beijing accent, that the Armani dress she wore to the Oscars made her look flat-chested, and that she "squats on the floor like a vulgar Chinese farmer when she goes shopping".

Yao Ming is tall. He is also good at basketball. We already told you that. He is also China's top celebrity, three years running, according to Forbes. The list takes into account all that is important in life: income, television appearances, newspaper mentions, magazine covers, internet searches, and the like. (Hmmmm. We do a lot of internet searches and we weren't ranked. Likely because we weren't born in Mainland China. Same reason why Jay Chou isn't on the list.)