Results tagged “liyuchun”

"Brother Chun" gets wax replica at Shanghai Madame Tussauds

We're not sure what it was about this photo that had us cracking up for over an hour, but we had to post it. Apparently Li Yuchun (also affectionately known as “Brother Chun”), winner of the 2005 Super Girl singing contest, has gotten a replica of herself placed in Shanghai's Madam Tussauds.

Super Girls coming back to Chinese TV, renamed Happy Girls

Are you ready to watch the nation go star crazy? Because, after two seasons out of the limelight, a new version of the hit China idol show "Super Girls" is coming! This time around, Hunan Satellite Television is calling its karaoke contest "Happy Girls" (快乐女声).

Film star Jackie Chan has donated RMB10million to help those in need following the earthquake in Sichuan province. Other celebrities have also dipped into their wallets. From CriEnglish:

"Jackie Chan also sent his consolation to the quake victims and encouraged them to hold on as "people all over the country are with you," the star said.

Li Yuchun (李宇春) — the "androgynous wonder from Sichuan" who was the first winner of Super Voice Girls (an American Idol-style talent show) — recently gave a concert in Nanjing, and she performed in *gasp* a skirt! Now if you have no clue what an earth-shattering revolution Super Voice Girls represented (for the very first time, viewers were allowed to vote for their favourite singer via SMS, causing some powers-that-be to quake with fear) and...

In this day and age, you can define "torture" however you want to, and for a long time, we considered the practice of inputting Chinese characters on a Mac to fulfill our definition. OS X has a built-in simplified Chinese input that does the job, but doesn't really hold a candle to any of the Windows XP input methods—and when Sogou came out with their input method, and Google copied it, we considered that battle to be over.

For too long, many domestic TV entertainment channels have profaned music and the notion of competition by giving top honors to tomboys or sissy boys for being what they are - boyish girls and feminine boys - NOT for what or how they sing. The realm of music (which if not sacred should at least require some talent) suffered most when Li Yuchun, a tomboy whose voice was the weakest of all the finalists in a national singing contest in 2005, walked away with the "Super Girl" championship. Shi Yang, a boy who dances like a young woman, became a hot idol during the "My Show" contest in Shanghai last year.

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.



  • "It might be time to admit that we really don't understand China. The country simply does not conform to our most basic beliefs about what makes nations grow."




  • "China needs a law to restrict a 'violent culture' in films and Internet to protect the youth from being corrupted, a Chinese lawmaker said Tuesday."




  • "And Guangdong appears to be the source of renewed waves of the H5N1 strain, which has killed or forced the destruction of hundreds of millions of birds, the team at the University of California Irvine reported."




  • "The Xinhua News Agency said 14 government departments, including the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information Industry, had issued a notice saying that 'in 2007, local governments must not sanction the opening of new Internet bars.'"




  • "Italy's master violin makers said they are worried that the Chinese, who can turn out a violin, bow and case for $25 are now eyeing the more prestige market."




  • "The Sunday blizzard dumped up to 50mm of snow on parts of Heilongjiang in China's far north, while significant snowfall closed the airport in the city of Shenyang further south, causing 144 flight cancellations and stranding thousands, Xinhua news agency said."




  • "Based on data from the new study and from the International Energy Agency, the increase in the amount of China's greenhouse gas emissions is now greater than that of all industrialized nations put together."




  • "Warnings will be issued to smokers during the April 1 to 9 grace period, after which penalty points will be allotted under the Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement."




  • "Beijing taxi drivers should stop eating and sleeping in their cabs because the smells could tarnish the city's image during the 2008 Olympics."




  • "The female contingent in the Top 10 includes actresses Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Zhou Xun, and Fan Bingbing, Super Girl Li Yuchun, director-actress-blogger Xu Jinglei and Hong Kong actress Carina Lau."




  • "According to All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), Shanghai women are the happiest in China, followed by Beijing, Qingdao, Ningbo and Tianjin women."
  • "In Shanghai, where mega-developments are the norm, the small stone houses known as shikumen along Lane 248 are being lovingly restored and converted into trendy boutiques, patisseries and cafes." Taikang Lu.
  • "Two packages containing human body parts -- including a liver and part of a head -- meant for a medical research lab instead were delivered to a home."
  • "More than that, the actual location is insane. The first time I tried to get there I couldn't find it and wandered around for half an hour."
  • "Shaanghai Metro is expected to offer passengers services similar to those in airliners, the head of the Metro system said yesterday."
  • "The historic bomb, 2.6 meters in length and 0.43 meter in diameter, is waiting to be uploaded onto a container carrier at a ferry dock in the city's northern Baoshan District."
  • "The 66-seat open-topped bus has been running nine times daily since its launch, but 80 percent of seats remain empty."
  • "The collection of over 200 black and white photos is maintained by Dr Rob Linrothe, Associate Professor and Director of Art History at Skidmore College."
  • Washington Post on Chun, Guyi and Fu 1039.
  • "Average temperatures were 8.1 degrees Celsius (46.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a dramatic 2.6 degrees warmer than in previous years and the highest since records were first taken in 1873, Xinhua news agency reported." Until today.
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    Photo by 2 dogs found via the Shanghaiist Contribute page.

    Shanghaiist reported about the My Hero show recently and not so recently, and so here we are again, bringing you periodic reports from the frontlines.

    Photo by Shanghai Streets taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site.

    "They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don’t want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."

    Photo from Getty Images via The Scotsman.

    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.)

    ) competition, will soon appear on collector's stamps throughout China. For its incorporation of SMS voting into its decision-making process, cultural critic Zhu Dake declared Super Voice Girls "blazed a trail for cultural democracy" in China. China National Philatelic Corp. is eager to cash in on that trailblazing, as they are set to issue a series of eight stamps (RMB 36) and a set of eight commemorative envelopes (RMB 38) designed by Guo Chenghui.

    It's that time of year again: the Forbes annual China celebrity list is coming out on March 8. This article (in Chinese) tells us that the top 10 has already been released, and Li Bingbing (李冰冰) has graduated to the big time, garnering top honors. The Forbes list is calculated using a "income+media exposure" criterion, and while we aren't privy to how much Li makes, we know that she graced the covers of more magazines this year than any other celeb. The rankings include 100 people, with the top ranked as follows:

    Super Voice Girls Li Yuchun and Zhang Liangying are in Taiwan, but on the down-low, because according to the laws stipulated by Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, mainland Chinese cannot officially perform in Taiwan, and thus cannot hold press conferences, meet with fans, or have their names printed on the performance bill. What exactly is this performance they are holding in Taiwan, you ask? Well, from what we gather it's a charity concert, but for who or what we're not entirely sure: the Chinese title is "情聲藝動相約東南". Maybe you fans of charity concerts or Chinese pop can fill us in. It seems from the articles Shanghaiist has read that this concert is going to be a who's who of the Mandopop world.

    Popular Chinese internet search engine Baidu.com recently announced the 10 most popular search queries for 2005, reports the Star Daily (via the Shanghai Daily China news blog). Here they are, in order of popularity (we think):

    The New York Times has posted a four-minute video entitled "What's on China's TV Tonight?" It's narrated by David Barboza, an NYT writer based in China, and focuses on Hunan province, which, thanks to mega-hit Super Voice Girls, is the epicenter of China's television boom. The video shows clips of SVG -- including eventual champion Li Yuchun's awful rendition of Bryan Adams' awful "Everything I Do" -- but it also mentions a couple new shows, like the Gong Show-esque Who's the Hero?, where one guy tried to undress women and serve tea to them using a forklift and another bloody-mouthed guy set some kind of record for opening bottles with his teeth, and another show that tries to find China's next young ping pong star.

    Shanghaiist staff (all six officials ones plus numerous groupies) are unabashed devotees of the Super Voice Girls, so imagine our pleasure when we found out that Li Yuchun, the androgynous wonder from Sichuan and final winner of the contest that sent tingles and shivers down the spine of people throughout China, became a cover girl. Sort of -- she made the cover of a Special Issue of TIME magazine called "Asia's Heroes".

    , produced and broadcast by the state-owned Hunan Province Satellite Television Station. The program's full name is Mengniu Yoghurt Super Voice Girls -- Mengniu being one of China's leading dairy product brands.

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