Taiwan megastar and singer-songwriter Jay Chou (周杰伦) has joined the ranks of Ashton Kutcher as a celebrity tech investor. His latest venture comes in the form of 31SMS, a mobile messaging application for iPhones and Android phones which he's hoping his star appeal will help make a WhatsApp-killer, at least for the Greater China market. more ›

The Golden Horse Awards (金马奖), considered the Oscars of Chinese cinema, has broken with its 48-year tradition of inviting the previous year's winners to present the next year's awards by announcing its decision to rescind its invitation to Lü Liping (吕丽萍) to its 2011 event. more ›

"A well-known pop singer who was on the wanted list has been arrested in north China for child molestation -- years after he finished serving a three-year sentence on the same charge. Hong Dou, whose real name is Wang Liyong, was nabbed by police on Tuesday in a hotel in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Two boys who stayed with him were also taken away for questioning, Xinhua reported today. The singer was put on the wanted list in November 2009 by police in Hebei Province. Recently, Baotou police received a tip-off that he would come to the city to prepare the concert of a Hong Kong singer, so a trap was laid for him." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

28 year old singer Li Na (厉娜), one of top five finalists in the 2006 Supergirls talent competition and now a successful recording artiste with a huge following, has now become the first mainland Chinese celebrity to make an "It Gets Better" video. more ›

One of the best aspects of China's Got Talent (中国达人秀), which is now in its third episode (and still being filmed in Shanghai), is how it's given rise to so many unexpected and touching moments. Paul Potts? Susan Boyle? China's got those in spades, and I have to give credit to the producers - they've thankfully chosen to focus on the weird and wonderful in ways other talent shows haven't. The latest to wow: a duck neck snacks saleman. more ›

One of China's first pop singers to be fined for lip-synching, Fang Ziyuan, has allegedly tried to commit suicide, according to a Chengdu newspaper. Fang and her co-worker Ying Youcan, were accused of lip-synching their guest appearance at a Chinese pop diva's concert last year. more ›

Theme song of the Singapore pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, featuring Singaporean pop-stars A-do (阿杜), Tanya Chua (蔡健雅), Stephanie Sun (孫燕姿) and JJ Lin (林俊傑)
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The last time we heard about Yu Zhenhuan (于震环), he was aiming to be part of the torch relay for the Beijing Olympics but it looks like he didn't get in. While a pair of Mexican brothers may have taken over him as the world's hairiest, Yu continues to reign as China's hairiest man. Today, he's touring around China with his rock band and hopes to record an album soon. Watch him sing and dance here and do a talk show on ABC on his trip to the US last year.
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We didn't make it to James Blunt's concert in Shanghai last Saturday at the Yun Feng Theatre, but from what we heard from a friend who went and these videos that we found on Youtube, it was a show worth watching. What did you guys think who went? more ›

Scanning The Independent the other day, we came across a piece about a gloriously named singer called 萨顶顶 (Sa Ding Ding) that caught our eye. Born to a Mongolian mother and Han Chinese father, the article calls her a 'former Mongolian nomad' who is 'poised to sweep the globe' with her blend of traditional folk sounds and dance music. Intrigued, we had a hunt on Baidu's ever-reliable MP3 search engine (not that Shanghaiist condones illegal downloading of course) and found that searching for her name in characters returns quite a few results. more ›

It looks like the news embargo on Bjork's "Tibet" incident has finally been lifted and the fallout has begun. We have not found many traces of it, however, in the Chinese mainstream media. Two of the more notable reports we have found among the limited coverage is one by the China News Agency, the lesser known of China's two news agencies, entitled "比约克上海演出引不满 文化部：核实后依法处理" (Bjork's Shanghai performance stirs unhappines, Ministry of Culture to act in accordance with the law), and another on CCTV.com entitled "冰岛女歌手上海献唱 宣扬"西藏独立"挑衅中国" (Icelandic songstress promotes "Tibetan Independence" in Shanghai concert and angers China). more ›

As Jake Newby told you in our previous post:

With backing from a live Icelandic brass section (the ingeniously named Wonderbrass), songs such as the horn heavy ‘Wanderlust’ demonstrated Björk’s gift for spectacle and her incredible delivery, before she closed out the set with the anthemic ‘Declare Independence’, chanting the name of a huge piece of real estate west of Sichuan and Yunnan amongst a hail of streamers.

WARNING: If you are sick and tired of reading about Edison Chen's private parts ... stop reading now! more ›

BAIDU RAPPED FOR SPREADING THE PICTURES; CHINESE COPS ARREST 10 SUSPECTS IN SHENZHEN more ›

So much has happened since our last post on the Edison Chen photo scandal that it is about time we updated you! First, the Edison Chen saga has caught the attention of CNN. The Chinese-speaking world has never been as enraptured in a scandal as this, and its scale and magnitude is threatening to make Paris Hilton look very passé. Kristie Lu Stout reports:
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For Part 1 of this story, click HERE. more ›

RELEASE OF PICTURES OF HONG KONG STARS IN THE NUDE IN VARIOUS COMPROMISING SITUATIONS SETS TONGUES WAGGING ACROSS ASIA more ›

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... more ›