Results tagged “wangleehom”

Taiwanese music and its influence (or non-influence) on China

British culture magazine Monocle has an interesting look at Taiwanese pop and its infiltration into the mainland. Despite the decades of turbulence between Taiwan and China, the entertainment mega-machine based out of Taipei has barely hiccuped in its flow from the island to its more than receptive audience here.

Bravo to the big corporations — Hewlett Packard and Hennessy — that are each throwing huge music events this weekend and both are free to the public via registration on their respective webpages. On Friday, Hennessy is holding what is being billed as a "Hennessy Artistry Showcase" (last year featuring Juliette Louis and the Licks), out at the International Expo Center in Pudong and featuring Hong Kong pop star Wang Lee Hom, Gary Chaw, and...

What have we, what have we, what have we done to deserve this?

The video up above is from a show called Sailor Moon. Then there's this AMV that features your favorites Tokyo Mew Mew, Full Moon and, of course, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. And this post would be nothing without a link to a video about Magic Knight Rayearth and another featuring our hero Ryo Bakura.

Being a Mandopop star seems like hard work. Endless promoting, little creative control, mediocre output, a demanding fanbase, a music market that is overrun by counterfeiting and short shelf life. It must get tiring. Wang Leehom is the rare pop star that has not only retained, but gained popularity after 10 years in the fickle Chinese pop business. On Saturday night, he brought his show to a capacity crowd of pop fans at the Shanghai Stadium. And he made it look easy.

Although the heat and humidity are seemingly unrelenting, it's safe to say that summer is half over. This means that there are only a precious couple months for the city's beloved Mandopop stars to make pit stops at the local outdoor stadiums. JJ Lin and S.H.E. have already come and gone, but fear not, you one or two other Mandopop fans reading this, more superstars are on the way.

So, Chinese pop star Wang Lee Hom says his new album Heroes of Earth is "chinked-out." We wondered if this phrasing would offend some people. "I don't find 'chink' offensive," one Chinese-American we polled said. "I think it's stupid, but I think Wang Lee Hom is stupid." Curiously, this person did seem to know a lot about Mr. Wang: "He's actually American ... upstate New York, Rochester about ... went to Williams, Berklee School of Music ... has studio in Boston ... born 1976 ... MVP of his high school baseball team ... three years running ... little brother at MIT." We interrupted: "You are reading this from a website, right? Please say you are reading this from a website." He said he wasn't. We got freaked out and ended the conversation there. (But from the image attached to this post we can also assume that Wang also likes to ski ... with 1980s hair and clothing.)

Drew Taylor (aka KidPlastik) escaped Salt Lake City for a month last fall and visited China. He recorded some of his trip with a video camera, edited the results, set them to music and posted the whole thing on the internet for all to see. Ain't the internet grand!

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