Gossip China

Bai Ling has a new book, nipples

To be honest, until recently, I only knew Bai Ling through her frequent appearances on a site about bad celebrity fashion, gofugyourself, where she has her own category because of her many disastrous red carpet get-ups.

I guess she is in some new B movie called "Crank: High Voltage" as a prostitute and she just wrote a book called Nipples which she describes as "It's a point of view of how I see the world. Like, I'm wearing purple and pink, you're wearing blue; maybe I'm wearing red, you're wearing yellow. Our eyes are limited. There are a lot of beautiful, magical things in the universe we don't see, but I see. Sometimes on my balcony I sit for the whole afternoon, watching the sun cast through the trees. Sometimes I see a butterfly there, a chair, a boat. But those are a high form of spirit giving art. They are there for its own existence. But only you have the sensitive heart and soul to recognize and enjoy that moment, but 10 minutes past when the sun moves a little bit, they're gone. The book is about my perspective - very erotic, very intimate. I share a lot of relationships that I had with different gentlemen - very intimate, very advanced, very crazy and very bold in a modern way. I wrote it in 40 days without even thinking; the book is there and I'm just here to reveal it."

If you liked that, here is her blog where she writes more stream-of-consciousness revelations.
Not bad for forty (!) two.

Beautiful Cooking, my new favorite show

So there is this show on TVB where a famous chef cooks a complicated chef and then famous actresses try to replicate it while wearing stiletto heels.  And while they are cooking the background noise is whatever stock music they use when someone is doing something stupid on an old movie or America's Funniest Home Videos or something.  I thought of the Three Stooges first but then when I looked it up on China's version of youtube, youku.com, because youtube is still blocked here, I could only find episodes of the Three Stooges dubbed over in Chinese.  Which is sort of hilarious in its own right.

Here is a link to one of the episodes from last season (of Beautiful Cooking, not the Three Stooges):
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODA4Mzg0ODQ=.html

This show makes me want to be a set designer for Chinese gameshows.

Neither of these photos really demonstrates just how lovely-wacky the set is.  But you gotta love the thigh-highs on the little helper girls (technically called, according to the show, "Young Beautiful Cooking Chefs").  At first I thought the second from the left was carrying a handgun, but I'm pretty sure after a second look that it is a handblender.

Word on the street is that one of the YBCCs, Rainbow, aged 17, was hitting on the host Alex Fong.  According to the lamest poll ever on this website that won't let me copy and paste the photos of the underage hottie 12% of the audience thought Rainbow was sweet and sexy, but that she should continue her studies and stop pursuing her dream of becoming sexy, 38% think she pursued Alex for attention, and 22% thought Alex pursued her.

I leave you with this photo of some Hong Kong star wrestling with a giant eel that is now the new desktop background on my computer and has replaced a frightened looking panda.

Phoning it in

I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Hong Kong with a carppy connection and the space bar only works if I  slam it.  And there is  about a 15 second delay between when I type something And  when it shows up on the screen.  My  index finger is getting tired.  Does that  reveal that I still search and pick when I type?  What is the proper finger to use when punching the spacebar anyways?  Ok, get ready for the post on Monday because it will be epic.  I'mdown  here scoping out the Hong Kong scene and I might be coming into someexclusive information.  Ok I'm out.

Battle over Nina Kung's will gets more complicated

Nina Wang(Chinese name Kung Yu Sum) died April 3, 2007 but the battle over Asia's richest woman's will continues.  At the time of Wang's death she was worth over 4.2 billion USD thanks to her late husband, the founder of Hong Kong's Chinachem group pharmaceutical company, Teddy Wang.  Oh and Teddy was kidnapped twice, once in 1983 when Nina payed 33 million to get him back and again in 1990 when he was never returned and declared legally dead in 1999.  Are there any Tupac-style myths surrounding his mysterious disappearance?  I sure hope so.  I'll get back to you on it.

Apparently, Nina had her own little battle to deal with after her husbands death/disappearance.  The money was taken from her in 2002 after Teddy's final will in 1990 that included the phrase "one life, one love" in English was declared a fraud.  That is a tupac-style quote if there every was one.  And super random that it was the lone English phrase in a will otherwise written entirely in Chinese.  In 2005, the money was returned back to her.

Oh wait, guess what I found in Nina's wikipedia article: "As the disclosure of beneficiary's identity becomes imminent, speculations over whether Teddy Wang is still alive is looming once again at the crucial moment."  Yes.  He will be back.

So the newest problem to come up in this battle over the will is a newly disclosed "feng shui will."  I guess this is the kind of crazy stuff that comes up when craploads of money are involved.  Drama just follows. A "fung shui will" is supposed to bring an individual prolonged life after it is burned, according witness, fung shui master Szeto Fa-ching.  However this one never was. And it was thrown into the mix by Nina's alleged lover and feng-shui master, Tony Chan.  This feng-shui will, of course, leaves everything to Tony.

Oh, greed.  Notes on the previous article are coming later.  It's pretty long, so now you have another day to read it.

Cheer Chen reading assignment

Your assignment: read this article (or at least skim it) on Cheer Chen translated from this article in the Liberty Times and tomorrow I'll give notes.

"Artistic Genius" Cheer Chen sings clear and lightly [Immortal], using the power of music to emit radiance. Her personality and attitude towards life seems like that of an immortal but she once lost herself. Her newest motto is: "When I decide to embrace myself, the world will start to embrace me." Like the sun, she looks forward to many people rediscovering their heart's origins, their truest self!

Drawing a piano on paper and practising on it

Her father was a drummer in his spare time, her mother was an expert pianist, allowing Cheer Chen to be connected with music from a young age, "Very quickly, I learnt to talk and sing. My mother let me learn piano at the age of 3." At the age of 7, she entered Dun-Hua Elementary School's music class, her family experienced financial problems so because they were worried that people would take away the piano when coming after family for debt, they moved the piano to her maternal grandmother's place. Without the piano, Cheer didn't stop, she took a turn and continued to strive forward. She drew the black and white piano keys on paper, placed her fingers directly on the paper's "keyboard" and played, melodies flew freely through her mind.

Cheer Chen, who liked to read, often went to the Sesame Department Store (later known as Sunrise Department Store) near Dun-Hua Elementary after school, to flip through free books. Once, she read to the point that she forgot home time and as a result, was hit by her mother because she thought that Cheer was only interested in having fun. Cheer Chen said, "I was really sad, because our family couldn't afford books and that's why I went to read the ones that didn't require money." Growing up in a single-parent family, strength is not in crying in front of others, but instead, holding back the tears.

Her impatience once caused her to lose herself

Just like her flowing music, Cheer Chen admits that she gets very impatient, she'll also lose her temper and once lost herself. She gave an example, when she's rushing out but forgets something and has to go back to get it, "In the end, instead of getting there earlier as planned, I get there late, this really annoys me." Thinking carefully about why, she said, being impatient comes from being afraid of waiting for the unknown. If she knows how long she has to wait, "Then I can sit down and wait properly without a worry."

During the end of 2007, Cheer Chen got lost, she couldn't even trust herself. At the time, she had just finished her tour. She had not performed as well as she wished and decided to go overseas for a while but things kept coming up and she became very ill when she returned, "Work and life were a mess, I just felt like I couldn't go any further, I didn't feel a sense of security, there was a voice in my heart: 'What on earth am I doing'?"

Therefore, she calmed down and examined herself critically, reflecting positively she understood the reason [why she felt this way], "I must love myself." She began her journey of finding herself, "I went slowly, focussing on doing everything well. When I got out of bed, I carefully made the bed, slowly finished drinking my glass of water, before going out I'd put my shoes back properly, starting with life's little insignificant things." 4-5 days later, I'd developed these habits, "I felt great about myself!"

Fashion style simple and distinct

Cheer Chen's fashion sense is just like her personality, simple and unsophisticated but not lacking uniqueness, not an advocate of fancy brands, "It's more important to wear clothes that go well with yourself, that is, these things must represent you."

Bright personality, not blindly following others, Cheer Chen is very "devoted" towards things she likes. Usually she doesn't like shopping, she will buy everything in one go; the brands she shops for most are "agnès b." and "Isabel Marant".

Cheer Chen prefers simplicity and doesn't hold onto old things. Clothes in her wardrobe that haven't been touched in two years, she will give to familt and friends, "My dream is to live a life without unnecessary things, material things should be kept as simple as possible, I wish I could go home to a library." She believes that being connected with books is like wearing beautiful clothes on the inside, which is better than a vain beautiful outer appearance.

Ten questions with Jackie Chan, glamour shots of Chen Shu

TIME asked Jacki Chan ten burning questions:

What was the most difficult stunt you've performed in a movie?

Robert Quach, DALLAS
The shopping-mall scene in Police Story where I jumped onto the chandelier and slid down 75 ft. (23 m). There was no protection. [After landing] I had to get up, grab the bad guy and punch him, all in one shot. That stunt was like suicide.

What was it like beating up Jet Li in The Forbidden Kingdom? In a real fight, who would win?

Wong Mei Fern, KUALA LUMPUR
In a real fight, I would let him win. He's my younger brother. Beating Jet was very fun. Sometimes he helped me, sometimes I helped him. When the cut was finished, I'd still give him two punches and he'd still block me, then he'd give me a kick and I'd block him. It was like sparring.

Do you have a special diet or can you eat anything you want?

Lori Richman, PONDER, TEXAS
Today I'm not like how I used to be. I know I have to run 20 more minutes if I eat ice cream. Basically, I eat everything, but I just do more training.

What message do you want to send with the movie Shinjuku Incident?

Christine Susanna Tjhin, JAKARTA
We want to send out a message to our people from China, from Indonesia, from Malaysia: no country is like home. When you're in Japan, when you're in America, you're nobody. I play a nobody in Japan. Somehow all the temptations keep coming and you can't fight them. If we can send out a message that nobody should escape from a boat illegally to Japan or even Australia or America, that you should just stay where you are, then that's a good message.

Do you think your audience is ready to accept Jackie Chan, the dramatic actor?

Derek Logan edmonton, CANADA
I have no idea. Making a movie is gambling. You don't know whether audiences will like it or not. Just like when I was making New Police Story. I thought, Should I make this kind of movie, where I'm crying, depressed and not like a hero anymore? But the movie came out and the results were so good. Then I made Rob-B-Hood, where I'm a thief who kidnaps babies. The audience accepted it. Slowly, I'm letting audiences see that I can do everything.

Does this movie indicate the end of your action-movie career?

Yu Wang gold coast, AUSTRALIA
No, definitely not. I just finished Big Soldier, Small General, which is an action movie. Then maybe next year, I'll have a drama. It's not like how it used to be, when every movie was about action stunts. I'm tired, and I think audiences are tired, too.

You're hilarious! Where does your humor come from?

Chee Lee, MINNEAPOLIS
I don't know. I think it was natural born. I just love to make people laugh. I love to create new action with comedy together. Just myself, happy-go-lucky.

Will we ever see a Jackie Chan – Bollywood collaboration?

Raghavendra Nelli, SAN DIEGO
That's one I really want to do. Last year, we were going to do one, but there were some problems, so we stopped. We'll probably start again this year.

Do you think Chinese actors are restricted to kung fu movies in order to succeed in Hollywood?

Zhou Ting, CHANGSHA, CHINA
At this moment, I believe yes. In Hollywood, they have so many good actors, but if you're talking about action, there's nobody. We're not talking about fake, special-effect action stars like Superman and Batman. Anyone can be a Superman, but nobody can be Jackie Chan.

Who has been the most influential figure in your life?

Yu Dengfei, NEW YORK CITY
I think Bruce Lee was one of them. When he came out, I was a stuntman. I was thinking I want to be Bruce Lee one day — that was my dream. Every time I saw him, I went and did training. When I got depressed, I watched Bruce Lee movies. I learned everything from Bruce Lee.

I'm glad that "doing everything" includes kidnapping babies.

Look at how beautiful Chen Shu is in the April issue of Esquire:

Jolin Tsai is bendy

Jolin Tsai, the so-called "fashionable priestess" according to this translation of this article, showed off her flexibility on some talk-show.  Jolin is a singer from Taiwan with a very long wikipedia entry.  And she can do this:

As she told the show's host, Tao Zi, this is her trick to having a lean butt.  My favorite accidentally-but-not-really-so-accidentally suggestive thing that Jolin said what that to practice for ballet, she spent 3 months standing on one leg.  She even showered with one leg raised.

Another strange comment to come from this interview is that she wears three pairs of pants when performing onstage so as to not accidentally expose herself.

Here is a link to around 45 minutes of Jolin's very entertaining music videos:
http://v.youku.com/v_playlist/f1444839o1p3.html
I can't figure out how to embed because the site is all in Chinese.  And I can't vouch for all 45 minutes of the video because I couldn't finish it, much like her wikipedia article.

Here is another strange quote from the translation of the article "Despite having a big appetite, as soon as she realised the food isn't good for her health, that it can make you gain weight easily, she will erase this food from her mind and will never touch it again, she relies on this type of willpower when she is working."  I'm pretty sure food is good for your health.  Jolin weighs 41 kg or 90 lbs.
Sorry for the poor image quality.  I was trying to google image Jolin Tsai but I accidentally google imaged my previous google search which was 41 kgs in lbs because I didn't feel like doing that math in my head or on a calculator and this came up.  Hurray for this.  Moving on...
After a big fat Asian baby, this one of Jolin is kind of a letdown.  Especially because she looks like she might have a bit of a lazy eye in this particular photo.  There is something off about her eyes.  Maybe she is fantasizing about food or something because she won't let herself eat it.

Kate Tsui and her sexy image

For some reason reporters seem to focus on a star's image in the Hong Kong entertainment industry.  And it's not just discussing it from the outside, often they will question the stars themselves.  It's interesting for me to read about because in my experience in the states, stars reinvent themselves all the time and spend lots of time and have lots of people working on crafting that image, but it isn't really something they admit to.  It's supposed to just be them being themselves.  Even when it's Beyonce making up alter egos and wearing a robot hand and such.

In these discussions between reporters and the stars themselves about image, there is a line drawn in the sand between sexy and sweet for female stars.  Kate Tsui is sexy.  Linda Chung is sweet.  Both are TVB actresses in Hong Kong and both have recently made the switch into music and begun to cultivate singing careers.

Linda's image is referred to by the media as a "jade girl" image.  I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I think it has to do with being humble and sweet.  In this translation of an on.cc article Linda said that she would not change to having a sexy image and when asked about her opinion of Kate, as every Hong Kong actress inevitably is, she responded with a typically evasive answer: "Kate has the foundation of dancing,therefore she looks good on stage,and she has also got lots of potential becoming a singer!"

Now on to the coverage of Kate.  In the on.cc article translated here and titled "Kate Sui will see what response she gets; no limits in sexiness" Kate's image is critiqued yet again.  Apparently "she wore a low-cut dress and wasn't afraid of exposing herself."  But, in fact, there is a limit to her sexiness and at times Kate is afraid of exposing herself as demonstrated by her responding to the question of why she performed in outfits less sexy than what she wears in her music videos by saying "it is quite dangerous to appear too sexy while performing live. When you're filming a MV and expose yourself you can cut those scenes."

These are the sluttiest picture of Kate I could find:
Look at the coverage that bikini bottom gives her!  Disappointing.

Computer techie denies responsibility for distributing Edison Chen's sex photos

Dicky Sze Ho-Chun denied having any involvement in the distribution of the scandalous photos that forced Edison Chen to leave Hong Kong and begin an early retirement in Canada.  The prosecution is claiming that Sze's coworker, Tse, saved Chen's computer data to a hard-drive.  Then, Sze (who I'm really glad chose the English name Dicky), put the images from the hard-drive on the internet.

Eleven of the photos were found on Sze/Dicky's personal computer last year.  I guess this is supposed to be evidence against him.  But truthfully, what man in China doesn't have at least of few of those nudie pics floating around somewhere in their computer's memory? Especially considering that, according to some witnesses, the original photo count hovers around 1,300 photos.  That seems extraordinarily high.  I wonder how many different women were portrayed?  And were they all Edison's conquests?  Or was some of it just run-of-the-mill porn?

Edison testified in the trial that only he and the women had seen the photos before they were made available to the rest of the world.  This crienglish.com article says that none of the four women received copies.  Those four women are the four actresses who were in the photos: Gillian Chung, Cecilia Cheung, Bobo Chan and Rachel Ngan.  Aww Rachel Ngan doesn't even have her own wikipedia entry.  Instead putting her name into the search bar redirects you immediately to the entry of the Edison Chen photo scandal which everyone who wants to know anything about Chinese celebrity gossip should seriously consider reading.  It's kind of annoying because the only information the article gives about Rachel is that she was lying on a bed.

 

That's her.  And this is her IMDB entry.

The trial is going on for another week or so.  They have to get through 16 witnesses.  The computer guy could end up spending up to five years in jail.  I doubt it though.  We'll see.

Update on Jill Vidal: Things just got more serious

Kelvin Kwah got back to China a week or so ago, but Jill wasn't with him.  And you wanna guess why?  The hard stuff.  That would be heroin.  Several bags of the stuff were found in Jill's belongings back at the hotel when police searched her luggage while she was in jail with boyfriend Kelvin for possession of marijuana in Japan.  Ten packs of grade four heroin were found according to this article.  Grade four heroin, interestingly, is also called "China white" and is the strongest form of heroin.  Nothing but the best for this pop star.

Japanese police are currently in contact with Hong Kong officials to determine the origin of the drugs and discover whether or not this is part of a more serious drug trafficking operation.  The possession or use of heroin in Japan can carry a max of ten years in jail and a big old fine. 

It's been over 40 days that Jill has been detained.  Her birthday is coming up on the 13th.  It looks like she'll have to spend it alone now that Kelvin is back in China.  I wonder if he'll get off scott-free now that he's made it back to Hong Kong.