Gossip China

Beijing's Fashion Week

This past week was Beijing's international fashion week.  The theme was "simplicity."  It's interesting to see how simplicity is interpreted within the Chinese aesthetic which in my opinion, at least when it comes to clothing, is often overworked.

Looks itchy.
 

I like how this resembles origami.  Where can I get a full body stocking?  And how do they get themselves into it?  Must be hard to pee.  Like back when crotch-snap shirts were big but 100 times worse.

I really like this photo.

Not everything is so mod though.  Most of the stuff is like this:

Too many details, but boring at the same time.

Photos via crienglish.com

China's directors take on Hollywood

John Woo and Feng Xiaogang, the only two Chinese directors to gross more than 300 million yuan in box office, are speaking up on behalf of China's growing film industry.  Woo attributes his success to his formula of combining Chinese traditional stories with Hollywood-level production values.  Feng mentioned some interesting statistics that demonstrated just how quickly the film industry is growing in China.  In addition to a fiscal growth from 1 billion yuan gross box office in 2003 to 4.6 billion in 2008, two new screens are built each day.  Feng also mentioned that right now, China has only 4,000 screens in comparison with the U.S.'s 40,000. 

"If this is a battle between Hollywood films and Chinese-language films at the Chinese boxoffice, Hollywood is fighting in a business sense," Feng said. "We can't fight this battle as if film is culture. This is a business war, not a cultural war."  This seems like a message that the Chinese government will understand.  Feng hopes so at least, he is asking the government and members of the film industry to raise 5 billion yuan for a cinema exhibition project.  The government's contribution would come from box office taxes.

[source: The Hollywood Reporter]

Only 4,000 screens.  That seems like so few, especially when compared to the amount in American at the moment.

Now, look at how awesome A-Mei's outfit it for her concert performance in Taipei

[via sina.com.cn]

She looks like Tina Turner from the future! And Asian.

Jill Vidal's sister make PSA/music video

Janice Vidal, Jill Vidal's twin sister, made a music video to the song "999."  A song that warns against drug use.  At the moment, Janice's sister Jill is still imprisoned along with her boyfriend Kelvin Kwah in Japan after they were caught with marijuana on them while being searched for shoplifting in a Japanese department store.

Sonija Kwok bitten by ayi

It's hard to find good help these days.  Even for famous people.  Sonija Kwok experience this firsthand when her Indonesian housekeeper attacked her on Tuesday.  It all started when Sonija heard her maid crying in the living room at 9 am on Tuesday morning.  Sonija tried to comfort her and was shown text messages sent from the maid's boyfriend.

According to this less-than-perfect translation of this Sun article the maid initially embraced Sonija before her tone of voice changed and she then commanded Sonija to put on makeup. Huh?  While Sonija was changing and putting on makeup the maid took a knife from the kitchen and put it to Sonija's neck.  Somehow Sonija got the knife from the maid and called for help.  While Sonija was calling, the maid pulled at her hair and bit her left arm.  Sonija's mother was also in the mix and was pushed onto the couch while trying to separate the two.

When the policemen arrived they had to actually use their shields to subdue the maid.

The woman had been working for Sonija for 10 months.  Sonija has said she doesn't think she will press charges, but she does plan to go to the Labor Department and Immigration Office so the Indonesian woman will not be able to work for other families.

Ouchies!

Zhang Ziyi's sex disc

Things aren't always what they seem.  The new hot item in Hong Kong's piracy market is a DVD with Zhang Ziyi on the cover.  Yeah the nude beach photos taken of her in January are on there, but the majority of the disc are video clips that do not include her.

The 81 photos of Zhang Ziyi sunbathing topless on the beach were taken while she was on vacation with her boyfriend, Israeli venture capitalist Vivi Nevo, in the Carribean.

Point of intrigue: the photos are under copyright to an anonymous man who spent a big chunk of change to buy the exclusive rights to the photos for the three months between January 9th (when the photos were taken) and April 9th.  I wonder who this man is and what he plans to do with the photos?  I'm picturing someone, maybe Vivi or just a friend of Zhang Ziyi's, who wanted to have the whole thing die down a bit before the photos were made public.  Or maybe they are manufacturing a big line of lunchboxes or something.  Anyways, the people behind this new DVD could be in big trouble.  Unless the people behind the DVD are the same mysterious people who bought the rights to the photos...

This is one (pretty tame) example of the 81 photos.  For the other, more scandalous 80, go here.

Zhou Xun wins "Best Actress" at this year's Asian Film Awards

Zhou Xun brought home the award for her performance in "The Equation of Love and Death" where she plays a cab driver searching for her missing fiance.

Zhou Xun ranks number 9 on Forbes' Top 100 Chinese celebrity list released last Tuesday.  Numbers 1-10 are:
1 Yao Ming, athlete

2 Zhang Ziyi, actress

3 Yi Jianlian, athlete

4 Guo Jingjing, athlete

5 Liu Xiang, athlete

6 Jet Li , actor

7 Zhao Wei, actress

8 Fan Bingbing, actress

9 Zhou Xun, actress

10 Li Bingbing, actress

Here is Zhou Xun promoting Lancel handbags:

Christine Kuo crowned Miss Chinese International 2009

Ok so Christine Kuo, the Toronto resident, was crowned a solid two months ago.  But this is news to me.  As are the rest of the Chinese pageants that I've been reading about for an hour or so.  2009's ceremony for Miss Chinese International was held in Foshan, China and featured 28 contestants from all over the world each one either born in China or of Chinese descent.

Here are some great things about this pageant:

1. The slogan: "Beauty + The Continuation of Wonderous Enchantment"
If I pick that apart to much it won't be as funny, but I do have to say that the word is spelled wondrous.  And I kind of wish the slogan included a slash instead of a plus sign.

2.  Two of the special awards given besides the obvious one, the title of Miss Chinese International 2009, are the International charm ambassador award and Oriental charm ambassador award.
What is the difference between international and oriental charm?  Because both awards went to women from Canada.

Let's have a look at the winner shall we?

Christine in her crown looking an awful lot like the Queen in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

Did you realize the Disney animated film was made in 1937?

Oh and of course the bikini-and-heels:

I'm obviously a woman because whenever I see this outfit in pageants I just think it looks awkward.

Oh that is just the first of many Chinese pageants you will be hearing of from me.  (Belated) congratulations Christine!  Here are some risque photos of other contestants if you are into that sort of thing.

All about CoCo Lee

Today's weekly celebrity bio is about Coco Lee, China's Mariah Carey (without that creepy Cribs episode when Mariah changed clothes 5 times in the world's largest closet with the help of several assistants and wore her nightgown in the bathtub). 

She is the first Chinese person to perform at the Oscar's with "A Love Before Time" from the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. 

And she's really freaking cute.  Aw watch her in this clip of talking with Lisa Ling on the view.

Coco first won recognition after winning the New Talent Singing Awards in 1993.  She has had dozens of chart-topping songs.

Time for photos:

[via asianfanatics.net]

Her singing style has been referred to as blackinese on 1up.com.  Apparently, the blackinese style can be seen in the song "No Doubt" off of her second English language album Exposed.  Let's see for ourselves:

I have an idea of what blackinese means after that video what with the pimp fur coat and purple felt hat, but I'm still not exactly sure. Urbandictionary.com has several descriptions, none of which seem to directly apply. 

My favorite definition offered is "Cusine [sic] obtained from a Chinese sub shop in a black neighborhood. Note: In most places, REAL Chinese restaurants do not sell subs and fries." With the usage in a sentence example being "I'm 'bout to call Yum Yum's Blackinese and get me a steak and cheese."  Mm a steak and cheese sandwich actually sounds pretty good.  Too bad there aren't any black neighborhoods in this country.  It's all just straight up Chinese food without the fusion.

Sex in the City Hong Kong style

Yumiko Cheng revealed on a Shanghai news program on Tuesday that she, Gillian Chung, Charlene Choi, and Joey Yung Cho-Chee will be working together on a Hong Kong version of Sex and the City.  Yumiko said the content of the film will be focused on the modern Hong Kong woman's take on love and life in the big city.  It will be interesting to compare how the sexcapades in this upcoming film compare to the American version.  And who will be playing who?
[source: asianfanatics.net]

This could be Gillian's big comeback after that whole sex scandal thing.

[via sina.com]
A picture of the four girls together.  They are planning a trip to England next month to see if they can work together as a group and do some research for the film.

Let's look at the girls individually:

Joey Yung

[sohu.com]

Next up, Gillian Chung

[twinsfans.net]

Here is Charlene Choi:

[mystarhill.com]

And finally, Yumiko Cheng

[eegmusic.com]

Based on the pictures I arbitrarily chose it looks like Joey is Samantha, Charlene in Miranda, Gillian is Carrie, and Yumiko is Charlotte.  We'll see if I'm right.

Ni Ping no longer face of chestnut juice

China just passed new legislation to get a better handle on food quality.  One of the regulations of the law, effective June 1st, says that individuals who recommend a product that is later found to be unsafe should be held responsible.  

After the Sanlu milk contamination scandal, the celebrities who had advertised for the company suffered harsh criticism from the public.  One of these celebrities, television presenter Ni Ping,  was rebuked for appearing in ads for the Sanlu company's non-contaminated chestnut juice.  Afterwards she said "I won't advertise for any food product any more."  More celebrities may feel the same way with the threat of paying out damages hanging over their heads.

Ni Ping without chestnut juice.

Currently, China uses two sets of food standards, one for food hygiene and one for food quality--each administered by a different government agency.  Luo Yunbo, dean of the Food Science and Nutritional Engineering College at China Agriculture University in Beijing, told Scidev.net "The commission is expected to improve coordination and eliminate loopholes."  Other new measures included in the legislation are an enhanced monitoring system, tougher penalties, a food recall system, and a new national food safety commission.