Selina Jen, Hebe Tien, and Ella Chen. Those are their names. Currently, they're endorsing Coca-Cola and World of Warcraft. They endorse several other companies as well~ but those 2 are of the two main companies that they're endorsing right now.
This is a connection that I think is quite interesting. A lot of artists in China often team-up with each other in order to perform a duet and sing about common themes.
Wang Lee Hom is an Chinese-American (born in the U.S.) singer who mostly majors in hip-hop and R&B. That doesn't mean that he's stuck with those 2 categories.
"Wang Leehom's last two albums, Shangri-La and Heroes of Earth, stirred more than a little controversy among Chinese Americans who were offended by Wang's use of the term "chinked-out" to describe his unique blend of Chinese and hip-hop musical elements. Regardless of whether his re-appropriation of the racial slur was justified or not, what's unfortunate is that most of the criticisms were more preoccupied with the word, rather than with the reason Wang decided to use it -- and more importantly, with what Wang was trying to accomplish musically."
Here's a video describing his "true-meaning" on the term "chinked-out." - Now what's the first thing that you think when you hear that term? It's a derogatory term. Why do you think he would use such a label for his music? What is he trying to accomplish by using that label? Some say that he's trying to redefine the term "chinks" by making it light-hearted. No matter what he's trying to do with that label however, we have to think about his current status: As a Chinese-American and superstar, do you think that he has the authority to speak on be-half of all Chinese people? It's more of a speak-for-yourself case. He can call the music whatever he wants, however, was it really necessary to drag an entire population along with it? All we can say is that whatever is trying to redefine, that's totally fine. It's just that the term "chinked-out" is his own viewpoint. It's the same analogy as if a black rapper said that his music was *insert deragatory term here*-out. No, let's just leave it here.
If you travel to Mainland China or Taiwan, you're probably going to see Jay Chou in a: Movie, video, commercial, poster, or hear from him in a song. That pretty much wraps up his popularity in China/Asia in a sentence.
Jay Chou is also featured in the Initial D series:
For those of you who don't know what the Initial D series is about, it's based off of a Japanese anime/manga/game that is highly popular in the arcades regarding street-racing. It's like a Japanese version of "The Fast and the Furious" combined into an Asian sit-com. Pretty complicated huh? Well that's Initial D.~ As you'll notice throughout the video, it seems to portray a Japanese-style drama with Chinese/Taiwanese/non-Japanese Asians. What I love so much about this series is the fact that only Jay Chou and Edison Chen could probably pull off such a make-believable story with their "awesome-driving-skills."
These guys basically race as if it were the equivalent of fighting. That is, they race on the most dangerous courses usually on mountain roads, rural areas, places that most people wouldn't drive with the most decked-out cars that you can imagine possible. No wonder so many people love this manga.
Just as much as Chinese has everything to do with the Japanese, in the fact that they descended from China, so does their culture as well:
In a game called: "Street Fighter II" made by Capcom, a Japanese video-game industry, it features a character named Chun-Li: a super cute Chinese girl who works as a detective for the International Crime-Prevention League.
Notice how they portray a Chinese Woman as elegant, cute, pretty, and innocent-looking. I guess that's how you may see a modern Chinese-girl even today in China, whether you would consider her "westernized" is totally up to you. I think Chun-Li should be a model in the Cosmopolitan series because she's so used to both the customs of the United States and China.
This is Bleach, also 死神 in Chinese. While this blog won't be just on Bleach, it would be an example for Japanese anime in China.
Bleach is the most awesomest anime Ever!
This is a picture of Toshirou Hitsugaya, the Captain of the Soul Society's 10th squad of the 13 squad divisions. His Zanpaktou is Hyorinmaru an ice-based weapon.
Here's an part of the first episode where Ichigo and Rukia first meet in their room. Ichigo Kurosaki is the main character in this story (orange hair guy in this video) as well as Rukia Kuchiki (black-haired girl in school haori). This anime is mainly focused on the spiritual side of Japan and offers an escape from the modern world to the feudal era Japan back in the 16th century through the spiritual realm. For example, this anime is mainly consisting of Shinigami (death-gods) and Hollows. They are locked in an-eternal struggle since time began.
There is absolutely no sense of modern-reality here because all weapons are materialized from spirit particles which offers no scientific explanation and nobody ever dares uses a gun/shotgun. During the scenes that are in the modern-world, you may see scenes of hospitals, shopping malls, schools, everything that is modern today, but just no guns/shotguns because the author must really hate them or something like that. That is Bleach in a nutshell without any spoilers hopefully. ^^
Here's a picture of a traditional Chinese painting of a Chinese background. Since we can't go back in time to take a picture of what ancient China was like, I figured this was the best example:
And just as you saw the Westernization of the Chinese woman, so shall you see the Westernization of a Chinese civilization:
I'm pretty sure that girls (Thank God) have existed since the dawn of mankind. But, as time changes, so does the images and expectations of girls, imagined by the minds of man. Let's see how the behavior and culture throughout China has changed regarding the social norms for a Chinese lady:
Here's a picture of a traditional portrait of a Chinese girl:
And now let's see a version of the post-modern Chinese girl:
This is Alex Lynn. She's a gorgeous babe. Look at her angelic hair, the rebellious look on her face, the acceptable white-dress that she's wearing for a magazine. What do you notice? She's Westernized in every-single-way in this portrait. (Except her skin tone). This is a good introduction to the theme of Westernization in China as well as commercialism. I still think she's pretty hot~ ;)
Some may say that this picture is scandalous and that the directors of this photo shoot are nothing but a bunch of foreign devils who perverted her in every single way. But it's true and what we like to see.
This is a video regarding the actual economy of China. While far from what we may expect from the larger cities like: Shanghai, Beijing, GuangZhou, etc... we often look away from the problem of China and so this video is to bring light on the current situation. Watch it, you'd be surprised to see what China is really like. China is still improving its economy of course, since it allowed the open-door policy within the past few decades, it still has some catching up to do.
This blog is going to discuss a variety of topics regarding Chinese popular culture.
The topics that I would like to highlight for this blog would be:
- Japanese presence in China - Commercialism in China - Chinese Popular Culture - Hot Asian Girls (ya you know you want one) - Westernization of China (let's face it, it's undeniable and infuriating isn't it?) - Anything that has to do with China - Anything else that I can come up with that's regarding China.
