KKBox, Xiami and Chinese digital music
Jolin Tsai, Eason Chan and Mayday. If you don't know these names, you probably don't know nor care much about contemporary Chinese pop music. Beyonce, Gotye and Coldplay would be their Western counterparts. If you do know them, it may cause a tiny bit of excitement to know that they recently shared a stage and performed their most recent hits in Taipei.
The dominant music platform in Taiwan recently hosted their annual year-end award show on January 19, to celebrate achievements in the Chinese music industry for the past year. A friend of mine was invited to go to this show, not knowing what it was about nor who put the show together. That friend came back with glowing remarks: "One of the best concerts I went to in 2012," and "All the big names were there. Mayday, Jolin Tsai, Eason Chan, Yoga Lin..."
The ability to put a show of this scale together speaks to the power that KKBox now has as a distribution channel. KKBox is a popular music service in Taiwan, much like iTunes or Spotify. In addition to its availability on multiple PC and mobile device platforms, KKBox also publishes a monthly magazine on Chinese music and lifestyle. With brick-and-mortar music stores in decline, or in some cases, going out of business like HMV, KKBox, if it hasn't established a leadership position already, is a rising force to be reckoned with in digital music in Taiwan, Hong Kong and even China.
In China, there is a similar service to KKBox called Xiami Music. A great service in its own right, Xiami combines the elements of last.fm and Spotify with a bit of iTunes. Users can share the songs that they listen to, and discover new music. And yes, you can buy songs legally to listen to offline. However, a great deal of content can be streamed, too. It is also tightly integrated with mainstream Chinese social media services such as Sina Weibo.
I follow Xiami on Weibo and recently received a very informative update from them. Xiami told me a few things from 2012 that I didn't know about: The most played song had been listened to 5.22 million times and the most-listened-to Korean artist was not Psy of Gangnam Style fame but the group Big Bang. Interesting data points, courtesy of the many users of the Xiami music network. I suppose this is what Big Data means. Big data points, copious amount of user-generated information, many usage patterns and insights.
As I did research for this article, I discovered that Xiami was recently acquired by Alibaba and will form the new Ali Music division, with the goal of being the "Taobao of music". KKBox is already owned by KDDI, the number two Japanese telecoms company by domestic market share. Expect to hear Chinese music via these channels and attend many more KKBox annual award shows for years to come.
Gary Wu is a member of CNET Asia's blogger network and is not an employee of CNET Asia.
Chinese Celebrity Li Bing Bing
Chinese celebrity Li Bing Bing was born in Harbin in Heilongjiang province, on February 27, 1976. Originally she had no intention of being an actress and enrolled specifically in a high school for prospective school teachers. However upon graduating she became dissatisfied with her career and eventually was persuaded by a friend to join the Shanghai Drama Institute. Li Bing Bing has gone on to perform in a variety of film and television roles. Her film debut was in Zhang Yuan's 1999 film Seventeen Years. In 2005, Bingbing co-starred in the romantic comedy Waiting Alone, a critical hit which received 3 Chinese academy award nominations including 'Best Picture' and 'Best Actress'. August 26th 2007, Li Bing Bing was awarded the 'Best Actress' Huabiao Award, for her role in the movie The Knot. She collaborated with stars such as Jet Li and Jackie Chan in The Forbidden Kingdom, which was released in April 2008.
“The Grandmasters,” a film starring Zhang Ziyi and Tony Leung, debuted Tuesday across China.
The action film from director Wong Kar-wai follows the inspiring story of how noted Chinese kung fu master Yip Man settled disputes in martial arts circles and created his own kung fu school.
Wong spent about 10 years shooting the film, making it the most time-consuming production in Chinese film history.
“The role I played in the film is a mixture of Bruce Lee and his ‘Shifu’ Yip Man,” said Leung, a popular actor from Hong Kong, adding that he gained a new perspective on Chinese martial arts during shooting.
Zhang said at a press conference that she may not appear in another action film after “The Grandmasters.”
“One reason is that it is too exhausting to shoot an action film, and the other is that the action performance of ‘Gong Er’ (the role she played in the movie) has peaked. I don’t think there will be another role for me that will surpass this one,” the Beijing-born movie star said.
Both Zhang and Tony complained that shooting the action-packed movie agitated old injuries.
Zhang described her character Gong Er as more determined and lonely than other characters she has played in the past, including Jen in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and Ru Yue in “Hero.”
The film will hit theaters worldwide, but a detailed schedule is not yet available.
Wong, 54, is best known for his films “Chungking Express” (1994) and “In the Mood for Love” (2000). He will head the jury of the Berlin International Film Festival in February.
Source: Xinhua
‘The Grandmasters’ debuts across China
“The Grandmasters,” a film starring Zhang Ziyi and Tony Leung, debuted Tuesday across China.
The action film from director Wong Kar-wai follows the inspiring story of how noted Chinese kung fu master Yip Man settled disputes in martial arts circles and created his own kung fu school.
Wong spent about 10 years shooting the film, making it the most time-consuming production in Chinese film history.
“The role I played in the film is a mixture of Bruce Lee and his ‘Shifu’ Yip Man,” said Leung, a popular actor from Hong Kong, adding that he gained a new perspective on Chinese martial arts during shooting.
Zhang said at a press conference that she may not appear in another action film after “The Grandmasters.”
“One reason is that it is too exhausting to shoot an action film, and the other is that the action performance of ‘Gong Er’ (the role she played in the movie) has peaked. I don’t think there will be another role for me that will surpass this one,” the Beijing-born movie star said.
Both Zhang and Tony complained that shooting the action-packed movie agitated old injuries.
Zhang described her character Gong Er as more determined and lonely than other characters she has played in the past, including Jen in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and Ru Yue in “Hero.”
The film will hit theaters worldwide, but a detailed schedule is not yet available.
Wong, 54, is best known for his films “Chungking Express” (1994) and “In the Mood for Love” (2000). He will head the jury of the Berlin International Film Festival in February.
Source: Xinhua
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