I Still Can't Find Nicky Lee's Album!

I've only heard a few of Nicky Lee's songs, but I like his style. I also find it interesting that Nicky is Korean and doesn't really speak Mandarin. In his songs, you can sort of hear that his Mandarin isn't 100%, but he's got a great voice with a smooth R&B style.

He was originally in a Korean group called Machi, but has since released a few solo albums. The album I'm looking for is Nicky Lee's (李玖哲) newest album "Baby, 是我" (see album cover at left - was released in summer 2006).

For some reason I still can't find his album in Chinatown. Maybe it still too new or maybe he's just not popular enough - I don't know...

You may have noticed that I mainly like slower songs. Why? Because I find that it makes learning Mandarin a lot more easier (and a lot easier to sing too! OK - I admit it, I do like to try to karaoke Mandarin songs...)

From now on, I'll try to include Pinyin to my posts so that readers can at least try to say the Chinese words I put in my posts.

Below are two songs from "Baby, 是我" album. They are "我會好好過" (I'll Cross Well) (Wo Hui Hao Hao Guo) and "Baby 是我" (Baby It's Me) (Baby Shi Wo).

First video is "我會好好過" (I'll Cross Well) (Wo Hui Hao Hao Guo):



Next video is "Baby 是我" (Baby It's Me) (Baby Shi Wo):

Movie Trailers For Confession Of Pain (傷城) and Battle Of Wits (墨攻)

Here are trailers for two upcoming movies in Hong Kong and China.

The first trailer is from "Confession of Pain" (傷城) which stars Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Shu Qi, and Chapman To. This film is a crime/thriller about a detective who tries to solve the murder of his father-in-law and enlists the help of another detective. But things don't quite add up and as these two troubled detectives try to figure out what's going on, suspicions start pointing to someone close to them.

"Confession of Pain" (傷城) is scheduled for release on December 14, 2006 (sorry for the poor quality of the trailer - this was the best I could find).

The second trailer is for the film "Battle Of Wits" (墨攻). This film stars Korea's Ahn Sung Kee, Korea's Choi Shi Won, China's Fan Bingbing, Hong Kong's Andy Lau, and Taiwan's Nicholas Wu. This movie is set during the Warring States period and of how the small Liang Kingdom beat the powerful Zhao Kingdom. This highly anticipated film was 10 years in the making and had a budget of $16 million US dollars.

"Battle Of Wits" (墨攻) is scheduled for release at the end of November.


Here is the trailer for "Confession of Pain" (傷城):



Here is the trailer for "Battle Of Wits" (墨攻):

Entertainment News For Week Of Oct 21 - 28, 2006

Leehom Wang Loses A Lot Of Weight Because Of Busy Schedule

Leehom Wang is currently finishing up his "Heroes of Earth" concert tour and at the same time, finishing up filming "Lust, Caution". Many worry that Leehom looks like on the verge of collapsing and Leehom himself admits to eating less and lack of sleep. He promises that once filming is complete, he'll go back to his old self.

Story courtesy:
AsianFanatics: "Fan Complain: Wang Leehom Too Skinny!"

43rd Golden Horse Award Nominees Named

The 43rd Golden Horse Awards announced the list of nominees on Tuesday. "Perhaps Love" had 12 nominations this year. The Awards ceremony will be held on November 25, 2006 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Story courtesy:
CriEnglish: "Golden Horse Awards Announce Nominees"

Vivian Hsu's Photos From Her New Album

Vivian Hsu's new album is called "Mermaid" (see album cover at left). I've listened to a couple of her songs off the new album and they aren't that bad! Here is a link to a photobook of the pictures for that album.

Story courtesy:
CriEnglish: "Vivian Xu's Photo Album For New Album"

Universal Music To Merge With Go East Entertainment Due To Declining Music Sales

Music sales in Hong Kong has been on the decline for several years and has recently declined by 20%. Because of this, several big name artists are simply not producing any new albums. To counter low sales and low profits, Univseral Music group will merge with Go East Entertainment (which also owns Cineopoly Records and What's Music).

Story courtesy:
AsianFanatics: "HK Music On A Decline, Universal Music To Combine With Go East Entertainment"

Hong Kong Box Office Also On Decline

In related news, Hong Kong box office reported the lowest sales in the past 10 years. What used to be a movie powerhouse, Hong Kong is now only producing about 50 films a year, compared to 150 movies in previous years. Only 7 films grossed over $10 million HK dollars. The top movie this year was Jet-Li's "Fearless", which took in $30 million HK dollars.

Story courtesy:
CriEnglish: "HK Film Box Office Slides To Lowest In Past 10 Years"

Jerry Yan Appointed Asia's Child Sponsorship Ambassador

Jerry Yan, from the popular TV series "Meteor Garden" (流星花園) has been appointe Asia's Child Sponsorship Ambassador by World Vision. Jerry is now visiting several countries as the new ambassador.

Story courtesy:
AsianFanatics: "Jerry To Visit Mongolia's Poor Children"
AsianFanatics: "Jerry To Go To Singapore For World Vision"
AsianFanatics: "Jerry To Go To Japan For World Vision"

15th Annual Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival Gets Under Way

The 15th annual Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers film festival began on Wednesday in Hangzhou, China. This will be the first time films from Hong Kong and Taiwan will compete in the film festival. There will be 15 awards up for grabs, with 65 movies from China. Awards ceremony will be held this Saturday.

Story courtesy:
CirEnglish: "Curtains Up on Nation's Prestigious Film Festival"

Supergirl's Photos Too Hot To Handle?

"Supergirl" contestant Shao Yuhan recently posed for a magazine, but admits that some of the photos were a little too racy. "Supergirl" is a singing competition in China and is similar to "American Idol". Shao's mother was one of the ones who complained the most, writing an angry letter in response to the pictures. Click on the link below to see the pictures.

Story courtesy:
AsianBite: "Supergirl's Racy Pics Spark Harsh Rebukes"

"Curse Of The Golden Flower" To Push Release Date Up A Week In China

The long-awaited, big budget film "Curse Of The Golden Flower" pushed it's release date to a week earlier in China. After participating in several film festivals, the earlier release was in part, due to audience demands and to allow the film to take in more box office sales before the end of the year. The previous release date was December 14, 2006.

Story courtesy:
CriEnglish: "Curse Of Golden Flower Will Screen One Week Earlier"

Some Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) Videos

I don't own any of her albums, but here are two songs that I really like. Both are off of Jolin's "J-Top" album (album cover on the left).

I've listened to a couple of Jolin's songs, but for some reason, I couldn't really like most of her songs. With her kind of music, I really have to listen to her songs several times before I really get to like them.

Perhaps the next time I decide to buy a bunch of albums, I might consider getting her latest album called "Dancing Forever", which is a collection of remixes and songs from her concerts, otherwise I might just pick up her "J-Top" album.

Here is the video for "The Greek Girl Next To The Wishing Pond" (許願池的希臘少女):



Next is the video for "Rewind" (倒帶):

Entertainment News For Week Of Oct 14 - Oct 21, 2006

Three Kingdoms To Become A Movie

One of my favorite historical stories from China will become a movie! "The Three Kingdoms - Resurrection of the Dragon" has a budget of $25 million USD, will start filming in China next year, and has a cast of Andy Lau (who will play General Zhao Yu), Sammo Hung (who will play General Zhang Fei), Leon Lai (who will play General Zhao Yun) and Maggie Q (who will play Cao Cao's granddaughter Cao Ying).

Story courtesy:
AsianFanatics: "Three Kingdoms" Stars Meet Press in S. Korea
AndyLauSounds: Andy to be Zhao Zhi-Long
AsianFanatics: Andy to be Zhao Zhi-Long

Hacken Lee To Be Married In November

Singer Hacken Lee announced that he will be wed in November, with Andy Lay to be the best man. He will marry his long-time girlfriend of 13 years Lo Suk Yee.

Story courtesy:
Jayne Stars: Hacken Lee to get Married In November, Andy Lau to be Best Man
AsianFanatics: Andy Lau to do his Best As Hacken's Best Man

Meteor Garden Heading To Airwaves In Japan

The wildly popular TV series Meteor Garden will be heading to the airwaves in Japan on free TV. Previously Meteor Garden had run on cable TV, which is why the cast is popular in Japan, but this is the first time the series is heading for free TV.

Story courtesy:
AsianFanatics: Meteor Garden First to Attack Japanese Wireless TV

Top 10 Most Charming Chinese Women

A survey jointly held by Sina.com, Women of China Paper, and the committee of China International Beauty week. Please note that the key word is CHARMING, not the most beautiful (which is why the list has a few older names as well as writers and TV hosts). The top 10 were: Chiling Lin, Maggie Cheung, Yan Lan, Wang Xiaoya, Sun Li, Zhang Haidi, Li Bingbing, Zhang Xiaomei, Hong Huang and Zhang Liangying. For full story and pictures, follow link below.

Story courtesy:
Crienglish: Who Are The Most Charming Chinese Women?

Chinese Movies Frequent Oscars Nominations List

Every year it seems like more and more Chinese movies are being nominated for the Oscars. This year, four Chinese movies are being nomintated for the 2007 Oscars. They are "Curse of the Golden Flower", "The Banquet", "Curiosity Kills The Cat", and "The Road". I am also very glad that more Chinese movies are getting more recognition world-wide as more and more international film festivals and movie awards are including Chinese movies. I believe that the more exposure the world has of Chinese movies, the better!

Story courtesy:
AsianFanatics: Chinese Movies Crazy For Oscars, Ignore Results

Carina Lau Admits To Being Married To Tony Leung

After 20 years of being together, Carina Lau recently admitted she is married to Tony Leung. She admitted this shortly after her fathers death.

Story courtesy:
Crienglish: Carina Lau Admits she is Married

Can "Super Girls" Make It Into Chinese Dictionary?

"Super Girls" is a popular show in China and is a singing competition similar to "American Idol". The question becomes - is it popular enough to make a new entry into the Chinese dictionary? Since the popularity of this show is so great, many think that "Super Girl" has become a household name. Only time will tell if it can stand the test of time and forever be inserted into the official Chinese dictionary.

Story courtesy:
Crienglish: Are Super Girls Super Enough to be in China?

Tse Ting Fung Says Marriage Is Great

On September 29, 2006, singer/actress Cecilia Chung and singer Tse Ting Fung were married. When asked, Tse Ting Fung said that "marriage is a gamble, but he feels great".

Story courtesy:
Crienglish: Tse Ting Fung: Marriage is a Gamble, But It's Great

Some Music Videos

I absolutely love music videos. I'm not talking about music videos from North America...I'm talking about Chinese music videos. Why? Because most Chinese music videos actually tell a story and even if you don't understand the lyrics, you can sort of feel what the song is about.

Below I have posted 4 music videos (two by S.H.E. and two by Jay Chou). All four music videos are off of new albums by Jay Chou and S.H.E. The next time I go buy some CDs, these two albums are definitely on the wish list.

So how does this help in my learning Mandarin?

Well there are great sources out on the Internet where you can get lyrics and their English meanings. For example, I get all my S.H.E. lyrics from the S.H.E. Angelic Fansite. Below is a sample of the lyrics they house there (this sample is from the song "Wisteria", which by the way, is a type of viney flower that can be found in Asia):

花纏繞的神情懸秘 你像蒸發的背影
hua chan rao de shen qing xuan mi, ni xiang zheng fa de bei jing
The flower emits a sense of secretiveness; You're like the shadow of the bloom

我垂墜的心情搖曳 不出聲音
wo zui chui zhui de xin qing yao ye, bu chu sheng yin
My crestfallen heart droops, not making any sound

Not only do I get the Chinese words and the English meaning, I also get the PinYin (romanization of how to say the Chinese word). I've actually picked up quite a lot just by learning lyrics of some of my favorite songs.

Anyways, I've neglected this site for too long. I'll start doing more regular posts and I'll have a feature starting this weekend that rounds up some of the top entertainment news from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

In the meantime, enjoy the music videos - these are my favorites off their new albums (see album covers below).

S.H.E.'s Music Video - Wisteria (紫藤花)

One of S.H.E.'s music videos from their new album "Forever"

S.H.E.'s Music Video - Electric Shock (觸電)

S.H.E.'s music video from their new album "Forever"

Jay Chou's Music Video - White Windmill (白色風車)

Another music video from his new album "Still Fantasy"

Jay Chou's Music Video - Faraway (千里之外) Featuring Fei Yu Ching

Jay Chou's new music video from his new album "Still Fantasy"

CD Review: Jay Chou (周傑倫) - November's Chopin (十一月的蕭邦) (Rating: 7/10)

Track Listing
Track 01: 夜曲 (Nocturne)
Track 02: 藍色風暴 (Blue Hurricane)
Track 03: 髮如雪 (Snow Like Hair)
Track 04: 黑色毛衣 (Black Sweater)
Track 05: 四面楚歌 (Beseiged from All Sides)
Track 06: 楓 (Maple)
Track 07: 浪漫手機 (Romantic Cellphone)
Track 08: 逆鱗 (Counter Scale)
Track 09: 麥芽糖 (Maltose)
Track 10: 珊瑚海 (Coral Sea) Featuring Lara
Track 11: 飄移 (Drifting)
Track 12: 一路向北 (All the Way North)

Review
Before buying this album, I never really listened to any of his songs before and when I saw this album on the store shelf, I thought to myself "What the heck - let's see why they call him the King of Mandarin pop".

I wasn't expecting much, as I thought that most of his songs were going to be like Chinese "rap" (which I still can't bring myself to like). After listening to the entire CD for the first time, I was actually quite impressed!

This album has songs that can fit in several categories - there are some slow love songs, some rock songs, some R&B songs, and some rap songs. In fact, I rather enjoyed some of his R&B type songs, but the ones that I really enjoyed were his slower songs.

After listening to this CD several times, I started looking for some of his music videos (on YouTube) and managed to find most of them. There were several tracks in which I didn't really have feelings for (i.e. didn't think they were special or catchy), but after watching several music videos, I started liking those songs!

I don't know why, but music videos have that effect on me - sometimes when I hear a song, I don't really like it, but after watching the music video, I instantly fall in love with the song!

In particular, Track 06: 楓 (Maple) had this effect on me. Initially I thought this song was rather dull and I found myself pressing the "Skip" button on my CD player, but after watching the music video several times, I couldn't listen to this song enough!

Similarly, I didn't really have an opinion about Track 12: 一路向北 (All the Way North), but after seeing the music video, I loved it. This track is off the Initial D soundtrack - one in which Jay Chou himself starred in.

And the songs I liked, I liked even more after watching the music video!

Of course, with any album, there are always songs that you don't like - and there were a few on this album that I didn't really like.

I base my ratings on the number of tracks I like, the tracks I have no real opinion of (i.e. I neither like nor dislike), and the tracks that I don't like. The more tracks I like, the better the rating. And so here is the list broken down in those categories:

Tracks I Like:
Track 01: 夜曲 (Nocturne)
Track 03: 髮如雪 (Snow Like Hair)
Track 06: 楓 (Maple)
Track 07: 浪漫手機 (Romantic Cellphone)
Track 10: 珊瑚海 (Coral Sea) Featuring Lara
Track 12: 一路向北 (All the Way North)

Tracks I Have No Opinion Of:
Track 05: 四面楚歌 (Beseiged from All Sides)
Track 09: 麥芽糖 (Maltose)
Track 11: 飄移 (Drifting)

Tracks I Don't Like:
Track 02: 藍色風暴 (Blue Hurricane)
Track 04: 黑色毛衣 (Black Sweater)
Track 08: 逆鱗 (Counter Scale)

Overall, I really enjoyed this CD and I find myself reaching for this album most of the time when I'm driving. Some of the rap was bearable and some were actually not half bad. There were some songs that, upon hearing it for the first time, you liked, but there were others that you had to listen to several times before you even began liking it.

Based on this CD, I can certainly see why he is considered the King of Mandarin pop - especially since he's written and produced most of his own songs. Jay currently has a new CD out called "Still Fantasy" and based on this CD, I'll probably buy that one as well.

Overall Rating: 7/10

TV Series Review: Reaching For The Stars (真命天女) (Rating: 8/10)

Starring
Selina Ren as Zhou Xin Lei (周心蕾)
Hebe Tian as Shen Xiao Rou (沈孝柔)
Ella Chen as Ren Jie (任潔)
Chen Zhi Kai as Xiao Ya Wei (蕭亞為)
Guo Yan Yun as Liang Zheng Hao (梁正浩)
Di Zhi Jie as Chen Kai (陳凱)
Lin Wei as Liu Shi Qiang (劉世強)




Overview
The Taiwanese girl-band S.H.E. (Selina, Hebe, Ella) come together in this TV series and put their acting skills to the test as all three members of the band play the main characters. Unlike the previous TV series "The Rose" in which only Ella played the main character (with Selina and Hebe playing small side characters), "Reaching For The Stars" focuses on the stories of all three.

In "Reaching For The Stars", the three girls share the same birthday and were born in the same year. Each of the three girls play uniquely different characters, each from a different social status.

Selina plays Zhou Xin Lei (周心蕾), the daughter of a wealthy business man, lives in a big house with servants and is the spokeswoman for the company her father owns.

Hebe plays Shen Xiao Rou (沈孝柔), a determined, hard-headed policewoman who cares for her ailing grandmother and takes real pride in her work.

Ella plays Ren Jie (任潔), a hard worker trying to hold three different jobs at the same time to try to pay off hospital bills for her very sick younger brother. She hardly has enough to pay for rent when she is kicked out of her apartment and forced to live on the street.

"Reaching For The Stars" opens up with the three reflecting upon their lives on their birthday and with how unhappy each of the three girls are about their lives. As luck would have it, these three happen to come across each other on their birthday and befriend each other. All three make a promise to meet at the same place and the same time next year on their birthday.

Little do they know it, but from that point on, all three will have their lives intertwined with each other, for better or for worse. Will the three girls meet up together again on their birthday in one years time?

Review
This TV series has 22 episodes with each episode lasting about 40 minutes. Unlike some of the other TV series I have watched, I feel that the length of each episode in "Reaching For The Stars" is just the right length and it does not feel as though you have to dedicate an entire night just to watch one episode.

The series keeps you interested and it never does feel like it's dragging it's feet. Like any good TV series, the ending of each episode had you wanting to watch the next episode just to see what happens next.

The opening and ending theme songs were pretty good and the music throughout the TV series was great and had me seriously looking for the soundtrack (however I had a hard time finding it!).

One of the problems I had was that the sound wasn't particularly great. Sometimes the background noises would drown out what was being said by the characters. I found it annoying that sometimes when two characters were having a conversation, the noises can be heard on one camera angle, but then when it moves to another camera angle, the noise is gone! When they come back to the original angle, the noise comes back! Maybe it's the way it's made in Taiwan (because this seems to always happen in all the TV series I have seen).

If you've seen the other TV series that S.H.E. starred in called "The Rose", then you know that Ella did a fantastic job acting in that series. When you watched "The Rose", you could actually feel what Ella was feeling (yes! she really did that good of a job!), but in "Reaching For The Stars", I didn't get that same feeling from her or any of the other girls.

In fact, sometimes I felt like wincing whenever one of the girls were in an emotional scene. I can maybe understand it if it were Selina or Hebe (both never really played a big role in "The Rose"), but I really expected more out of Ella. I'd say that about 50% of the time she was in "The Rose" she had to play it emotionally, and I had really high expectations from her in "Reaching for the Stars".

Aside from some plot holes and maybe some overacting from some of the other supporting characters, I felt the story somewhat captivating. However, I will say this: when the final episode ended, I felt a little sad that it was over and I was kind of wishing there was more or a follow-up series (like any good TV series should make you feel).

Unfortunately the boxed DVD set had no English subtitles (only Chinese subtitles).

Luckily I found a great S.H.E. fansite that had an episode guide that reviewed what happened scene by scene. You can find the episode guide and information about S.H.E. at the S.H.E. Angelic Fansite. You'll have to create an account (it's free) in order to access the Forums. The only thing about the episode guide is that it is only a summary of what happens in each scene - as a result, you may get a one-sentence summary that describes a 10-minute scene.

After I had finished watching "Reaching For The Star", I found it on YouTube WITH English subtitles! Apparently there is a group of fans out there that actually manually translated and subtitled the whole series!

Perhaps I will one day watched the subtitled version which I will hope will greatly help in my learning of Mandarin.

This TV series came highly recommended by my wife's cousin and I'd say I was not disappointed at all. Granted I like anything from S.H.E., I did have some expectations, especially after watching "The Rose". Aside from some spotty acting and some annoying noises in the background, I give this a thumbs up and a rating of 8 out of 10.

Overall Rating: 8/10

Website Review: ChinesePod.com (Rating: 9/10)

What is it?

Broadcasting direct from Shanghai, ChinesePod.com (www.chinesepod.com) is a great site to learn conversational Mandarin if your native tongue is English. Each lesson is an audio MP3 that you can listen directly from the web page itself and is very much like a radio show. New lessons are added daily and one of their new features is "The Saturday Show" which gives listeners a taste of Chinese culture and some insight as to what's hot and what's not. There are currently over 200 lessons on the site and counting.

Site Review

While most of the features on this site will require a subscription fee, the actual MP3 lessons themselves are free to listen to. Each lesson is a podcast lesson, which means if you have an iPod or other media player, you can sync content that will automatically get the latest lesson and download it.

There is a variety of ways you can access the free MP3 lessons. You can download each individual MP3 lesson itself, or you can follow the links on their website for BitTorrent downloads, or you can simply listen to the lessons directly from the webpage itself, which has embedded players.

Each lesson is about 15 minutes long (on average) and each lesson focuses on a particular topic. What's great about these lessons is that it builds upon what was learned from previous lessons. The hosts are great in that they help the listener by quickly reviewing words that were learned before (in case you've forgotten).

Each lesson usually begins with a dialogue between two people in Mandarin. This dialogue is repeated three times slowly. It is then broken down sentence by sentence, then word by word and it is all explained in English. The hosts are very good at relating it's use and sometimes go further by explaining how certain terms or sayings came about.

I would highly recommend that you start by listening to all the "Newbie" lessons, then work your way up to "Elementary", then "Intermediate", then "Upper Intermediate", then finally to the "Advanced" lessons.

To begin listening to the "Newbie" lessons, go to the ChinesePod.com website and click on "Podcast Archive" near the top of the page. Along the left side of the screen, you should see the different levels with numbered brackets (which indicates how many lessons there are in that particular level). Click on "Newbie" and you'll see the list of Newbie lessons, with the number representing what lesson number it is.

You'll have to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Previous Entries" several times before you get to lesson #1.

I found that the lessons were slow enough to pick it up, but not too slow to discourage the listeners. I also found that the hosts views and their personal anecdotes quite refreshing and kept things interesting. I was quite surprised at how much I was able to retain and remember, which reflects the quality of the lessons and the fantastic job done by the hosts.

The only thing that I didn't like about the site involved site design. I started with only the "Newbie" lessons, however there were over 90 lessons under "Newbie" and the list sorted them with the most current lesson first. I ended up having to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on "Previous Entries" several times before I found the lesson I was on last.

While listening to all the lessons are free, there are extra materials that can be found for each lesson, but it will cost you a monthly fee. These extras include things like transcripts of the lesson, review materials, and lesson plans.

Also for a fee, users can have access to other parts of the site, including a "Learning Center", "Vocab Builder", "Flashcards", and "Glossary" sections.

I would have given this site a perfect 10 out of 10 if it were not for the extra paid features and the slight annoyance of finding the lesson I was last listening to. But overall, an excellent site and I would very highly recommend it to anyone wishing to learn Mandarin. Check it out at www.chinesepod.com or simply click on ChinesePod.com in the "Links" section on the right.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Things I Bought Over The Weekend

Over the weekend I bought the following CDs:

1. A-Mei Chang - I Want Happiness? (我要快樂?)
2. Jay Chou - November's Chopin (十一月的蕭邦)
3. Leehom Wang - Heros of Earth (蓋世英雄)
4. Fish Leong - Silk Road of Love (丝路)
5. Various Artists - Meteor Garden Soundtrack (流星花園)

I also got the DVD set of the highly recommended TV serial Meteor Garden (流星花園).

Last week, I finished watching S.H.E.'s "Reaching for the Stars" (真命天女) and I thought it was pretty good. Though it would appear as though "Reaching for the Stars" was not nearly as popular as they had hoped. Considering this is the first Mandarin serial I've watched, I have nothing to compare it to.

And I'm a little biased as well - S.H.E. music is the first Mandarin I've listened to and they are still my favorite to date.

Anyways, on the weekend, I watched the first 2 episodes of Meteor Garden. At first, I didn't think it was going to be as good as Reaching for the Stars, but after 2 episodes, it seems to be going somewhere and I can sort of see what all the hype is about.

I haven't had a chance to listen to all the CDs I got. But here are some of my thoughts about what I have heard so far...

• Leehom Wang's CD is a total disappointment. I heard several of his songs on this CD through YouTube and the Mandarin Internet Radio and was expecting most of his stuff to be slower and more R&B. However, a lot of his tracks are like rap. I'll have to listen to it more to get a better feeling for it
• I listened to A-Mei's CD and was quite surprised. I wasn't really a big fan of A-Mei (I heard some of hear songs, but didn't really feel much about them). But when I popped in this CD, a lot of her songs were quite catchy. Again, I'll have to listen to more
• Finally, I quickly listened to Jay Chou's CD. I was also pleasantly surprised as well. For some reason, I had the impression that Jay was more of a rapper, but after listening to this CD, it was a breath of fresh air. Maybe it was because I had low expectations for this CD....

I also spent a lot of time looking for specific CDs in Chinatown, but had no luck. I'm still looking for the following CDs:

1. Nicky Lee - Baby It's Me (Baby 是我)
2. Vicki Zhao - Double (雙)
3. Tank - Fighting
   

I have a feeling that these CDs are too new to be out there yet. I guess I'll have to wait.

I like Nicky Lee's style; catchy R&B tunes though I have a feeling he's not as popular as he should be.

Vicki Zhao has always been a favorite of mine and there are several tracks on her CD Double that I like. I've been looking for this CD for the longest time...I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

Lastly, I've heard four of Tank's songs (I think he's only released the 4 songs) and I love all three! I especially like the song 獨唱情歌 (Solo Love Song) - a duet he did with Selina (from S.H.E.).

The search will continue for these CDs!

Welcome To All!

Welcome you all to my 2nd blog. Well, actually it's really my 3rd blog (but I trashed the very first one I did).

What is this blog going to be about?

Well, I'm currently "attempting" to learn Mandarin by immersing myself to it's entertainment scene through music, movies, and TV series. I also take whatever extra time and put it into learning to read the traditional Chinese language.

What I'll post will be things such as Mandarin music CD reviews, my thoughts about certain Chinese movies and what I thought about certain drama serials. But mostly, it'll contain my random thoughts or what I've been doing to learn the language.

I never realized the power blogging can have (and in my trader's blog, it has actually accelerated my learning). And so, what better motivation to learn something than to blog your progress.

I don't really care if anyone out there will read this - but just knowing there is a possibility that someone out there *might* be reading this is motivation enough.