How much are you willing to pay for a CD? Hong Kong singer-actor Jacky Cheung (張學友) believes his crooning is worth far more than NT$300. After a five-year hiatus, Cheung has returned to the music scene with jazz album Private Corner. The limited-edition glass CD of his record will set you back NT$60,000.
For those who are not familiar with the relatively new audio format, the transparent glass CD is a Japanese invention that guarantees near-perfect sound quality and is not affected by humidity or heat.
Cheung is the world’s first singer to use the glass CD for a major-label release, and there
are only 6,000 copies available
for purchase.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Super Band (縱貫線) returned home with two farewell concerts at Taipei Arena (台北巨蛋) last weekend. Comprised of venerable rockers Lo Ta-yu (羅大佑), Emil Chou (周華健), Jonathan Lee (李宗盛) and Chang Cheng-yue (張震嶽), the group’s recent tour was a smash hit with 58 shows in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and the US in the past year. An estimated 1.7 million people attended the concerts, with Super Band pulling in NT$43 billion in revenue.
In film-related news, TV entertainer Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) and friends have forked out NT$120 million to set up an animation company. The celebrity investor said he hopes to produce films similar to Avatar.
The studio’s first 3D feature-length animation is called I Am
a Little Bird (我是一隻小小鳥).
Wu plans to dub and edit the work himself.
Last June, Wu took up the post of chairman at H&T Electronics (翔昇電子), only to step down from the position 168 days later after learning the company was NT$600 million in debt.
Another man who’s feeling confident these days is Jay Chou (周杰倫). The versatile pop star turned to stuffed animals for inspiration while directing Panda Men (熊貓人), a television drama co-staring his buddy Devon Song (彈頭) and J-girl (J女郎) Chiang Yu-chen (江語晨). (The term J-girl refers to female stars who have been romantically linked to Chou.)
Despite a production budget reportedly exceeding NT$100 million, the story about two panda suit-wearing super heroes has suffered from low ratings and negative reviews in China.
The Chairman has embraced the criticism by calling his work “retarded in an entertaining, funny way,” “very cool” and “a classic.” Local audiences can judge for themselves when the show premieres in Taiwan today on CTS (華視).
Finally, China’s answer to
the Golden Raspberry Awards, the Golden Broom Awards
(金掃帚獎), were held in Beijing on Saturday to recognize the worst in Chinese-language cinema over the past year.
Taiwan’s Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) beat out compatriot Big S (大S), otherwise known as Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), to take home top honors in the most disappointing actress category for her performance in the nonsensical adventure flick The Treasure Hunter (刺陵).
The gong for most disappointing director award went to China’s Zhang Yimou (張藝謀), whose A Simple Noodle Story (三槍拍案驚奇) also shared the award for most disappointing film with The Treasure Hunter and City of Life and Death (南京！南京！).
The Golden Broom Awards were founded and are supported by cinema periodical Youth Film Handbook (青年電影手冊) and independent film critics in China.
On Jan. 17, Beijing announced that it would allow residents of Shanghai and Fujian Province to visit Taiwan. The two sides are still working out the details. President William Lai (賴清德) has been promoting cross-strait tourism, perhaps to soften the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) attitudes, perhaps as a sop to international and local opinion leaders. Likely the latter, since many observers understand that the twin drivers of cross-strait tourism — the belief that Chinese tourists will bring money into Taiwan, and the belief that tourism will create better relations — are both false. CHINESE TOURISM PIPE DREAM Back in July
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