China’s Dimming Its Biggest Stars

Bloomberg | September 13, 2018, 10:30 PM CDT | Adam Minter

[Zhang Fei]

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[Zhang Fei]

Xi Jinping is cracking down on Chinese showbiz idols, ostensibly because thou shalt have no other gods before me of tax evasion. But somehow, in the liberal media's eyes, Trump is the unbalanced megalomaniac, whereas Xi is a sage for the ages - Charlie Chan and Kwai Chang Caine rolled into one.

Speaking of eye candy, if you have a yen for Oriental ladies in (conservative) period garb, Youtube has a decent subtitled Chinese costume drama series entitled The Princess Wei Young. The camera work is pretty good and the production values are excellent. The wire fu is watchable, although most of the action involves the palace intrigues surrounding the family of a senior Chinese courtier. The women look like (and were probably) highly-ranked contestants from a beauty pageant. At 52 episodes, it's a bit of a slog, but somewhat diverting while pedaling away at my recumbent bike.

[gaijin]

I love all your posts.

[Zhang Fei]

Thanks. I thought they had an audience of one - me, while composing them.

[DoughtyOne]

I’ve become a fan of the Korean/Japanese/and Chinese Novellas. That’s what I reference them as. With the trash they try to pass off to us in the U. S. these days, I find these outlets better. You see a little different slice of life. You need to keep your head about you, as some of it is undeniably propaganda, but that’s okay as long as you know it going in. It’s not blatant, but I think sometimes it’s a bit of a whitewash socially.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Rob the Ugly Dude]

It’s people like you that post interesting articles like this that make most of us keep coming back here.

[dfwgator]

I tried watching some of the Chinese and Taiwanese dramas, but they don’t hold a candle to the Korean ones.

[DoughtyOne]

I have to admit, I really enjoy the Korean ones. It’s of interest to me the way they depict their society in them.

I have seen some decent Chinese and Japanese ones, but you have to stay away from the period pieces > IMO.

Now I’m not against period pieces, but you have to be willing to sit though the stories that can be pretty dry.

The Korean women are so cute in some of their offerings. Wow... really sweet.

[vannrox]

Total nonsense.

Honestly, I am sick and tired of all this propaganda by people who have never set a foot outside of the USA, let alone inside China. I don’t want to sound like a lover of China, but the nonsense out in Internet-land is a fantasy that rivals HR Puffnstuff.

[ifinnegan]

When you see simplified characters it’s like how can you take it seriously.

[DiogenesLamp]

The women look like (and were probably) highly-ranked contestants from a beauty pageant. At 52 episodes, it's a bit of a slog, but somewhat diverting while pedaling away at my recumbent bike.

I like how you think. :)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***I’ve become a fan of the Korean/Japanese/and Chinese Novellas. That’s what I reference them as. With the trash they try to pass off to us in the U. S. these days, I find these outlets better****

I’ve found the same for the same reason. I do miss the days when AMC, IFC and Sundance, had good uncut foreign movies on. Now it is just the same Hollywood commercial filled claptrap over and over again.
TCM and a few other HD channels now get most of my watching.

[bert]

For a good tv program check out When a Snail Falls in Love on Netflix

It is pure chinese cop show and soap opera all in one. It features a major crimes unit in a fictional chinese city. the bad guys are running drugs into china from Myanmar. Myanmar and chinese vistas are very well done. One of the cops always wears an American themed t shirt.

It does not seem to be blatant propaganda. It draws a wide Asian audience. The blurb mentions the web site got 2 billion hits...... 2 billion.

[DUMBGRUNT]

The Princess Wei Young

Oh my!
Beautiful and compelling.

I did not intend to watch and did not have the time, but I did.

Then proceded to the comments, with a click or two they are all English. Fun, fun, fun.

I want to see everything, tears, most beautiful child, costumes... everything.
I cannot watch and read at the same time, and the closed caption passes all too quickly. Being hearing impaired may have conditioned me to nonverbal cues? Whatever, very watchable for me.

Any possible method to turn OFF the voice track and listen to the music? For me, the music adds and the Chinese voices distract.

The Autocad adverts? Are they a contributor to this production? Do the Chinese still eat chicken feet at the movies(claws to the drumstick, watermelon seeds?... many years ago...)?

Thank you, I will return.

[Rio]

[Albion Wilde]

[DoughtyOne]

I’m actually watching that series for the second time right now.

[PGR88]

China will soon be the American deep-state’s new enemy, just watch.

Russia, Russia, Russia, will turn into China, China, China.

[DoughtyOne]

TCM used to have some great black and white stuff.

I should see if I can find access to it again on one of my services.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Any show with Tiffany Tang in it is worth the diversion. :)

[Zhang Fei]

[When you see simplified characters it’s like how can you take it seriously.]

---

In the credits? That’s not entirely surprising, given the audience. There are plenty of real anachronisms. For one thing, these people should be conversing in proto-Mongolian or proto-Turkish, not Mandarin. And actual script should be Sogdian, not Chinese. And it would surprise me if they were able to traverse provinces without using translators. During the Chinese Civil War, translators accompanied both Chiang’s and Mao’s armies to deal with the diverse array of languages* spoken in China. Not to mention that the actors should look a lot more Caucasian, given the Sogdian/Iranian/Scythian admixture.

* I call them languages instead of dialects because they really are mutually unintelligible. The term dialect in the Chinese context is a political construct - a language being a dialect with an army and a navy.