Entertainment

Why Zhang Ziyi has chosen to take part in a reality television series
Mar 8, 2019 (WiC 443)

Zhang Ziyi shot to stardom when director Lee Ang cast her in his unconventional martial arts-cum-love story Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. After starring in the Oscar winner, Zhang won more roles in Hollywood. In 2005 she played the ...

Tencent’s latest hit TV show sees its girl band go on world endurance trek
Mar 1, 2019 (WiC 442)

Back in 2017, E!, the cable network owned by NBCUniversal, inked a three-year contract with the Kardashian-Jenner family to keep the world’s most famous reality show going for five more seasons. The deal for Keeping Up With the ...

Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan blockbusters prove lunar new year flops
Feb 22, 2019 (WiC 441)

The notion of he sui pian, or a Chinese New Year Film, first came about in 1997 when filmmaker Feng Xiaogang’s Party A, Party B set a box office record over the holiday period. The movie made Rmb36 million ($4 million) in ...

Chinese New Year astronaut blockbuster set to break the box office record
Feb 8, 2019 (WiC 440)

Last year, Chinese cinemas took in Rmb5.8 billion ($913 million) in ticket sales during the first seven days of the Chinese New Year holiday – the most ever in a single week. This year promises to be no different. Two of the frontrunners for ...

Why did Maoyan’s IPO debut so poorly this week?
Feb 8, 2019 (WiC 440)

Cats might be colour-blind, but they can see incredibly well in dim light and have a wider visual field than humans, thanks to the many ‘rod cells’ in their retinas. For investors in Maoyan Entertainment’s initial public offering in Hong ...

Girl band SNH48 downsizes from 200 members as cost pressures take toll
Feb 1, 2019 (WiC 439)

Last August, South Korean K-pop sensation BTS broke Taylor Swift’s record for the biggest YouTube video debut, racking up 45 million views for video Idol in just 24 hours. In October, the seven-member band completed the North American leg of ...

Rights and wrongs debated as top actor’s jilted mistress is jailed
Jan 25, 2019 (WiC 438)

Some people sulk or binge-eat after a break-up. Others use being ditched as an excuse to pick up a new hobby. But in China it’s not unknown for for ex-girlfriends – and sometimes, ex-boyfriends – to ask for money. Break-up fees have ...

Pop icon’s fortieth birthday sparks fan introspection
Jan 25, 2019 (WiC 438)

Pop singer Jay Chou turned 40 last Friday. To mark the milestone, his wife, Taiwanese actress Hannah Quinlivan, sent him on a scavenger hunt that started out with a small shoebox and ended up with a slightly bigger birthday gift: a Lamborghini in ...

New reality show highlights fathers’ angst over unmarried daughters
Jan 18, 2019 (WiC 437)

Last year, a mother’s letter to her daughter went viral on Chinese social media. In it, she explained why she wouldn’t rush her daughter into marriage. “People always say women should try to get married and have children when they are ...

Why Bi Gan’s art-house film surged at the box office for a day – then tanked
Jan 11, 2019 (WiC 436)

It wasn’t exactly a case of ‘happy new year’ for filmmaker Lu Chuan. On New Year’s Eve he was told that production of his latest movie 749 Bureau, which was scheduled to start filming this week, would not happen because of what ...

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