You might have missed this, but Gangnam Style is pretty popular worldwide, including China. It is also unpopular worldwide, including China. That makes it an online sensation, and as such, it has spawned countless parodies, and at least one incredibly epic rant. Some parodies are better than others -- and some are parodies of themselves. Here are two of the worse.
I might've mentioned I'm in Hong Kong this weekend, so it's only fitting that we feature one of Hong Kong's most influential and fondly remembered bands, Beyond. On June 24, 1993, just a month after the release of "Boundless Oceans Vast Skies" (海闊天空), lead singer and founder Wong Ka-kui died in a horrific accident in Tokyo when the three-meter-high stage he was on collapsed under his feet. Out of this tragedy, the other band members solidified their place in the musical mainstream, and continued to record and tour until 2005.
The documentary company Journeyman has just uploaded a 28-minute film called Miss Tibet that offers possibly the realest look at contemporary Tibet you'll find anywhere. Mark Gould's description on Journeyman's website:
The Miss Tibet beauty pageant claims to give women a platform to highlight Tibetan issues, drawing attention to the the plight of the its people as well as the brilliance of the lifestyle and culture.
We see a lot of “My Beijing/China Trip” videos on YouTube, but most of them are made by people who don’t even try to make them watchable. Here’s one person who did try — with fantastic results. Alex Lop on Vimeo: I spent 9 days in China visiting Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. This is... Read more »
The seminal Wuhan punk rock band SMZB (生命之饼) is playing at Yugongyishan tomorrow night as part of its 15+1 tour. Would you believe these guys have been around since 1996? Like 'em or not, you have to respect their staying power, and the fact that they've been known to use bagpipes and tin whistles in their sets, making them, as our music contributor puts it, "China's first (and only, to my knowledge) Celtic punk band."
Patrick Epino and Stephen Dypiangco are a pair of Los Angeles-based filmmakers who want to bring joy to your life. Consider: an action-comedy Web series involving some of your favorite Asian baddies, such as characters from Karate Kid 2 and basically every movie Al Leong's done.
If that's something you might be interested in, check out their Kickstarter, Awesome Asian Bad Guys, which needs just over $18,000 in three days to reach its goal of $50,000.
What happens when you mix the characters of Super Mario with the mean streets of Hong Kong and classic elements of Triad flicks? The folks at Dayside Productions have an answer for you. From the YouTube video description: Synopsis: Bowser, the shroom drug lord, kidnaps the mayor’s daughter, Peach, to call off a drug investigation. The mayor calls... Read more »
The five-member outfit M.I.C. released its second full-length album, Color, on August 8, on which you'll find this track. Wikipedia calls M.I.C. a "boy band," but we prefer this endorsement by cfensi: "What set this album apart from the last self composed album by MIC is that not only are the members penning their own lyrics and compositions but they are also in full control of the production process in the making of this album.
Gawker Network's io9 has compiled a list of "27 of the most insane martial arts battles ever filmed," and would it surprise anyone that most of these were filmed or set in China?
It's a great list, of course, and if you like martial arts / kung-fu, you'll lose many minutes of your day going through the videos. But one clip you'll not find is this from Dunken Master 2, and that seems like somewhat of an oversight:
