Up Girls still going up in popularity. Photo thanks to Benji@Cfensi.

After debuting early last year, girl group Up Girls made their first major television appearance on China’s top variety show Happy Camp recently, performing a variety of talents like an “onion lashing” game, singing and reciting in dialect and even performing Eminem. The group also released their third single Give me some courage 再给我点勇气, composed and written by member Dingding.

Watch them on Happy Camp below,uploaded by SJZGloria@YouTube

Feng Shaofeng and Yang Mi in a photoshoot for Gong.

To promote their new drama Gong/Palace, Yang Mi and Feng Shaofeng recently went on various Hunan TV shows, showing off their cuteness as both an onscreen couple and off-screen friends. They first met when filming six to seven years ago, and has since then become good friends. On Happy Camp, Feng Shaofeng talks about visiting Yang Mi when she was sick, and wanting to give her a toilet as a present. Following Palace, another period drama starring the two – The Legend of the Tiger Amulet(虎符传奇) – will air later this year.

Part 1 of Yang Mi and Feng Shaofeng on Happy Camp, beginning at 7:00, uploaded by CtvDramas@YouTube

When the ‘Happy Family’ produces an album, they spare no expense. With some of the best photographers and composers in the industry helping them, they released “Happiness. You understand it” a couple weeks ago.

Tracklist:

01.快乐你懂的
02.绽放的微笑
03.傻傻爱
04.以爱之名
05.白日梦
06.男人婆
07.思念的距离
08.为你歌唱
09.我的爱坏坏
10.啦啦歌

More gorgeous picture from the album below the cut.

After almost a year of anticipation, M.I.C. boyband finally came out with their single Yao Ming De Fan Nao 要命的烦恼 and begun promoting on various shows, including China’s number one variety show Happy Camp. In additional to showing off M.I.C.’s singing and dancing skills, Happy Camp also guest stars their American trainer Jesse Lee, personal choreographer of Madonna. Searches for M.I.C. on baidu, China’s number one search engine, increased by about 800% the next day.

Part 1 of M.I.C. on Happy Camp, uploaded by fountainparktvshow@YouTube

Until recently, China’s entertainment industry has always depended on its universities and academies for training, with schools like Central Drama and Beijing Film training budding actors and actresses and schools like the Sichuan Conservatory of Music or the Beijing Music Conservatory training budding singers. Yet recently, some companies opted to skip the slower but well-rounded trainings of universities, and instead is pre-planning and training their own artists.

For the formation of M.I.C.,  Song Ke, the CEO of China’s biggest music company Taihe Rye, visited major performing arts universities and academies around China to pick about 2000 possible candidates, which then narrowed to about 20 people. These candidates, many of them already with many years of strong training from schools like the Central Music Academy (Yuehan) and Beijing Dance Academy (Jianci), then received intensive training for two years while going through eliminations at the same time. Other than Jesse Lee, their trainers also include Michael Jackson’s choreographer Henry Link.

The combination of both academic and professional training clearly paid off in the case of M.I.C., with every one of its members with solid music and dancing, not to mention looks and personality. Whereas previously, most bigger companies, including Taihe Rye, focused on music-based artists, and only smaller, inexperienced companies attempted to form boybands, M.I.C. marks a turning point where more organized companies are using their careful planning to fill the market for glamorous, packaged artists, as opposed to the already filled market of naturally talented soloists.

And for those craving boybands, that means we’ll see more packaged boy (and girl) bands created with goals in mind, and with solid company backings that won’t waver with changes.   M.I.C. will be one of the first of many mainland idol groups with polished stability that we can  fall in love with trust in their future.

Hong Mao Lan Tu Huo Feng Huang is the second movie of the franchise

Up against the fierce competition of the cute sheep and wolves of Pleasant Sheep and the Big, Big Wolf 2 (喜羊羊与灰太狼之虎虎生威) this New Year’s season is Hong Mao Lan Tu Huo Feng Huang (虹猫蓝兔火凤凰), another animated feature based on a popular cartoon series. While Xi Yang Yang aims for the funny and simplistic, Hong Mao is more of an intricate epic tale that appeals to the wuxia fan in everyone. The original series, which I feel like had a much better plot, tells of  seven legendary swordsmen whose children grew up and must discover their destiny and each other to defeat the evil clan in protection of the beautiful Zhangjiajie.

Both the new Hong Mao and the new XiYangYang movie are available on sohu hd. Which one do you like better?

Although pale in comparison to the likes of Pixar or Disney, Hong Mao is definitely a major success in recent Chinese animation. The artistic direction is excellent, and showcases the beautiful scenery of Zhangjiajie every scene. That combined with a good plotline that finally blurs the stark differences between adult and children animation makes the series one that perhaps shows the future of Chinese animation.

The Hong Mao series (虹猫蓝兔七侠传) was originally developed by Hunan-based HongMeng along with support from Zhajiajie tourism. The movie is dubbed by Hunan TV’s Happy Camp hosts Xie Na, He Jiong, Li Wei Jia, Wu Xin and Du Haitao.

BOBO was on Happy Camp last Saturday, helping it to be the number one watched show of that time period. Watch part 1 here and part 2 here. Interview translation of BOBO below the cut

Zhang Jie and Li Yuchun will appear on the next two episodes of Happy to promote their new albums next. Who’s excited for some Zhang Jie-Xie Na interactions? The preview made me lol so much when Zhang Jie pretended to be his picture that always appears on Happy Camp when he’s mentioned and said “what does that have to do with me?”

On the show, BOBO sung "hope," "gray dimension" and "today I will marry you" together.

Q: Speaking of compatibility(默契), how compatible (默契) are you guys?
JBR: Like when people ask us questions, or when we are expressing thoughts about a thing, we would often say the same thing together.
FXB: For example, when we’re acting together, if one of us makes a mistake, the other one can improv and turn the mistake into a spark.

Q: In two years, are there anything you haven’t told each other yet but always wanted?
JBR: I ….really, really…want to go with Baozi to return to Xi’an to eat yangroupaomo (lamb+mantou soup)
FXB: If after seeing him everyday, and still haven’t told him, I would’ve suffocated.

Q: After being together for two years, what are some things that the other one touched you the most?
JBR: Once while filming, I was really tired and fell asleep on a chair. Baozi took off his clothes and put it on me. I was really touched.
FXB: I remember in “Diary Exchange,” Bao’er wrote a long message to me. Part of it was : “Let us hold each others hand tightly and face the future together. Let us strengthen about our beliefs and compatibility(默契) and the future will be bright like the sunshine.”

Q: In your hearts, what is each other to you? Friend? Co-worker? Family?
JBR: Like brothers
FXB: A part of my life. Without him, there are many things I wouldn’t know how to face.

source

I found this on their baidu and I don't care if it's related to this post or not. Chinese comic (man hua) style is so beautiful! If the Chinese boybands dressed up like this, I would not mind them.

Okay, I’ll change the picture of “HIT-5″ when I actually find a decent picture of them all on Happy Camp. But I don’t really understand what China means by their “records” anymore…the article is here if anyone wants to analyze this and tell me exactly who set what records for Happy Camp and compare it say, to Top Combine’s “record-setting” appearance on Happy Camp. I’ve never understood even American rating systems so I’m lost.

However, it’s safe to say, as the article noted, they did attract surprisingly a lot of attention after what was only one short press conference, and a lot less press coverage than Top Combine whom the media seems to love over everyone else who has debuted. HIT-5 in contrast has very few news articles, and for example, had no picture accompanying this article unlike the one for Top Combine. Perhaps that will change if they ever finally release an EP or album. I didn’t really think that the show did as nice a job with their guest spot as Top Combine, and they had other guests as well, but the audience members all looked insanely happy so I guess they were satisfied. Oh the power of pretty boys over fangirls.

You can watch their vcr introduction for their appearance here, where they poke fun of Yang Fan (Ze Meidao)’s status as a net idol, etc.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdUxnqOely4]

Duan Huangwei singing solo, I’m Sorry.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAca9Hl3GXg]

That’s all I got. Mainly I think I just wanted an excuse to post that picture of the animated Hit-5. I know, my posts need quality control. And yes, despite posting four times in a row today, I’m still on “hiatus”.

Oh and they actually did set a record, because they are thanking people for that, and supporting them here:

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYo6tFdo5ls"]