Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Things I think are interesting

In Bosnia, they plan to erect a statue of Bruce Lee as a symbol of unity. You can read about it here

Also, in this article, Jay Chou vows to become the Jet Li of music and break into Western music.

Looking at Jet Li's "cinematic career" in America I don't know if he should say that. With such gems as Romeo Must Die, Cradle 2 The Grave, The One, Kiss of the Dragon, and now Unleashed, I'm not sure if I would really call that success. As much as I like some of these movies (and I do) it's not like Jet Li's a very respected actor over here, the biggest hit he's had is when he went back to China (like everyone tells us to do, whether we have in fact been to China in the first place) and made Hero. In fact, that's what Ang Lee had to do too, funny that.

Anyway, I thought the article was interesting. Personally, I don't know if it's possible for an Asian star to break into the Western market. Although certainly several have tried, Coco Lee and Utada Hikaru come to mind. But somehow, they always seem to carry the aura of FOBness with them and it just doesn't work. Even more so, if they sing in English, then it becomes a "Look an Asian person is singing in English." Myself, I don't know if I'd even want Jay Chou to try to make it over here, I might end up feeling embarrassed for him the way I did for Jin. And Jin's Chinese American. It may even come down to marketing although my inside source in marketing may perhaps tell me differently. How would they possibly market the King of Pop in Asia who doesn't speak English?

I am willing to bet anyone 100 US dollars that if Jay Chou does make an album in America with an American label that the title will contain the word Dragon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

jay chou is coming to the States? oh snaps! fo sizzle to the n-th power of diao!

seriously, i think he should start off as a producer.

Anonymous said...

i thought the article was talking about bruce lee....what did Jet Li say exactly?

nien: did you say "oh snaps!"?

"I am willing to bet anyone 100 US dollars that if Jay Chou does make an album in America with an American label that the title will contain the word Dragon."

hahahaha!!..............now im all sad.

-Michelle

Anonymous said...

yup, and i said fo sizzle as well.

lovelesscynic said...

sorry, I hate typing in Internet cafes and so I left out the link to the article, it's there now though.