YeinJee's Asian blog

Asian Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment

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Kim Yuna sets figure skating world record

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Korean figure skating star Kim Yuna has set a new world record for the ladies’ short program en-route to winning the women’s single title at the 08/09 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships (4CC) in Vancouver, Canada…

The 18-year-old sensation scored 72.24 points on Wednesday, the highest total for a short program under the new judging system. Her performance at the long program was not as impressive but it’s enough to claim the overall title.

On the other hand, Chinese figure skaters Pang Qing and Tong Jian won the pair skating title, making this event a pretty successful outing for the Asians.

[Feb 2010 Update] Kim has broken the record on numerous occasions since this story was first posted. The latest record was set at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Kim Yuna series – Previous: Maeil Milk commercial | Next: Yuna sings for Hyundai

Singapore tops Asia in competitiveness report

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Singapore tops the Asian ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 conducted by the World Economic Forum (and partners) using both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey.

The annual report assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens, which in turn depends on how productively a country uses available resources. Thus, the index measures the set of institutions, policies, and factors that set the sustainable current and medium-term levels of economic prosperity.

The top 10 overall ranking are USA, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Germany, Japan and Canada.

The top 10 Asian economic entities are Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China and UAE.

Charice & Celine Dion – Because You Loved Me live

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Filipino starlet Charice and Canadian pop diva Celion Dion sang a duet in Madison Square Garden on Sept 15. Because You Loved Me [via Pinkrosebud22@YT]…

Great performance by the 16-year-old Filipina. The amazing thing is that the teenager has yet to release an English album; but with legendary music producer David Foster being her mentor, her future looks bright.

Charice Pempengco series

Previous: Charice on Star King | Next: Charice’s Note to God live

Stephen Chow to direct and star in Green Hornet

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Hong Kong actor-director Stephen Chow is going to direct and star in the movie version of “The Green Hornet”, announced Columbia Pictures.

Canadian comedian Seth Rogen will co-write the movie and star as the main character; and Stephen Chow will star as Kato, Green Hornet’s sidekick which was played by legendary martial arts star Bruce Lee in the TV adaptation in 1960s.

Picture of Van Williams and Bruce Lee for TV series The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet and Kato, played by Van Williams and Bruce Lee in 1960s TV series

It’s said that the movie will be more comedic than the original versions (comic, radio and TV)… but I have doubts over the making of this movie regardless. It just doesn’t click for me, and I don’t think the young generations could relate to the characters.

The Green Hornet is scheduled to premier in Summer 2010.

Malaysia Int’l Fireworks Competition 2008

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Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC) 2008 is held in the month of August in conjunction with the country’s independence day celebration.

I was planning to go for a show on Wednesday, but the weather was not permitting; will try my luck again on Sunday. Meanwhile, catch a video below, produced by an official media partner of MIFC with the Malaysian team performing on August 12.

Besides the Malaysian team, other teams that are competing in the event this year are from China, Spain, Canada and Australia.

Update – check out a few photos taken by yours truly during one of the shows.

SM Entertainment Global Audition 2008 (US & Canada)

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SM Entertainment, the Korean talent agency that boost the likes of BoA, Kangta, TVXQ, Super Junior, SNSD, Ara and Lee Yeon-hee etc. will be holding the “08 SM Entertainment Global Audition” in Sept/Oct 2008.

Poster of SM Entertainment Global Audition 2008 featuring Korean group TVXQ

The auditions will be held from September 19 to October 25 in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Orange County (CA), New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. Nationality doesn’t matters, but it seems like they are looking for Asian faces only.

It’s funny that SM is calling it a ‘global’ audition when in fact the locations are limited to US and Canada. Regardless, it’s a chance for young Asian talents to try their luck if they are interested with the entertainment business.

Set aside the publicity purpose, SM do mean business with the auditions. If not mistaken Tiffany from SNSD and Henry from Suju-M were discovered from previous auditions… there might be a few more that I’m not aware of.

Check SM’s website for details and updates. Good luck if there is any taker here.