Like many Chinese girls her age, Qi Ji enjoys singing and dancing and dreams of becoming a star, but rather than trying to make a start in vast and crowded China, she is pinning her hopes on Taiwan.
The 18-year-old is the first of many Chinese contestants expected to enter a Taiwanese reality show aimed at creating a girl band that producers hope can rival supergroups such as Japan’s AKB48 or South Korea’s Girls’ Generation.
With such televised contests now a major part of the global music industry, in Asia they are spurring a migration of talent between countries as performers and producers look to crack domestic, regional and global markets. For Qi, who grew up in northeastern China and attended a performing arts school in Beijing, this could offer a once-in-a-lifetime chance for a fast track to stardom in China’s market of 1.3 billion people — and perhaps beyond.
Photo: Mandy Cheng, AFP
“Many young Chinese people like me dream of becoming a star,” Qi said prior to a recording session for Asian Idol Group Competition (亞洲天團爭霸戰), which aired in the middle of last month. “I hope to start in Taiwan and eventually have a career both here and in China.”
Growing numbers of young Chinese performers are coming to Taiwan in search of a big break, reversing a trend that saw famous Taiwanese performers such as A-mei (張惠妹) and Jay Chou (周杰倫) focus on China. The show’s producer, Lee Fang-ju, the mastermind behind reality shows both in his native Taiwan and in China, is holding auditions in several major Chinese cities this summer to select more contestants to come to Taipei.
“Taiwan has a special allure as many young Chinese idolize Taiwanese singers. They think that making a mark here could turn them into pop divas such as Taiwan’s Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) and Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒),” Lee said. “We hope to combine Taiwan and China’s strength to create a pop idol group so that our idols won’t be replaced by the Japanese or South Koreans.”
The most successful case so far is arguably Hu Xia (胡夏), a 22-year-old from Guangxi Province, China, who was signed by Sony Music Taiwan after winning the One Million Star singing contest in 2010. His latest record Flame of Love hit No. 1 on Taiwan’s G-Music chart in March.
“Winning a title in Taiwan is a big boost for a young Chinese performer since it has a leading role in Mandarin pop music,” said Hsieh Tsung-han, a music producer and lecturer at China University of Technology in Taipei.
A-List Entertainment, which is based in Taipei and offers courses for those aspiring to become singers, models and show hosts, is, meanwhile, getting plenty of interest from China.
Last year, it recruited about 100 Chinese nationals aged between 14 and 35 from as far as Mongolia to take performing lessons in Taiwan for an eight-day program at a cost of 15,000 Chinese yuan (US$2,380).
“Many Chinese youth follow Taiwan’s TV programs closely and they are attracted by Taiwan’s colorful, diverse and free entertainment scene,” A-List publicity officer Stella Teng said. “China is huge and so you are less likely to get discovered.”
While many Chinese acts look to get noticed in smaller markets first, one English-speaking Asian act has looked to use their ethnicity to do the reverse and crack the US — despite a history of such attempts falling flat.
“Blush” is made up of five women from the Philippines, India, China, Japan and South Korea who beat hundreds of other pop star wannabes during a talent search across Asia in 2010 called Project Lotus. Based in both Hong Kong and the US, Blush have opened for Justin Bieber on the Hong Kong leg of his tour last year, recorded with US hip hop star Snoop Dogg and are supported by an A-list of Los Angeles-based producers who have worked with the likes of Lady Gaga and Beyonce.
“Asian singers have not crossed over, although many attempts have been made,” Project Lotus producer and Blush manager Jon Niermann said in Los Angeles. “What we’ve tried to do is take artists from the region, but develop them in a very Western style with Western producers, Western songs and a Western way of sound, and that’s what is helping give Blush the recognition and some initial success.”
In February, the band’s single Dance On hit No. 1 on the Billboard dance club chart, above Rihanna and Kelly Clarkson. The band’s debut EP The Undivided was released last month.
“We’re in it for the long run and we are serious about our music,” said Blush’s Victoria Chan (陳皓恩), who is the band’s Chinese member. “We have been waiting for this for a long time.”
“You lead with the music and the rest of it becomes a public relations angle as to who this group is to set them apart, which is important,” Niermann said. “But it ultimately comes down to talent.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS