A singer mentored by Taiwanese singer Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹), also known as A-mei (阿妹), on the Chinese talent show The Voice of China outperformed three other finalists on Monday to win the second season of the popular competition.
Li Qi (李琦), a 23-year-old music major, defeated 27-year-old farmboy Zhang Hengyuan (張恒遠) in the deciding round of the three-round finals with a moving interpretation of the love song Truth (真實).
Twenty-four-year-old Xuan Xuan (萱萱) finished third.
A spinoff of the Dutch program The Voice of Holland, the Chinese show attracts tens of millions of viewers a week, making it the most-viewed talent show in China.
It has also gained high ratings in Taiwan, mainly because two of the mentors — A-mei and singer-songwriter Harlem Yu (庾澄慶) — as well as several of the contestants are Taiwanese.
During the grand finale on Monday, Li and A-mei performed After Knowing, After Realizing, a song written by A-mei’s mentor — late Taiwanese singer Chang Yu-sheng (張雨生).
A-mei’s manager Edward Chan (陳鎮川) said the pop diva picked the song to pass on the mentoring spirit because she also met her own mentor at the age of 23, the same age at which Li met her.
The grand finale on Monday night began with 16 contestants singing Descendants of the Dragon (龍的傳人) together.
The four finalists then paired up with their respective coaches to perform a song, before engaging in a three-round battle to determine the winner.
The competition consists of three phases, beginning with a blind audition phase, where the four mentors select contestants to be on their teams by listening to their voices, but not seeing them.
The next phase sees contestants compete within each team until one from each team is selected to enter the grand finale.
Local media reported that the two-hour finale was expected to have earned NT$2.3 billion (US$78.22 million) in revenue for the Zhejiang Television network.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS