name	Jolin Tsai蔡依林
chinesename
pinyinchinesename	Cài Yīlín
birth name
ancestry	Fujian, China
origin	Republic of China (Taiwan)
birth date	September 15, 1980
birth place	Xinzhuang, Taipei County, Taiwan
occupation	Singer, Dancer, Actress, Designer, Model, Spokesperson
genre	Mandopop, Dance
instrument	Piano
label	Universal Music Taiwan (1998–2001)Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan) (2002–2006)EMI Music Taiwan (2006–2008)Warner Music Taiwan (2008–present)
yearsactive	1998–present
website	Jolin@Warner Music Taiwan
mtvasiaawards	Style Award (2006)
goldenmelodyawards	Best Female Mandarin Artist (2007) ''Dancing Diva''Most Popular Female Artist (2007)
awards	}}

Jolin Tsai (|p=Cài Yīlín|w=Tsai I-lin|poj=Chhoà I-lîm}}), born on 15 September 1980, is a Taiwanese Golden Melody Award-winning Mandopop singer, dancer and actor. Tsai was the second top earner among Taiwanese singers in 2010 behind Jay Chou (周杰倫), with earnings of US$14.51 million that year. She is managed by Mars Entertainment Ltd (天熹娛樂).

Early life

Though Tsai was introverted and shy as a child, she studied English intensively during her youth and eventually majored in English Literature at Fu Jen Catholic University. During her childhood years, Tsai developed an interest in singing and experimented with different vocal techniques after listening to the songs of popular female singers such as Teresa Teng and Faye Wong.

Musical career

Universal Music Taiwan (1998–2001)

Tsai first started her singing career by taking part in an MTV singing competition at the age of 18. She won the top prize at the competition with her rendition of Whitney Houston's #1 hit "Greatest Love of All". She was then signed by Universal Music.

In July 1999, her first single "Living With the World" (和世界做鄰居) was released. It was sold in convenience stores and was a tremendous success, which led to the release of her first album, ''Jolin 1019'', in September 1999. At that time, she was promoted as "The Girl Next Door," and was an instant hit with teenagers, earning her the title "Teenage Boy Killer" . ''Jolin 1019'' ended up selling more than 400,000 copies in Asia. With the success of her first album, she released her second album in May 2000, ''Don't Stop''. Many of the hits from that album were well known throughout Asia as the album also became a tremendous success. She also released her first photobook with pictures mainly taken in Hawaii.

Nearing the age of 21, Tsai changed her image in her third album, ''Show Your Love''. The album was considered more mature and soothing., but it did not sell as well as her previous two albums. Her fourth album, ''Lucky Number'', also failed to match the sales of her first two albums. Tsai's music career came to a halt when conflicts surfaced between her and her music company. At the end of 2001, Tsai's contract with Universal Music ended and her first greatest hits compilation, ''Together'' was released. Tsai did not release any albums the following year, but she did release her second photo book, with photos taken in Thailand.

Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan) (2002–2006)

Tsai signed with Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan) that year and got the biggest break of her whole career. Her first single with Sony Music "Spirit Of The Knight" (騎士精神) became a big hit that led to the highly anticipated release of her fifth album ''Magic'' (看我72變). The album topped the Taiwan album charts for three months. More than 300,000 copies were sold in Taiwan alone, and over a million copies were sold in Asia. The album contained many of her most well-known singles, including the hit dance song "See My 72 Changes" (看我72變) that brought Tsai back to the top of the charts, a song which some suggested was named after The Monkey King's 72 transformations. Other songs from the album, such as "Say Love You" (說愛你) and "Prague Square" (布拉格廣場) were penned by fellow Taiwan star Jay Chou. Her more dance-oriented album marked her first release in two years following her hiatus in 2002.

Tsai's sixth album ''Castle'' (城堡), released in 2004, was just as popular as "Magic" and became a top album in many Asian countries. Just as with ''Magic'', many songs on this album were written by Chou, her rumored boyfriend at that time. The playful song "It's Love" (就是愛) and the rock ballad "Rewind" (倒帶), became two of Tsai's biggest hits. Prior to the album's release, she showcased her single "Pirates" (海盜), another song composed by Chou, at a mini-concert. She subsequently filmed one of the most expensive music videos in Taiwanese history for that song.

Between ''Castle'' and her next studio album, Tsai released a remix album of her most popular dance songs called ''J9 New + Party Collection''. Tsai featured two new songs in the CD, including the hit song "Signature Pose". Tsai sang the Mandarin version of "Mirage (Warriors In Peace)", the theme song for the film ''Warriors of Heaven and Earth''.

On April 25, 2005, Tsai seventh album ''J-Game'' was released, become the longest running album on the Taiwanese album charts in 2005, with over 1 million copies sold throughout Asia in just a little over a month. The album featured many more hip-hop influenced tracks than before, though it retained the dance pop and love ballads in her previous albums. Tsai supposedly broke up with Chou around the time the album was recorded, but she was able to find other writers and producers, including Leehom Wang, another pop star who composed "Exclusive Myth" (獨佔神話). The first single of the album "Barbaric Game" (野蠻遊戲) was a huge hit across Asia and it was followed by other singles including "The Greek Girl Next To The Wishing Pond" (許願池的希臘少女) (composed by rising Hong Kong singer Ivana Wong), "Sky" (天空), "Repeat Signs" (反覆記號), "I Really Miss You" (好想你) and "Eyes Half Shut" (睜一隻眼 閉一隻眼). During this time, Tsai rapped in the duet "真命天子" [Destined Guy] with fellow artist Show Luo, which was featured on his album Hypnosis Show. She performed that song with Show in his first solo concert at the Taipei Arena.

Late in 2005, Tsai released her ''J1 Live Concert DVD'', presenting performances of hits from her albums ''Magic'' (看我72變) and ''Castle'' from a late-2004 concert in Taipei. Show Luo made a guest appearance in the performance of "Prove It". The DVD did not include Jay Chou's guest appearance in her concert, in which he danced together with Tsai. It was later placed in the DVD for her greatest hits compilation, J-Top.

In early 2006, it was announced that Tsai would be leaving Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan), to join Capitol Music Taiwan, which released under the name EMI Music Taiwan. To prepare for her new album, Tsai worked to perfect her dancing and change her style again. She won the Style Award at the 2006 MTV Asia Awards, where she performed her new single "Dancing Diva" (舞孃) with elements of yoga and various props including a ball and a ribbon.

In May 2006, Sony released a greatest hits compilation album called ''J-Top'', which included two CDs and a DVD with two previously unreleased music videos and a 70 minute documentary on Tsai's time at Sony. In one of the two music videos, Tsai looks back on all her previous music videos.

EMI Music Taiwan's label-Capitol Records (2006–2009)

After the release of ''J-Top'', her first album with EMI Music Taiwan ''Dancing Diva'' was released on May 12, 2006. This album became Tsai's biggest album yet, selling over 2 million copies in Asia. The album featured her released single "Dancing Diva" (舞孃) along with "Pulchritude" (玩美), "Mr.Q" (The music video for this song shows Tsai getting intimate with Hong Kong pop star Edison Chen.), and the bonus track "Attraction of Sexy Lips"(唇唇欲動) (a song she did as part of an endorsement deal with MaxFactor similar to Anita Mui's song "Hot Red Lips"). The album also featured two of the biggest hits in Asia during the year : the upbeat "A Wonder in Madrid" (馬德里不思議) and the love ballad "Pretence" (假裝). She collaborated with friend and label partner Stanley Huang on the song "Nice Guy" (乖乖牌), which he also helped to write. Tsai had some writing duties on the album, writing the lyrics for the song "The Prologue" (開場白), which many speculated was written about Chou. The album was re-released in July as the "Perfect Celebration Edition" with a DVD featuring music videos of all eleven of the songs on the album. She has done the same thing for ''Magic'', ''Castle'', and ''J-Game'' as well.

During the fall of 2006, Tsai began her Dancing Forever World Tour, performing concerts to sellout crowds in Asia and then to audiences in North America and Australia. The huge opening concert in Hong Kong, which took place on her birthday, featured many special guests, including one of Hong Kong's top male artists Eason Chan, Taiwan's rising pop princess Rainie Yang, and Show Luo. Show and Huang also made surprise appearances in other stops of her tour. In the most shocking moment of her tour, she kissed fellow Taiwanese star Elva Hsiao on the lips during one of her concerts. Tsai made guest appearances at her friend Stefanie Sun's concerts, while she and Singaporean male artist JJ Lin took turns appearing at each other's concerts.

Tsai released her third remix album, ''Dancing Forever'' (唯舞獨尊) in October 2006, which contained two CDs and a DVD. The first disc contained all new material, including the title track and theme for her tour "Dancing Forever", covers of songs by Chinese singers Sandy Lam and Faye Wong, and the duet "Marry Me Today" (今天你要嫁給我) that she recorded with her idol and mentor David Tao. In this album, she experimented with two other Chinese dialects — Taiwanese and Cantonese (the Canto version of "Pretence" is on the album). Up to this point, she had only released music in Mandarin and English. The second disc included remixes of three dance hits from ''Dancing Diva'', while the DVD featured the LUX-sponsored mini-concert she performed in the summer in Kaohsiung where Huang and Taiwanese boy band Energy also performed.

A month later, Sony released another two-CD compilation album called ''Jolin Favorite Live Concert Music Selection''. This album consisted of remixes of popular songs Tsai recorded under Sony, as well as rare live tracks.

Tsai ended 2006 performing hits like "Mr.Q", "A Wonder in Madrid", "Pretence" and "Dancing Diva" at several New Year countdown parties in Taiwan. According to G-music, ''Dancing Diva'' became the biggest selling album of the year in Taiwan, while ''Dancing Forever'' reached #15 on the year-end album sales charts. ''Dancing Diva'' accounted for 4.26% of all Mandarin album sales in Taiwan for the year, ahead of Jay Chou's ''Still Fantasy'', which accounted for 3.50%. Tsai's popular duet with Tao was considered by many lists to be the #1 song of the year in Taiwan . Singles like "Dancing Diva," "Pretence," and "A Wonder in Madrid" also won many song awards between 2006 and 2007.

On June 8, 2007, Tsai released her second DVD ''The Acquired Talent'' (地才), which featured performances from her latest world tour and documented her work in preparing for the tour. The DVD shows footage of her performing dance sequences with concert guests Luo, Huang, and Hsiao. The DVD opened at the top of the Taiwanese audio/video charts and stayed there for thirteen weeks.

On June 16, Tsai won the ''Most Favorite Female Artist'' and the ''Best Mandarin Female Singer Award'' for the first time at the 18th Golden Melody Awards. Her duet with David Tao won the ''Best Song Award''. Tsai's win for ''Best Mandarin Female Singer'' drew criticism from netizens and industry critics, who believed her voice was not as strong as the other nominees (A-mei, Sandy, Angela Chang, and Penny Tai). However, many said that she won due to her all-round talent, hard work, and universal pop appeal. Regardless of the controversy surrounding this award, she won the ''Most Favorite Female Artist'' award following a fan vote conducted for a few months prior to the awards show, beating out many other artists such as A-mei, Fish Leong, Hsiao, Sun, Twins, and Yang.

Just a few days before the release of Tsai's new album at EMI Music Taiwan, Sony released another compilation album, ''Jolin's Final Wonderland'' (Jolin夢綺地精選). This collection featured almost all the songs Tsai released during her time at Sony in three CDs (The songs were separated into dance songs, cute songs, and love ballads.), as well as a DVD with 22 music videos and a 52-page photo book.

Tsai's second album with EMI Music Taiwan, titled ''Agent J'' (特務J), was released on September 21, 2007. The album featured eleven new tracks - the title track "Agent J" (特務J), the ballads "Alone" (一個人) and "Fear Free" (怕什麼), the dance tracks "Bravo Lover" (愛無赦) (best known for its often-imitated dance steps ) and "Tacit Violence" (冷‧暴力), and the bonus track "Let's Move It," which was used as a promotional track in commercials for Toyota. The deluxe version of the album contained a 3-part 70-minute music movie filmed in France, London, and Bangkok. The movie, which cost NT$50 million to film, stars Tsai as the leather-clad Agent J and features popular Korean actor Kim Jae Won and Hong Kong stars Stephen Fung and Carl Ng. During the filming of the movie, Tsai had to learn two new forms of dance in 10 days: aerial silk dancing and pole-dancing. She almost paralyzed her right arm and fainted in the process.

According to G-music Taiwan, the album accounted for 45% of album sales and over 65% of Mandarin album sales in Taiwan in its first week of release. Since its release, the album stayed at the number one position for two weeks. Tsai released two more versions of the album: the Champion Special Edition (featuring 10 music videos, 4 dance instruction music videos, and a remix of Bravo Lover) and the No. 1 Special Celebration Edition (featuring the "Let's Move It" music video and her "Agent J" celebration concert with the best male artist at the Golden Melody Awards Nicky Lee from Taiwanese hip-hop group Machi).

Tsai then collaborated with Australian pop queen, Kylie Minogue in a song called "In My Arms", which would be included in the Asian version of Kylie's album ''X''. Tsai was invited to the world premiere of Kylie's movie 'White Diamond', where Tsai presented Minogue with her newest album and a jade bracelet which Tsai personally picked for her.

Soon after, Tsai traveled to Hong Kong for Christmas, attending various functions and performing and winning three awards at the 2007 Metro Showbiz Music Awards, before returning to Taiwan. Tsai again ended off the year performing hits in Taiwan to celebrate the end of 2007. For the second year in a row, Tsai had the best-selling album in Taiwan. According to g-music, sales of ''Agent J'' accounted for 3.08% of all album sales in Taiwan and 5.96% of Chinese albums for the year, even higher than the numbers for ''Dancing Diva'' a year ago. ''Agent J'' also topped the year-end album charts according to Five Music, while ''The Acquired Talent'' was the best-selling music DVD of the year.

Like the previous year, Tsai also topped the Hito Top 100 Singles chart for the year. This time her song "Sun Will Never Set" was voted Top Song of the Year by over 340,000 voters.

In April 2008, Tsai incorporated newly learned skills such as flying rings and pole dance in addition to her usual multi-style dances in her concert in Beijing's Workers' Gymnasium.

References

Category:Taiwanese singers Category:Living people

zh-min-nan:Chhoà I-lîm ca:Jolin Tsai cs:Jolin Tsai de:Jolin Tsai es:Jolin Tsai eo:Jolin Tsai fr:Jolin Tsai ko:차이이린 id:Jolin Tsai hu:Jolin Tsai my:ဂျိုလင်းချိုက် nl:Jolin Tsai ja:蔡依林 pl:Jolin Tsai pt:Jolin Tsai fi:Jolin Tsai tl:Jolin Tsai th:โจลิน ไซ vi:Thái Y Lâm zh:蔡依林

name	Zhou Xuan
chinesename	周璇
pinyinchinesename	Zhōu Xuán
birth name	Su Pu (蘇璞)
origin	China
birth date	August 01, 1918 or 1920
birth place	Changzhou, Jiangsu, Republic of China
death date	September 22, 1957
death place	Shanghai, China
occupation	Singer, Actress
genre	Shidaiqu
instrument	Singing
yearsactive	1935-1953
awards	}}

Zhou Xuan (August 1, 1918 or 1920 – September 22, 1957) was a popular Chinese singer and film actress. By the 1940s, she had become one of China's seven great singing stars. She is probably the most well-known of the seven, as she had a concurrent movie career until 1953.

Biography

Zhou was born Su Pu (蘇璞), but was separated from her natural parents at a young age and raised by adoptive parents. She spent her entire life searching for her biological parents but her parentage was never established until after her death.

According to later family research, a relative who was an opium addict took her at the age of 3 to another city and sold her to a family named Wang, who named her Wang Xiaohong. She was later adopted by a family named Zhou, changing her name to Zhou Xiaohong.

At the age of 13 she took Zhou Xuan as her stage name, 'Xuan' () meaning ''beautiful jade'' in Chinese.

Career

In 1932, Zhou began acting as a member of the Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe. She later achieved stardom in 1937 in ''Street Angel'' (馬路天使), when director Yuan Muzhi cast her as one of the leads as a singing girl.

The "Golden Voice" (金嗓子) was Zhou's nickname to commend her singing talents after a singing competition in Shanghai, where she came in second. Zhou rapidly became the most famous and marketable popular singer in the gramophone era up to her death, singing many famous tunes from her own movies. Her light but eminently musical voice captured the hearts of millions of Chinese of her time.

Between 1946 and 1950, she often went to Hong Kong to make films such as "All-Consuming Love" (長相思), "Hua wai liu ying" (花外流鶯), "Qinggong mishi" (清宮秘史), and "Rainbow Song" (彩虹曲). After introducing "Shanghai Nights" (夜上海) in 1949, Zhou returned to Shanghai. She spent the next few years in and out of mental institutions owing to frequent breakdowns. Through the years, Zhou led a complicated and unhappy life marked by her failed marriages, illegitimate children, and suicide attempts.

Having made a total of 43 movies, her favourite film was always ''Street Angel''. This contained two theme songs: "Four Seasons Song" (四季歌) and "The Wandering Songstress" (天涯歌女), which enjoyed long-lasting popularity.

Death

In 1957 she died in Shanghai in a mental asylum at the age of 39 during the Anti-Rightist Movement. A possible cause of death may be encephalitis following a nervous breakdown.

Zhou Xuan was survived by 2 sons, Zhou Wen and Zhou Wei, born of different fathers. According to Zhou Wen's biography, the younger son, Zhou Wei, was the son of Tang Di (唐棣), while the father of Zhou Wen is unknown.

Zhou Wei currently lives in Toronto performing at times in the TTC subways, and participating in various musical projects, including teaching. He is known as a flautist. He has two daughters, both musicians. The elder of the two, Zhou Xiaoxuan, is a classical pianist trained at Concordia University and now living in Beijing.

Adaptations

To this day, Zhou Xuan's songs still remain a staple in many Golden Oldies collections in Mandarin popular music.

There have been 2 biographies written by Zhou Xuan's surviving family members. The book ''My Mother Zhou Xuan'' (我的媽媽周璇) was written by Zhou Wei and his wife Chang Jing (常晶); while a later book, ''Zhou Xuan Diary'' (周璇日記), was written by Zhou Wen.

Biography controversy

After Zhou Wen's biography was published, Zhou Wei accused Zhou Wen for altering Zhou Xuan's diary and copying the contents in an attempt to mislead readers into distorting the image of Zhou Xuan. The rebuttal also revealed that Zhou Wen had hated Zhou Wei since youth. Zhou Wen was sent for adoption after birth, followed by alleged dark influences. Zhou Wei then legally inherited Zhou Xuan's wealth over Zhou Wen.

Television

An adaptation of the life of Zhou Xuan was TVB's ''Song Bird'' in 1989, starring Nadia Chan as Zhou Xuan and Leon Lai as her lover. In this series, Xuan's songs were re-written in Cantonese and sung by Chan. She sang the duets with Lai in the program while under the limits of Crown Records (娛樂唱片). Deric Wan replaced Lai's vocals on the soundtrack album.

Another adaptation, based on Zhou Wei's biography, is the Chinese serial titled ''Zhou Xuan'' (周璇), starring Cecilia Cheung. This version of the story was accused by Zhou Wei as a false representation of Zhou Xuan and damaging to the reputation of the Zhou family.

Filmography

狂歡之夜 (1935)

Street Angel (馬路天使, 1937)

西廂記 (1940)

孟麗君 (1940)

Dream of the Red Chamber 红楼梦 (1944)

Night Inn 夜店 (1947)

長相思 (1947)

清宮秘史 (1948)

花外流鶯 (1948)

歌女之歌 (1948)

莫負青春 (1949)

花街 (1950)

References

External links

Zhou Xuan at China's Movie Database

Zhou Xuan at the Chinese Movie Database

Zhou Xuan's recordings

Category:1918 births Category:1957 deaths Category:Chinese actors Category:Chinese female singers Category:People from Changzhou Category:People's Republic of China singers Category:Republic of China singers

fr:Zhou Xuan gan:周璇 it:Zhou Xuan nl:Zhou Xuan ja:周セン no:Zhou Xuan fi:Zhou Xuan th:โจว เสวียน zh:周璇

Yuan Zhi (born 1981-09-29 in Shenyang, Liaoning) is a male Chinese volleyball player. He was part of the silver medal winning team at the 2006 Asian Games.

He competed for Team China at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

References

Profile

Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:Olympic volleyball players of China Category:People from Shenyang Category:Volleyball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:Article Feedback 5

no:Yuan Zhi pl:Yuan Zhi