Thursday 29 August 2013

DIAOness updates: Jay's AS and PHANTACi :)

My poor Jay!





It seems he had been ill recently, both with a stomach bug and a flare-up of his ankylosing spondylitis.

He talked about this at the Kaspersky event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=41BFXdg4kQ8


Translation for what Jay said, for the benefit of his non-Chinese fans:

"I had a bout of gastroenteritis and my AS (ankylosing spondylitis) flared up. All these ailments came together. I'm now at my lowest weight (59kg) since my debut.
It's been five days; I'm eating more now. I had diarrhoea but no vomiting. I'm feeling better. If not, it would have been difficult to attend this event.

Regarding my AS:
I think many people don't understand it.
When it acts up, my movements are as slow as an 80-year-old.
I cannot turn properly whilst lying down in bed and I even need a helping hand to go to the toilet. It's very painful.
There is no cure for this condition.
When it's in remission, I can do everything normally, run, jump, play basketball.
So when you see me moving in a strange manner, you'll know: it's happening again."


It was heartbreaking watching him walk so slowly in the vid. :(
But he was still a trouper, making the effort to attend that event (after all, he is a spokesperson!) for Kaspersky.

He also did a fashion shoot for Metersbonwe in Beijing before returning to Taipei to grace the 7th birthday celebration of his fashion store, PHANTACi.
Hmm...those blue shades took me a while to get used to but ya, they are really cool, after all!
His jeans are a tad baggy but still, he looks good, if a little skinny.


Here's a link to the photo album on my Facebook Diaoness Page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.409850072453002.1073741851.399217090182967&type=1&l=1a3fd01ee8 

Vid of Jay and Ric at the event:
Jay joked that he had been busy falling sick.
Health is important but exercise and wearing the right stuff makes one look younger.
And he's wearing a watch!
Looks very nice on his wrist. :)


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gkCOuSVpT9I








 That's it for now.

Stay tuned for some very lovely stuff from the opening of The Rooftop Restaurant in my next post!

Here's a teaser:



 Heh...I guarantee you guys much more beautiful pics and vids soon!

Cheerio!






Monday 26 August 2013

Skinny Jay/ Rooftop restaurant

So after his 'tattoo' pic which upset some fans no end whilst others (like moi) were pretty cool about it and his subsequent clarification, things appeared to settle down as more news of Jay started coming out.

Who was to know that the next set of pics and weibo tweets via his Mr J Restaurants would cause even more of a universal uproar when this appeared, accompanied by the following message:


杰倫:拜腸胃炎所賜 出道以來 最瘦一次59公斤 我到底該哭還該笑 怎麼最近毛病這麼多呀 


Jay: "Thanks to my recent bout of gastroenteritis, my weight dropped to its lowest ever at 59kg. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Why have I had so many illnesses lately?"


P/S: 59 freaking kg?? He weighs the same as me now! How can that be???





And these:

Posts taken from my Jay Chou Diaoness Page:
  

Jay says his new album will be released in the Spring of 2014 with MVs for every song.
When asked why he must do that, he said it can't be helped; it's in his nature to be 好胜 (hao sheng/ victorious).

Aiyo...he does look rather run-down in this photo. That bout of gastroenteritis must have been very bad. But he reassured the interviewer that his 8-pack is even more well-defined now and that he would be at his best for OPUS JAY in Chongqing in November.

His spirit is still strong!
Go Jay!











He looked a little rundown in those pics, maybe also due to the outfit which was loose and seemed to hang on him.

The pics were going viral on Facebook, with one and all the fans unanimously lamenting about how much weight he had lost and urging him to eat more and take better care of his health.


Incidentally, this pic was also online:



Of course, I could not resist using it to send him a message:

"Yes, Jay. Please eat more and regain some weight! We're all really concerned about you!"


Well, he appeared at a Kaspersky event in Beijing this afternoon, looking better but fans were still encouraging him to be less skinny. :)





On a brighter note, Jay has opened a new Rooftop-themed restaurant in Taipei!









Address:

No. 69, Section 4, Zhōngxiào East Rd, Daan District Taipei City, Taiwan 106


Any of you going to Taiwan, do go and share your experiences with us!


Let's hope his appetite is back to normal and he goes around to check out all his restaurants and partake of all the good food there.

He has a punishing schedule coming up in September, with two OPUS JAY concerts in Taiwan and NINE shows in Hongkong! The mind boggles!


I shall end off this post with a nice pic of him and his dimple, together with a prayer for him to get stronger for the challenges ahead:



You guys take care too! 



Thursday 22 August 2013

DIAOness Updates: PHANTACi, Rooftop (Updated on 23 August 2013)

Hello there! 

Hope everyone is doing well; the weekend will be here soon!

Looks like Jay is really taking a nice long break but there has been some stuff over the past few days which I'll share here, in no particular order.
For more 'real-time' updates, do hop on to my two Facebook Pages viz Jay Chou Diaoness and The Rooftop: A Jay Chou film. 





First off, some new pics.


This one caused some consternation amongst the fans due to....yup, that TATTOO on his left arm. 
I'm 100% certain it's a fake one to go with the fashion and to 'shock' us....and it worked!
Jay has said that he'll never do body art so I'm not too concerned. 


[Update on 23 August 2013]:

 杰倫:身體髮膚受之父母 所以用畫的就好 天台裡也有說 用貼的就好 你要米老鼠還是唐老鴨

 Jay: "We are borne of our parents; as such, a painted one should suffice. As in The Rooftop where it was mentioned that it was a stick-on. Would you like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck?"

Essentially, he's reassuring us that his tattoo is false.
I knew that already; he has stated before that he would never do it. :)





These two appeared today....handsome as usual!





And now for something heartwarming viz Jay's PHANTACi label is collaborating with A-mei for a scholarship fund for disadvantaged aboriginal students. :)





My Lang Zi Gao pillow finally arrived today!





And I got my photobook and novel of The Rooftop!
The photobook is very nice! 
As for the novel, it's highly unlikely I'll read it but since Jay is on the cover and I loved The Rooftop, well, I just had to get it. :)



And The Rooftop has been successfully entered into consideration for the Golden Horse Awards!
All the best, Director Chou!


I shall end off  with another nice pic of His Royal DIAOness....love his fitting pants!
He should ALWAYS wear pants like this...and not those Harem Horrors. :P


Cheers!

Saturday 17 August 2013

Random DIAOness Ramblings: Part 2

It has been pretty quiet on the Jay news front ever since the Sprite challenge.

Apart from a little vid which he put out to send out his Chinese Valentine's Day wishes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nsBtz5XIk8k

There has not been anything else and as a result, I've kept myself occupied with my two Facebook Pages for The Rooftop and Jay Chou Diaoness.

Point of interest:

The Sprite Challenge was on 11 August.
Chinese Valentine's Day was on 13 August.
Somebody arguably significant celebrated her birthday on 12 August and was asked about Jay, to which she gave a sweet answer.
And there was some stuff in the news about Jay buying an apartment, supposedly for his Mum.
*wink*

Anyway, I think Jay is having a well-earned break and hopefully, resting it up with family and loved ones before his next scheduled event on 25 August, although there have been rumours that he might show up at a Christian conference this weekend.
We'll just have to wait and see.


I bought a new Jay Chou songbook this week, and it has the score for How Are You!
That pleased me no end 'cos that was one song which I was having a hard time figuring out the chords for.
Although the score in the book is not perfect, it's close enough to guide me along and make minor modifications to make it sound better and more correct. :)





And omg....this absolutely HANDSOME-licious pic of Jay was floating all over Facebook a few days ago, so much so that this fangirl just HAS to post it here in all his DIAO glory....his stance, his smile, those cheekbones, the HAIR.....all just KILLING ME!!!! *faints*






Sunday 11 August 2013

Jay vs Kobe Sprite Challenge!



Hehe...yup!

Those two fellas were at it again for the annual Sprite event in Shanghai on 10 August 2013.

The run-up to the match had been fraught with some worry about Jay as his ankylosing spondylitis had been acting up and he required an injection and oral medications for the pain.

But of course, His Royal DIAOness' perseverance and never-say-die spirit saw him through and come match day, he was ready and raring to go....more or less. ;)




Translated article from Jay Chou Studio:

http://jaychoustudio.com/archives/jay-chou-gets-injection-for-pain-to-play-basketball/1614


For more pics of the event, do hop on over to my Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.403076483130361.1073741837.399217090182967&type=3

Beautiful banner made by a fan:






Here are the highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pd3iJSb6EUk


If you prefer something a little less, here is a news clip about the event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QmGiokhHnn8



To end off, let me just share Jay's upcoming schedule with you....just reading it makes me tired already!
I hope he gets enough rest in between all these engagements, because his condition is not a curable one and he really has to take good care if he wants to go on performing.



Having said that, here's an open note I penned to Jay on my Facebook Pages:

Dearest Jay, 

Rest assured:

Even if you cannot dance or jump around on stage during your concert, I would be more than happy to just be there to listen to you sing your songs and talk to us.
And if you cannot sing, the fans and I would be the ones singing your songs for you to listen to, just so long as you are there with us and sharing the love of your amazing music which has touched our hearts and our lives.



I love this shot of his precious smile and that DIMPLE! 



 Cheers!





Sunday 4 August 2013

Jay Chou Diaoness on Facebook




I hope many of you have visited my Facebook Page for The Rooftop:

https://www.facebook.com/TheRooftopAJayChouFilm

I had great fun doing it, although when I started, I did not really know what to expect as it was my first time doing a Page.
But, honestly, I did it because I was getting so much information and pics from all the News Feeds and I wanted to share it with other Jay fans, especially those who do not understand Chinese.

However, I also realised that The Rooftop will not go on forever.
The excitement will gradually and naturally subside over time as Jay moves on with other projects.
But I had enjoyed administering the Page so much that I was wont to just let it go like that.
However, Facebook rules did not allow for a name change for a Page with more than 200 Likes and I had already garnered more than 500 by the time I was thinking about what to do beyond The Rooftop.

So I did the next most logical thing:

I started a new Page for non-Rooftop stuff and decided to name it Jay Chou Diaoness, after this blog which I have had a ball writing.

Like I said earlier, sharing Jay stuff on Facebook had become most enjoyable (almost addictive!) with The Rooftop Page and now I am taking it a step further to include as much as I can of his activities, photos and what-have-you.

Here is the link:

https://www.facebook.com/jaychoudiaoness


Do hop on to the Page and Like/Share with as many friends as you can!
It would be amazing to have a lively and happening Page in English for Jay so that when he sees it, he will know how much we love and support him!

See you on Jay Chou Diaoness soon!!!

Friday 2 August 2013

DIAOness reblogged from China Daily: Complete Showman

This is an excellent exclusive interview which China Daily's Raymond Zhou conducted with Jay.
Very insightful and with a typical parting shot from His Royal DIAOness, which I've come to expect from him and was not surprising at all. ;)





I'm reblogging it here 'cos I like it very much and want to share it here for easy reference.

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2013-07/30/content_16854235.htm



By his latest film The Rooftop, Jay Chou proves he could be not only a music prodigy, but also a successful film director. Photo provided to China Daily



The movies he merely stars in may not be the best of the bunch, but those he makes with full creative control never fail to turn heads. Music sensation Jay Chou morphs from a wonder boy with a Midas touch into a mature artist with more strengths than weaknesses, writes Raymond Zhou.

Few entertainers or artists get to dominate a whole decade. For those that do, Act Two of their career is decidedly mixed.
Jay Chou has been a marginal player in Chinese-language cinema. Even though his 2007 debut in feature-film directing was a smash success, he was still seen as riding on the coattails of his all-engulfing music accomplishments as Secret is built around extended passages of music.


The Rooftop, his follow-up that opened on July 11, is not meant to shake off his image as a music prodigy. Rather, it was conceived as a musical, with Chou composing more than two dozen tunes for it. But it is not a conventional musical. Even the pair of lovebirds do not get to warble a big duet. "I use the song-and-dance numbers as a kind of music accompaniment," reveals Chou in an exclusive interview with China Daily.
"Ideally, a musical director should be able to translate the imagery in his head into music. But most would hire professional musicians for that. I happen to be trained in music and have an interest in movie directing, so the creation process is more direct for me and the two skills complement each other."
Not only did Chou compose all the original music, but he also conceived the staging for many of the tunes. It is not surprising since Chou directed most of his own music videos and many of his songs portray exotic or historical scenes in movie-like vicissitudes. Some of the numbers in The Rooftop turn out to have a Broadway quality, this for someone whose exposure to the genre is limited to Moulin Rouge, Mama Mia! and a few others. "I'm more into action movies, riding motorcycles, etcetera," he says. The result is only the love story gets the musical treatment while the gangster part is conspicuously devoid of singing or dancing. "I cannot imagine villains singing their lines. It would be weird, wouldn't it?"
Chou follows the philosophy that there should not be singing and dancing for the sake of singing and dancing. His proudest number is a love ballad set against the screen of a shadow-puppet show. "I was sure others had used it before, but I wanted to use it to tell a story. There's no special effect here. All the animals and flowers and transformation were done with our hands and our bodies."
The story for The Rooftop was set in the 1970s partly for the purpose of bridging a generation gap. Chou, never shy about admitting his closeness to his mother, a single parent who brought him up, wants his mother's generation to love this movie as much as he wants the younger generation to embrace it. It also gave him an opportunity to create a highly stylized world in which the rooftop represents a poor man's paradise. Although he, or rather the male lead he plays, ends up getting the girl, he designs a rival who is not only much more wealthy but possesses better looks. That person turns out to be the lesser of two villains but the immediate rival for his love interest. In Secret, this role is a competitor in a piano playoff.
Chou says he identifies with the social underdog because he himself used to be a struggling artist, having to sleep in the recording studio when riding his motorbike home was too exhausting. "Even now, I don't have many friends from wealthy backgrounds," he says, explaining that his passion for vintage cars is more a matter of personal taste than one of money.
Artistically, Chou has been praised for his taste. His music background has given him not just the ear but the eye for fluid storytelling. Although the story, which he wrote, is not strong or original and the different genre elements fail to merge seamlessly, his directing is assured with many strokes of genius.
"Everyone who wants to be a director has a desire to act, but he may not be a good actor. I know what I want from an actor and have a way of getting the result, but left on my own I may not be able to act it out," he says. Coincidentally, the China Film Directors Association echoed his self-appraisal in a rare candid post on its micro blog account: "He may not be a good actor; but he is absolutely a good film director!"
That means, we may expect greater things from the boy next door who can play a dozen musical instruments and ooze cool mumbling words unintelligible to most people. In a way, The Rooftop feels like a midway stop as he explores the uncharted waters of narrative art. It is a unique challenge in genre choice because the musical is extremely difficult to pull off and, without creating much of a hoopla, it has climbed over the 100-million-yuan ($16 million) mark in box-office returns in the Chinese mainland, a first for a musical film. This in a country where Les Miserables, for all its fantastic word-of-mouth, grossed no more than half that amount.
"I'm glad that people mention Les Mis in the same sentence as The Rooftop. I hope my work can be a new signpost when people talk about Chinese-language musicals," Chou says. "But I have bigger ambitions."