Entertainment

Entertainment

‘Splendid Market’ Debuts as China’s First Celebrity Street‑Stall Variety Show, Merging Stardom with Everyday Market Life

A new kind of Chinese television program has just rolled onto the screens, and it’s already sparking a wave of excitement across the country’s entertainment landscape. On August 20, 2023, the variety show “灿烂的市集” (literally “Splendid Market”) premiered as the first ever “celebrity street‑stall” reality series in mainland China—a format that places well‑known actors and idols not on glossy stages or polished concert sets, but behind the modest tables of bustling local markets.

Entertainment

Na Ying’s Network Power and Controversy Spotlight Her as China’s Mandopop Queen

Na Ying has long been a fixture of China’s pop‑culture landscape, but the past twelve months have thrust her into an even brighter—if more contested—spotlight. The 57‑year‑old singer, often hailed as the “queen of Mandopop,” is now as famous for the size of her social network as she is for the power of her voice.

A modest but eye‑catching celebration in Taipei this week turned a birthday party into a pop‑culture flashpoint, as 36‑year‑old Wu Ying‑Chieh—known to friends and followers by the nickname “Gui Gui”—marked her birthday by cosplaying as “Xiao Yanzi,” the beloved heroine of the early‑2000s Chinese television drama *Huan Zhu Ge Ge* (commonly known in English as *My Fair Princess*).