I'm sorry for being stupid about this... Can someone tell me what playback is?

It's when their singing is prerecorded, so the singer just have to lipsync to it.

Thanks! I thought that's what it must be. I'm getting a little less excited about the quality of alan's chinese works. I'm hoping that Yuehua has good sound masterers!

^ I don't think it has anything to do with the quality of the music, it's just that playback is very common in China.

^ i think what mark mean is the production value of where alan is going towards to, and I agree with Mark on this her music quality isn't just the same, it going down hill for me also. It just not the same with Kaz

Not necessarily, I mean it's not as if alan was the only artist to lipsynch during lives, and there are still really good things in C-Pop. But it's true that "I'm Back" was such a letdown for me, and I'm really afraid that she keeps on releasing that kind of music.

I'm sorry about the rant at the end of my post... I also got a blu-ray for Christmas of Erina Mano's music videos. The label 'Hachama' (which I think is fairly new) does an incredibly poor job in the sound engineering department. When recording they must set the levels to maximum, and it sounds too harsh and not pleasant at my normal listening volume. I found that I had to keep turning down the volume to reduce the harshness and make it listenable.

As a contrast, alan's concert sounded wonderful and could be played loudly without sounding annoying. I haven't heard anything about alan's new Chinese label, so I don't know how good they are. I just hope they are better than Hachama (Up-Front Works).

I find I'm Back to be bearable while I hated her Avex China song...the songs on her 1st Chinese album were so screechy...

alan had basically the same mastering team as Ayu, so she really received better professional treatment in Japan...
I think the mastering quality is also something that really separate Jpop from Cpop

live or playback? for alan, yes it's a pity, she should sing live, but i don't think hu ge could do anything. sorry to say, but how on earth someone with a beautiful voice and talent like alan, can sing a song together with someone like this "guy"

i'm shocked

i know that teenage girls want to die when they see him, which is fine. i'm a guy and of course i have a "soft heart" when it comes to beautiful singers or actresses... but! let sing the pro singers and act the good actors, i mean he might be ok as an actor, but anyone who is not "blinded" with his appearance, must be furious... his voice is mediocore and his singing even worse. in this song he totally surpress alan, he might be bigger star in china, but can't and shouldn't be compared to alan.

i feel sorry for alan, that she had to work with him, maybe it will help her to get a bit more attention, because he's so popular, but .... (i'd rather not say more)

it's like if celin dion would sing together with brad pitt...

ok i'm ready - hu ge fans will kill me, but i can tell you that liu shi shi is one of my favorite actress from china, and i still don't like the idea that she's trying to sing, just as most of the actresses. very rarely (once in a blue moon), you can find really talented people who are top actors and singers at the same time, this is not the case here

oh yes, he should be really honored to able to sing with a real singer, and treat alan better on the stage, even if he's so full of with himself, he should be a gentleman at least...

hehe I don't think he moved his hand on purpose. From the way he was looking it seems like he didn't even see alan trying to hold his hand, plus from what I heard he's quite a nice guy so I don't think he would do something like that

Even though Hu Ge is one of the actors I like better than most from China, I wouldn't call myself his fan (not anyone's fan but alan's XD), but the truth (and sad thing) is that his singing is actually already better than a lot of actors and actresses who try singing, and in fact many so-called singers even...

but yeah of course he can't hold a candle to alan... but we all know she's way underappreaciated.

and rationally speaking singing for this show with hu ge has made more people know about her, so it's good for her career :D

i know, i know....

but my blood is boiling since i love beautiful music, voices and performances, sometimes just can't justify the method...

i really want her to succseed

I think everyone here gripes about that once in a while....

but reality is sad

I'm still hopeful that she will have her big break one of these days though

ༀམཎིཔདྨེཧཱུྃ། (om mani peme hung) the only thing i can do

We all hope to see something epic like Celine Dion and Charice performing together.

A lot is playback in China and for that very reason I never liked their entertainment industry. Plus the fact actors/actresses are easily granted to become singers (all of a sudden).

Politics maybe? alan could have requested to do live but that would have come with huge resistance probably knowing how damn good alan (Moon Goddess) vocals are. It would make Hu Ge look bad.

Yup typical sound engineering setup there I can tell... Not comparable to how much effort the Japanese pull out for their shows.

A big break ????
Oh no, if she will take a break, i hope she can release a nice album with her unique style before.

She really isn't popular enough to make demands...

^ poor girl, she comes back to China and her record labels aren't going so will, whereas when she was with Avex japan, she had more promotion under kaz, then her current states, I feel like China just seem to forgot about her, compared to that of last years

She only released a digital single...I don't see much promotion for that.

We'll see more when her album comes out. Remember that in China, artists rarely release singles and when they do, it's usually a digital single leading up to the album...

^ I see

https://twitter.com/#!/kazuhitokikuchi/status/152991953649283072/photo/1

Kazuhito is in China?

Yep~ he "forced" alan to pick him up lol

hey guys, I recorded the performance yesterday and uploaded to youtube, since that would most likely be more accessible than Chinese video websites. It's not very HQ though

Awesome!!! Thanks!

what is he doing in China ???

I'm somehow glad to hear that Kikuchi is in China right now...


Thanks 3000smiles !! They look cute together hand in hand 8D But are they really lipsynching there ?!