Yang Mi

[Ren Ying Ying]

Wow, Jane is short. Look how high her platforms are and she is the same height as yang mi who's in her sneakers. I thought ym couldn't sing? Will she just be the background vocalist?

I think it's just a rite of passage for actors/actresses to try a hand in singing one way or another (just like how some singers feel the need to act).

It's a remake of a popular HK movie which stars a huge load of well-known HK & mainland actors. YM only makes a guest-appearance in the movie and has already finished filming her scene(s).

Was HG supposed to make an appearance in that movie too?

Just a rumor I saw yesterday on baidu saying that Hu Ge put off the movie b/c it runs into Xuanyuan Sword filming (which is supposedly his last TR series???)

[mango_cake]

YM is a pretty average singer but she has done a few songs (eg "Liu Li Yue" to promote the Tian Xia 2 video game, the "Gong" theme song, and now the theme song for her upcoming movie). Actually I'm not sure if Jane Zhang is going to be singing in this song, it sounds like she is helping to produce it only? (Too bad because she does have an incredible voice...but I guess it would overwhelm YM's vocals if they were doing a duet. Well YM's voice is not that bad I guess, better than some actors, but definitely not to a professional singer's level!) I don't think she is planning an album anytime soon though, she mostly just sings at shows or for the film/promotional projects she is involved in herself. Here's another closeup shot YM posted of them together:

[Tam_Nguyen]

Ohhh if Xuanyuan Sword is Hu Ge's last TR series, we still have a chance to see Hu Ge and Yang Mi pair up!! I just love their chemistry!! ;D

[JoleCole]

Don't remember the details myself but it's something like, Karen from Tangren arranged for the CP3 cast to promote MengHuan ZhuXian...YM was originally going to participate as well but she was offered a separate video game promotion contract (for her alone), and her management company chose the other one (Tian Xia 2). (I think she could only do one because the two companies are competitors?) Anyways Karen was not happy and banned her from future Tangren projects I guess. There were also some nasty rumours about YM (don't remember the specifics)...

Sorry this is going to be long.

I did a little digging into the matter when the rift happened between TangRen and YM. Tension between YM and TangRen started with promotion of video game ZhuXian (aforementioned by Mango_cake), but things got a lot NASTIER when Yu Zheng entered the picture. Karen once wrote a long blog post defending herself against many ugly rumors and her dissatisfaction of YM's personal character. According to Karen's blog, she accused YM of 'pretending' to want to participate in the ZhuXian promotion but actually secretively accepted another offer to promote TianXia2 behind her back. After this incident, Karen started to have reservations about YM and pulled her out of the CP3 promotion campaign on the ground of TangRen's budget constraints.

Later on, YM got dragged into the intense online feud between Karen and Yu Zheng. Yu Zheng first pissed Karen off by going back on his words to cast Yuan Hong for the lead role of Liu Heng in Schemes of Beauty. Things worsen when Karen bought the copyrights to adapt Bu Bu Jing Xin into a drama and Yu Zheng went off on his own to write a similar story (a.k.a Gong). Karen called Yu Zheng a blatant plagiarist and Yu Zheng/his assistants retaliated by calling her a home wrecker on their weibo and accussed her of using TangRen's influence to blacklist YM in the entertainment industry causing her to lose many good opportunities. Karen implicated in her blog that she thought YM revealed details of her personal life to Yu Zheng. She claimed that not many people knew about her past love affair with a married man. This man is no other than her business partner/executive director of CP3 Li Guo Li.

Throughout this whole online bickering between Yu Zheng and Karen, YM remained absolutely silent, and to this day YM has never spoken a single negative word about both YZ and Karen in public or comment on her fallout with TR.

I really don't think we will ever know the full truth behind this ugly mess. In my opinion, I think YM just got caught in a intense business conflict between her old management company Rong Xin Da, Tang Ren, and Yu Zheng Production Company that turned bitterly personal. Rong Xin Da probably wanted to make more $$ with YM's promotion of TianXia2 instead of ZhuXian. Oftentimes, an artist's decision to accept a project is not solely based on her personal choice but is driven more by what the management company has in mind in for her. Well...not long after this rift, YM left Rong Xin Da and contracted with Mei Ah Entertainment Group.

I found there is some truth in YZ's allegation of TR's blacklisting YM in showbiz. According to a comment made by the microblogger of HengDian Entertainment Studio, TR forbade her to mention any TR artists with YM on the same weibo post. I also noticed that on the weibos of some showbiz news reporters who like to badmouth YM tend to have close associations with Karen/fondness for TR. YM's workoholism also seemed to have greatly intensified after her rift with TR. Maybe YM did get ostracize by TR and so she grabbed every opportunity that was given to prove herself? YM once said in a interview that she wanted to thank those who once looked down on her, because their disdain was the driving force behind her hard work.

[ByTmE]

YM once said in a interview that she wanted to thank those who once looked down on her, because their disdain was the driving force behind her hard work.

In my own personal experience...truer words have never been spoken :T This is not a remark so much about her experience up top, but rather I admire this persevering spirit! She seems like the "hardy" type.

[swtaznlaydee]

[swtaznlaydee]

[JoleCole]

YM and her father

[sunnysnow]

That's such a cute childhood pic! YM looked really sweet & pretty (and very thin) as a child.

[CBWarm]

Ohhh if Xuanyuan Sword is Hu Ge's last TR series, we still have a chance to see Hu Ge and Yang Mi pair up!! I just love their chemistry!! ;D

I wish for another collaboration between HG/YM as well. They do have a lot of chemistry together.

YM and her father

Thanks for sharing. YM looked really cute and sweet.

[CBWarm]

A better version of the childhood pic

[ByTmE]

YM and her father

Always been a beauty, I see! Looks like she got her father's eyes and cheekbones [eventually with aging] hahaha and lips. Anyone have a pic of her mom!

[JoleCole]

Anyone have a pic of her mom!

Actually, I think YM looks more like her mother.

YM and her parents


I think I posted these pictures before.




P.S. YM wrote a pretty touching letter to her dad for Father's Day that got published in a magazine. Anyone who knows Chinese can read it here:

http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=1114975217

[xiaolong]

I thought her dad looks slightly mixed. I mean, I'm sure he's Chinese, but he seems like a Beijinger mix with some exotic blood from Dali.

[patricia n]

i can also see the resemblance between ym and her father. and look here, do i see a new ad for sprite??? =p
so huge contract with TR may be up? that is good news to me. i'm a big fan of ym-hg pairing on screen and of ym-fsf in life.

[munianci]

I found there is some truth in YZ's allegation of TR's blacklisting YM in showbiz. According to a comment made by the microblogger of HengDian Entertainment Studio, TR forbade her to mention any TR artists with YM on the same weibo post. I also noticed that on the weibos of some showbiz news reporters who like to badmouth YM tend to have close associations with Karen/fondness for TR. YM's workoholism also seemed to have greatly intensified after her rift with TR. Maybe YM did get ostracize by TR and so she grabbed every opportunity that was given to prove herself? YM once said in a interview that she wanted to thank those who once looked down on her, because their disdain was the driving force behind her hard work.

I know! This made me really majorly pissed with that Karen b*tch. I actually felt disgusted with both Yu Mama and Karen for letting it ALL OUT in that dirty Internet war. But after reading mounting evidence of Karen's malicious treatment/blacklisting of Yang Mi (really one of my all-time favourite C-drama actresses), it's like WTF woman?!!

I am totally not an Yu Zheng follower as he has disappointed & offended once too many times and I dislike his penchant for slamming artistes publicly. But in all honesty, his threats are empty hot talk, geared to stir up needless publicity, the media wh_re that he is. E.g. I remember when he was slamming Ruby Lin for turning down Mei Ren Tian Xia, he said he has the power to make sure all the TV stations in China won't by Ruby Lin's series. But he didn't actually bother to carry out the threat, as Ruby's series was bought by Hunan TV long before even BBJX. Plus he's not preventing FSF from getting great movie offers like Painted Skin 2. Yu Mama is all b*tchy hot air, definitely. But for Karen to do malicious things to ruin Yang Mi's career, that's the lowest of low, much more vindictive than anything Yu Mama has done.

I hate to admit Yu Mama's allegations were true, but I can't help but wonder:
- Clothing The World is Li Guo Li's worst ever directing effort in history (indeed true!)
- Karen had to change Clothing The World's title to Tian Ya Zhi Nu as she couldn't sell it
- He almost didn't have Yang Mi in Schemes of a Beauty because of Karen's relentless blacklisting
- The more popular Yang Mi becomes, the angrier Karen becomes
- Karen's the mistress of Li Guo Li
- Karen was the one who caused Yuan Hong not to take on Liu Heng role in Schemes of a Beauty, leaving Yu Mama in a lurge. Fortunately Sammul Chan (who was originally slated for Liu Ying) took the role.

I love Yang Mi for her maturity and steadfastness in handling the situation - not wanting to bad mouth Karen or anyone, and being focused on building up her career despite Tangren's malicious attempts to bring her down. And I really LOVE her for proclaiming her love and enduring friendship with LSS (she said she and LSS are like "lovers" LOL) in answer to queries about supposed rivalry between her and LSS because of Gong and BBJX (AND Karen's malice), despite LSS being too scared (of Karen) to be upfront about their friendship. That was a very classy gesture by Yang Mi did for her BFF and goes to show how much she values her as a friend, fellow actress and even respecting BBJX (a Tangren production).

[patricia n]

i'm not entirely sure if ym is completely innocent in this fight; however, it says a lot that ym is acting professionally by not involving herself in the online war. it's unfortunate that she's been blacklisted as i find her much more of a talented actress than most actresses of her generation. and it would have been so wonderful to see her pair up with some of the male TR artists. i hope that ym becomes super successful so that one day, karen has to eat her words and regret her pitiful behaviour. it's too bad that karen has so much power in this industry and behave so irrationally and immaturely. what does li guo li think of this matter? has he remained silent throughout this? i'm sure his wife isn't too excited to see karen publicizing lgl's infidelity.

[mango_cake]

Kid YM is so cute. She was always so skinny though...look at her arms. O_o

Thanks for all the info about the TR thing. I didn't know Karen actually blacklisted YM in the industry! Although thinking back on it, it makes sense...I didn't follow blogs back then but I think I heard about all the TR people removing YM from their friends list and vice versa. Since she is still good friends with the TR actors it looks like that was due to Karen forcing them to not publicly associate with YM. (Didn't Karen recently add YM again and vice versa, after YM got really famous/popular from Gong... ) I also remember she did a lot of adorable promo with the CP3 cast initially, plus some cute photoshoots with LSS, then she just suddenly got cut out of everything. I also thought her "workaholic" phase was just because she graduated and could focus fully on acting rather than having to split her time between school and acting, but it makes sense that the CP3 fiasco pushed her to it. If all that is true though Karen is a lot more malicious and underhanded than I thought, because like munianci pointed out all of this was done "behind the scenes". It makes me want to see her series (and YZ's as well) fail/do badly...but then they always get actors I like to be in their series so I also want it to succeed. >_< Although, I guess it was good of YZ to help YM's career since I think MRXJ was her first major project after CP3 and then of course Gong really helped boost her back into popularity.

On another note, I read more about her song recording with Jane Zhang and I was surprised to find out that apparently YM is good friends with her! (Since I have no idea how they could've known each other.) Apparently when YM was asked to sing the theme song for her upcoming movie, she called Jane to get advice, and then Jane offered to help produce the song for her as well as coach her on singing technique. It was a lot of trouble to coordinate their busy schedules to meet up for the project--YM had to travel to Shanghai from HengDian after filming while Jane had to fly in from Beijing. There's a nice interview here with the two of them: http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/54905159-1290055681.html. YM admitted she is not great at singing but she is still learning and improving, and Jane also said that "to be honest, YM's singing is average...maybe a bit below". It was funny when she tried to soften her constructive criticism by explaining YM is not a professional singer and has very little experience in singing, but has a sweet voice for an actress, and said "if I went into acting right now I'd be so terrible I'd make the director spit blood in anger!" YM replied: "Did I make you spit blood today?!"

[mango_cake]

Just got around to reading YM's Father's day letter--it was really sweet and touching. It sounds like her parents did a really great job raising her, teaching her how to always be optimistic and hardworking. Someone in the baidu thread said they want to raise their kids that way too and I have to agree! XD It's really different from the "typical" Asian parenting I think of.

i can also see the resemblance between ym and her father. and look here, do i see a new ad for sprite??? =p
so huge contract with TR may be up? that is good news to me. i'm a big fan of ym-hg pairing on screen and of ym-fsf in life.

Haha, me too...well, I like a lot of YM onscreen pairings, but HG/YM is my top onscreen one (although FSF is a close second now, but I'm waiting to see them together in an actually good drama!). As for HG's contract, in the recent interview he mentioned that he signed a 10-year contract with TR before playing Li Xiaoyao in CP1, which is from 2005--not sure when he filmed it but maybe 2004? So I guess he still has 2 or 3 years to go. I wonder if TR will let him act in non-TR dramas that YM is also apart of at least.

Also, where's her new ad for sprite that you saw?

[snowyjasmine]

Goodness, I have a ridiculous amount of respect for Yang Mi now, she is so strong and classy. What Karen did was really quite horrible, since in my opinion YM has more talent than all of her actresses. (I love LSS, but YM is lightyears ahead in acting) I'm just hoping she comes out of her workaholic phase and chooses more choice opportunities now that she's hot stuff again. Hopefully, she'll take care of herself and eat some more!