Odd Things I saw – Buddha pear

If you are craving for fruit, why not try a Buddha pear? These unique pears were created by Gao Xianzhang, a Chinese farmer.

Gao spent 6 years perfecting the design of the Buddha mould for the pears. The facial details of the Buddha pear are intriguing. You can see eyes, nose and a mona lisa smile.

These pears cost around 10AUD each. These pears have been selling quickly in his village.

'People seem to think they are cute or lucky and will buy them as soon as they're off the tree,' Gao explained.

Looking at the Buddha pears gives me a peaceful and happy feeling.

The art of branding in China

In China, people place high importance on brand names, as they are deeply superstitious and have a strong belief in feng shui. Popular brands in china include the fizzy drink ‘Tasty fun’(aka Coca-Cola), the fashionable running shoes ‘Enduring & Perserving’ (aka Nike) and the flash car ‘Precious horse’ (aka BMW).

China is a massive market for corporations with sales of consumer goods increasing by 13% per year and luxury goods 25% a year. When a corporation decides to introduce their brand in China, it is crucial that they get their ‘Chinese brand name’ correct – as it can make or break the brand.

When it comes to selecting the right brand name, a team of consultants carefully use computer programs and linguistic analysis to ensure that the Chinese brand name has a positive connotation in both Mandarin and Cantonese.

Some of the best Chinese brand names actually sound like the English equivalent. There is a lot of artistry in translating and selecting the right brand name for the Chinese market. Here are some examples:

Coca-Cola’s Chinese name is ‘Kekoukele’, which means - tasty fun.

Tide detergent or ‘Taizie’ means – gets rid of dirt

Reeboks or ‘Rui Bu’ means ‘quick steps’ (Isn’t that clever?)

Colgate or ‘Gao lu jie’ means ‘revealing superior cleanliness’

It’s quite brilliant that they were able to come up with clever Chinese homonyms for the original English name. Often, the phonetic Chinese translation can lead to a brand name with no meaning in Chinese (therefore the brand would be identified foreign) or it can have a negative meaning.

Therefore corporations prefer to choose a Chinese name that suggests power, status and good luck. But, if the name could also sound like the English equivalent – that would be an added bonus.

Common Chinese words that are found in many brands include: le ‘happy’, li ‘power’, ‘ma’ horse and fu ‘lucky’.

Microsoft had a bit of trouble with selecting their Chinese name for search engine ‘Bing’. Bing in Chinese means disease, defect and virus. With consultation, they chose the name ‘Bi ying’ which means ‘responds without fail’.

Another interesting story is Peugeot, they decided to choose a homonym name ‘Biao Zhi’ which sounds similar to the Chinese slang for ‘prostitute’ (biaozi). The automobile brand has inspired many dirty jokes as you can imagine.

If you are entering the Chinese market, carefully select your Chinese brand name as it will impact on your business.


Reference: new York times

Korean singer Rain completes basic training at boot camp

On November 17th, Kpop singer Rain had the chance to spend some time with his family and friends after finishing 5 weeks of basic military training.

Rain’s father, sister and close friends came to visit Rain at base camp.

Military pictures of Rain have been released, he looks healthy and happy – fans will be happy to see that.

It seems that Rain’s sister has been getting quite a bit of attention in media. Jung Hana recently revealed that she received a package from her brother. In the letter Rain tells her to be careful and lock the door when she’s at home. He also reminded her to wash his dog while he was gone.

Military service is compulsory for all Korean men, they are required to serve for 2 years. Rain enlisted in October this year, he has 22 months left to serve.

What a week!

It’s been a huge week this week.

President Obama made his first official visit to Australia.


Bradley Cooper was named the sexiest man alive.


Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 was released.

CherriiPOP Playlist 11-11-11

Happy 11-11-11. I hope this day brought you a lot of good luck. Remember to send in your song requests & dedications for our final show of the year! It will be epic!

Enjoy the KPOP Music Festival in Sydney tomorrow! My friends will be reviewing the concert on next week's show! I can't wait

Here is our playlist.
Take off - 2pm
Fiction - Beast
Starlight, moonlight - Secret
Hello Hello - FT Island
Braveheart - Nerdhead
Hold my hand - IU
If - Kana Nishini
Yura yura - Beni

Odd Things I saw – 1 million dollar alcohol

Suntory will be selling a limited edition 50 year old whiskey for the cool price of ¥1 million (~ 12,700AUD) per 700mL bottle.

Only 150 bottles of Yamazaki Single Malt 50-year old Whisky will be available for purchase. They will be available for purchase in selected department stores and liquore stores in Japan from Dec. 13 - Just in time for Christmas.

The limited edition 50 year old whiskey was introduced in 2005 and 2007 and they were immediately sold out, despite the large price tag.

11-11-11, Make a Wish

Today, Friday the 11-11-11 marks a date that is only seen once every century. Many believe that this day will provide good fortune and they are using this day to their advantage.

Many couples will be getting married on this auspicious day, because many believe it result in a happy life together. In Las Vegas, it is expected that over 3,000 couples will be tying the not today - three times the usual number (Washington Post).

Casinos are expecting a spike in people visiting, because gamblers are superstitious bunch.

Vikki MacKinnon, a numerologist in Calgary, Ontario, said she expects the day to be a “cosmic wake-up call.”

“Eleven is a number of illumination and enlightenment, a number of insight, blinding flashes of the obvious, and a number of transformation, I think really good things will come out of [11-11-11].”

I hope you all experience good luck today! If something out of the ordinary happened to you on 11-11-11 share it with us.

KPOP Music Festival 2011 - 1 MORE DAY TO GO

The biggest KPOP music festival is ONLY 1 DAY AWAY. Tomorrow, 12 of the biggest kpop bands will perform LIVE for Aussie fans at ANZ stadium in Sydney.

The groups performing at this epic concert are TVXQ, SNSD, Shinee, Sistar, Secret, Miss A, MBlaq, Kara, CNBlue, B2st, 4minute & 2am.

All bands have arrived in Sydney for rehearsals. Few lucky fans were invited to watch rehearsals, getting a taste of what to expect on show day. If you are lucky, you may bump in to the bands out and about in Sydney!

Fans from around Australia will be flying to Sydney for to catch their favourite idols perform live. My Melbourne friends will be flying up to Sydney to watch 2am, CNBlue. They will be giving an exclusive concert review to CherriiPOP when they come back. That will be exciting.

The full concert will air in Korea on December 3rd.

Project 11eleven – Get involved & Press record

The date 11-11-11 occurs once in a hundred years and to mark this occasion, Project 11eleven is documenting this day around the globe. This is the largest creative project to be launched in the world, and you can be apart of it.

On 11-11-11, you can film, record music, take photos, blog or tweet about this day. Project 11eleven hopes to have participants from all 196 countries. So start spreading the word.

This project will give a unique glimpse in to human societies around the world - on the same day. Submissions will be made in to a 2 hour documentary, photobook and CD.

To get involved, all you need to do is register on their website 11elevenproject.com and it will provide you all the information you need.

I will be submitting photos of me at the Radio Monash Studios to project 11eleven because 11-11-11 falls on a Friday – which is CherriiPOP day!

Start getting creative and press record.

For more information, check out 11elevenproject.com

CherriiPOP Playlist for 4th November 2011

I hope you enjoyed tonight’s show! One more week until the biggest KPOP concert hits Australia! How exciting!

We only have a few more live shows left this year, so remember to send in your song requests, dedications & shout outs.

Help the CherriiPOP facebook page reach 100 likes!

Here is the playlist:
Tiny rainbow – Yukari Tamura
Everyone is number 1 – Andy Lau
Fadeless love – Flower
How great is your love – SNSD
Your best friend – Mai Kuraki
Run for you – Kat-tun
Thi si duoi vang trang – Bao Han
Shock – Beast
Magic Number – Maaya sakamo

Hugh Jackman singing in Chinese

Hollywood actor Hugh Jackman was a guest on Conan’s talk show this week. Hugh was talking about a Chinese film that he had a minor role in called ‘Snow flower and the secret fan’.

In the film he had to sing a Chinese song, Hugh revealed that he had to learn the song phonetically. It took him 2 months to learn because mandarin is a difficult language.

The audience was encouraging Hugh to sing the song and Hugh was happy to do so. Then Conan joined, singing along to the Chinese song. Who knew Conan knew that Chinese song! Coincidence? – I think not!

I couldn't find the footage on Youtube, but I found a video of Hugh singing the Chinese song on Jay Leno's show

Movie News – Shanghai Calling

I’ve got some exciting movie news for you guys. Daniel has revealed some details of his new film ‘Shanghai Calling’.

The film has an exciting international cast which includes Eliza Coupe, Bill Paxton, Geng Le, Zhu Zhu & Alan Ruck.

Shanghai Calling is a romcom about American immigrants living in China. The official movie website was launched on November 1st.

I can reveal a bit about the movie’s plot:

Daniel Henney plays an ambitious New York attorney who was sent to Shanghai on assignment. To add some drama to the film, he gets in to a legal mess that could jeopardize his career. His luck changes as he meets people that help him appreciate Shanghai.

Some still shots of the film have been released on the website. No release date of the film has been announced. I will keep you posted.


For more movie news – check out the official website: http://shanghaicalling.com

Kpop Music Fest 2011 concert countdown – 8 days to go

The biggest kpop concert to hit Australia – Kpop Music Fest is only 8 days away! Who’s going? The event is held exclusively in Sydney and kpop fans from all over Australia will be flying there just to see their favourite idols. I have a few friends in Melbourne who will be flying up for the event, they bought VIP tickets so they are just metres away from the stage.

Let’s remind you of all the kpop bands that will be performing: TVXQ, SNSD, Shinee, Sistar, Secret, Miss A, MBlaq, Kara, CNBlue, B2st, 4Minute, 2am.

There is an exclusive event for some lucky kpop fans. The concert organizers have organized a Rehearsal tour! How cool is that? Fans will be able to watch their idols do sound checks and see the production crew put the show together. I love all the behind the scenes stuff.

If you are going to the concert, let me know who you are most excited to see!

Japan unveils the world's largest glasses-free 3D display

Wouldn't you love to have this 3D screen in your home theatre? This is the latest 3D display unveiled in Japan and its the World's largest auto-stereoscopic 3D screen.

Some of the cool features include:
- Full-HD resolution with 57 effective viewing angles
- Condenser lens & diffuser film to smooth the transition between viewing angles
- No glasses are required

This screen weighs over 1,000 pounds and has 57 projectors to render the 3D images.

This would make the ultimate cinematic experience for movie goers.

CherriiPOP Playlist for 28th October 2011

Good luck for exams everyone! I hope you all enjoyed tonight’s show =) Remember you can still send in your song requests and dedications.

Also, the CherriiPOP facebook page is trying to reach 100 Likes by the end of the year. Help us reach it =)

Here is the playlist:
They are coming – Wheesung
Love is move – Secret
Still – Flower
Airbag – Tablo
Vitamin – SNSD
Love song – Rain
Run for you – Kat-tun
Journey – Tackey & Tsubasa