Look Beyond The Bikini
SINGAPORE : Talk about being sporting.
High-jumping into the spirit of the Olympics, MediaCorp TV Channel 8 will roll out a new sports-themed drama, Beach.Ball.Babes, on July 7, just before the Beijing Games kick off on August 8.
The 20-episode drama about volleyball boasts a “royal” cast that includes former beauty queens Joanne Peh and Jade Seah, two of MediaCorp’s “princesses” Jesseca Liu and Dawn Yeoh, as well as Fann Wong’s groom-to-be, Christopher Lee.
Another volleyball show, you ask?
Well, it has been years since Chen Liping was seen in The Winning Team. Besides, this latest take serves up a lot more eye candy as a lot of the action takes place at the beach which means beach babes Joanne, Jade and Jesseca will be steaming up your TV screens in their bikinis.
But sports has always had a firm place in local Chinese dramas, from 1980′s Flying Fish which starred one-time TV poster boy Wang Yuqing to the more recent The Champions (2004), featuring hot young stars like Fiona Xie and Felicia Chin.
“We try to do one or two sports dramas every year,” Kok Len Shoong, MediaCorp’s Senior Vice-President for Chinese Drama Productions, told Today. “This year, it’s especially significant because of the Olympics.”
So, why volleyball, or beach volleyball, to be precise?
“Beach volleyball is a new item at the Olympics. We think it’ll be of great interest to our viewers,” Kok explained.
Channel News Asia
Drama Queen – Jade Seah
SINGAPORE: Jade Seah is getting her just desserts for not paying more attention in Chinese class back in school.
The 2006 Miss Singapore Universe first runner-up and TV host has landed her very first acting role in a Chinese drama about volleyball players, and she’s hard at work, taking lessons to polish her less-than-perfect Mandarin.
Dressed in a mini denim skirt and a fitting pullover, Jade was speaking to TODAY at Caldecott Broadcasting Centre just before scooting off for volleyball practice.
Of course, we had to cajole her into answering a question in Mandarin.
“Cannot lah!” she protested, even after we told her it would be “off the record”. “Don’t bluff, your recorder is still going!”
But she eventually relented: “Okay, ask me something simple – like what I like to eat.”
Of course, we spared her blushes for being such a sport – plus, she let us in on this sneak peek: She and co-stars Joanne Peh, Jesseca Liu and Dawn Yeoh would be appearing in bikinis in the new drama (it begins filming in April and is slated to air later this year).
“I think there’s one scene where we’ll have to walk through a market in our bikini tops,” she said.
Maybe then nobody will notice how her Mandarin is after all.
Channel News Asia