2017-2018 Team China update

[matmuh]

News from head coach of team china

Team China will reveal their new programs this week!

The first internal test of the Olympic season will be held on 2 and 3 Aug. the national team including ladies, pairs and men will reveal both sp and lp programs.

Fans are allowed to watch on site! As usual, no video! Probably no pic neither. But certainly will know the music.

What do you expect from your fav skaters?

i expect a lot but i will setlle with what i get i am hoping Lori is inspired once again for Sui&Han and created another masterpieces

 

[cathlen]

The anticipation will kill me! But I'm sure Sui/Han will do great no matter what programs they're given. They're just that good.

 

[surimi]

News from head coach of team china

Team China will reveal their new programs this week!

The first internal test of the Olympic season will be held on 2 and 3 Aug. the national team including ladies, pairs and men will reveal both sp and lp programs.

Fans are allowed to watch on site! As usual, no video! Probably no pic neither. But certainly will know the music.

What do you expect from your fav skaters?

Thanks, yqs!
I have no expectations - I am waiting to see what the Chinese team will surprise me with, though some programs are already known. What I am hoping for is that Han Yan gets programs better suited to his style than the ones he had the last few seasons - sorry but not a fan of those. On the other hand, I am curious to see what Zijun Li's programs will do for her - I was a big fan of her using a Chinese song last year, one of the best programs of hers I've seen so far; too bad she's not keeping it (I think?).
Completely off-topic but I recall that several seasons ago, I liked the performances of a Chinese skater named -I believe- Yuhang Guan. I haven't seen him in competitions for quite a while though. Does anyone know if he's retired, injured...?

 

[bestolen]

SP:
YZ-Swan lake
PJ-Tango
SH-Hallelujah

 

[yqs100]

Surprise! After flamingo and blues, everyone was expecting S/H will go for tango or Latin ,, but they will skate to the emotional - hallelujah, male vocal and piano version

 

[matmuh]

i can hear some people saying "oh great, another Hallelujah" but i think they will prove us wrong again and create another masterpiece, just like they did with Blues for Klook
and i am sure Yu Xiaoyu will make gorgeous swan :luv17:

 

[bestolen]

Jin boyang's SP-Crouching tiger and hidden dragon

 

[surimi]

^ Great choice for Boyang. Love the music he's been picking. Looking forward to Peng/Jin's tango and Yu/Zhang Swan Lake, these could be great vehicles for them. But meh to Hallelujah, I'm just sick of this song by now. I'll be cheering for the pair but their music for the last two LPs is not my cup of tea, and I find myself missing their 'samson and Delilah' a lot.

 

[Eclair]

Jin boyang's SP-Crouching tiger and hidden dragon

uhh, terrible choice, I can literally see the 7's in PCS! Don't get me wrong, I think Boyang can pull it off and give a somewhat engaging and good performance to it, but it's just the wrong vehicle. Last year's Spiderman was hip and cool and everyone knew the character. Now this year, Nathan has the cool, hip, laid-back SP and Boyang gets to skate to the soundtrack of and terribly old-fashioned movie, fulfilling every asian stereotype, that maybe 1 out of 9 judges saw and I bet none out of 9 liked. He should have stayed with Spiderman, adding transitions and tweaking and refining some parts. Spiderman would have been wildly popular during the Olympics and it was his chance to get some more media coverage. An asian guy skating to a kungfu movie soundtrack with lots of quads? Forgettable. I'm really disappointed!:sad21:hwell:

 

[icybear]

uhh, terrible choice, I can literally see the 7's in PCS! Don't get me wrong, I think Boyang can pull it off and give a somewhat engaging and good performance to it, but it's just the wrong vehicle. Last year's Spiderman was hip and cool and everyone knew the character. Now this year, Nathan has the cool, hip, laid-back SP and Boyang gets to skate to the soundtrack of and terribly old-fashioned movie, fulfilling every asian stereotype, that maybe 1 out of 9 judges saw and I bet none out of 9 liked. He should have stayed with Spiderman, adding transitions and tweaking and refining some parts. Spiderman would have been wildly popular during the Olympics and it was his chance to get some more media coverage. An asian guy skating to a kungfu movie soundtrack with lots of quads? Forgettable. I'm really disappointed!:sad21:hwell:

I don't think staying with spiderman would have been a good choice. His highest PCs from spiderman was about the same as his highest PCs from tango the year before but his La Strada pcs rose by 6 pts than from the year before. Seems like the judges are still a bit old fashioned for their taste. Not sure about the new music neither. It depends on what he makes of it. I don't think the judges love Oriental style neither. Should have gone with something more safe that the judges like. But then I guess its more the kind of music Boyang would enjoy training and working on.

 

[liv]

When I first heard Spiderman I thought, huh? But it was great. Who knew spiderman demanded shoulder shimmies, lol?? If he likes it, he will make it his own and win people over.

 

[Eclair]

I don't think staying with spiderman would have been a good choice. His highest PCs from spiderman was about the same as his highest PCs from tango the year before but his La Strada pcs rose by 6 pts than from the year before. Seems like the judges are still a bit old fashioned for their taste. Not sure about the new music neither. It depends on what he makes of it. I don't think the judges love Oriental style neither. Should have gone with something more safe that the judges like. But then I guess its more the kind of music Boyang would enjoy training and working on.

Boyangs Spiderman never broke 100points because he wasn't very consistent with it like with his tango sp and when he did skate a great performance (worlds) he was not in the last group and I believe that's the reason his PCS weren't higher. For his La Strada FP, he as in the last group.

I think Judges and Commentators didn't like the Spiderman Sp at the beginning of the season (German Eurosport commentators were very disappointed by it). But at the end of the season it grew on them (German Eurosport guys loved it by then ) and most revised their opinion, because it was just so fun and fresh, something different, and fans loved it and cheered loudly, which judges like, too.

Oh well, I guess Boyang will have a blast performing even to Crouching tiger, but I'm not expecting much... Something more safe and less oriental style would have been nice ...

 

[yyyskate]

Chinese fans are especially excited about Chinese Pair's and Boyang's performances. Boyang got lots of stuffed animals. S/H and Boyang seems well prepared, their programs are clean.
However videos are not allowed.
some Chinese fans went and observed first day competition, they provided more details regarding Team China. but it seems like music choices should not be leaked...

 

[bestolen]

Chinese fans are especially excited about Chinese Pair's and Boyang's performances. Boyang got lots of stuffed animals. S/H and Boyang seems well prepared, their programs are clean.
However videos are not allowed.
some Chinese fans went and observed first day competition, they provided more details regarding Team China. but it seems like music choices should not be leaked...

:scratch3::hslap:
Tomorrow I will not post music choices anymore.
Chinese style.

 

[Eclair]

:scratch3::hslap:
Tomorrow I will not post music choices anymore.
Chinese style.

I thought only videos and pictures were not allowed, but the whole point of this 'open skate' was to get the program music out?


Anyways, thank you for updating us bestolen!

 

[fjn219]

I thought only videos and pictures were not allowed, but the whole point of this 'open skate' was to get the program music out?


!

Not really. The purpose of this "open skate" is to make skaters feel more comfortable to skate in front of audience and to satisfy fans' huge needs to see the new programs.

It is reasonable to keep new programs "confidential". We don't see S/M or S/K's new programs anyway.

 

[Nika09]

Vast majority of top Ladies and also Men's have announced their programs already, so actually I don't see any point to keep it in secret. I mean why and till what? Especially considering they mostly are warhorses...
Also I don't see any point in replacing charming, capturing and just twice skated program with another cliche. Such a disappointment from S/H SP indeed, from whom I'd have biggest expectations. But my bad I guess... This season is really going to be unpredictable.

 

[maldoror122]

So excited for Wenjing and Cong's Hallelujah SP!!

 

[Celine]

So excited for Wenjing and Cong's Hallelujah SP!!

Do we know the choreographer?

 

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of the best film scores and films, and I'm glad Boyang chose it. I think it's been under-utilized in skating actually compared to other film scores in that I thought it'd be used as much as Gladiator when both of those films came out around the same time. I don't know how it can really be Chinese stereotype when it's based on Chinese source material, made by a mostly Taiwanese and Hong Kong crew, and directed by a Taiwanese director (yes he studied at NYU Film School) who ended up winning two Academy Awards for directing for two subsequent films (Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi). It's their story. It's a modern day take on the wuxia-genre film so the use of martial arts is intentional (and is a valid genre like dramas, rom-coms, westerns, musicals, etc.), but the source material mixed with the modern day sensibilities at the time bent a lot of conventions and created a uniquely strong female-driven film with more surrealist elements in the fight scenes than we'd normally see in more standard fare (don't get me wrong, some of the best filmmaking techniques are in many of the more "typical" martial arts films). There's a reason why it swept many of the big Asian awards and was a crossover international success gaining excellent reviews from high-profile film critics. The martial arts genre is well-respected in Asia and some of the greatest filmmakers like Zhang Yimou, Wong War-Kai, and Hou Hsiao-hsien have made films in that genre even if their specialities lie in other genres.

I don't think the most beautiful track by Tan Dun, "The Eternal Vow", played by Yo Yo Ma, fits Boyang, but I bet he's using the more percussion style pieces like here:

https://youtu.be/moRqncKoOS4

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSmcbrL-POk

For those interested, here's a clip of Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman performing pieces from the Best Original Score nominees, including eventual winner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at around 2:40-3:15:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfwdO5joK8M