Malaysian Chinese Dramas-I Love Them, The New Fad:-)..马来西亚华语电视剧-我的新潮流最爱....マレーシア中国系のドラマ-新トレンド...

Above and Below: Pics of Kuala Lumpur (KL) skyline and the map of Malaysia. Most Malaysians live in West Malaysia which is also where the big cities and major industrialisation are. The population is one of the rare places in the world where its truly multicultural with a long history of races mixing together, with Malays and Indigenous people making up 60%, Chinese 24%, Indians 7% and the remaining being made up of other races such as Eurasians, Sri Lankans, Portuguese,etc.

I love Malaysian Chinese Dramas! They seem to be a new fad with NTV 7's (a Malaysian channel) collaboration with Mediacorp (a Singaporean channel) in recent yrs becoming increasingly popular. To be sure, Malaysian Chinese dramas were always around by the terrestrial tv stations in Malaysia but they were never really popular with competition from the immensely popular Hong Kong TVB dramas and Taiwanese dramas as well as later on, Mediacorp dramas from Singapore shown on Astro. I first discovered Malaysian Chinese dramas with this drama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raJN5hlvJWU

I was surprised at how good it was! Cos I never watched Malaysian Chinese dramas and always thought they were crappy...i simply didn't believe Malaysian dramas could be any good...boy was i wrong, when i happened to chance upon this late night drama whilst accidentally switching channels one nite and came across this channel during one of the long vacations bck in Malaysia
whilst still a student at Melbourne University. I seldom watch (almost never) the local free-to-air channels like TV 1,2,3, or even NTV7 or Channel 8, but i don't know why i happened to switch to that channel 2 i think and thought it looked pretty interesting..i became hooked and came bck for more every night until the ending...i loved it!!

Then, I forgot all about Malaysian Chinese dramas until early this year when i came upon a clip on youtube and immediately fell in love with it, it's called 'Love is All Around' and the stars were so good-looking!! I loved the Malaysian 'feel' to it and it was nice for a change to watch something local and not Singaporean, HK, Korean, or Taiwanese dramas...i like all the Malaysian Chinese stars like Apple Hong and Melvin Sia and Huang Qiming..its nice to actually have local idols (local means Malaysian for me) instead of the well-known China, HK, Taiwanese (ok, this is local for me too cos i'm half-taiwanese), Singaporean, Japanese, and Korean stars which are popular across Asia.

Anyways, below are some of the dramas I'm currently watching (via Mainland China online video-sharing sites) or will plan to watch once they became available on the super-great mainland Chinese video-sharing sites such as tudou.com or youku.com. :

Age of Glory 情牵南苑 (2008):

This is another mega NTV 7 production, this time set in the 1960s in the cabarets of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (this is Malaysia's capital for those unfamiliar with Malaysia). I love the actress, so pretty again, and the retro feel looks good and interesting but i prob won't be watching this drama cos its too long...like 40 episodes i think?...

Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tMRr-uBbqg

Love is All Around 爱在你左右 (2007):

This drama is soo great...i love apple hong,she's so pretty man...hehe..and Qiming is soo handsome! Makes me SO PROUD to be Malaysian with such good looking people being born in Malaysia..haha..and then there's Melvin Sia and Eunice Ng too! I love them too...i'm still watching it online..i love the theme song, it's sung by the main lead actor whom's also a professional singer...this song is soo romantic..haha..

Links here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTpbVa7TpdQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hG79ITgmLE (main theme song)

Romantic Delicacies 美食厨师男(2009):

This is a new Malaysian Chinese drama, another NTV 7 and Mediacorp collaboration, and i simply love the actors in here!!!! There's my Melvin Sia and also Nick Shen (omg, i fell in love with his handsome good looks when i found out about this Singaporean gay-themed short film called 'Tanjung Rhu' : link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnQZXhlOw7Q which had him in it and couldn't believe he was in this drama..hehe) as well as discovering a new talent for me, her name is Luo Yi Si, and she looks so cute and bubbly..i like her personality from what i can tell from the video links posted up on youtube...well, anyways, shall be looking forward to watching this show when it becomes available online, any Malaysians wanna volunteer and upload the episodes on youtube or a chinese video site?? pretty pretty PLEASE?!! hehehe..

Links:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq4qSrwSJcs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4O0eVbSyh4&NR=1 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQwWZ615zmQ( I love this chinese version of Agnes Carlsson's original song with the Japanese version in the 2nd half being equally appealing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kx7lApD1bw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwZ0JHUR6lA&NR=1 （clips of 罗忆诗)

Some good looking Malaysian actors and actresses links:

Debbie Goh of 'Age of Glory':http://lisa717.blogspot.com/2008/05/debbie-goh.html

Malaysian hunks website: http://hotmalaysianhunk.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Check out this site!! It has tons of good-looking hunks in the Malaysian entertainment scene...i was googling for this post cos i needed to get some info on actors and chanced upon this site...as usual maintained and patronised by gay men mainly..haha..i've noticed everytime i want to search for cute hunks/actors be it malaysian, or filipino, i always come across sites by and for gay men, come on girls, how come the total lack of straight female bloggers maintaining sites on hunks?? Not that i'm complaining, hehehe..but still..in the interest of fairness and balance, particularly after my feminist rant the post before, i can't help but notice this trend of hunk websites being run by and for gay asian men...hehe..btw, I like Desmond Cheah, Rick Lee and Melvin Sia on the site..anyone have their own favourite male malaysian hunk??

Also, on a side note from Malaysian Chinese Tv dramas, although the Malaysian film industry is still in its infancy, there's one film which has caught my attention for its radical refreshing style, trailer here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX5Jv0Rt9PI

Anyways, hope to have introduced alittle something to my readers on Malaysia and the entertainment industry there...i have found particularly that Malaysian shows which were pretty much crap when i left in 2001 have come a long way and there are many surprisingly good shows whenever i return on TV...unlike the Australian tv and cable industry which is pretty much CRAP unlike our fantastic Astro cable network and NTV 7 and Channel 8, etc...however, the investigative journalism shows are pretty good in Australia like 'Four Corners' which is my perennial fav and also i did like Masterchef Australia and the Oh-Mighty-Poh...she did Malaysians and Malaysian-Australians living in Australia proud with her very Malaysian dishes which she cooked up and i loved the publicity she gave to malaysian dishes in Australia such as in the finale where she cooked Hainan Chicken Rice and Pandan cake....some of the contestants mistakenly thought it was a Chinese cake...which it isn't, mainland Chinese wouldn't even know what Pandan is! It's a South East Asian delicacy/ingredient only found in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore (i think!). Good on her for having the guts to use 'daring' and 'unique' Malaysian creations instead of playing it safe and going down the European/Western/Australian culinary path in her creations...

Anyways, thats' all for now!