May Pang's Asian Media Internet News

This past Saturday, I was able to attend the ever-glorious New York Comic Con/New York Anime Festival (NYCC/NYAF) held in the Jacob Javits Center. This is my 4th year attending the convention and every time I go, I gradually grow more and more impressed with the outcome. As I walked in, it was hard to even fathom how many people attended. The convention center itself is fairly large but the number of people attending was massive. The day passes for Saturday had even sold out. The popularity of the... (more...)

It was announced that the that the “Samurai Guitarist” MIYAVI and Japanese rapper KREVA have collaborated to bring us the new single “STRONG.” Two versions of the single will be released on October 5th. Regular edition 1,000yen 1. STRONG 2. STRONG (MYV “Exclusive” ver.) 3. STRONG (Instrumental). Limited edition+DVD 1,890yen 1 STRONG 2. STRONG (Acoustic Battle ver.) 3. STRONG (Instrumental) DVD STRONG music video STRONG (Acoustic Battle ver.) music video I don’t... (more...)

Our experience at Otakon wouldn’t have been as fun if it weren’t for this group. CHEMISTRY, a two member group comprising of Yoshikuni Dōchin and Kaname Kawabata, has been around since 2001 and is celebrating their 10 year anniversary together. Brought together by a talent search show called Asayan, this duo has had nothing but successes all through their decade together. It was a pleasure sitting down with them and getting to know the duo and asking them about their first live in the... (more...)

It’s been two weeks since Otakon 2011 has come to an end and we still can’t stop talking about it! This year, AMIN writers Melanie Braverman and Joseph Erman, along with myself, attended Otakon and cosplayed together, as we normally do. If you’ve seen our last year’s coverage, you can see that the amount of people who attended was over 29,000 people. How did Otakon fair this year? Of course they topped their record and had a total of 31,348 attendees! This year’s gust... (more...)

credit: SONY MUSIC The Korean wave is still in full force out in Japan and continues with SECRET stepping in showing their stuff. Today the 4-member girl group held a special showcase at the Harajuku Laforet Museum. Hundreds of enthusiastic fans lined the staircase with colorful signs in hand ready to cheer. SECRET opened up with their hit Korean single “Magic” and sang other songs such as, “Lalala,” “Empty with you.” Nishio Hidetaka of X-GUN also made an appearance... (more...)

The winning bid of the city to host the 2018 Winter Olympics was awarded to South Korea’s Pyeongchang on Wednesday, July 6th. The city had lost the two past biddings for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympic Games to Vancouver, Canada and to Sochi, Russia.  The people of Pyeongchang celebrated the winning victory with much excitement. Pyeongchang was among two other cities, Munich, Germany and Annecy, France up for the Olympic vote. This will be South Korea’s first time hosting the Winter... (more...)

Popular Japanese group GReeeeN along with their producer JIN, have come up with new project called “Green Boys” in order to bring awareness to the people still struggling in Japan after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The members of GReeeeN live in Fukushima and have also been effected by the events of March 11th. While they have songs that have been downloaded over 36 million times in Japan alone, the group also have jobs as dentists and have been helping to identify victims... (more...)

This year marks the 5th Anniversary of Japan Day. This years event will be held in New York City’s Central park on May 22nd. In light of the devastating Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11th in the Tohoku region, this years theme at Japan Day is “Ganbare Japan!” which means “Good luck Japan!” http://www.vimeo.com/22319305 On May 8th at Central Park, there will be a 4 mile Japan Run called “Run for Hope” and will help with Tsunami relief efforts. Anyone can... (more...)

Fans of music legend Seo Taiji, the leader of hit group Seo Taiji and Boys, have gone from shocked to outraged in a time span of just 24 hours. On April 21, Korea time, it was revealed to the public that the star had not only had a relationship, but had, in fact, been married to upcoming TV star Lee Ji-ha for 14 years. And that the two filed for divorce. Rumors spread like wildfire and it wasn’t until April 22 that the dust finally settled and most of the facts came to light. Seo and Lee married... (more...)

It seems like as if overnight hip-hop/rap group Far East Movement blew up with popularity. With songs like “Like a G6″ and “Girls on the Dancefloor,” it was almost a given that they would become highly successful. Recently, Idolator got their hands on the original demo for Far East Movement’s hit song “Rocketeer” featuring Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic… but Ryan Tedder isn’t on this track. It’s the co-writter and co-producer of the song, Grammy... (more...)