Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Amazing Race China Rush 3 Opening Sequence

After much anticipation, the opening sequence for the brand new season of China Rush is finally released on July 16!! =D I was actually quite surprised when I saw this clip on weibo coz I didn't expect it to be released so early. I'm sure all of us contestants were the most excited ones to see this clip and have a first glimpse of how we appear on video. =P I know...everything flashed by a lil' too fast in this clip so keep your eyes open to spot us...haha!! Even though we appeared for only about 2 seconds in the clip, words can't describe how excited we were to see ourselves in this title sequence with the background music!! We've watched so many seasons of Amazing Race and seeing ourselves in it now feels so surreal and AMAZING!!!

万众瞩目的《冲刺!中国》第三季片头新鲜出炉啦!真是千呼万唤始出来啊!! 看了这么多季的极速前进,熟悉的音乐,熟悉的片头,但这次自己却有机会参与其中,真是难以置信、感动、激动、热血沸腾啊!! 眼尖的你们能不能从短短的片头里找到我们呢? 也顺便猜猜我们这一季到底去了那些地方呢? 还有大概一个月就要开播了,大家一起期待第三季的首播吧!!


Bringing Malaysian element all the way to China and into the Amazing Race!! 

Rocking our 'Penang Island' t-shirts...oh yeah!! We're pretty patriotic huh...introduced both Malaysia & Penang within 2 seconds...lol!!! 

This was where we shot our opening sequence, spot the yellow flowers. =) If I remember correctly, this place was HongQiao Park. Both of us had absolutely no clue of where we were going, we just hopped into ICS's car and followed our contestant handler, Yating. =P 

If you noticed in the 2nd pic, you're probably wondering why was bro carrying a luggage in the park...haha!! We were asked to bring all our outfits that we've brought for the race for the director to look through and choose which one we should wear for the opening sequence. 

It was kinda awkward wearing kebaya and batik walking around a park in China, we definitely caught quite a lot of attention in the park. People were probably wondering what were we shooting. It was pretty cool though to have directors, professional cameraman, lighting and sound set up. Pardon me for my sam-patness...this was my first time being involved in the production of a TV show la...very excited okay. =P

Our traditional outfit scene looks nice in front of the mini waterfall but it was quite funny shooting this. We had to stand on the rock path on the water to do our dance/pose over and over again, and if any of us slipped, we would be soaked. We had to repeat our dance moves quite a lot of times to get the best shot but we enjoyed the entire experience. It really ain't easy producing a reality show like Amazing Race...hats off to the production team of China Rush for their awesome work. Kudos!

Does this look familiar?

These were taken after our photoshoot session. I'm glad we wore these for the photoshoot...turned out great!! =P 

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Global UGRAD Malaysia Retreat 2012

Let's take a break from Amazing Race...here's an update of what I was up to last weekend.

July 20-22 (Fri-Sun): UGRAD Malaysia Retreat @ Penang Island
Following our first retreat that was successfully held in Taiping last year, the recent returnees organized a weekend getaway to Penang last weekend. Malaysian UGRADers have been organizing annual gathering since the first batch in 2008 to reunite alumni and share their experiences with the new UGRAD scholars who will be embarking on their UGRAD journey to the US in August. This year, 11 UGRADers from all over Malaysia (2008/09: KhaShing; 2010/11: ChoonSian, ShiEe; 2011/12: Wilson, Nasha, YuPing, WeiJiet; 2012/13:  Carolyn, Cayenne, Dylan, Kalai)  traveled to Penang for this 3D2N trip. Thanks to Wilson, Nasha, YuPing, and WeiJiet for organizing this trip.

First stop: Had dinner @ Kayu right after the newbies arrived from KL. Without wasting any time, we started sharing all our UGRAD experiences with them and overloading them with tonnes of information...lol!! 

Woke up early on Saturday morning to hike from Penang National Park to Monkey Beach. I've never been here before so this was a good chance for me to be a tourist...haha!! =P

The entire journey took about 1.5 hours with some challenging routes along the way. We almost lost our way coz the signage wasn't clear. Seems like we were trying to give the newbies a taste of adventure before they begin their adventure of a lifetime...lol!!

Some sceneries along the hike...not bad huh!!

Finally...we arrived at Monkey Beach!!

Sharing session on the beach...how cool is that!!

Group photo for our Facebook page. =P

One thing you can't miss in Penang...the awesome food!! C'mon...it's food heaven here!!

The big thing in Georgetown lately...street arts by Ernest Zacharevic. It's great to see all these interactive murals transforming the streets and landscapes of Georgetown. Locals and tourists have been flocking here to take pics with these artworks!

 UGRADers at Chew Jetty.

Thanks to UGRAD for bringing us together! It's pretty amazing how we bond as if we've known each other forever even though this is just the 1st or 2nd time we met!! =) Good luck and all the best to those who are leaving to the States soon...cherish this journey of a lifetime and make it worthwhile! =)

"A wonderful weekend getaway with the UGRAD family. Lotsa good foods, inspiring sharing sessions, bonding, heritage trail and jungle trekking! Good luck to juniors who are going to the US. For returned scholars - welcome back my friends, put on a show that never ends." - Wilson Beh (UGRAD 2011/12)

"Returned to lovely Penang with my awesome UGRAD family (new and old). Glad to have this chance to listen to such inspiring stories. Your determination and positivity really amazes me. Good food + heartfelt sharing sessions + upgraded friendships= a weekend well spent that can be summarized in one single word- meaningful!" - Nasha Lee (UGRAD 2011/12)

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Are You Ready To RUSH???

Pheww...I'm finally done with the introductions for all 11 teams of season 3!! In fact, all the teams have been announced on China Rush's official Weibo 2 weeks ago but it took me slightly longer to work out the translated version coz I had to be mindful of what I share. =P Now that you've 'met' all the cast, which is your favourite team? Hahaha...this isn't a question at all coz there should only be one answer...lol!!! =P

Everyone looks GREAT!!!

Are you ready to RUSH??

Ladies...which all-male team is your type?? =P

The 2 lovey-dovey couples!! Oh love is in the air ~~

The Amazing Race China Rush Season 3 Premiers: 
English version - 26 Aug 2012 (Sun), 8.00pm on ICS
Chinese version - 1 Sept 2012 (Sat), 4.00pm on 东方卫视

The Amazing Race China Rush 3 Cast Revealed - "Malaysian Twins"

KHAI SHENG & KHAI SHING - The "Malaysian Twins"
Tang Khai Sheng / Tang Khai Shing
Hometown: Penang, Malaysia
Relationship: Twins

Last but no least, it's time to introduce ourselves! I'll try my best to be objective...haha! For those who don't know us yet...feel free to read on. =P I've shared the translation of our team intro 2 weeks ago so I'll try to share something different this time.

All the way from Malaysia, we're a pair of brother-sister twins born and raised in Penang Island. If I'm not mistaken, we're the first pair of brother-sister twins in the entire Amazing Race franchise, please correct me if I'm wrong. Some people may be wondering if we are residing in China and how did we find out about this show? Nope, both of us are currently working in Malaysia and we started watching China Rush Season 2 on Youtube last year. Being big fans of the Amazing Race, we decided to give it a try this year by submitting our application forms and travelled all the way to Shanghai for the auditions. Having done a lot of things together as we were growing up, we hope to achieve something special together and work as a team to realize our dreams of being in the Race. With no home-ground advantage, will we be able to find our ways around China without getting lost in the Race??



P.S. The information above is provided solely based on my understanding and interactions with the teams and does not necessarily represent the opinions of ICS or STV. 

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Shanghai Audition Trip

Here's a quick update with some pictures that we took during our short audition trip to Shanghai back in February. I almost forgotten about all these pictures coz we couldn't share it earlier on and it was just sitting in my external hard disc till now. =P This was my 2nd trip to Shanghai and I've already done most of the touristy stuffs during my first trip so  I didn't do much sightseeing this time around.

Arrived Shanghai early in the morning after an overnight flight from Penang-KL-Shanghai. Bro's first time in Shanghai, he looks excited huh...hahaha!! =P

We booked our flights and hotel last minute and guess what we ended up with? Both of us burst into laughter the moment we stepped into our room. OMG...a round bed with red velvet background and a mirror above...for us...seriously?!?! Even more hilarious...bro's leg was too long for the bed!! And when we saw the bathroom, we can't stop laughing!! Is this a hotel or a motel...lol!! We didn't bother much about it coz we were rushing to go for our audition. But when we came back in the afternoon, they put a curtain for the bathroom already...thank god...lol!! But generally the hotel was pretty decent. So funny!

After our audition, we walked to XinTianDi for lunch at DinTaiFung. This was my recommendation coz I preferred the xiao long bao here. 

Bro's touristy photos at XinTianDi.

After accompanying me back to the hotel, bro continued his sightseeing around the city. His first stop...YuYuan Garden.

Next stop...The Bund. Seeing this now makes me feel absolutely blessed and lucky. Few months ago we were just here as tourists but shortly after, this was where we started our Amazing Race around China. The Bund is always gonna be a special place for both of us. =)

I decided to stay in the hotel room to do my work (yes I had to work over the weekend) instead of going out coz I had work deadlines to meet and it was so freakin' cold out there! 

The next morning, bro woke up early to go to Qibao Ancient Street alone before catching our flight back to Malaysia in the afternoon. It was raining and freezing that morning so he almost turned into a popsicle when he came back to the hotel.

That's all for our super short journey to Shanghai...a journey that gave us the opportunity of a lifetime to be in the Amazing Race!! 

Quote to share: "Life doesn't hold tryouts; you may be disappointed if you fail but you're doomed if you don't try. The journey of a lifetime begins with a single step."

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Journey to the Amazing Race 冲刺之旅 - Part 1

Some of you may be wondering, what's the Amazing Race China Rush? Most people heard about the US version of the Amazing Race and also The Amazing Race Asia but have never heard about China Rush. This is absolutely understandable coz it was only aired in China and only season 1 of China Rush was aired on NTV7 last year (which I didn't know until I googled). 


So what's the similarity or differences between China Rush and the US version? China Rush is one of the franchise of The Amazing Race. International Channel of Shanghai (ICS) acquired the copyrights from Disney-ABC to reproduce the Chinese version of this race. Basically, the race is pretty much similar to the US version but instead of racing around the world, China Rush races across various cities in China. Unlike the other versions of Amazing Race, China Rush is open to foreigners and not just restricted to Chinese citizens. Aight, I'm not gonna go into details about the race here coz everything is on wikipedia...lol!! =P

As to how I found out about this show, I don't really remember. I think I was trying to find out about Amazing Race Asia coz we wanted to audition for it back in 2010 but due to studies, we didn't apply for it and unfortunately, the show stopped its production after that season. Then I stumbled upon Allan Wu's website and he was talking about this Amazing Race China Rush which he was hosting. And so I googled, watched the entire season 2 on youtube and loved it. If any of my friends remembered, I posted a status update on fb back in Sept 2011 and I was just an audience at that time. What an irony huh! 


Then in Dec 2011, the casting for the 3rd season of China Rush was announced...

...and we decided to give it a try this time around. Honestly, we didn't really put much expectation on being selected coz we didn't know what kinda contestants they were looking for and we didn't even know if we were qualified as Malaysians. But no harm trying, never try, never know. After all, life's meant to be an adventure isn't it?

We knew that we wouldn't be able to make it for the open audition in Shanghai so we opted for video application. So when bro came back from KL for Christmas, we took a day to shoot our video, a day for me to edit it, and a day to upload on youku. Luckily I was done with work before Christmas so had more time to work on these. We managed to get everything done in time and submitted our applications before I flew off to Shanghai for work on Dec 28. Here's our application video that we uploaded on youku.com (youku loads much slower outside China so I've shared this on fb).


Then...what happened next??? 
Our "Journey to the Amazing Race" story will be continued in the next post...stay tuned!! =P

Let me clarify, being on Amazing Race China Rush has absolutely nothing to do with us winning the AXN Big Challenge last year. We actually went through the entire application & audition process like everybody else and we were just really lucky to be chosen as one of the contestants for this third season. 

Pardon me for my long story. Being on The Amazing Race is like a dream come true for me and it's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime journey that I wanna treasure for the rest of my life. So I'm trying to document every little thing about this journey before it fades out of my memory, and this blog is where I'll be sharing all about this AMAZING journey!! =)

之前跟公司请假‘消失’了整整一个月,回来后也没跟身边的亲戚朋友透露到底我去了那里,干了什么事。直到几天前才在Facebook上公布自己参加了冲刺中国的拍摄,给大家一个惊喜...哈哈!其实如果跟美国版和亚洲版的极速前进相比,知道冲刺中国这个节目的大马人相对的少很多,毕竟这个节目主要是在中国播出。不过我相信第三季播出之后会有更多大马观众关注这个节目,而且很多大马人都精通中英文。

有些人可能会想,怎么我这个大马人会知道这个节目,而且还千里迢迢去到中国参加这个比赛?其实我是偶然在吴振天的部落格上看到他分享关于第二季的拍摄,然后就上网搜索冲刺中国第二季的视频 (因为第二季没在大马播出)。就这样在去年九月追看了十二集后,超爱了这个节目。老实说,这个节目让我发现原来中国有这么多美丽的地方!虽然之前有机会到过几个不同的国家,可是还没真正走过中国。

去年十二月在微博上看到第三季的选手招募,就随便问了二哥有没有兴趣报名参加这个比赛。本来还担心到时工作忙走不开,不过我们还是决定通过视频报名。反正不试白不试,报名也不一定会被选上。我也乘二哥圣诞节从吉隆坡回槟城的那个周末拍了我们的视频,再用了一天的时间编辑,然后在我飞上海工干之前把视频上传到优酷

接下来的故事会怎么发展呢?我们的“冲刺之旅”会在下一篇文字继续...请继续关注哦!

这一次有机会参加冲刺中国其实也算是梦想成真,所以我想用文字把这一段实现梦想的旅程记录下来,也希望能把这一段经历分享给所有勇敢追梦的人。有梦就要勇敢追!大家一起加油!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Amazing Race China Rush!!!

The Amazing 'Wait' is finally over!! Previously, I mentioned that I went for a 'secret mission' back in April and the reason for my disappearance will only be disclosed in August. But it seems like we don't have to wait till August to find out the reason behind my disappearance. 

So, here's a picture that explains it all...
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TADAAA!!!

Ladies & gentlemen...introducing the cast for the Amazing Race China Rush Season 3!!

YESSS...WE WERE ON THE AMAZING RACE CHINA RUSH!!!
Haha...did you guess correctly??

That's all for now, I'll continue to share more about the race in the next posts. Stay tuned!! 

Oh btw, we've got more to wait...the premier for season 3 will only air on Aug 26 on ICS. 

The Amazing Wait


IS ALMOST OVER...

So what was my 'special mission'???
Stay tuned to find out more...