Tian Yuan (; born 30 March 1985) is a Chinese singer-songwriter, actress, novelist and photographer. Born in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

, China, she majored in English at

Beijing Language and Culture University } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, and graduated in 2007.

Music career

At age of only 16, she joined local band Hopscotch as vocal and lyricist. The band was signed under to major label Modern Sky in 2002, and released their first English-language album that year, titled '' A Wishful Way''. The album was influenced by

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with " downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tem ...

and

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

, and well received by some critics and general public in China due to its fresh sound. Tian Yuan's singing career paused temporarily when a contract dispute occurred between her and Modern Sky. Tian Yuan is now recording her first solo album under a new label, Dong Music. Her 11-song solo album '' Tian Yuan'' was released in 2010.

Writing career

In 2002, Tian released her English-language novel, '' Zebra Woods'', which received some international acclaim, and wrote a collection of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

while touring for ''A Wishful Way'', which was later published in China. In May 2007, Tian Yuan released her second novel '' Double Mono'', a novel about love,

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

and self-discovery.

Acting career

Tian's acting debut was in the 2004

Hong Kong film The cinema of Hong Kong ( zh, t=香港電影) is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of pol ...

Butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

'', which she starred as a lesbian singer, alongside

Josie Ho Josephine "Josie" Ho Chiu-yi (; born 26 December 1974) is a singer and actress from Hong Kong. She is the daughter of the Macao casino magnate Stanley Ho. Acting career She has played many roles, including portraying the parts of prostitutes, whic ...

. Her performance won an award as the Best New Performer at the 24th Hong Kong Film Award and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Golden Horse Film Awards The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards () is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is us ...

Filmography

Films

Short films

Music videos

Tian Yuan at chinesemov.com
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Notes

External links

Tian Yuan's Chinese BlogTian Yuan's flickrTian Yuan's myspaceTian Yuan's official website at Dong Music (will be available after the new album's release)
*
Tian Yuan's Douban musician page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tian, Yuan 1985 births Living people Chinese guitarists Chinese women singer-songwriters Actresses from Wuhan Singers from Hubei Chinese women photographers Artists from Wuhan Musicians from Wuhan Writers from Wuhan 20th-century Chinese women writers 21st-century Chinese women writers 21st-century Chinese actresses Chinese film actresses Chinese women novelists 21st-century Chinese women singers 21st-century guitarists 21st-century women photographers 21st-century women guitarists