Fortylove.tv: two chio Asian babes and their travels around the world

Posted by Chan Chi-Loong on Monday, January 5th 2009 under: Singapore, Web 2.0 Tags: Christmas, Internet

A throng of Santas running down the usually sleepy streets of costal Paignton in Devon, England.

Overcompensating Christmas trees, snow in the the heart of the desert and theme park living in Dubai.

All these and more at fortylove.tv, a travelogue of roads less trodden by two friends criss-crossing continents. At fortylove.tv, two globe-trotting babes share three minute postcard videos of their travels with each other, and also with the wider web world.

The bios from fortylove.tv

Started by Singaporean Adrianna Tan, 23, and Malaysian May Yee, 25, the “part travelogue, part video-cast, part excuse to hang out with interesting people” experiment is a living dream writ large for the two writers/photographers/communicators.

Tapping on the collective power of Web 2.0, the duo have sourced artwork, music and photos from disparate corners of the world. To this they added their own videos, mashed and edited the content, and created something really unique. The closest thing remotely similar I can think of is Matt’s Dancing YouTube videos, but it’s like comparing apples to oranges.

This is an exemplar of self-published content blooming all over the Internet, where individuals with big dreams and talent can find an audience and be noticed. That they are Singaporean and Malaysian chio cha bos respectively is, of course, a plus point.

Adrianna and May Yee aim to release forty videos in twenty weeks, and so far, week one has been pretty good. I really liked the pilot episode on the Santas, and episode two on Dubai malls isn’t bad either. It’s raw and quirky, and most importantly, interesting.

Good enough to keep tuning in, and I’m now a fan. You go girls. Live your dreams, and I hope you get noticed.

(Disclosure: some of my content posted on Techgoondu is research for stories in Digital Life, the Straits Times weekly IT supplement. If you’re interested, please do drop me a mail. Here’s wishing all Techgoondu readers a happy new year for 2009!)

12 Other Comments

17 Comments Already

Dilip Muralidaran

Said,

January 5th, 2009 @12:55 pm

“two chio asian babes” is not a way to respectfully address someone when you are writing a decent review. I wonder what kind of journalist wrote this review?

Chan Chi-Loong

Said,

January 5th, 2009 @1:15 pm

Hi Dilip,

Respectfully, I disagree.

Chio means beautiful and/or pretty in the Hokkien dialect, and is often used as a compliment rather than an insult (ask a hokkien speaker if you don’t believe me). It does NOT have a negative connotation, esp. when taken in the context of the story. It does not mean sleazy.

Perhaps it should be more about their travels than about them, but hey, you have these two ladies (in their early twenties) globe trotting the world. I stand by the headline because it is *true* (they are chio!) and because it draws audiences. This is part of what a journalist does (yes, we sensationalize things to entertain), and although the line is fine at times, I disagree with you that the piece is disrespectful. Far from it.

But thanks for the feedback. In part, this is what journalism is about — discourse about memes.

Dilip Muralidaran

Said,

January 5th, 2009 @1:19 pm

Yes, but babes is not something used in a professional context. You never address your team leader or manager as a babe that you report to at work. It gives a very casual outlook of the work these two girls have done, in my personal opinion a wonderful job.

I would say, it highlights the fact that they are babes more than the fact about which this blog is intended to talk about them in the first place. “Attractive young women/ladies” would me just the same thing as “babes” but look more mature a word to use when talking good about someones efforts. i think.

Lainie Said,

January 6th, 2009 @2:04 am

“choi” sounds familiar…what does it mean again?