Joan Chen for LOUIS VUITTON Soundwalk in SHANGHAI

Joan Chen, one of my favorite actresses and directors, narrated the MP3 audio guide Louis Vuitton Soundwalk Shanghai City Guide, one of the three audio guides for Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong) produced by Louis Vuitton and Soundwalk, and released in June 2008.

ABOUT JOAN CHEN

Joan Chen was born in Shanghai, China. As a teenager, she was selected for the Actor’s Training Program by the Shanghai Film Studio. Her first starring role was in the movie Youth, on which she worked with acclaimed director Xie Jin. Her next starring role, in Zhang Zheng’s Xiao hua (The Little Flower), won her the Best Actress Award in China (the Hundred Flowers Awards).

Ms. Chen left China for America to study filmmaking, and graduated with honors from California State University, Northridge. She resumed her acting career in the U.S. and abroad, playing leading roles in Daryl Duke’s Tai-Pan; Bernardo Bertolucci‘s Academy Award-winning The Last Emperor; David Webb Peoples’ The Blood of Heroes ; Stephen Wallace‘s Turtle Beach; John Madden’s Golden Gate; Oliver Stone’s Heaven & Earth. She also starred as Josie Packard in the classic television series Twin Peaks.

ABOUT THE STORY: THE SONG OF THE SEPARATED

Actor and director Joan Chen takes us through the neighborhood of her youth, Shanghai’s French Concession of the 1960′s. Walking through the tangled alleys of Shanghai’s old quarters, we relive the memories of her youth and hear her rousing tale of forbidden love. As a teenager, Joan Chen’s family moved to the United States just as the Cultural Revolution was taking hold. Many of her friends had been sent to the countryside. Now she returns, not only to revisit her beloved city but to answer questions that she hasn’t been able to resolve in all her years abroad.


A bittersweet romance rendered impossible tricks of fate. A journey through alleyways brims with the magic of everyday life.

I was lucky enough to have downloaded a sample of the audio guides at some online store, but of course you will need to pay for a full version.

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