Sorry if it's confusing. Basically she's ethnically 100% Tibetan, a Chinese citizen, and Avex Trax was the lucky company that signed her so she does a lot of Japanese stuff although she also has out a Chinese album and single.
Her People's Liberation Army Uniform:
Tibetan outfit:
Helping with the Sichuan Earthquake
More from wikipedia.
Biography
a Lan was born in Kangding (Dardo) of the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, China. Her parents came from nearby Danba (Rongtrag), also known as "Beauty Valley", where alan spent a few years of her childhood living with her grandparents. Her father was a civil servant, while her mother was a former singer. She learned singing from a young age and started to play the er-hu at the age of eight. In 1997 she left her hometown for the Affiliated Middle/High School of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu, after ranking first in the erhu audition as a fourth grader.
In 2003 she was accepted to the prestigious PLA Art Academy in Beijing, and double majored in vocal music and er-hu. While still in college, she joined the "Feel Fine Band (非凡乐队)", an assembly of young female performers of traditional Chinese musical instruments. Playing the er-hu, she performed with the band in many events, including the 2006 gala performance near Cairo, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-Egypt diplomatic ties.
In October 2006, alan won second place at the 9th Asia New Singer Competition, narrowly losing to Filipina singer Maria Donna Taneo by 0.005 points. Earlier that year, alan had distinguished herself among roughly 40,000 hopefuls when the Japan-based record label Avex Trax held auditions throughout Chinese cities. After graduating with excellence in 2007, she went to Avex Trax's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan to launch her professional career.
In May 2008, as the designated singer of "Xin Zhan", the theme song of Red Cliff, she performed the song live at the Cannes Film Festival. During the same month, in response to the Sichuan Earthquake she released two digital singles across Asia ("Shiawase no Kane" and "Ai Jiu Shi Shou"), and all profits were donated to the Red Cross to help the victims in her home province. In July 2008 she performed at the Heart-Aid charity concert.
In June 2008, she was chosen to sing the theme song for NHK TV special "Save the Future" telethon aired around World Environment Day, entitled "Natsukashii Mirai ~Longing Future~" and produced by Sakamoto Ryuichi. Starting with this song, alan's next five singles will each deal with an element from Japan's traditional five elements which are identical to those found in Bön.
Other than Mandarin Chinese and Japanese, alan also sings in Tibetan, especially in her native Kham Ke (e.g. "sign" in Hitotsu), and also occasionally in English (e.g. "Gardenia in Blossom" in Sheng Sheng Zui Ru Lan). alan is still learning Japanese. In addition to er-hu alan can also play the piano and the traditional instrument hulusi.
Edit: I realized it was maybe hard to find her songs with a name like alan...so here are two of my fav vids:
Her first Japanese PV:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6F06tiSts3Y&feature=related
Her singing a popular Chinese song back when she was in the Chinese People's Liberation Army Academy (She really rocks all the army outfits)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xwst9gQ9Xgw
