<$BlogRSDUrl$>




Sunday, November 02, 2003



[Autograph from Ta Kung Pao/ Report from Sing Pao]

With many people wanting to catch a glimpse of Taikonaut Yang Liwei yesterday, Liza Wang went one step further in front of 40,000 spectators yesterday as she gave him a big hug and announced: "You can all wish!" Jackie Chan also offered the taikonaut his first request for a hug.

As China's first astronaut Yang Liwei arrived with his space navigation crew on a visit to Hong Kong, they appeared at an extravaganza hosted for them at the Hong Kong Stadium, where they were welcomed with cheers from 40,000 citizens as well as performances from Jackie Chan, Liza Wang, Twins, Joey Yung, Hacken Lee and Cheung Ming Man.

As Mr Yang walked onto the stage, MC Liza Wang was very excited and took advantage of this unique opportunity to give him a hug that raised the screams from the audience, after which she said cheekily to the crowd: "You can all wish!". Then she and over a hundred dancers performed "Yung Gam Dik Chung Kwok Yan" (Brave Chinese). Liza praised Mr Yang as being very friendly and with an air of stardom, often waving and shaking hands with people. She says: "Yesterday we had met in the Government reception but we didn't have out picture taken as there were too many people, so I decided to give him a hug today. (Is he handsome?) He is quite dashing and his singing isn't too bad. It turns out he can dance very well too, but not a lot of people know."

Jackie Chan was originally arranged to appear in the finale, but due to the live broadcast, his slot was brought forward and as the two heroes met, Mr Yang stepped forward to welcome Jackie, who having seen Liza's hug with the spaceman, said: "This is the first time I have asked to hug someone!" The two embraced one another and Jackie said: "Let's forget the words of praise, his success has behind it a lot of hard work." At which point Yang said: "What the big brother says is very touching!" Yang said that to be able to sing "Nam Yi Dong Jee Keung" (A Man Must be Strong) together with Jackie is a great honour as Jackie responded: "It doesn't matter if you forget the words, you can look at the display boards, I always forget the lyrics!" At the end of the song, the two left the stage holding hands and climbed into a car that took them on a lap of honour in the stadium and creating a highlight for the event.

Joey Yung who had earlier expressed a wish to shake hands with Mr Yang got her wish as she and Twins appeared on the stage to accompany the guests off, she was able to shake hands with him and Charlene Choi could not stop chatting to Administrative Executive Tsang Yam Kuen. The stars appearances were subject to further rearrangement as Nic Tse took the opening instead of Twins. Hacken Lee was the only star to sing two songs and Joey and Twins only mimed to their songs.

After the show, Hacken immediately had to leave for the awards ceremony in Guangzhou and when he was called on the way, he says that he regrets not having the chance to meet Mr Yang close up, but it is still an honour to be able to perform for him.

As for TVB's special treatment to him, does he feel this is compensation for him not having the opening slot, he says that he only realised after arriving at the show that he was the only one with two songs as he says: "Whoever took the opening, the middle or the finale doesn't matter, the star of the show was Yang Liwei, everyone else there are just green leaves." Hacken says that when he was rehearsing, he didn't know there was a dragon dance troupe, so when he was performing and suddenly the drums started behind him, he couldn't hear the music and he laughs: "At the time I could only hear the drums and I was really worried, but luckily I did not make a fool of myself and got away with it."

http://www.singpao.com/20031102/gossip/470931.html



[Oriental Daily/ The Sun]

Flora Chan and Roger Kwok were filming a fighting scene for new series "Gak Sai Jui Hung" yesterday and Flora had transformed from a disabled person in a wheelchair to a female assassin wanting to kill Roger as the two end up in a gripping fight. During filming, Flora was very serious as she performed her kicks and a few almost hit Roger in his sensitive regions, when he noticed that there was a temple nearby, he joked: "I am not afraid, I have learned a few moves when I first entered the industry and on the anniversary night, I will perform a 'Temples of Steel' (referring to his groin) act for you!" Although Roger is not afraid of accidentally being kicked in the groin, Flora is very worried: "I am scared, because last time he was stabbed in the eye by my knife, but luckily Roger is very agile!"

Also with the competition quite rife for the Anniversary's "My Favourite Female Lead Character" award and Flora's role in "Triumph to the Skies" being quite popular, in the run up to the celebrations, does she feel confident that she can gain this award? Flora replies seriously: "I am confident that I will get an award every time, but the happiest thing for me this year is that 'Triumph in the Skies' has had good reviews from inside and outside of the industry, however it may be at a disadvantage as it has only been aired for two weeks before voting ends."

The eight TVB beauties Maggie Cheung, Jessica Hsuan, Charmaine Sheh, Sonija Kwok, Kenix Kwok, Shirley Yeung, Anne Heung and Myolie Wu will be taking part in a sexy catwalk show at the anniversary show, modelling diamonds worth nearly $10million, accompanied by Joe Man, Steven Ma, Moses Chan and Bowie Lam. However, Flora who was awarded the female lead award last year has been left out of the show, rumoured to have been replaced by the rapidly progressing Myolie. The show's producer Lam Ka Wing explained that he wanted to choose some slimmer female artistes to model some quite sexy clothing for this fashion show and their male company will be stars whom they have recently partnered in series.

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20031102/20031102004905_0003.html
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a19cnt.html


Back to top