Pleasantly surprised to find the movie "1984" showing on TV12. I will be the first to admit that S'pore is not as bad as the society depicted in the movie. There is no mythical war with another country, though there is this constant defending of Asian values and bashing of Western culture. There is no big brother watching everywhere, though you have many cameras on roads, street corners and MRT stations. There is no Newspeaks, though you have government controlled press and media. I guess the novel also created a whole generation of paranoid people. Whoever said we Americans are not paranoid 8-)
On to a more cheerful subject, Stella Chang, one of Taiwan's most popular female singers (used to be anyway) was in town for her tenth anniversary concert. Actually it took me a while to find out who Stella Chang was. One of my pet peeve of living in S'pore is when people use an artist's Chinese and English names interchangeably. In this particular case, Stella happens to be Chang Ching Fang. Who would have guessed? The concert was held at the Harbour Pavillion at the World Trade Center. The beginning of the concert was a bit disappointing. She came out with a costume that was at least 20 years out of date. For some reason, most of Taiwan's female singers always have those pompous and pretentious costumes, particularly the head pieces that she was wearing. It definitely have to go without any doubt. Also, she didn't do a very good Sally Yeh imitation since she is not the bouncing and jumping type.
But the concert definitely got better from there, Stella started to show her true talent - her incredible singing voice. Song after song, combined with her sense of humor, really made me wish the concert would never end. She constantly joked about her weight, age and height. Ok, so she's bit stubby, she's a bit flabby, and she's also a bit chubby. But she really made up for them all with her voice and humor. And just when I think the concert couldn't be any better, her co-hosts "You Ke Li Lin" or "Ukelele", really lighten up the concert even more. Especially "Lin Zhi Xuan", he totally overshadowed his partner "Li Yi". Then came the song competition where they went through several songs, even a local tune, for over half an hour. At the end, unlike the Chage and Aska, she had one encore performance to finish the concert.
There were some touching moments and miscues during the concert. She shed a few tears describing her way to fame and her disappointing love life. She also forgot some words while playing around with her cohosts. There were also a few surprises, such as the keyboard player. Overall, the concert is a great treat. Especially since it's my first Chinese concert, I am really glad that I had a chance to see her live. I am now looking forward to attend the Sally Yeh concert in Mid-July.
Another one of my pet peeves is that a lot of S'poreans never sit until the end of a movie or a concert. Maybe it's the Kiasu mentality. I hope people would start to have more encores in their concerts and more scenes after the credit of their movies (like Jacky Chan), so these people would miss them out totally 8-)
At the end, here is my totally biased review of the Straits Times' review of the concert 8-) "The audience, too, sang along, as if determined to dispel the myth that S'pore's Chinese concert-goers are a passive lot." Well, S'pore audience IMHO are definitely a passive lot. They are not spontaneous and instinctive. Especially those who brought their hand phones and their children 8-) Then again I guess there is nothing wrong with being passive and uptight.
"The Taiwanese pop industry, which has been long lagged behind its Hong Kong counterpart in terms of packaging and showmanship, is finally showing signs of catching up." This I totally agreed with this and it's the main reason that I am dying to see Sally Yeh. But looking at the state of performers in S'pore as compared to their HK or Taiwan counterparts really made me wonder why it's in such a sad state of affair. I saw some of the locally produce shows and their quality is simply awful, especially those Chinese music video they put in between shows on TCS. I can only wonder...
6/26/95 [64 more days to go]
