Follow up post: Jacky Cheung's new Mandarin album "Wake Up Dreaming"

As stated in my previous post, Jacky's new Mandarin album was officially released yesterday 12/23/14.  I'm actually waiting for my "official" copy to get here, but I've already listened to all 10 songs on the album, as I also bought the entire album on iTunes as well (which is what I normally do in addition to getting the physical album itself).

Meanwhile, as promised in my previous post, here is the link to part of the Taiwan press conference (this is only the segment with the videos from 30 of Jacky's friends.  The rest of the press conference is actually worth watching as well, especially the part right after the airing of the video clips where Jacky gives his thoughts on the video -- his response was in his usual humble, low-key style and was very touching.

I hope you guys enjoy watching the video -- I surely did!!  Of course, as an unofficial member of the Jacky - Harlem True Love Fan Club (just kidding....I actually made that up), I loved Harlem's video the most -- hahaha!  (Those of you who love Jacky and Harlem's friendship and chemistry as much as I do will totally understand why).  Harlem's video was so funny -- he actually made it so professional-looking (keep your eyes out for the "Harlem Music" copyright at the end of his video...LOL).  And I got such a kick out of Harlem trying to make up a new title for Jacky (sorry Harlem -- as much as I adore you, the title of "Song Buddha" doesn't fly with me...let's stick with "God of Songs", ok?).   The best part of course was Harlem claiming that Jacky's new song "The Rest of Time" shows his (Jacky's) love for him (Harlem) because he used Harlem's name in the title (two of the Chinese characters in the song actually do sound like his name)....Jacky's reaction was even funnier (he basically "rejected" Harlem's love and called him a "san ba" (loosely translated as 'nosy meddler').   LOL...poor Harlem (it was all in good fun of course, since Jacky and Harlem are such close buddies -- they love poking fun at each other and calling each other names like little boys...haha!).

The other highlight is of course the "reunion" of the 4 Heavenly Kings (Jacky even commented on this and said that if he were to record a video and include it in the clip, it will truly be all 4 of them together).  Plus there's all the other big names from the Taiwan and HK entertainment industries whom I didn't even list -- loved most of their speeches too: big Tony Leung's speech was very moving, little Tony Leung was cute, Eason Chan was being his weird self, Eric Tsang was actually serious for once (I liked what he said though), Nick Cheung was funny as hell (yes Nick, your "brother" was definitely laughing at your poor Mandarin...heehee), Sean Lau stuck to his "man of few words" style (his clip was obviously the shortest...LOL), Karena Lam's was the most unique.  Out of the 3 Kings, Andy Lau's speech was the most moving while Leon Lai's was the most eloquent (of course).

Ok, I'll stop spoiling it for you guys and let you watch the video yourselves....

Enjoy!

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Jacky Cheung`s new Mandarin album: 醒著做夢 (Wake Up Dreaming)

I know I haven’t posted about Jacky in a long time, but since his new Mandarin album is coming out tomorrow (well, technically today if we count HK time instead of U.S. time), I figured I’d “pre-celebrate” with this post!  

Yesterday, Jacky held a press conference marking the official release of his album in Taiwan.  The event was hosted by his good friend Mickey Huang and of course, there was a lot of funny banter between the two of them (I’m waiting for all the clips of the press con to come out, which I will post up once available).  Jacky sang the second plug from his new album (the song is called “Tears of Time”) live during the event (aww, wish I could have been there!).

Actually, Jacky already held press conferences in HK and Mainland China in the past few weeks, but the reason why I wanted to point out the Taiwan one in particular is because of the “star-studded” nature of this press con.  The organizers of the event specially invited 30 of Jacky’s friends (most of whom are A-listers in the HK entertainment industry) to record video segments congratulating him on the release of his new album.    In addition to his “buddies” such as Harlem Yu, Tony Leung Chiu Wai (little Tony), Tony Leung Ka Fai (big Tony), Nick Cheung, Eric Tsang, Eason Chan, and close friends/colleagues such as Sandra Ng, John Woo, A-Mei Chang, Karena Lam, Alan Tam, Sandy Lam, Sammi Cheng, Tang Wei, etc. etc. etc. , the biggest highlight was the “reunion” of the 4 Heavenly Kings, as Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, and Leon Lai all recorded video segments that were aired at the press conference.  I have yet to watch all the video clips, but I absolutely applaud the organizers for such a sweet gesture (Jacky is definitely well-loved in Taiwan)! 

I will post up more clips once they come out.  For the time being though, here are a few promo pics from Universal’s (Jacky’s record company) weibo that shows some of the friends who recorded video clips. 

Oh and lastly….congratulations Jacky on the release of your new album!  It was a long wait for us fans (7 years since release of his last Mandarin album, though the album itself was technically 10 years in the making), but definitely well worth it!! 

P.S.:  For those who haven’t done so already, please buy Jacky’s new album!  Thank you!!

News Article: Hong Kong broadcaster TVB names Charles Chan as new chairman

I know I haven't posted too much about TVB lately, but since this is pretty big news, figured I would share it...

The announcement was made today that TVB's current chairman Norman Leung (who took over as chairman a few years ago from the late Sir Run Run Shaw) will be retiring at the end of the year.  Charles Chan (he's part of the conglomerate that bought TVB 3 years ago) will be taking over Mr. Leung's position as chairman starting January 1st.

To be honest, I'm not really sure how I feel about this news.  I guess to me, it doesn't really make a difference, since TVB was already on a downward decline as a company more than 10 years ago when Sir Run Run Shaw got too old to manage the station himself and handed off day to day operations to his wife Mona Fong (who had a huge hand in digging TVB's grave with her poor management / oversight).

I guess my only "gripe" about Charles Chan taking over is his "outsider" status when it comes to TVB (he has only been with the station for 3 years and I highly doubt he was too involved with day to day stuff during that time).  As with any "established, brand-name" product that gets new ownership from outsiders who don't know a thing about running a TV station, there are bound to be issues in the beginning....not sure how TVB is going to fare under this new leadership.  Will Charles Chan change TVB for the better or will he put the last nail in the coffin for good?  At this point, it's too early to tell....but for the sake of the artists who still work at TVB (specifically the ones I grew up watching and still support to this day), I hope this change is for the better.

By the way....I rolled my eyes when I read that Mr. Accountant (Mark Lee) got promoted to CEO (obviously I dislike that guy with a passion).  Well, I hope this doesn't mean that TVB goes back to their "cheapskate" ways now, especially since they were actually starting to "spend" the way they're supposed to the past 2-3 years....

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Hong Kong broadcaster TVB names Charles Chan as new chairman

Source:  SCMP

Article originally published December 20, 2014

Deal-maker Charles Chan Kwok-keung has been appointed as the new chairman of TVB, the city's dominant free-to-air television broadcaster.

The announcement was made yesterday with Norman Leung Nai-pang, 74, current executive chairman of the station's board and the chairman of the executive committee, set to retire on January 1.

The news came as TVB's beleaguered rival ATV was still struggling to pay November salaries while awaiting the government's verdict on the renewal of its licence to broadcast. Both ATV's and TVB's licences expire in November next year.

ATV's news staff plan to release a statement on Monday, vowing to stop work on December 30 or 31 if they are still unpaid.

Chan, 59, will assume both of Leung's positions at TVB. He was appointed a non-executive director of TVB in April 2011 after leading a group of investors to buy Shaw Brothers' stake in the broadcaster for HK$6.26 billion.

The investors also included Taiwanese entrepreneur Cher Wang Hsiueh-hong, co-founder of smartphone maker HTC, and Providence Equity Partners, a US private equity company that manages US$22 billion in capital and investments worldwide.

Wang and Jonathan Nelson, the chief executive of Providence, were named as non-executive directors of TVB in April 2011. Chan was appointed to the executive committee in March 2012.

Leung, who had been with TVB for 11 years, succeeded the late Run Run Shaw as executive chairman of the board on January 1, 2012, after the film and television mogul's retirement.

In a statement, Leung thanked TVB colleagues and praised Shaw's achievement in co-founding TVB. 

"When I took over from Sir Run Run in 2012, I knew his achievement would be a hard act to follow," he said.

Meanwhile, general manager Cheong Shin Keong will become an executive director and sit on the executive committee. Group general manager Mark Lee Po-on will become group CEO.