News Article: Many celebrity offspring looking to break into entertainment industry actually rely on themselves

Here's an interesting article that I read yesterday about what we call "星二代" in Chinese (aka 'celebrity offspring' -- the children of famous entertainers in the HK entertainment industry). 

I'm actually glad that the reporter from Ming Pao decided to write this article about the struggles that some of the celebrity offspring in the entertainment industry face because it's very true that much of the general public has a 'false understanding' of what it's like to be the children of celebrities.  I remember there was an article that came out a couple months earlier about singer Alan Tam's son wanting to join the entertainment industry and in one of the forums, the sentiment seemed to be that he would definitely 'make it' because of his famous dad.  In fact, alot of the comments were along the lines of 'well, isn't it great to have a celebrity as parent' -- implying that most likely the celebrity offspring will get certain 'perks' by virtue of being the child of a famous entertainer.

Well, to me, that argument doesn't make sense because to be honest, I've seen many celebrity offspring struggle to survive in the entertainment industry and a few of them who actually did end up gaining 'fame and fortune' did so on their own with very little help from their parents (2 examples that come to mind immediately:  Nicholas Tse and Bowie Tsang).  I know the path is not easy, despite what most people may think, so it's refreshing to see these types of articles that attempt to 'dispel' this so-called celebrity offspring 'myth'.

Anyway, this article is definitely an eye-opener.  Hopefully those who read it will have a better appreciation for some of the young artists who actually do work hard and try to become successful on their own accord!

Good luck to all of them!

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Many celebrity offspring looking to break into entertainment industry actually rely on themselves

Source:  Mingpao

 

Translation:  llwy12

 

Actor Nicholas Tse’s (謝霆鋒) interview for TVB’s new show Telling Maria《最佳男主角》was well-received by audiences – in fact, after his multi-part interview segment aired, many audiences praised him as being an ‘exceptionally good man’.  In addition, his shocking revelation at the end of the program that he once had a benign skin tumor took the entertainment industry by storm, with both colleagues and fans alike expressing concern about his health. A few days ago, during a special airing of the interview show’s last episode entitled Telling Maria:  Top Secret Files《最佳男主角: 絕密檔案》, Nicholas Tse revealed yet another surprising secret about himself:  at one point, he only had 2 dollars in his bank account!

A lot of people mistakenly think that the children of famous celebrities for sure will have an easy life and be able to get whatever they want, whenever they want it.  In reality though, the lives of these celebrity offspring are far from ‘easy’ – in fact, many of them encounter the same challenges and difficulties that ordinary people do and oftentimes, if they choose to go down the same path as their ‘famous’ parents [join the entertainment industry], they have to rely on themselves in order to ‘make it’.  

When it comes to overcoming difficulties on the path to breaking into the entertainment industry, two celebrity offspring who come to mind right away are veteran actor Paul Chun’s (秦沛) son and daughter, Benji (姜文杰) and Lesley (姜麗文) Chiang.


CTI takes in many celebrity offspring

Earlier, during a visit to the set of CTI’s currently filming series Three Sides of Shape Doctors《三面形醫》, [our reporter] got to see veteran actor John Chiang (姜大衛) filming a scene with his niece Lesley Chiang [TN:  John Chiang is Paul Chun’s younger brother] – interestingly though, in the series, John actually plays Lesley’s father.  Other artists in the same series include singer/songwriter Benji Chiang (Lesley’s brother) as well as actor Sam Chan (陳宇琛), who is the son of another veteran HK actor:  Shek Sau (石修).  Another celebrity offspring who recently joined CTI is Dexter Young (楊天經) – his mother is famous actress / opera singer Connie Chan (陳寶珠).  Turns out that CTI has been a ‘settling ground’ for many celebrity offspring, especially those who once worked for TVB but were not able to gain much success or recognition – unexpectedly, CTI has become a ‘new hope’ for these celebrity offspring on the path to fulfilling their aspirations in the entertainment industry.   

Many people think that celebrity offspring should not have any problems ‘making it’ in the entertainment industry – after all, with the ‘success’ of their famous parents that they can ‘piggy back’ on plus the support from ‘big’ entertainment companies (i.e. TVB), there’s no reason for them to worry, right?  Actually, no – in reality, whether these celebrity offspring are able to ‘break through’ and taste success or not really depends on their situation as well as fate and luck.


Lesley Chiang saves up money to film MV

Though many celebrity parents do not want their children to follow in their footsteps and join the entertainment industry, fate would have it that many of these children inherited their parents’ talents and/or passion for performing.  More often than not, celebrity parents require their children to finish their educations first before allowing them to join the entertainment industry.  This was certainly the case with most of the celebrity offspring who recently joined CTI, as all of them are college graduates with their own specialized areas of interest – for example, Dexter Young is an Economics major, Lesley Chiang majored in Psychology, and Sam Chan specialized in Architecture.   Chatting with Lesley Chiang earlier about this, she stated:  “Unfortunately, our [Benji and herself] goal was not to become lawyers or doctors!  Even though I majored in Psychology, my true interest actually lies in singing and acting.  After my brother [Benji] graduated from college, he also studied at the HK Academy of Performing Arts (HKAPA) for a few years – he knows how to write scripts and enjoys participating in behind-the-scenes work for various types of productions.”

Benji and Lesley come from a family of celebrities – their father is veteran actor Paul Chun and their uncles are award-winning actor John Chiang and renown HK director Derek Yee (爾冬陞) [TN:  not to mention their grandparents Yim Chun and Hong Mei were also famous celebrities back in the day] – however when this brother /sister team decided to break into the HK music industry as self-financed singers, they still had to endure numerous hardships and jump many hurdles.  Recounting their path to becoming singers, Lesley expressed:  “Even after 3 years in the industry, we still did not have the money to film our own MVs for our songs -- plus last year, my brother was ‘frozen’ by his previous employer [TVB] for 6 months, so we essentially had zero income for a period of time – however, despite the circumstances, we didn’t request any help from our dad [Paul Chun].  This year, after joining CTI, both of us worked hard at filming series and finally were able to save up some money, so in December, we will be able to film our very own MV!   Even though our dad is very supportive of us and set aside a huge ‘safety net’ for us if needed, both Benji and I do not want to carelessly spend his hard-earned money.  When we were little, we would visit Daddy on the set while he was filming – seeing the heavy costumes he wore during hot weather and the hours he would put in, we understood how exhausting his work was.  He has always been a workaholic, but with his age, he’s not able to put in the hours he used to anymore – in fact, he recently had to return to Canada to rest up during a break in filming.  I recently told him not to work so hard anymore, as both my brother and I have good working ability and can take care of him now – Daddy was very moved when he heard this!”


Sam Chan balances school, business, and acting

Some people may think that Dexter Young has been able to ‘survive’ in the entertainment industry because of his mother Connie Chan, however Connie revealed recently that she has never asked anyone in the industry to give her son any acting opportunities.  When he was at TVB, Dexter was actually the one who had to ‘thicken his skin’ and solicit suitable acting opportunities himself from producers – unfortunately, the opportunities he received were mostly hosting gigs for sports programs.  Currently, Dexter has joined CTI and in addition to filming TV series, he is also participating in a few stage plays – he also has plans to hold a mini-concert in the coming months as well and will finally get the chance to realize his dream of performing onstage.

Sam Chan also recently joined CTI (his dad Shek Sau already joined earlier).  Back when he worked for TVB, Sam was already in the business of jewelry design and in 2007, he established his own company [LLazy Bonez Design Ltd].  After joining CTI, he will be even busier, as he now has to balance his acting duties with taking care of his business – in addition, he has also decided to go back to school in pursuit of a Masters degree.  Despite everything on his plate right now, Sam feels that things are going relatively smooth at the moment – he expressed that going back to school is a promise he made to himself and as an adult now, he has to be responsible and accountable to his promises.

2011 Hong Kong Celebrity Breakups (SO FAR)...

Written by: llwy12
(Originally written and published as an Editorial for Asianfanatics.net)

We're only halfway through the year and already, there have been a number of celebrity 'breakups' in the HK entertainment industry -- many of them high-profile. Could it possibly be that the Hollywood 'breakup' bug has finally hit Hong Kong? Or perhaps it’s all in the stars and was just meant to be?

Whatever the reason, it’s worth taking a look back at some of the more notable breakups that have made headlines in the past few months (and hope that the breakup trend does NOT continue!).

Note: The below list is definitely not all-inclusive, as I’m sure that there were more celebrity breakups that occurred this year that are not mentioned. I just chose to mention some of the more ‘high profile’ ones that dominated headlines for awhile.

Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung -- To divorce or not to divorce, that is the question

Is it just me, or is anyone else sick and tired of the whole Nicholas / Cecilia divorce drama thing?

After almost a month of occupying the headlines of practically every newspaper and magazine in HK (and in other parts of Asia for that matter), this high-profile (soon-to-be ex) celebrity couple's divorce saga is finally showing some signs of dying down -- that is, until either Nic or Cecilia physically show their faces in public anywhere in HK (or elsewhere) -- then the mayhem starts all over again (well, at least that seems to be the pattern right now).

Indeed, the Nic / Cecilia situation has played out like a soap opera in the past few weeks, with speculations galore by the Media (and the general public) as well as varying degrees of mudslinging and PR ploys from both camps. Without judging who is right or wrong (because it is pretty much impossible to determine at this point), just look at what kind of impact the public airing of the couple’s marital woes has had on the family and friends (on both sides) thus far….

Take for example Nic’s dad Patrick Tse – I’m sure he is probably fed up by now with all those annoying reporters hounding him everywhere he goes, asking him the same questions over and over again (Are Nic and Cecilia really getting a divorce? How do you feel about it? Is Cecilia still 'The Pride of the Tse Family'? Are you going to yell at Eileen Cha when you see her? How long has it been since you've seen the grandkids?....and the questions go on and on). At the rate that things have been going, I wouldn’t be surprised if old man Tse gets so exasperated that he ends up punching one of those pesky reporters in the face (like we need more Tse family drama, eh?). Until that happens though, I continue to find Patrick’s responses to the Media (regarding his son’s situation of course) quite amusing -- definitely gives me my ‘laugh of the day’ listening to his responses.

Oh, and how about all those celebrities affected by the reporters camped out at the HK International Airport for days on end, waiting for either Nic or Cecilia to show up? Those reporters probably bumped into more celebrities at the airport than they would ever bump into attending any other event (boy would I like to be one of those reporters – reading about all the celebrities they encountered, I couldn’t help thinking how lucky’ they were)! And I’ve got to say that seeing the ‘shocked’ expressions on the faces of some celebrities who showed up at the airport to find swarms of reporters was actually quite funny.

At this point though, in my humble opinion at least, it doesn’t matter whether majority of the public are on Nic’s side or Cecilia’s side -- and frankly, I don’t care to know the timeline of when (or if) Nic has already filed divorce papers or not…I’m sure I’m speaking for a lot of people (including the members of the Tse and Cheung families) when I say -- can we just be done with this mess and move on? Please?

One last note -- just for the record, I’m not a fan of either artist (and never will be) so I really don’t care either way how this fiasco ends up turning out…but I do feel sorry for Nic and Cecilia’s two kids, Lucas and Quintus, and I sincerely hope that history doesn’t end up repeating itself 20 years down the road (though with the Tse family genes, it’s definitely hard to say)…


Gregory Lee and Shirley Yeung – From sweet bliss to controversial breakup?

After 9 years of dating, Shirley Yeung announced a couple days ago (at a public event no less) that she and her boyfriend Gregory Lee have broken up. I will admit that I was shocked when I first heard the news, as I had always thought that this was one of those celebrity couples that had a high chance of ‘making it’. I mean, let’s face it -- they look cute together and personality-wise, seem to be compatible in so many ways (or so I thought).

Before I proceed, just a brief mention for those people reading this who may not know who Shirley and Gregory are: Shirley is a 2001 Miss Hong Kong winner (and current record-holder for winning the most awards during a Miss HK pageant) and currently is an actress at TVB; Gregory is a former 1980s child actor (those following TVB series during that time will definitely remember him, as he was the child actor of choice back then) who comes from a veteran acting family and is currently working for TVB again (his career in adulthood is lackluster compared to when he was a kid).

As with any celebrity breakup where very few details are provided by the ‘main players’ themselves, Media speculation is bound to arise -- and so far, that is exactly how this situation is playing out. With Shirley refusing to comment further and Gregory too upset to think or speak clearly, it’s no surprise then that everyone else around them (family, friends, the general public) is speaking for them -- and of course, the HK Media is pouncing on ‘every juicy detail’ and reporting on it as though it were the truth.

What makes this particular breakup attention-worthy is the ‘controversy’ surrounding it -- the supposed ‘one-sided’ announcement of the split, the shocked reactions from family, the rumors of a third party, speculations of infidelity and deceit, and even a possible pregnancy, etc. Oh, and then there are the questions about the timeline not adding up – i.e.: did they break up a few months or a few days ago? Did the parents know or not know? Did Gregory only find out when the public announcement was made or did he truly know in advance? And so on… (Heck, the controversial nature of this split makes the whole Nicholas/Cecilia thing seem boring in comparisons!)

In the days to come, I’m sure the ‘true story’ related to this situation is going to emerge (eventually), so until that occurs, I’m going to reserve judgment on who is telling the truth and who isn’t. One thing is for sure though -- based on Shirley and Gregory’s public comments so far, both of them are definitely NOT on the same page!


Moses Chan and Bernice Liu -- From ‘rumored relationship’ to real breakup

Ever since their pairing in TVB series “Love Bond” back in 2003, Moses and Bernice have been rumored to be in a relationship in real life, despite the fact that neither party had officially confirmed it (until just recently that is). Though no one really knew whether these two were truly a couple in real life (“BerMo” fans probably didn’t care, as long as the on-screen chemistry was there), TVB definitely took full advantage of the rumor -- pairing them up in typical ‘couple team’ fashion for subsequent collaborations in series as well as commercials, promotional events, and even the Anniversary Awards ceremony. Talk about ‘milking’ the rumored relationship to the fullest -- hey, free promotion for TVB (not that they need any more promotion…)!

The relationship was no longer a “secret” when, at the end of last year (2010), Bernice was photographed hanging out with her “rich male friend” Alastair Lam -- almost immediately, accusations of Bernice “cheating on Moses” started flying and Bernice’s public image went down the toilet. Needless to say, “BerMo” was no more and the turn of events made the breakup ‘official’ (at least in the eyes of the public). Of course, the HK Media jumped on the chance to ‘fan the fire’ and so the focus shifted from ‘bad Bernice’ to ‘poor Moses’: aww, poor guy, he looks so forlorn -- hey, let’s dub him ‘the deal of the century’…that should surely make him feel better and show Bernice what she ‘lost’! (Yeah, whatever…it’s the HK Media – they’re not the smartest of people anyway…). Then after that, Aimee Chan comes into the picture (that was mighty convenient, eh?) and hence, Moses’ ‘fairytale courtship’ of Aimee begins…Meanwhile, the Media is clamoring for Bernice’s ‘reaction’ to Moses and Aimee becoming a rumored couple and next thing you know, the headlines read “Bernice Liu hints that Aimee Chan is Third Wheel in relationship with Moses Chan”…wait, but didn’t Bernice and Moses break up already back when that Alastair thing surfaced? So how is Aimee the 3rd wheel? So does this mean Moses was cheating on Bernice instead of Bernice cheating on Moses? I’M CONFUSED!!! Ah, let me guess -- the Media is twisting people’s words again, right??

In a dramatic ‘turn of events’, Bernice revealed recently in an interview that she and Moses actually broke up back in 2008 -- which means that even if she was truly dating Alastair Lam last year, she was not ‘cheating on Moses’ as the public claimed she did. (Of course, she also took the opportunity in the same interview to ‘criticize’ her former employer TVB --I definitely got a kick out of that…LOL!).

Anyway, regardless of how much of the whole thing is fact or fiction, the bottom line is that the relationship between Moses and Bernice is officially OVER. Period.

P.S.: In case you’re wondering why I included the Moses / Bernice breakup in this article when it technically occurred in 2010 -- well, basically because I felt like it for one, but also because the issue sort of overlapped into 2011 as well. (Plus, according to Bernice, the official breakup was in 2008, so technically, the 2010 date isn’t accurate either).


Richard Li and Isabella Leong -- No longer a “Cinderella” story

Honestly, who was actually taken by surprise when news came out that billionaire tycoon and chairman of HK telecom company PCCW (and Asia’s richest man Li Kar Shing’s son) Richard Li had broken up with actress Isabella Leong? I mean, just look at the facts -- Isabella was a ‘struggling’ actress at the time that she met Richard Li and he was a rich dude who wanted a male heir (or two). Less than a year after they met in 2008, she was already pregnant with his child and in 2009 bore him a son -- then last year, she became pregnant again and gave him twin boys. BUT the two of them are NOT MARRIED -- without the commitment of marriage, how realistic is it that a rich guy like Richard is going to remain with Isabella for the rest of his life? Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure THAT ONE out!

To be honest, I’m sort of indifferent to the whole Richard / Isabella situation because, well, frankly I don’t really care. I definitely know who Richard is as well as who his father is (which Hong Konger doesn’t know them? Plus there are enough references to them in TV series and such that a TV fanatic like me would have no reason not to know) -- but that doesn’t mean that I care. As for Isabella…well, let me just say that prior to her connection with Richard Li, I barely knew who she was -- all I knew was that she was an actress who was having contract issues with EEG and after she got together with Richard, her contract issue ‘disappeared’’(it’s actually more like Richard paid the money that was required in order for Isabella to break off her contract early) -- obviously, I had never watched any of her movies prior to that (and I have no interest whatsoever in watching them any time in the future either).

Isabella announced her split with Richard Li back in February and a few days later, Richard issued his own statement to the public confirming the matter. Not surprisingly, rumors immediately arose of a possible third party in the relationship (which Richard as well as Isabella’s spokesperson denied)…but the ‘unique’ aspect of this particular breakup was the rumor of a ‘separation fee’ in the amount of several hundred million dollars that Richard supposedly gave Isabella (which again, both parties have vehemently denied). Of course, only when the breakup involves a millionaire or billionaire will such a rumor exist!

Hmmm, now I’m starting to wonder…was it really a ‘good move’ for Isabella to have 3 children with Richard without being married to him? I would think not…but then again, that’s just my opinion -- others may actually feel she was ‘smart’ for having the children, especially since she did provide the ‘male heirs’ that the Li family wanted.

.***.

As I said at the start of this write-up, I sincerely hope that this ‘breakup trend’ among the celebrities does not continue (though I know that’s probably unrealistic given the nature of the industry). I guess we will have to see at the end of the year whether there will be a ‘part 2’ to this particular post!

What Has Become of the HK Music Industry?

I was reading an old edition of Mingpao magazine (from August 2009) and one of the articles in there was an interview with Nicholas Tse regarding the Mandarin album that he released last year. I’m not a fan of his by any means, but something he said about the HK music industry during the interview really hit home for me and is very much in line with something I’ve been trying to say for a long time – that the HK music industry has been in a dismal state for years and will continue to go downhill.

The interviewer asked him if the Mandarin album that he released will be his last album – Nicholas answered that it probably will be his last because 1) he wants to focus more on movies and 2) he feels that he doesn’t fit in with the current music industry.

With regard to Nicholas feeling that he doesn’t fit in with the industry anymore, he brought up several very valid points, but the one I agree with the most is that the “standards” have definitely changed from the way it was back in the 80s/90s – basically, the standards have been lowered rather than raised.

Here’s Nicholas’ exact words (translated into English) from the interview: “In the past, our albums needed to sell at least several hundred thousand copies before we were even ‘qualified’ to have a concert at the HK Coliseum. Nowadays, if only one song from an album is a hit, the next day, there is already an announcement made that the artist will be performing at the HK Coliseum; then even if the album sells only 10 thousand copies, the champagne is brought out right away in celebration – the standards have been drastically lowered. If Michael Jackson hadn’t died, the young artists today would not even know that such a superstar even existed – it’s sad that it takes a superstar like him to die in order for the young generation to understand what it really means to be a legend and what ‘true music’ really is. To be forced to exist in such a music industry today – sorry, but I can’t do it.”


What Nicholas said has a lot of merit and I absolutely agree – the standards have been lowered so much that now, the music industry is pretty much crap. I mean, just looking around, there are countless examples of how the younger generation of singers just can’t cut it:

~ Most can’t sing live without going off tune (and I mean REALLY off tune). True, some of the older generation artists have gone off tune before, but not in as obvious a way as today’s artists do. Part of the reason for this is because today’s artists are not used to singing live – they are so spoiled by the record companies that all they do is release an album that is recorded in a studio and are all of a sudden considered ‘singers’. But one thing that they fail to remember (or they know but are in denial) is that just because someone sounds good on a recorded album does NOT mean that they are a good singer – namely because the songs can be recorded over and over again so that the best version gets recorded and plus there’s a lot of post-production editing that goes into the album to make it sound perfect. So technically, a ‘singer’ can be extremely off-tune, but since the audience only gets the final version of what was recorded, they would never know that. Singing live is different because 1) the audience is sitting right there, so any error made will be very obvious, and 2) unforeseen situations can happen when singing live (such as microphones not working properly, audience members walking in and out of the room, etc.) that the singers don’t get the benefit of experiencing in a studio setting and therefore do not know how to handle.

~Society tries to be so ‘politically correct’ nowadays that people become ‘afraid’ to give constructive criticism and feedback to these young artists. So with no one telling them what they are doing wrong or even worse, downplaying their flaws in order to not hurt their feelings, the younger artists are going to continue their bad habits until it gets to a point where, when they finally realize their faults, it is too late to change.

~Most of the younger generation have haughty and arrogant attitudes – so when the older generation artists DO try to mentor them and give them feedback, they don’t listen to them. What’s worse (and what I find most annoying) is that some of these younger artists cast the feedback aside as ‘faulty’ and disrespect the older generation artists by claiming that they are ‘out of touch’ with the newer generation. Well, those ‘kids’ need to wake up because it’s NOT the older generation that is ‘out of touch’ – rather, it’s the younger generation’s bad attitudes that are not allowing them to accept the feedback and advice of those who are only trying to help them (and help the industry at the same time).

Bottom line: the reality is that the music industry (namely, the HK music industry) has lowered its standards to such an extent that it is willing to accommodate and accept mediocrity – and in doing so, basically “killing off” the industry completely.

I could go on forever about this topic, but since I will only become increasingly frustrated the more I talk about it (because unfortunately, it’s too late to change the industry and things are only going to continue to get worse), I figured I should end it here.