Weibo Fever # 13: Jacky and Leslie’s Taiwan trip [11th Annual Golden Melody Awards]

I saw the below clip reposted on Weibo earlier today and it was way too funny (and cute) to pass up, so wanted to share it with fellow Leslie and Jacky fans (as well as fellow Super Sunday fans)!

Not sure how many of you are familiar with Huang Zi Jiao (黃子佼) -- he's a famous Taiwanese host and comedian (and musician and writer and DJ and.....you name it, he's done it!)....definitely a talented individual and one of my favorite Taiwanese hosts! I actually became familiar with him over a decade ago (way more than a decade ago to be exact) during his days as co-host for the Taiwanese variety show "Super Sunday" together with Zhang Xiao Yan (張小燕), Harlem Yu (庾澄慶), and Pu Xue Liang (卜學亮). SS was one of my favorite Taiwan variety shows, as I loved the chemistry between all the hosts – the ‘dream team’ duo of Jiao Jiao and Ah Liang especially never failed to crack me up each time I saw them together on TV (awww, I miss them now...haha)!

Anyway, in this old video clip from the year 2000, Jiao Jiao was actually on a work assignment for Super Sunday: his task was to ‘greet and welcome’ the artists at the Taiwan airport who would be arriving to attend the 11th Annual Golden Melody Awards (to take place that night). In addition to bringing the usual camera crew, Jiao Jiao also brought along a 3 person ‘orchestra’ and instructed them to play the artists’ songs as they stepped out of the gate.

The actual clip itself actually shows Jiao Jiao ‘picking up’ several artists, including Leslie Cheung (張國榮), Jacky Cheung (張學友), Dave Wang (王傑), Zhang Zhen (張震), and Gigi Leung (梁詠琪), however the part that I’m going to focus on is the Leslie and Jacky part (since that segment was the funniest!).

Jiao Jiao actually has a good relationship with many HK and Taiwan artists and back then, “Super Sunday” was still a tremendously popular show, especially with its focus on promoting singers – therefore, he is able to joke around with them utilizing his 'trademark' sense of humor without them getting offended. I love Jiao Jiao's brand of humor – he says the funniest things and his facial expressions are always spot on according to the occasion (LOL).

I've actually seen the below clip before and probably even have the segment on videotape somewhere (part of my HK/Taiwan Entertainment memorabilia collection...LOL), but since it was such a long time ago, I pretty much forgot about it until now. It’s a great little clip though and brought back a lot of awesome memories!

Here’s the link to the video clip from Tudou (courtesy of Leslie’s fan site) as well as a ‘capture’ of the Jiao Jiao / Leslie exchange. I’ve also translated the commentary from the netizen who posted the actual clip on Weibo (which sort of sets up the scene so that the clip makes more sense):

Translation:

Rancy綵虹糖 wrote: In 2000, Jacky Cheung and 'Gor Gor' Leslie Cheung arrived at the Taiwan airport [for the 11th Golden Melody Awards]. "Super Sunday" host Huang Zi Jiao greeted them at the airport exit and even arranged to have an orchestra play music to welcome them. As Leslie arrived and was being interviewed, the orchestra 'accidentally' started playing Jacky's song in the background -- in turn, when Jacky was being interviewed, the orchestra also 'accidentally' played Leslie's song in the background...hahaha! Afterwards, the host [Jiao Jiao] gives Leslie a bouquet of flowers, but then asks for it right back so he could use the flowers again to give to Jacky....playfully, Leslie 'smacks' this particular host [Jiao Jiao] upside the head...HAHAHA...way too funny!

[Source: Huang Zi Jiao's weibo]

Dialogue between Leslie and Jiao Jiao (translated from video clip)..

Jiao Jiao: Leslie Gor Gor, how are you! I’m from “Super Sunday” – do you know who I am?

Leslie: Of course I do!

Jiao Jiao: Really! Oh, so moved! (motions to the crew member) Come, come come, present flowers! (Leslie takes the flowers)

Jiao Jiao: Leslie Gor Gor, you haven’t been back here in a long time. When will you be releasing another Mandarin album?

(At this moment, a crew member tells the orchestra that they’re playing the wrong song)

Leslie: Not yet.

Jiao Jiao: Oh really? You should hurry up and come out with another Mandarin album.

(As Leslie walks on, Jiao Jiao continues to interview him.)

 Jiao Jiao: You were on the same flight with Jacky earlier?

Leslie: Yes, yes, yes.

Jiao Jiao: Did you guys sit together and talk?

Leslie: No, but we were talking this entire time.

Jiao Jiao: Oh, so you guys were talking while waiting to go through Customs.

Leslie: Yes.

Jiao Jiao: Do you mind gesturing to the Super Sunday audience for us? Super! Thank you! Bye!

Leslie: Bye! (he turns and starts to walk away with the flowers in his hands)

Jiao Jiao (chasing after Leslie): Um, s-s-sorry.....(Leslie turns around)....the flowers we still need to use again later....sorry! (Jiao Jiao grabs the flowers out of Leslie's hands)

Leslie: Ha? The flowers aren’t for me to keep? (Leslie playfully smacks Jiao Jiao on the head and big red letters flash across the screen: LESLIE CHEUNG HIT PEOPLE LA!!)

Jiao Jiao: Aiya! We only have that one bouquet of flowers! Sorry! (Looks around) Where’s Jacky? Where’s Jacky?

 .---.

As an extra ‘bonus’, here’s a translation of the next segment in the video – Jiao Jiao’s interview with Jacky:

Jiao Jiao (rushing over to interview Jacky, who was sigining autographs for fans): Finally, we’re able to squeeze in and have a talk with Jacky. As is our usual practice, let’s present flowers to Jacky Gor Gor! (He hands Jacky the flowers) Welcome Jacky! (immediately takes the flowers back) Ok, thanks..we need to use the flowers again later. (Jacky laughs)

(All this time, the orchestra was still playing Leslie’s song, so the crew member tells them: ‘Hurry up, switch to Jacky’s!’)

Jiao Jiao: Congrats! How’s your wife doing? [TN: Jacky’s wife May was pregnant at the time]
Jacky: Not bad, not bad!

Jiao Jiao: Really. Did you give Harlem some pointers? He doesn’t seem to be able to make it come out. (a few seconds of awkward silence as Jacky looks confused and ponders Jiao Jiao’s question.)

Jacky: How long has it been? There’s no rush! [TN: Harlem had just gotten married, so Jacky meant that there’s no rush for him to have children just yet.]

Jiao Jiao: No rush, huh…

Jacky: Right, right.

Jiao Jiao: Do you hope to have a son or daughter?

Jacky: Doesn’t matter.

Jiao Jiao: Doesn’t matter, as long as have a child, right?

Jacky (laughs): Right.

Jiao Jiao: Are you nervous? In a few hours , need to d-d-deliver (Jacky looks at Jiao Jiao quizzically)…..deliver the awards! [TN: Jiao Jiao purposefully plays on the Chinese word for ‘delivering’ a baby]

Jacky: I think…I think…I think….Harlem’s chances are greater!

Jiao Jiao: Have you noticed that your song has been playing in the background? (He points to the 3-man orchestra behind them…Jacky looks over and laughs). We’ve had a 3-man orchestra following us and you didn’t even notice?! (Jacky laughs again). They work so hard! Ok la, ok la, add oil! SUPER! Thank you, Jacky! Bye bye!

As Jacky walks away, a voice in the back [Leslie] shouts out “Where are my flowers?” to which Jiao Jiao replies: “Your flowers, I will be taking with me…bye!”

.---.

My comments:

Omg, this clip (and the corresponding dialogue) was HILARIOUS!

First, Jacky’s expression when he comes out the gate and sees Jiao Jiao (he makes a funny face at him like a little kid, then walks right past him…hahaha) totally cracked me up. Then, Jiao Jiao rushes over to welcome Leslie (hey, Jacky came out first – Jiao Jiao was obviously playing favorites…LOL). I almost fell on the floor laughing at the sight of Jiao Jiao grabbing those flowers out of Leslie's hands and 'recycling' them to give to Jacky....and I'm pretty sure that the band playing the wrong music was definitely not an 'accident' (hehehe)......no wonder Leslie smacked Jiao Jiao! HAHAHAHA!! Oh, and Jiao Jiao's reaction to Leslie hitting him -- PRICELESS!!

In the next segment, when Jiao Jiao interviews Jacky, it’s obvious from the way he joked with him that they have a close relationship (primarily due to Jacky’s closeness to Harlem and Xiao Yan Jie) – also, Jacky’s silly expression throughout the whole interview was just too cute (LOL)! My favorite part was at the end of Jacky’s interview when Leslie suddenly asks about his flowers again (hehehe...)

Weibo Fever # 8: My Adoration of Mr. 'Big Nose' (大鼻友) and Mr. 'Big Head' (大頭鱼)…..

As you may have guessed, this is another Jacky related post (yay!!!!).

As most of you fellow Jacky fans probably know, my idol was in Taiwan last month for his concert tour (he held 4 shows at the Coliseum in Taipei). Of course, Taiwan is like a second home to Jacky because he has tons of friends (and fans) there -- one of those friends is his best friend of 20+ years, singer / host Harlem Yu. Over the years, whenever Jacky goes to Taiwan, he of course meets up with Harlem (if Harlem happens to be in town, that is), just like whenever Harlem goes to HK, Jacky makes sure to get together with him if possible. So of course, this time, it was no different.

Before I go on, let me backtrack a little. I started becoming a 'fan' of Harlem's back in the 90s, during my 'Taiwan entertainment' phase when I was pretty much following all things Taiwan (needless to say, I'm past that phase already, so I only know the older Taiwan artists and don't care for any of the newer 'idol' artists). One of my favorite Taiwan variety shows was "Super Sunday", which was hosted by none other than Harlem (as well as Taiwan's "Big Sister of Entertainment" Zhang Xiao Yan) -- I loved that show and I really enjoyed Harlem's sense of humor and liveliness as host, so I started paying attention to him starting at that point. It wasn't until after I started 'following' the show Super Sunday that I found out Harlem was actually a singer -- and a mighty good one too (he's considered one of the 'godfathers' of music in Taiwan).....so I guess you could say that I knew Harlem as a host before I knew him as a singer.

Not long after that, l found out that Harlem was one of Jacky's best friends (no wonder Jacky was such a frequent guest on Super Sunday!) and that's when I started becoming his 'fan' as well. These 2 friends truly have alot in common -- from their shared passion for music and dedication to family to their almost similar birthdays (both were born in the same month and year, but on different days) and everything in between -- it's really no wonder that they became such good friends. For me though, one of the things that I truly love about their friendship is their awesome, magical chemistry -- as Zhang Ziao Yan once said, when these 2 'boys' get together, they go wild (and yes, I call them 'boys' because they get so crazy when they get together, it's almost like they become 2 little boys in grade school, calling each other names and bickering with each other, sometimes even pushing each other around, but all in good fun). It's so cute to watch these 2 poke fun at each other on purpose, not to mention that it's absolutely hilarious listening to their 'brotherly' bantering back and forth (hey, who else can tell Jacky to his face "what are you, a pig?" and get away with it? LOL!). The most recent 'fun' I can remember off the top of my head was during Harlem's concert last year when Jacky attended as musical guest (no surprise there, since they do the musical guest thing for each other's concerts all the time) -- that segment of the concert was so good and I got such a good laugh out of it, I just didn't want it to end -- one of the 'highlights' was when Harlem and Jacky tried to perform a duet and Harlem kept screwing up the song (probably on purpose...LOL!), which threw Jacky off and caused him to forget some of the lyrics (which rarely ever happens) -- then they started jokingly blaming each other and calling each other names, which was absolutely hilarious (if I remember correctly, in the end, Harlem blamed 'lack of familiarity' with the song and Jacky blamed 'old age' for the screw ups....hahaha!)

Ok, so back to my original post....

During Jacky's most recent concert in Taiwan (Aug 18th to 21st), I was really really hoping that, in keeping with tradition, Harlem would be musical guest for at least one of the shows, but that didn't happen -- which, quite honestly, I didn't understand why at first, but then realized the reason: the format of Jacky's concert this time around (with the mini-movie being played out on stage and the various specially choreographed segments) wasn't really conducive to incorporating guest performances, since it would probably mess up the overall routine and format of the show. Nevertheless, the true friend that Harlem is, that didn't stop him from showing Jacky how much he supports him -- in addition to attending Jacky's opening performance on the 18th, he also attended Jacky's closing performance on the 21st, staying the entire time (and grooving to some of the songs from his seat in the audience section). And that's not all -- Harlem also hung out with his buddy backstage (I'm sure he had a VIP pass..LOL!) as well as afterwards, taking him out to eat and such -- plus that awesome present that Harlem had made specially for Jacky (see picture below).....

Pictures Credit as listed

After the first show, when Harlem was asked by reporters backstage, he said he came to "chao xing" (pay homage to 'the King')....but that he was also there to 'check things out' and make sure Jacky's performance was 'up to par'.....and that he would return on Sunday (the day of the last performance) to 'supervise'.....HAHAHAHAHA!! In all seriousness though, I was touched to hear Harlem say that watching Jacky's performance on stage moved him so much, that he actually cried during a few of the songs (awww....).

Anyway, in addition to the totally cool bright red "Hok Yau" Guitar that Harlem gave Jacky, he also sent him a gigantic fruit basket prior to the first night’s performance, complete with Jacky’s favorite fruit – apples (see picture).

The sign attached to the basket read:

To: 大鼻友


四日份水果
提供給破巨蛋記錄者


From: 大頭鱼

Translation:
To: Da Bei Yau ('Big Nose Friend’ – referring to Jacky)

4 days worth of fruits
Supplied to the person who will break the Taipei Coliseum record.

From: Da Tou Yu (‘Big Head Fish’ – referring to Harlem)

.--.

Also, here is what Harlem posted on his Weibo after watching Jacky’s opening show in Taipei:

他用1/2世紀的1/2來唱歌，唱出他的故事，也唱出我們的故事!聽到"如果‧愛"的時候，怎麼我眼睛又濕濕的，是他唱得太好!還是我們都太脆弱!!.....是人生!!

Translation: He [Jacky] used the ½ in ½ century to sing his songs and with that, sang out his life story, while also singing our story! When I was listening to [the song] “Perhaps Love”, why did I once again feel a wetness in my eyes? Is it because his singing is too good!? Or perhaps we are just too fragile!!....That’s life!!

Courtesy of:  Harlem Yu’s weibo (posted on 8/19 at 16:18):

.--.

Lastly, here’s a hilarious post from someone’s blog (no clue who the person is) that was forwarded on Weibo. The blog writer wrote about his friend’s ‘ encounter’ with Jacky and Harlem 16 years ago (hats off to the writer for his sense of humor – I was laughing the entire time I read this…LOL).

My interpretation of the ‘encounter’: Awww, Harlem is trying to help Jacky save money….what a friend! (Hahahaha!!)

Source: anhydride.pixnet.net

Originally posted on July 28, 2010

Translated by: llwy12

Asia God of Songs

The time is 1995. The God of Songs [Jacky] came to Taiwan for his concert. It was in the middle of his Taiwan tour and he was staying at the Hotel National [in Taichung].

This blog’s author was very young at the time, so needed to find a girlfriend – she was first love, but later ended up running off with another guy.

But that’s not important. At the time, she was working at Hotel National, in the Chinese food department. All of her colleagues were fighting over the opportunity to go see the Heavenly King [Jacky], however afterwards, when they returned, they appeared quite flustered.

Why?

The God of Songs had just entered his hotel room and so the service staff started performing their room service tasks in order.

The first staff was the bellboy responsible for taking up the luggage. After placing the luggage in the room, the Heavenly King, being who he is, did not put on airs or try to act self-important – instead, he was extremely polite and generously gave the bellboy a $500 (TWD) tip.

That particular colleague was jumping with joy – not only did he get to see the Heavenly King, he also received such a generous tip!

The second colleague was from housekeeping and arrived to clean the room. Actually, it wasn’t much cleaning, but rather just tidying up the various items that adorned the room. Upon completion, the colleague respectfully nodded to the Heavenly King, who was ready to hand over a tip.

Right at that moment, the Heavenly King’s best friend – yes, the one who sings “Let Me Love Enough All At Once” [Harlem] – suddenly appeared at the room. After exchanging greetings, the friend asked the Heavenly King why he didn’t go visit him first?

Laughing, the Heavenly King said that he just got off the plane and so headed over to the hotel first. As he was saying this, he took out a 500 dollar bill [TWD] and was about to hand it over to the housekeeping colleague.

The friend asks: “What are you doing?”

The Heavenly King replies: “They just finished tidying up the room and I’m very grateful to them.”

The friend says: “500 dollars? That much? Are you crazy?”

The Heavenly King replies: “The smallest amount I have is 500 dollar bill.”

The friend says: “Why didn’t you say something earlier? I have 100 dollar bills.” [turns to the housekeeping colleague]: "Come, come, come….thank you very much! Here’s your tip. As for the other room service crew, it’s not needed.”

As the rest of the staff left, they were muttering under their breath about the friend’s ‘stinginess’.

Recently, the writer of this blog saw a massage chair commercial that he [Harlem] did and suddenly remembered this interesting past ‘encounter’.
.***.
 Chinese Version:

亞洲歌神

時為1995年，歌神來台開演唱會，台中場，下榻全國大飯店。

版主當時年紀小，所以也要交女朋友，那是初戀，後來跟醫學系的男孩子跑了。


不過這不是重點。那時她在全國大飯店打工，中餐部。所有的同事都搶著去看天王，回來後大家都是氣呼呼的。


為何？歌神剛進房間，服務人員依序做room service。

第一位是提行李的，將行李安置完畢後，天王就是天王，沒有大牌的架子，非常客氣的給了500元的小費。

那名同事雀躍不已，不但能看到天王，還能拿這麼好的小費。

第二名同事，記得是做打掃的，其實也不是什麼打掃，就是把房間的擺飾再喬一次，必恭必敬的跟天王行禮，天王準備給小費。

說時遲，那時快，號稱天王的好朋友，就是"讓我一次愛個夠"的那個，突然出現在房間，看到天王就寒喧起來，問天王怎麼都不先去找他？

天王笑說剛下飛機就先來飯店，一邊說著就掏出500元，準備給那位打掃的同事。

好朋友說：你在幹什麼？

天王說：他們剛剛幫我整理房間，我很感謝他們。

好朋友說：500元？這麼多，你有沒有搞錯？

天王說：我最小的面額就是500

好朋友說：不早說，我有100的，我幫你給，來來來，謝謝你，這是您的小費。其他的room service就不需要了。

全部的人都暗罵那好朋友小氣。最近版主看到他拍按摩椅廣告，突然想起了這段往事。