mf.rox

Actually, the title is an in joke — I HATE it when people say stuff like that.

But the funny thing is, in China just like the US, I go a long time without seeing a celebrity, and then I see the same person again and again.¬† I didn’t see anybody in New York for the longest time, and then it seemed like I couldn’t go downtown without running into Jeaneane Garofalo walking her dog.¬† In Hong Kong, the only celebrity I saw for two years was Paul Foronoff, and then I saw him twice in one day!¬† In the mainland, for the past two years when on winter vacation, I ran into the snobby white guy who hosts Xuexi Hanyu on Chinese TV (once on Hainan’s Monkey Island, and once in a tiny restaurant in a tiny town in the middle of Xishuangbanna).¬† Then, when Ed and I went to the Shanghai Film and TV Studio Amusement Park, which is also a working film set, we ran into Huang Shao Ming and the Shanghai Tan crew.¬† I’d heard of Huang Shao Ming before, but I’d never actually seen him.¬† I wasn’t prepared for the fact that he had a HUGE fan club, all freaking out, carrying pictures of him and demanding his autograph.¬†

Here’s a picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58285552@N00/160612129/

Yesterday I went to the Shanghai Film Art Center, which is the HQ for the current film festival.¬† I was just in time to see the trailer for Feng Xiaogang’s THE BANQUET.¬† It’s a period piece, very lavish, based on Hamlet.¬† They showed an English-language trailer featuring that guy heard on 80% of them in the US (always saying, “the power of dreams,” “but ONE MAN,” or something like that).¬† The film’s music is done by Tan Dun, and I noticed that the music on the trailer was acutally part of the score from CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON!¬†

But, who was out in force, attending the event, but Huang Shao Ming’s fan club!¬† This time it actually included a middle-aged man, holding some sort of light-up sign!¬†

Then, Feng Xiaogang, Huang Xiaoming, and some other people associated with the production came out to talk and pose for photos.¬† Mostly Feng spoke, but there were so many people, it was so noisy, and I was so far away that I couldn’t hear what he was saying.¬† I just got a lot of his “ar ar ar” Beijing hua sound.¬† Huang also spoke for a while, while teenage girls freaked out and climbed up on chairs trying to get a look at him.¬† Every once in a while, someone would call, “Shaaaao miiiing,” plaintively.¬† Then at the end, all the girls stampeded over to where he was exiting to snap photographs.¬† I actually got some too, of all the press, of Huang, and of Feng Xiaogang talking, but they’re not very clear because they’re from so far away.¬† My computer is down again (but is hopefully being fixed for good this time).¬† I’ll post a couple of my pictures from the press conference to Flickr as soon as I can.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2006 at 9:40 pm and is filed under General, Movies and TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.