Thursday, February 21, 2008

Happiness in Hacken Lee’s Concert

February 20, 2008

Happiness in Hacken Lee’s Concert
Hacken wears a shirt bearing his son’s face

Hacken Lee’s 11 concerts – "Your Hacken Lee Concert Hall" kicked off last night. It was indeed very exciting! Though his wife, Emily Lo, remained at the backstage to prepare his costumes, his son Ryan did not appear. Hacken’s parents, in-laws, Andy Lau and several artistes came to support. Towards the end, Hacken announced that his family is happy.


He wore a shirt with Ryan’s face imprinted on the front and said “2 years ago, I shared my dogs with everyone. This year, I met with many changes. Such as, I got married and became a father, so I wish to share these experiences with everyone. These 2 years have been very happy for me. Besides work, other areas have also provided me with great satisfaction. I feel very happy when I return home and see Ryan, even though there are lots of things to worry about – like Ryan being naughty, hungry and so on. Sometimes, I feel like sleeping but I can’t sleep. Ryan can sleep all he wants but he doesn’t want to.” The sleeves of his shirt had Ryan’s pictures too.

Fans presents him with pampers

Later on, Hacken mentioned that every time he sang to Ryan, he feels happy. He proceeds to sing a few lines “A little sparrow fell into the water” (a non-English song) and ‘London Bridge Is Falling Down’. He jokes that the lyrics of these children songs are scary. The lyrics of the song that Emily sang was worse – “I am a teapot, fat and short”. Hence, he had earlier written a song for his son and he went on to sing "Little Baby". The screen immediately broadcast pictures of Ryan. The last photo was a picture depicting the happy family of 3. How it makes one feel fortunate and full of admiration for them! After singing the song, Hacken said happily “Hope that all of you feel the bliss! Is Ryan cute? You have to say he is! Is he handsome? You have to say he is handsome! After this concert, I will bring my son around to have fun. If the press wants to take pictures, please keep a distance. If they get too close, I will think that there is someone shooting!” Many fans gave red packets to Hacken and Ryan, and some of them even gave him a big packet of pampers, delighting him.

Changing 12 costumes

To suit the theme of ‘Your Hacken Lee Concert Hall’, Hacken invited Professor Long to lead the audience to play the drums before the opening of the concert. Also, he invited the orchestra to be the live band. “I heard that a lot of saliva is needed when blowing the trumpet, where does the saliva goes to?” The members explained that the saliva is deposited in a hidden area of the instrument and Hacken immediately retrieved it. He wanted them to pour away all the saliva in the trumpets and showed the cup to the audiences. It was a very funny scene.

He even spent 3 months learning to sing while playing the piano for the song "Where Will The Flowers Fall". For this part, he wore a golden jacket with angel wings attached to the back. Unfortunately, the sound system had some problems the night before, resulting in Hacken’s vocals and the music to be unclear. Some audience even complained that they could not hear him sing. Hacken said that system is still new and needs time to run. In fact, it got better in the middle of his performance.

“The scariest part is the piano. After playing it, things are alright. I only spent 3 months learning.” He also commented that this was the first concert where he had to prepare so much.”

On seeing Gigi Wong in the audience seats, they hugged.

It was a good thing that Hacken spent a lot of effort in the visuals as well, changing a total of 12 costumes. He expressed that he feels like an idol singer. This is more than what the female singers usually do. Also, when it comes to singing fast songs, he will dance. He danced a lot for the first show.

For someone like Hacken, who is unfamiliar with dance, this was a big challenge. It was no wonder that he claimed himself to be an idiot in terms of dancing, and though slightly ‘promoted’, he is a ‘fool’ at dance. The moment he sang Tall Girl, a lady taller than him by a head appeared. She was about 6 foot 5 inches tall and even danced with him, providing comedy relief. The model touched Hacken’s chest and inner thighs, and he to stand on the elevating stage to touch her shoulder. He couldn’t help but say “How can there be such a tall lady?” According to him, the model was recommended by his fans.

Moreover, he had a section whereby he danced with fast songs. Though he is weak in this area, it can be seen that he had put in a lot of effort into dancing. The audiences joined him in dancing on seeing Hacken dance. He later expressed that he did not want to dance so much initially.

Red packets go towards the charity

After the show, Hacken had an interview at the backstage, commenting that he awarded himself 70 marks for this show because when he was dancing to Old Love Is Like A Dream, he sprained his leg. “The coliseum spent millions on the new sound system and I’m the first one to experience it. However, I feel that it’s too soft and unclear. Have I become the guinea pig? (he meant ‘white mice’ – a term in Chinese used to describe the thing/person/animal that is used for experimental purposes) Yes, this is the year of the rat after all!’ Also, he said “I don’t know why but I felt so nervous this time.”

Regarding the shirt imprinted with Ryan’s face, Hacken revealed that it was his idea. The picture of Ryan on his shirt changes each day. On the previous night, which is the first show, Ryan appeared naked except for his male organ which was covered by a golden image. The other shirts were ideas from Emily and his designer friends. He also said that "Little Baby" was a song that they decided to add in later as they did not want to do it intentionally. On seeing that tickets were sold out, he decided to publish photos of his son for everyone’s delight. Is he relaxed after doing so? “Yes, he’s just a normal child. He will be going to school later on and we don’t want to intentionally hide him.” On the red packets received, Hacken says that they represent luck. He will keep them at home first for 6 months, and later donate them to charity.

Besides red packets, the priceless gift is the laughter from all the audiences. “It’s the most important thing to see laughter during the Chinese new year. I welcome every one of you to laugh as much as you can. A smile is a precious and priceless gift.”


[Sources: http://www.leehacken.com/news/2008/20080210.htm, Mingpao, Singpao, Apple Daily, Takungpao] [translated by: HIANEZ, edited by: kate`*]

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