Singaporean pop singer Stefanie Sun held a press conference in Taiwan on Thursday, announcing that she will kick off a world tour next month.

Named ‘The Answer Is… Stefanie Sun Concert 2009′, the first leg of the series will be staged in the Taipei Dome stadium on May 15th and 16th.

Sun has hired a professional team to help her design the stage and her costumes for the tour. She hopes to give her fans a fresh impression of herself through the tour.

Source: Crienglish

IT MIGHT as well have been a live-firing practice at The Sniper event at the Grand Hyatt hotel yesterday.

As Edison Chen took the hot seat for his first roundtable media-interview session since his self-exile from the Hong Kong showbiz scene in February last year, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Forget co-star Richie Jen and film-maker Dante Lam. Nine out of 10 questions were directed at the 28-year-old. A year after the photo sex scandal, is he finally forgiven? Or is he still persona non grata?

It was hard to tell. Yes, there were about 10 teenagers loitering outside the ballroom like meerkats on the watch. Yet, when approached, they denied they were fans of Chen. Tellingly too, the venue was guarded by no fewer than 10 security guards – two of them pistol-toting auxiliary officers.

Call it genius PR or just plain bad luck, but the security was needed. After all, the poor bloke had received anonymous death threats warning him not to appear in any country for promotional events, starting from last Saturday.

So, there he was, surrounded by about 100 hungry members of the media from as far away as Hong Kong and Taiwan. And boy, did they skewer and put him on the grill. Gasps erupted occasionally at the audacity of the questions.

Was he wearing a bulletproof vest in response to the death threats? (No.) Would he return to showbiz to help his bankrupt dad? (Not yet.)

The Sniper was shot in Hong Kong before the scandal broke. Finally opening this Thursday after its release was delayed last year because of Chen’s bad press, it stars Jen and Chen as snipers in the Hong Kong police force. To his credit, Chen was game (pardon the pun). He was candid in a mix of Mandarin, Cantonese and English, albeit pursing his lower lip at times.

Alas, the questions got tougher. Did he have friends who stood up for him, asked someone. His answer was an emphatic yes. ‘I don’t read the newspapers every day, but my friends call me and voice their support,’ he said. Asked whether he thought the audience would welcome his comeback, he said: ‘I hope everyone can give the movie a chance. I hope everyone can forget me before watching the movie and really throw themselves into The Sniper. ‘They can think about me again after watching it.’

One question hung uneasily in the air: Would he consider working with the female celebrities involved in the sex-photo scandal, a daring journo asked. Before Chen could answer, the host quickly interjected and dismissed the question as being unrelated to the movie. The answer is still blowing in the wind. — MY PAPER

Edison Chen braves death threat to promote movie in Singapore
SINGAPORE: Despite being a “little bit afraid” scandal-hit Asian pop star Edison Chen braved a death threat to appear in public in Singapore on Sunday to promote a movie called “The Sniper”.

His appearance came less than a month after a Hong Kong television station received an anonymous letter packed together with a gold bullet warning Chen to stay away from public events if he valued his life.

“If I say I’m not fearful, I would be lying,” the 28-year-old told a packed and tightly guarded media conference at a hotel in Singapore.

“I’m a little afraid but I have to do what needs to be done (to promote the film) so I hope everyone will welcome me and watch my movie,” he said, referring to the crime thriller “The Sniper” directed by Hong Kong film director Dante Lam.

About 20 security personnel, including four uniformed private guards armed with handguns, were at the media conference venue.

The actor-singer had been one of Asia’s biggest entertainment stars until he fell into disgrace after photos he took of his sexual encounters with a string of female celebrities were plastered across the Internet last year.

Chen, 28, was wearing a dark shirt with the top button off, and there were no visible signs he was wearing a bullet proof vest, an AFP reporter said.

Hong Kong triads have allegedly offered a 110,000 US dollar reward for the star’s right hand, according to Hong Kong media reports.

Chen at the news conference thanked Singapore for welcoming him and said he hopes to resume his career in Hong Kong.

“I hope to be able to continue (working) in the Hong Kong movie industry but I’m taking things slowly for now,” he said. “I will be brave to face whatever mistakes I’ve made.”

While he might have been here to promote his new film, the media’s main attention was on his personal life.

Chen told the media he plans to help his father who recently filed for bankruptcy.

When a Mediacorp reporter asked for more details, Chen got angry and his manager demanded for the earlier part of the one-on-one interview to be deleted in order for the interview to continue.

Chen also said he hopes to get back on track with his acting career and added the latest film was completed about two years ago.

Chen said: “I really put the movie’s destiny and everything in the company’s hands… It’s not a movie I produced, it’s not a movie that I paid for. So, it’s not really in my hands to decide when it releases or not. I’m actually very pleased that the movie is actually being released, because for a long time now, I’ve been wondering what’s going on with this movie.”

The sex photos taken by Chen became an Internet sensation when they were posted online, forcing him into early retirement and sending him fleeing to his childhood home of Canada.

The pictures showed Chen in compromising positions with various celebrities, including Canto-pop star Gillian Chung, actress Cecilia Cheung and former actress Bobo Chan.

Chen has said the photos had been stored on a personal laptop computer that had gone missing. He believed the release of the photos was due to “some foul play” by employees at a Hong Kong computer store.

Source: Channel News Asia , The Straits Times / photo from Mingpao

I’LL BE BACK: Will Edison’s return here in April draw crowds like this? –PICTURE: KELVIN CHNG

WHAT a big joke.

That was Edison Chen’s nonchalant reaction to the anonymous threats against his life.

And he indicated that he would not be cowed into cancelling his public appearances by saying he would be coming to Singapore next month, as planned.

Two A4-sized envelopes were sent to the Hong Kong i-Cable TV office and Next Media, which publishes the Apple Daily newspaper, on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

Inside each envelope was a note addressed to Edison with a veiled threat against his life and a 9mm bullet.

The note warned the 28-year-old actor-singer to stop all public appearances and promotional events by 4 Apr.

It said Edison had been given a last chance during his media appearance in Singapore last month.

If he did not take this ‘final warning’ seriously, his personal safety and that of his loved ones would be threatened.

Mr Peter Lum, who heads Media Asia Group, which manages Edison and is distributing his upcoming film The Sniper, said the actor had been informed of the threat, reported Hong Kong newspaper The Sun.

After an initial reaction of ‘what should we do?’, Edison did not seem too worried, he said.

Full confidence

Edison expressed ‘full confidence in the capabilities of the Hong Kong police force’ and he felt the sender of the letters was ‘making an attempt to challenge the country’s legal system’, Mr Lum added.

The defiant actor also said he would be heading to Singapore on 6 Apr to promote The Sniper.

This is not the first time Edison has faced such threats. After his sex photo scandal broke last year, an anonymous person allegedly offered HK$500,000 ($110,000) for his right hand.

After explicit pictures of him with several female Hong Kong celebrities surfaced on the Internet, Edison’s popularity took a huge hit.

Two former lovers – Cecilia Cheung and Gillian Chung – recently slammed him in television interviews for entangling them in the scandal.

The Chinese-Canadian left Hong Kong for Vancouver, and it was there that he gave testimony against computer technician Sze Ho Chun, who has been accused of stealing the pictures when Edison’s laptop was sent for repair in 2006.

His trial is expected to begin in Hong Kong on 6 Apr. Mr Lum told The Sun that like Edison, he believes that ‘Hong Kong is a lawful nation’.

‘Edison did wrong, but he certainly doesn’t deserve to die,’ he said.

‘The person who sent the letter had his intentions all messed up. This is such a huge joke.’

Source: The New Paper

CEO of Warner Music Greater China region, Chen Zeshan, revealed in an interview with China website Sina.com that he had encouraged local singer Stefanie Sun to be herself and did not mind the temporary “separation”.

Being the one behind Sun’s popularity, Chen said he took just 30 seconds on a first meeting to confirm Sun as superstar material and insisted Lee Si Song to sign her on.

Chen claimed that he had great chemistry with Sun in the first few years of her career, but as Sun’s career took for greater advancements, they gradually developed different viewpoints. On discussion with Sun, Chen realized their music ideals have diverted.

Under such circumstance, Chen said he encouraged Sun to pursue her own music ideals and need not fear separation as his doors would always be open for her.

Source: Yahoo News

SHE’s a cute top-selling Taiwanese singer. But Rainie Yang, 25, has her moments of insecurity.

In a recent interview with The New Paper, she recalled how she was once dissed on the streets of Taiwan when she started out in showbiz.

Rainie, then only 16, and had just been recruited to join the now-defunct Taiwanese girl band, 4 In Love.

She said: ‘I was very unpopular when I entered the entertainment field.

‘I remember once, someone walked past me and said ‘Do you think you’re really that pretty?’

That wasn’t the only incident that stung her.

She was browsing in a bookshop in Taiwan when a stranger pointed to her and muttered: ‘I don’t even remember her name, she’s just a nobody.’

But don’t let her sweet and fragile looks fool you.

She wishes her detractors would just ’scold me to my face instead’.

When 4 In Love disbanded two years later, she found fame with the role of Qi Yue in the 2005 idol drama, Devil Beside You.

Already a household name by then, she went on to record four albums. The latest, Not Yet A Woman, was released last November.

Rainie was in town recently to promote her latest drama, ToGetHer, which is currently showing on Channel U, with co-stars Jiro Wang and George Hu.

She plays Momo, a social hermit whom is obsessed with a comic character who she believes would come into her life one day.

Jiro, 28, is a member of Taiwanese boyband Fahrenheit and American-born George, 27, is best remembered for his role as Nan Feng Lin in the 2007 idol drama, Romantic Princess.

Criticisms, Rainie says, have kept her grounded but they have also increased her self-doubt.

She said she even gets insecure over whether her friends want to go out with her.

Said Rainie: ‘I always make sure I ask them way in advance if they want to spend time with me.

‘My biggest fear is if I ask them on the day itself, they will reject me.’

These anxieties have even been a hindrance in her love life.

Behaving like ‘one of the boys’ is second nature to her. She does it in a bid to bond with the opposite sex.

‘My girly side won’t come out at all and I become such a tomboy. That is why my co-stars have never been interested in me,’ she said.

Rainie admitted that she has had her fair share of celebrity crushes, with her all time favourite being recently-married Hong Kong actor Tony Leung.

But when she was younger, the female celebrity she adored was Japanese actress Atashi Yumi. She would even go all out to emulate Yumi’s physical appearance by wearing ‘braces so that I could have her smile’.

Hard but fun

As for what it was like filming with two cute hunks, Rainie said the hardest parts were the tear-jerking moments which drained them emotionally.

She said George was the best at such scenes as he could cry on cue whereas she and Jiro would have to prepare in advance.

But there were fun moments too, like when she had to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Jiro.

She said she had to get into a ‘kissing position’ while Jiro practised ’spitting water out’. He ended up throwing up a mouthful of water on Rainie’s face.

‘I was completely all right with it,’ she said. ‘It was just water.’ Then she added with a giggle: ‘And I bet a lot of girls are envious of me now!’

Rainie? She’s just a good friend

IN THE drama ToGetHer, Jiro and George play guys who are in love with the same girl.

What about in real life?

Jiro quickly insisted; ‘No, Rainie’s really just our machi (good friend).’

But he and George agreed that it is easier for them as actors to date an actress.

George explained that female celebrities would be used to the paparazzi and there would thus be more ‘mutual understanding’ in the relationship.

The actors also said they could relate to their characters who are both otakus.

Otaku is a Japanese term used to refer to people who mostly stay at home and have obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games.

Jiro admitted that his love for collecting comics is ‘legendary’.

As for George, he said: ‘I was so crazy over this comic called Gen13 that I once drew out the entire comic.

‘Sometimes I would draw it with an altered storyline, that was how obsessed I was with it.’

Source: Electric New Paper

Local singer Stefanie Sun’s Taipei concert to be held in May received adverse feedback from the public who were unhappy with the high cost of the tickets. According to Taiwan WEnews report, tickets to this concert are priced as three times that of Sun’s previous concert in 2006. The concert producer Qiu Likuan ensured the public that what they will see on the concert will definitely be money worth.

Sun’s 2009 world tour concert will kick start May 15 this year at the Taipei Arena, total production costs amounts to over S$5million. When ticket sales commenced, the costs of each ticket caught the public by surprise and netizens on Taiwan online bulletin rebounded that they will not spend such money in times of economy downturn.

A WEnews reporter stated in his report, that fans have been waiting for Sun’s performance for three years and did not expect the price that they have to pay for this concert to be rocket high. Apparently each ticket costs more than that of aboriginal Taiwanese Queen of pop, A-mei’s concert.

Concert producer of this concert, Qiu, also produced Aaron Kwok’s concert last year. In his opinion, part of Sun’s concert stage will challenge 3D projection which is said to “transcend realism”, and the hardware and software needed for these are large investments which will definitely translate to better and fresher effects for the audience. On top of that, unlike A-mei’s concert content, Sun’s is newly arranged and thus should not be compared on the same scale.

Source: Yahoo News

Andy tickets selling as high as SIN$800

The heavenly king is here! Andy Lau will be staging his concerts on this Friday and Saturday, all tickets had been sold out, the tickets had been selling in the black market for as high as SIN$800!

Andy Lau will be staging his Andy Lau Wonderful World Tour 2008 on 12 and 13 December in Singapore, the response for both concerts had been good as all 14000 tickets were sold out within one month it went on sale. No more tickets are available, this allow netizens to seize the chance to sell off their tickets at high price. Currently on an auction site, a pair of tickets are selling at $800. Among them, one netizen is try his luck by selling a pair of tickets worth $300 at $1000.

Actually the response for Andy’s 15 nights concert in Hong Kong last year was also doing very well, then crew members received threatening calls from triads whom tried to buy the tickets and sold them off in the black market. Earlier some Mainland China fans whom fail to purchase any tickets even went to the venue to set fire, the charisma of the heavenly king is unbelievable.

The entourage which includes production team, dancers, makeup artistes, hair stylist and crew members are as many as 120. Other than security guards, the organizer Unusual also hire 6 bodyguards to protect Andy 24 hours, with such entourage, indeed is a heavenly king!

As Andy is currently busy with movies, concert tours and endorsements thus he’s unable to come to Singapore to promote the concert, however Andy whom always adore his fans will take time off for a fan club gathering to get close with them when he’s here for his concert.

For the concert, Andy had an insurance worth ten thousands of dollars for the stage and his crew members. The organizer revealed that Andy does not want to make it big for his trip to Singapore, thus all his flights to Singapore are kept secret, keeping a low profile for his trip. The whole entourage will be staying in a 5-star hotel, other than rehearsal, he would be staying most of his time indoors. “He did not have any special request, never even mentioned what food he would like to eat, believe he will be dining inside the hotel, if he would like to order other food, we will packet back for him.”

For the concert, the organizer had bought tens thousands worth of insurance, for the stage, the organizer said that it could be comparable to Rain, “The stage is huge, we need 5 days to set up the stage, the Japanese props are courier here from Taiwan, there is 7 different backgrounds, because of the huge stage, thus limited number of seats to be sold.”

With the concert doing well, the organizer had been receiving calls from fans to enquiries: there will be 30 additional seats for each night. The organizer revealed that seldom concert tickets will be 100% sold out, only Jacky Cheung and A*mei achieved this last year, “The response is very good, even single seats are snapped up. We did consider of adding another night but it does not accommodate Andy and the crew members’ schedule, too bad.”

It is understand that other than Singaporean fans, overseas fans from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia will be also attending the concert. These overseas fans booked their tickets from Andy’s Hong Kong management group, there are 2000 overseas fans.

With regards to the over the top online black market sale of the ticket, the organizer does not encourage and revealed that they intend to open 30 additional seats for each night, so be quick!

news from: omy, China Press
Credits: Andy Lau Sounds

Name: Fann Wong (Fan Wen Fang, Fan Man Fong)

| Chinese name: 范文芳
| Birth name: Fann Woon Fong
| Birth date: January 27, 1971
| Birth place: Singapore
| Height: 171cm
| Religion: Buddhism
| Family: Parents, an elder sister, a younger brother and a younger sister
| Education: La Salle International Academy (fashion merchandising, diploma)
| Spoken Languages: Mandarin, English, B.Malaysia and Hakka
| Profession: Actress, model and singer
| Hobbies: Shopping, driving, comics reading and music listening

Fann Woon Fong (Chinese: 范文芳; pinyin: Fàn Wénfāng; born January 27, 1971), better known by her stage name Fann Wong, is a Singaporean actress, singer and model.

At Singapore’s Star Awards 1995, Fann became the first actress to win both the Best Actress and Best Newcomer awards in the same year. After gaining regional exposure and popularity in Asia through film and television productions, she became the first Singaporean actress to break into Hollywood, playing Chon Lin in the 2003 film Shanghai Knights. She was also the youngest actress to have earned an All-Time Favourite Award at the Star Awards. In late 2002, Fann became romantically attached to Malaysian actor Christopher Lee, with whom she has collaborated eight times. She is known to zealously safeguard her privacy.

To promote Korean culture in Singapore, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea has organized a Korean Festival 2008 from 1st – 18th November with the highlight being Shinhwa members JunJin and Andy, boyband 2PM, popular girl group Wonder Girls, Jewelry and V.O.S., etc will gather in Singapore for the first time for a Korean Pop Night at the Indoor Stadium on 4th November.

It’s known that the 6,000 tickets will not be for sale. According to the organizers, most of the tickets will instead be distributed through their sponsors like LG, Samsung, Far East Organization, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines. But they also revealed, “We might be distributing 200 – 300 tickets during concert day but nothing has been confirmed yet.”

Source: Coolsmurf

Name: Sun Yan Zi (孫燕姿), Stefanie Sun

| Name Pronunciation: Soon-Yen-Zhii
| Fan Nicknames: Yanzi, Ah Zi
| Birthdate: July 23, 1978
| Nationality: Singaporean
| Blood Type: AB
| Weight: 42kg (106lbs)
| Height: 1.62m (5′4”)
| Spoken Languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, Teochew
| Instruments: Piano
| Favourite Sports/Games: Swimming, Snooker, Tennis
| Favourite Actors: Jim Carrey, Stephen Chow, Tony Leung
| Favourite Actresses: Kate Moss, Gwyneth Paltrow, Milla Jovovich
| Favourite Country: Singapore
| Favourite Color: Yellow
| Favourite Food: Japanese dishes, Chocolates, Ba Kut Tei (肉骨茶)
| Fears: Claustrophobia, Flying Cockroaches, Papaya, Getting Sick
| Places Visited: Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, USA, Europe, New Zealand
| Family: Parents (Both teachers) and two sisters (one older, one much younger)
| Fun Fact: Chinese media originally assumed that Stefanie was a lesbian because she was outspoken and wore pants.