Li Yundi(from left), Lang Lang and Kimura Takuya
A talent-poaching scheme implemented by the Hong Kong government may provide paparazzi with new hunting targets.
The Quality Migrant Admission Scheme has received 479 applications and processed 186 of them since it began accepting applications in June, announced the Immigration Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on 8 November.
Aiming at broadening Hong Kong's talent basis, the scheme has drawn the interest of mainland's top athletes and two outstanding musicians, according to the department.
The two musicians are reportedly pianists Li Yundi (李雲廸), who won the Warsaw International Chopin Competition in 2000 and Lang Lang (郎朗), who swept the first prize at the Fourth International Young Pianists Competition in Germany in 1993 at the age of 11.Li and Lang admitted that they had lodged an application because they were fascinated by the vibrancy and freedom of Hong Kong and migrating to Hong Kong would enable them to travel more easily for overseas performances without giving up their identity as a Chinese national.
What they may not be well aware may be that the international city also houses a highly-developed community of paparazzi and aggressive reporters who are capable of exhausting the energy of any celebrities being targeted.
Bearing the nicknames of "Prince of Piano (鋼琴王子)" and "Kimura Takuya of the pianist world (音樂界木村拓哉)", Li has been the idol of many who are not so interested in music but a good looking artist. His private life will in no doubt be an object for reporters of all news beats of the local media.
Lang Lang, dubbed not as handsome, is not much better. Loving Hong Kong's east-meet-west and metropolitan culture, he once said "there are very 'cool' hair stylists" and he would visit a cool stylist in Tsim Sha Tsui each time he came to Hong Kong. How this young, wealthy (scheme applicants have to meet certain income limits) pianist spends his monies in brand shops will likely be an "investigative" tabloid story.
In Hong Kong, apart from show business stars, public officers and their family members and even boy and girl friends may be followed 24/7 by text and photo journalists, should a scandal happen or an issue become heated. But soon, these people may be free, albeit temporarily, from media surveillance with the arrival of new faces Li and Lang.
Perhaps, the recent court ruling on a private intrusion case may help prevent this undesirable scenario.
Earlier this month Eastern Court magistrate Colin Mackintosh sentenced an Indonesian maid sneaking into a hospital's intensive-care unit (ICU) and taking video pictures of ailing actress Lydia Shum (whose nickname is Fei Fei) to four weeks in jail.
However, the maid, employed by a deputy editor of Eastweek (東周刊) magazine, declined to tell who had instructed her to break into the ICU. She is believed to have been compensated for concealing the truth. Most Hong Kong domestic helpers are paid less than $4,000 a month. To plug the maid's mouth, say, with one year’s salary and send her back home, it would cost tens of thousands dollars, a good deal compared with the possible gain from a surge in circulation of Eastweek as a result of the publication of a photo of Fei Fei in ICU.
So, the verdict does have but little deterrent effect.
Hey, Li and Lang, enough warning has been given. Don't regret if you find Hong Kong is not a quiet place for you to polish the piano skill.
Thanks to the power and enthusiasm of the media, celebrities passing away have been brought back to life.
With the explosion of information, the life of people with a certain level of public recognition can be prolonged. Not to mention the global names like Ronald Reagan, Pope Paul II and Princess Diana, Chinese national leader and Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok, and local pop superstars Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui. The citations of their names and images, after their departure, grew exponentially in all forms of the mass media.
It would not be surprising if youngsters in the Western world can tell lot more about Reagan who left two years ago than JF Kennedy and Winston Churchill who reigned in the post-war world. How many Chinese would know that Wang Guangmei (王光美), wife of former PRC president Liu Shaoqi (劉少奇), could have been the first Chinese winner of Nobel Prize for Physics if this piece of history were not digged out and widely published by media?
The fact that these celebrities' deaths gave a "story" to the media has made them "more real" than ever. The stories were no doubt front-page and cross-page news drawing out for days. The more legendary their lives were, the more lasting their newsworthiness was. Sometimes, a glamorous story could be translated into a special brochure or a dedicated website that backdated three generations before the life of the celebrity was profiled.
Most of the public had little knowledge about the past and personality of these celebrities when they were alive. Neither did they bother to seek to know more as, they thought, "the time had yet to come" and they did not have to time to check either.
While friends and relatives of the dead may be so much saddened by the loss of their celebrity beloved, the public probably don't feel as painful. They seldom have arm's length contact with the well-know dead person. Moreover, they tend to be forgetful and scatter-brained.
Therefore, not only can posthumous news reporting help re-present the celebrities to the ordinary people, but also rebuild, round up and enrich their images, an exercise almost equivalent to putting the deceased into a state of immortality.
Next time (touch wood), when you feel confused about who a public figure is, don't worry. You will surely obtain great details provided you will live longer than he or she will. It is not a curse and I am just quoting the others – as many celebrities put, we will all die.
Next time (touch wood again!), consider gaining fame from TV programme American Idol and asking the media to preserve you in the loving memory of the others, if a hospital surgeon cannot protect you physically.
According to an update by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, or HKTDC, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, or SAIC, recently issued a circular calling on all domestic offices to carry out inspections against the illegal use of the names of senior party and state officials in advertising.
Although the images of state leaders are now seldom found in TV commercials, media ads and outdoor ads, HKTDC said, some enterprises are making use of the names of party and state leaders in point-of-sales advertising.
The SAIC circular states that shopping malls, specialty stores, franchised stores, eateries and other types of point-of-sales outlets are the key targets for inspection of the use of the inscriptions, photos and other materials of party and state leaders. Local SAIC offices would also inspect advertisements released by media organisations and point-of-sales ads. They would stop and strictly punish such illegal activities.
In fact, the name of the leader of the HKSAR was used publicly before. In late 2003, or after SARS, the public recognition of the then chief executive Tung Chee Hwa hit into a record low. Steak Expert (扒王之王), a local beef steak restaurant chain, rolled out a gimmicky promotion. Customers calling out the name of "Tung Chee Hwa" would be entitled to a further 20% discount. The discount was later cancelled despite positive customer response. It is believed the restaurant owner had come under pressure that making the offer was disrespectful to Tung.
