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Winnie Chung

CANTO-POP king Jacky Cheung Hok-yau scooped so many awards in 1995 that he found attending seven awards ceremonies in a month 'too strenuous'. The seven ceremonies were the outcome of a game of one-upmanship by four broadcasters - TVB, Commercial Radio, RTHK and Metro Radio.

The result was a concerted move by the embarrassed broadcasters to reach a consensus about having only one award for the Hong Kong music industry.

 To keep critics happy, the broadcasters announced in October that they would each hold one presentation.

But Cheung need not worry this year. He will be forced to compete against two 'returnees': actor Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, who returned to singing after a five-year 'retirement'; and Emil Chau Wah-kin, a Hong Kong-born singer who made his name in Taiwan and has returned to woo his fans.

Still, Jacky Cheung nearly made a big bang in the territory when a bomb hoax caused a concert in the Hong Kong Coliseum in August to be delayed.

And Leslie (Farewell My Concubine ) Cheung rammed his way back into the spotlight when he drove his Porsche into a car of reporters who were trailing him and a friend to his new apartment on Hong Kong Island.

Cheung, who announced his retirement from singing in 1990, was tempted back into the studios to record Heartfelt Love: Leslie Cheung which ended up as the year's best-selling album, having sold more than 300,000 copies.

Prodigal son Chau returned from Taiwan and embroiled his record company in a war of words with another. Rock Records and PolyGram have been accusing each other of doctoring record sales figures of Chau and Jacky, respectively.

Faye Wong, the closest thing to a Canto-pop queen, decided that love was more important than her career.

After her solo concert run at the Coliseum last January, Wong went underground in Beijing with the love of her life, mainland rocker Dao Wei, and has since kept a low profile.

 The pre-launch hype surrounding Apple Daily sent artists running for cover when the paper was launched on June 20.

As fears grew of artists being followed, spied on and harassed, the Performing Artists' Guild decided to retaliate by declaring a dramatic 72-hour boycott of the media on July 10.

The badly organised event failed miserably due to lack of support. Leaders of the movement, such as compere Eric Tsang Chi-wai, comedian Michael Hui Koon-man and show host Nat Chan Pak-cheung, had to go on air to apologise to the media for their impulsive actions.

The year was a slow one for the film industry. The one sunny note came from director Ann Hui On-wah whose Summer Snow collected several accolades overseas. Veteran actress Josephine Siao Fong-fong won the Berlin Film Festival's Best Actress award in February for her role in the film.

It depicts how a middle-class Hong Kong family copes when the patriarch becomes afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.

She repeated her success in November at the Taiwan Golden Horse Film Awards, where Summer Snow swept awards for best film, best supporting actor and best cinematography. The film was also nominated for the Best Foreign Film category at the American Academy Awards.

The film industry's most expensive name, Jackie Chan, acquired two more letters when the Baptist University conferred on him an honorary doctorate in November: not a bad effort for someone who had never graduated from high school.

 Triad attacks continued to plague the film industry when producer Steven Lo Kit-shing was seriously wounded in an attack in Tsim Sha Tsui.

 Hong Kong's favourite son, Chow Yun-fat, said goodbye to Hong Kong and moved to Hollywood in July after the dismal showing of his movie Peace Hotel. Chow finally decided on his first Hollywood project in November. The script for the Columbia Pictures film, The Replacement Killer, is still being written.

   The showbiz world was rocked by the deaths of Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng Lijun and former television and radio personality Keith Kwan Chiu-chung.

 Teng, whose fame rivalled that of Bruce Lee in Chinese communities, died in Thailand while on holiday.

 News of Kwan's death from an AIDS-related illness in Canada on September 19 came as a shock.

 The Year of the Pig was also the year for break-ups and new unions. Film director Zhang Yimou announced the end of his romance with actress Gong Li in February during the filming of Shanghai Triad.

 Zhang is reportedly still nursing a broken heart while Gong has found a new love in Singaporean businessman Ooi Hoe Seong.

 At the television studios, ATV showed that if it could not beat TVB at its own beauty game, just throw out all the rules.

  It threw out all age limitations for its Miss Asia Pacific pageant. In last year's contest, 47-year-old Coco Kung won the runner-up title, making her the territory's oldest beauty queen. Whether or not we'll see a seven-year-old this year is anyone's guess.

 TVB was scandalised in November when two singers appearing on its programmes unwittingly uttered swear words on air. Andy Lau Tak-wah, who said the words on prime time, was given a five-part musical special; Edmond Leung Hon-man, who uttered them on a 3 am slot, was banned. That's justice.

 The biggest showbiz winner was probably actor-turned-show host Nat Chan Pak-cheung, who scooped $6 million with friends in the $120 million Triple Trio bonanza in June. He went on to revive a non-existent singing career by recording a limited edition album.



Canto-pop fiasco leads to changes