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SCMP Reporter

LAVENDER Patten, Princess Benedikte of Denmark and the rest of the well-heeled guests at the Girl Guides Association Ball, pushed back their seats after a sumptuous Grand Hyatt dinner last week and watched a slight, demurely-dressed young woman take to the stage.

The white-clad singer proceeded to deliver a Mandarin number in a slight, almost indiscernible voice; much, it seemed, to the delight of her father, Stanley Ho.

 It is doubtful though that the casino tycoon would have been quite so pleased had he witnessed his youngest daughter's performance in Taiwan a few weeks ago.

Then, 20-year-old Josie Ho raised eyebrows with a raunchy, crotch-thrusting Madonna-flavoured performance alongside three hunks.

He almost certainly wouldn't have been too chuffed either with her comments after her spot supporting Taiwanese star Emil Chou.

''It's just part and parcel of a show. There's nothing more to it. I believe it is OK to be sexy on stage, as long as I am not naughty in real life,'' she told a Singapore journalist, adding that she was unconcerned if the show ruffled family feathers.

Then there was her reaction to questions about her less-than-conventional background and connections.

''I am a singer, and I do not wish to be known as the daughter of so-and-so,'' she insisted.

''Many people think I am just a rich man's daughter who's out to have fun in showbusiness. I want to show them that I do take what I do seriously.

''I am very resilient, even stubborn when I set out to do something. I must do it well. But once it's over, I just take things easy, and play as hard as possible.'' Nevertheless, an industry associate has also been quoted as saying: ''Josie ran to Taiwan because she found the pressure too hard back home. Whatever she does, people think that she does it with her father's backing.'' The truth is hard to come by. That interview with the Straits Times represents the extent of Josie Ho's media exposure since she signed to Taiwan-based Rock Records earlier this year.

The record company's Hong Kong and Taiwanese offices have declined all approaches for an interview with the budding star and claim the media will be allowed near her once a debut album is completed later this year. The brief performance at the Grand Hyatt last week will have been the guests' first glimpse of Miss Ho.

They may, however, have caught the odd glimpse of the fun-loving overseas educated firebrand through the local gossip press: dance floor antics at a trendy local club, posing with a hunky boy on her arm.

And perhaps her professional reticence is the result of more than just a record company which claims to have little information on one of its own artists. Perhaps it is evidence of Daddy's enduring disapproval at his little girl's career choice.

Josie, who has three elder sisters and and one younger brother, completed a secondary education in Canada, then landed a place at the Fashion Institute of Designers in Los Angeles. But she gave it up for singing.

Jonathan Li, vice-president of Rock Records and an acclaimed composer-singer himself, spotted Josie's potential when she was performing a duet as a celebrity guest with Jackie Chan at a charity function last year. Her only other appearance of note had been a television spot as part of the Miss Macau beauty pageant.

With local record companies moving in, Li's Rock Records swiftly signed her up.

Since then, she has recorded a duet with Emil Chou and sung the theme song for the film Butterfly Sword. Her first solo album will be sung in Mandarin.

Despite her extensive contacts, Josie found it extremely tough breaking into the entertainment circuit - initially because of her parents who, she says, ''kept persuading me to return to my books''.

Finally, her elder sister Pansy offered to help. ''She spoke to dad and mum, and persuaded them to let me have a go at singing. Eventually they relented.'' As Pansy sees it, though, her main role was in helping little sister secure the kind of recording deal she thought would be most beneficial.

''I landed her the contract through my own contacts,'' explained Pansy, who runs a public relations and promotions firm.

''At that time, some of the companies from Hong Kong were negotiating with her. I thought it would be better for her to start in a foreign place because it would help her focus on her job, without distractions.'' Pansy also shot down the notion that there was any question of Josie's low-key Hong Kong existence having anything to do with fear of offending her family.

''Absolutely not,'' she said. ''It is all understood and accepted. It was the company's idea. They plan to co-ordinate some promotional events towards the end of the year.'' Pansy is continuing to offer help in a liaison role by keeping Josie's interests in mind as her sister shuttles back and forth between Hong Kong and Taiwan.

However, as the one journalist to have got near her recently discovered, she still collects her monthly allowance from Daddy.

''But I get a smaller sum these days,'' she said. ''Of course I can't tell you how much.'' Josie is not the first of the Ho daughters to buck the family trend of moving into business. The oldest daughter, Angela, raised eyebrows in Hong Kong by moving to New York to live and work as an avant-garde artist.

Despite having returned to the territory to live, she steers clear of the Ho family dealings and instead pours her energy into the Ho Gallery, along with life partner Peter Kjaer. The gallery concentrates on promoting the work of the pop artists Angela rubbed shoulders with during her self-imposed exile from Hong Kong.

  No stranger to controversy, Angela's most recent brush with scandal came at a charity auction of Christmas trees last year when she and Kjaer produced a tree which flashed slogans, some of them political and one of them deemed offensive by pro-Beijing lobbyists.

  Nevertheless, she has enlisted the help of her father in setting up an art museum in Macau.

The other daughter, Daisy, married on Friday in typical Ho family fashion (Pansy's wedding two years ago was a stunning exercise in expense and extravagance).

Perhaps it is that, plus continued scepticism over her father's clout, that has driven Josie Ho to extraordinary lengths in her bid for stage success.

For instance, in preparing for her five-minute spot at the Emil Chou shows, she made a special trip to Singapore where she picked up her back-up dancers, rehearsed with them on a three-hour routine for four days, then flew her team to Taipei.

Given that sort of dedication, perhaps Daddy's girl will succeed in spite of, rather than because of him.



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