[新聞] Talk Asia meets Wang Leehom
updated 4:36 a.m. EST, Fri January 9, 2009
Talk Asia meets Wang Leehom
(CNN) -- He performed to a watching audience of millions at the closing
ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, but conducting the Hong Kong
Philharmonic Orchestra has been the most nerve-wracking thing the
American-Chinese pop star Wang Leehom has undertaken for some time.
"I think I always throw myself in these impossible situations and then see
if I can scramble out of them and gain something from these experiences," he
told CNN during rehearsals for the December performances.
"Standing in front of the orchestra was intimidating at times, but I think we
got through it, and I think we made some exciting waves in town. We
definitely got the crowd excited about it."
Leehom has certainly made waves with his Mandarin-language pop music, having
sold around 50 million records, but as his recent foray in classical music
confirms, he's more than just another voice with an interesting haircut.
Growing up in the U.S. to a family of doctors, he excelled at school but
decided to take a different path to his parents.
After shunning the opportunity to study at an Ivy League university, he spent
some time at Williams College of liberal arts before getting his big break in
pop in Taiwan in 1995. At that time he admits he knew nothing about Chinese
music and didn't speak Mandarin.
Learning Mandarin was just another challenge Leehom rose to meet and he
believes that having Chinese as a second language has been to his advantage,
and his interest in the linguistics of the language has led to some of his
more innovative work.
"I always think for artists to take their shortcomings and turn them around
and make them into what define them as an artist is a real trick," he told
CNN.
"I think it's a wonderful thing for people to understand how language can be
transformed and mutilated for musical reasons and actually bring out
something special orally," he said.
Musically he's often been put in the same box as Mando-pop sensation Jay
Chou, and has similarly has been the subject of rumor about ever aspect of
his life, from his school grades to his sexuality.
Adding his face to a number of endorsements, the pressures of being in the
public eye have made him become increasingly protective of his privacy.
"It's definitely changed me. It's like some defense mechanism I guess, to
just be private, to keep things to myself, to protect myself or my loved
ones. I am the same person, but just a different way of life," he said.
However it hasn't stopped him from branching out and taking on an acting
career. He made his big screen debut in 2000 in the Hong Kong action flick
"China Strike", but it was his role in Ang Lee's international success "Lust,
Caution" that brought him wider international attention.
As for taking on new projects in the future, be they film, singing or even
holding the baton once again, Leehom will stay true to his policy of
challenging himself with different ventures.
"Sometimes it gives me a lot of trouble, sometimes it ends up launching a
career which has been very good for me," he said.
原文轉載:
http://tinyurl.com/8b46e5
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