Andy Lau

[Ian_Lee]

Someone committed suicide just because his daughter didn't have a chance to see her idol Andy Lau.

A 29-yr old girl, Ms Yang, from Lanzhou who said she started seeing Lau in her dream since she was 16, has quitted school since then and started full time dreaming to be a fan of Lau.

Her retired parents, who lived on meager pension, also followed their crazy daughter's wish. During the last 13 years, they sold the house, father's kidney, blood,....and had spent RMB110,000 to go to Beijing three times and Hong Kong two times for the sake of just attempting to have their daughter meet with Lau.

Last week they came to HK again. Their daughter finally had a chance to meet Lau, chat with Lau and pose with Lau in Lau's fan club during a fans' gathering.

However, the Yang family still considered it inadequate. Two days ago after they almost spent their last dime, they were dozing in the 24-hr open McDonald at Tsimshatsui in the night time. When the mother and the daughter woke up in the middle of the night, they found their father was missing. Later the father's body was found drowned in the water of the Victoria Harbor.

The deceased father had left his last words. He wrote that Lau should be responsible for his family's mishap because so far Lau has refused to grant a meeting with his daughter exclusively.

[studentyoung]

Even Andy Lau is so popular in Mainland China, I was stunned to hear the news that Lau was forbidden to learn the famous technique of Sichuan Opera -- Face Change.

Face Change is actually mask change performed by the Sichuan Opera actos. The best opera master can change the mask over a dozen times in a minute without any traces.

Moreover, that technique will vanish because only a few old masters still know such trick.

For the sake of learning this technique, Lau kowtowed to an 80+ years old master and had him as his instructor. But all his effort was in vain when the Provincial Cultural Bureau stepped in.

The reason given by the Provincial Cultural Bureau was really funny:

"Face Change" is a national treasure and cannot be propagated outside China.

But at the time Lau tried to learn it, it was already post-1997 and Lau is undoubtedly a Chinese national

　　说这话的人叫彭登怀，四川省川剧学校教师，在川剧界有“变脸大师”之称。1999年他以25秒变14张脸谱变回本脸后又还原4张的成绩打破了原有的纪录，并被载入《吉尼斯世界纪录大全》，彭登怀说“变脸”不是国家机密，那么“变脸”到底是不是国家机密呢？记者来到了四川省文化厅，文化厅说对于这个问题要看文化部有没有相关文件，但是目前还没找到。

而王道正说，“变脸”技艺传授得过多，鱼龙混杂，就会影响“变脸”的整体艺术水准。对此，彭登怀表示在新的社会形势下应该突破行规，对学习者更加宽容。正因为坚持这种看法，2000年彭登怀打破了“传内不传外”的行规，收香港知名人士刘德华为徒传授“变脸”，这在当时引起了很大的轰动。彭登怀表示，他收刘德华为徒并不是随随便便的，而是本着弘扬艺术的目的，在经过细心考察刘德华的人品、艺品之后才做出的决定。

http://www.cctv.com/program/lawtoday/20060706/104144.shtml

Thanks!

[Ian_Lee]

Who led Mr. Yang to his death?

It is not Lau. In fact, Lau has already criticized Ms. Yang's behavior as 「不正確、不正常、不健康、不孝」 (incorrect, irregular, unhealthy and unfilial).

It is the Mainland media who killed him. Last year a lot of Mainland media including 蘭州晨報, 中央電視臺《社會與法》, 南方都市報、東方衛視以及央視《共同關注》 flocked in droves to Lanzhou to widely report Yang family's erratic behavior.

And 蘭州晨報 (Lanzhou Morning News) even bragged on how other Mainland media followed their suit in reporting about this crazy family:

“全國絕大多數城市強勢媒體都已轉載了本報對癡狂‘追星女’的連續報道，並對本報長期以來對弱勢群體的愛心和幫助，給予了肯定和讚揚。”

Translation:

(The absolute majority of most media in the cities have excerpted our continuous coverage on this "super fan". And these media affirmed and applauded on our newspaper's long term care and concern of under-privileged group.)

The Lanzhou Morning News and other media are really sick in regarding such crazy fan as under-privileged group!!!

[Lu]

Her retired parents, who lived on meager pension, also followed their crazy daughter's wish. During the last 13 years, they sold the house, father's kidney, blood,....and had spent RMB110,000 to go to Beijing three times and Hong Kong two times for the sake of just attempting to have their daughter meet with Lau.

If I read this in a novel I would throw the book aside for being completely unrealistic and exaggerating. Especially the part where the father sells his kidney.

[Ian_Lee]

Here is Mr. Yang's 12-page death wish written on March 23 (three days before he committed suicide):

http://www.cnhan.com/gb/content/2007-03/29/content_773952.htm

[Ian_Lee]

Rough translation of the 1st paragraph:

刘德华，你以为你是谁？你很自私、很虚伪，你不敢承认现实和实，非常可悲。我的孩子杨丽娟为能见你一面，做出惊天动地的牺牲，已付出13年的青春代价，走过13年血泪之路，几乎把命都搭上了。父母为孩子实现见你这末个小小愿望，已经倾其所有、债台高筑。此时央视等媒体报导已一年，你还没动静，你算人吗

？孩子因没见上你，受到的社会压力更大，自尊心严重受到伤害，抬不起头，是致命打击，难道你不心疼和内疚吗？

Andy Lau! Who do you think you are? You are selfish and hypocritical; it is very sad that you dare not face Reality and Fact. For the sake of earning a chance to meet with you, my kid has already made earthshaking sacrifice -- spending 13 years of her valuable youthful years, enduring thru 13 years of blood and tears, and almost with her life expended on this cause. As parents who try to let the kid realize such humble wish, we have already spent our last dime and are loaded with personal debts. As of this moment, you still don't make a move even after CCTV and other media have reported our story for over a year, do you consider yourself as a human being? Because our kid hasn't met you yet, she has to face enormous social pressure and has lost her self-esteem. Don't you feel disheartened and remorseful for such tremendous blow to my kid?

________________________

The daughter is sick, the father was sick, and the media is also sick!

[zhwj]

Thanks, Ian_Lee. That's a sad, troubled family there.

[Ian_Lee]

After the death of Mr. Yang, you guess what happened?

You can't believe it.

Ms. Yang and her mother were surrounded all day by 30+ reporters from Mainland, HK and Taiwan. Ms. Yang cursed Lau for causing her father's death and used all dirty words to depict Lau. However, Ms. Yang said that she still wanted to meet Lau. When the reporter asked her why she still wanted to see Lau since he was such a scum, Ms. Yang got mad and yelled that it was his father's death wish!

Just five hours before their visas expired, they finally got on a bus and crossed the border.

But......what about her father's corpse?

Ms. Yang said that since they are broke, they don't care. They say they will let HK government handle the corpse -- be he cremated or buried -- she doesn't even go to the morgue to see her father for the very last time. And she don't even want to take the ashes after cremation back home!

[Xiao Kui]

If I were that girl, I don't know how I'd live with myself. Losing a father who loved me enough to make that many sacrifices for me because of my stupid fantasy and irrational obsession. I can't imagine how guilty she must feel, even though she pretends to blame Lau, I only hope she doesn't follow in her father's footsteps - to eventually heal from sth like that and get on with one's life would be a far greater triumph than meeting a celebrity.. . .

Her life has really turned tragic at a young age - it seems like emotional problems must have run in the family. Maybe I'm silly, but I sort of do admire their determination, but it seems like they could have been successful had they been more patient and pursued her goal in a rational way.

To me the suicide seems sort of like the easy way out for someone who feels as though he's failed his daughter and doesn't have anything to return home to except debts.

For some families, the adventure of doing all that just to meet Lau, would have been enough, an adventure in and of itself. I hope we don't hear another story like this any time soon.

[zozzen]

The Super Lanzhou Fan is coming back hong kong now.

Some hongkong reporters said that she's been paid by many mainland media. Among them, Netease, a big internet portal in China, attempted to "quarantine" the floor in the hotel she lived and blocked other "unauthorized" media from interviewing with her.

As quoted, a reporter from Netease said "I'm tired of it, and want all these end shortly! Now what we're doing is to take her back to hong kong, bring it to a climax and then that's the end."