Is The Talent Well In Hong Kong Drying Up?

Hong Kong, once known as the Hollywood of Asia, is apparently running out of talented singers or actors. Prudence Law and Shirley Kwan,
two Cantopop divas that were popular in the late 80s and early 90s,
held a comeback concert separately in HK this month and they were a
hit. Sammi Cheng,
another Cantopop diva who went into hiatus in the last few years, also
had her comeback concert recently (including one in Atlantic City for
the Chinese gamblers and fans living in the U.S. Eastern seaboard).
Their fans, mostly gay men and housewives, have all responded
enthusiastically to these concerts.

Many even wrote on the online chat forums that they missed these old
time divas and the current pop singers in Hong Kong are nowhere close
to competing with these veterans. I agree. Gone are the days of
idolizing stars like Anita Mui, Faye Wong, Sandy Lam and the “diva” of all divas Leslie Cheung
and I miss them greatly. These divas possessed the looks, wit, talent,
grace and a commanding stage presence. These days, many popular singers
in HK are nothing but studio recording artists. Singing live will no
doubt be a career suicide for them. To be fair, there are those who are
talented and can sing well, like Ivana Wong, Eason Chan and Justin Lo. Unfortunately, they lack the looks or what we call “The Complete Package”.

On the acting side, Tony Leung and Andy Lau
have been acting for more than 35 years now and they are still playing
the lead role of a twenty- or thirty-something.  For example, in a
movie released in 2005 titled All About Love, Andy Lau’s character has a wife played by Charlene Choi.
She’s half of Andy Lau’s age and can easily play the role of his
daughter. Watching the two of them romancing onscreen definitely had a
little incestuous feel to it (yuck!). The movie producers could have
easily cast an actor in his 30s to play this character. The problem
was, they could not find actors in their 20s or 30s in HK who were as
marketable as Andy Lau or Tony Leung.

In short, Hong Kong is pretty screwed with its shrinking talent pool of
singers and actors these days. With increasing competition from Taiwan,
Singapore, Malaysia and Mainland China, perhaps it’s time for HK to
import its acting/singing talents from abroad. Well…I can sing, act
and dance (though quite off balance these days with the excessive
weight gain). I work for cheap and am available for hire here.