BOY NEXT DOOR
He sings, he dances, he acts, he composes songs,
he works as a producer of many major records- and
he is only 24. Lee-hom Wang, young, handsome, and
sociable, seems almost too perfect to be true.
But the young pop star who has captured the
hearts of million insists that he is just a
naughty boy next door.
Say the name Wang Lee-hom to any teenage girl
in Hong Kong, Taiwan or China and you're likely
to get an excited scream in return. Wang, 24, has
only been in the music industry for fives years
but, with his musical talent and sunny good
looks, he has already established himself as one
of the most popular pop icons in Asia. Whether
it's Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai or even Xi'an,
hordes of fans bombard airports and hotels in
hope of catching a glimpse of Wang.
Luckily, we successfully suppressed the news that
Wang should be arriving at our studio for make-up
and that he would be going to Big Wave Bay for
the photo-shoot (and even changing his top in
front of everyone), otherwise, a squad team of
fans would certainly have shown up.
With so many reports of prima donna pop star
hearthrobs these days, it's easy to imagine Wang
as a spoiled brat from hell. His bio states how
he started playing violin at age six, taught
himself the guitar by 13, compoosed his first
songs at 15, and went to music school and became
a pop artist at 19. All this might indicate
something of a precocious talent. Happily,
nothing could be further from the truth.
After the initial handshake, Wang turns out to be
surprisingly down to earth and sociable. At the
photo-shoot session on the beach at Big Wave Bay,
Wang actually seems to enjoy the succession of
different outfits and being ordered about by the
art director, climbing around the rocks and
dipping his feet in the water during
breaks. Every photo shoot should be like sthis,
Wang says aas he leans comfortably on a lounge
chair enjoying the sun while the photographer
works on capturing the best of him.
Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Wang has
an American flair to his personality that is
obvious when he speaks. Yo, dude! He exclaims
at some foul-looking foamy substance washing up
on the shore. What's most likeable about Wang,
however, is his ability to combine the best of
both worlds. Despite his upbringing in the
States, Wang speaks and reads Chinese, loves his
heritage and even aspires to be the link bridging
Chinese and international pop cultures. At
present, he seems to be on the right track.
Having won the Best Male Artist of the Year and
Best Producer of the Year in 1999 for his album
Revolution at the Golden Melody Awards, the
Taiwanese equivalent of the Grammies, Wang has
been nominated again this year in six categories,
including Best Arranger of the Year (Descendants
of the Dragon) and for top Golden Melody Son gof
the Year with his newest song Forever's First
Day. He has also recently been inteviewed by CNN
as one of the most successful Chinese pop
artists. And with his natural good looks and
charm, he has recently been picked for the second
time as one of the winners of Top Ten Idols, an
event held by Taiwanese publiclation Ming Shen
Bao. Last November, Wang was selected as one of
the sexiest male artist by Esquire magazine in
Hong Kong.
None of this success wa sexpected in 1993,
however, when Wang causally joined a talent
search contest in Taiwan. I was 17 years old,
and i was on summer holiday. My mum and i were
sitting in a restaurant and we spotted this
poster on the wall about a talent search show,
Wang recalls. 'I had nothing to do, so
Ithought, 'why not.' I didn't take it seriously
at the time.
With a guitar and one of his own songs, Wang
instantly attracted the attention of the record
company that hosted the competition and was
approached with a contract. I just treated it as
a summer job, says Wang. Studies always came
first and I had a deal with [the record company]
to only work on the albums during the breaks I
had from school. The contract meant forfeiting
his entry into the final, but Wang wasn't really
in it to win anyway - after all, he has never
been a stranger to awards.
Since elementary school, Wang has won awards in
everything from maths to essay competitions. He
was ranked second in the American High School
Thesis Competition, held by Cornell University in
1993, and was accepted as a member of Golden Key
National Honour Society with his painting titled
Eagle. He later graduated with honours from
Sutherland High School and received a scholarship
fro Pittsford Musical Inc. of the University of
Rochester in 1994. Having passed the violin exam
of Eastman Music School, Wang entered Williams
College majoring in music.
Besides working on his degree, Wang spent a lot
of time at Williams singing with an accapella
band called the Springstreeters. His combination
of passion for music and talent with poeple was
already becoming apparent. I fell like we grew
up together, Wang said in an inteview with the
school's journal, about his days with
Springstreeters. For his final year project, Wang
penned a musical entitled The Bite That Burns!
and received an A for his work. Wang still speaks
of the experience as one of the happiest moments
in his life. It was such hard work but everyone
who was involved enjoyed it. They were doing it
for free and they did it because we're friends. I
appreciate that spirit and motivation.
Despite his formal music training, Wang was keen
to enter the pop scene - despite claims that it
was a waste of his talent. In classical music we
have Yo-yo Ma, but there is no internationally
recognised Chinese pop star, Wang
explains. There is a huge potential there. Wang
thinks it's a good thing that there are so many
Chinese artists who have achieved international
appeal, such as Jackie chan, chow Yun-fat and
Lucy Liu, and he hopes to achieve the same in pop
music and be a good role model for Chinese youths
around the world.
Neither does he mind the ever-increasing
commercialism of the pop industry. My view on
music is that it has to be commercial, Wang
says. If it's good, people love it and buy it.
One crucial difference here is that Wang is not
in it just for the money and fame. He's not led
by commercialism but merely plays into it. My
goal is not to make a lot of karaoke hits, make
lots of money and be famous, otherwise i would
have made more than one album a year, Wang
says. Music must come first. When it's good, it
becomes commercial.
Besides his remarkable musical talent, Wang's
career has also been blessed by man notable
musicians around the world. It was the late Seth
McCoy who taught Wang how to sing. McCoy, who
passed on a few years ago at 68, was among the
very first black soloists to break through the
boundary of racism and sing for Metropolitan
Opera. It was McCoy who inspired Wang to think
about his heritage. Seth told me the world is
not Rochester; here you're Wang Lee-hom, but
outside there, your're a foreigner.
After his pop career kicked off, Wang met Jim
Lee, a respected and experienced music producer
who has worked with many notable pop stars such
as Karen Mok and Coco Lee. The pairing has proved
to be sensation in the pop music industry. And it
was with Lee that Wang worked in producing the
highly popular track, Revolution. Lee taught me
a lot how to be a producer - the techical side of
things, says Wang. He is my mentor.
Back in New York, where he spend about half of
the year churning out new songs, Wang also works
with many big wigs, one being Alex Richbourg,
drumer programmer for Janet Jackson. In one of
his newest songs City of Pleasure, Wangs works
with Richbourg to combine Chinese elements, such
as ping-pong ball and kung fu sounds with Western
style drum grooves. This is apprently the path
Wang wants to take in bridging the two worlds he
is familiar with.
Wang's passion for his heritage is also
noticeable in his reaarangement of the song
Descendants of the Dragon. Originally sung by
Wang's uncle, Li Juan-fu, Descendants of the
Dragon became a legend in Chinese music when it
was released in the 1980's. It was at a time when
China was recovering from an especially turbulent
and destructive periold in its history and moving
on to becoming a world power. The song touched a
chord for many chinese people, at home as well as
around the world.
While Li has given up singing and moved on to
heading Yahoo Taiwan, his nephew is picking up
the ball to take the legendary song
further. Twenty years ago, when my uncle sang
this song, it had a more local meaning. Now, when
you talk about chinese people, you are talking
globally, Wang said in a recent interview.
Another of Wang's musical inspirations is Stevie
Wonder. Wang quotes one of Wonder's 1974 hits,
LIving For The City as what he thinks music
creation should be. In the middle of the song,
The music lowers and thre is dramatic interlude
about a black man visiting New York City, and
being tragically framed for drug
possession. [Stevie Wonder] does all these
different voices; he doesn't mind doing these
things that might make others think of him as an
idoit, Wan gsays. He believes in what he is
doing.
Wang's attitude to life and his career seems to
be a winning formula, and work has never stopped
pouring in. Besides his newest album, Forever's
First Day, and the single, Time To Fall In Love,
this talented homeoby, as Wang often refers to
himself, has just finished the shooting of his
first two movies. China Strike Force, in which
Wang stars with pop legend Aaron Kwok and
Japanese bombshell Norika Fujiwara, was released
last month, while In the Names of Heros, with
Hong Kong hearthrob Stephen Fung and pop
princness Gigi Leung, is expected to be released
this month.
Yet if there is one more thing that Wang has
succeeded in over the past years, it must be the
art of dealing with people. Like many other up-
and-coming pop artists, Wang has had his fair
nubmer of publicity headaches. Rumours about his
sexuality and who he has been dating recently, as
well as whispers along the grapevine that he
stepped on Aaron Kwok's toes for wanting to sing
the title track for China Strike Force, have all,
at one time or another, got this homeboy
frustrated. I personally didn't mind [the
sexuality rumour]. What upsets me is the way that
the question came out, Wang says vehemently. I
was at an event for something totally unrelated
and then out of the blue there was this question.
It was rude and disrespectful.
At other times, Wang is weary of how reporters
are so interested in his love life. I was at
this press conference once promoting my album,
and thre were a few minutes out of an hour-long
press conference where some reporters asked about
this song i wrote about lost love, Wang
recalls. The next day, i read the paper and the
headline was Wang Lee-hom's Lost Love. There
was no mentioning of my other songs. I was
like, 'what the hell?' Needless to say, recent
sightings of him at a restaurant with Karen Mok
have fuelled furthere speculation about the duo's
relationship.
Wang sees nothing in these rumours and looks on
them with a laugh. I've wised up to see things
as they are; there are always good things and bad
things said about you. Wang sums up the
experience: Some people might say, you've put on
weight, and then others say, you're skinnier. I
say, 'screw it'
Wang has foudn the perfect solution to getting
his thoughts across without them being twisted by
the press. He now writes a weekly diary on Sony
Music Taiwan's website in Chinese and
English. If people care to read about it, then
they'll know. And mandy do. The content of the
diary has been recapped in many of his fans
websites and Wang receives many responses each
week.
In a couple of months, Wang will return to the
life he loves most: making music in the studio.
He is expecting to release his first English
album in Japan next year. It's not going to be a
holiday - as a matter of fact, work in the studio
can get quite stressful and intense. I don't
deal with stress very well, I sink into it, Wang
says. When I'm stressed, I become high-strung
and can't eat and sleep; I don't change my
clothes and I don't take a shower. Sounds
horrible, but when that stress is a result of
your passion, it can be ironically
pleasurable. I feel much better now, having
spent my day off practising piano in pure
unadulterated solitude. I spent quality time
today...and am much happy this way, Wang wrote,
closing one of his recent diaries.
~The End~
by amity
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