94-423: Edison Chen Koon-hei ( Chinese : 陳冠希 , born Chen Hing-wah on 7 October 1980) is a Canadian-born Hong Kong actor, singer, rapper, fashion designer and entrepreneur. In 1999, at the age of 19, Chen was scouted to shoot a credit card commercial with Leon Lai . He made his debut in the music industry in 2000 and starred in films such as Infernal Affairs (2002) and Initial D (2005). In 2008, he withdrew from
188-535: A Mandarin album, Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself (讓我再次介紹我自己), with tracks produced by legendary hip-hop artist Kanye West , as well as producers Just Blaze and Clinton Sparks . As early as 2001 Chen had appeared in Vancouver charity shows. He has also been a supporter for the gay and lesbian community in Hong Kong, including being voted as an icon in 2001. In 2007 he was invited by Be@rbrick toys for
282-583: A Cambodian assassin in the 2006 Hong Kong movie Dog Bite Dog . In 1999, a talent scout approached Chen while he was clubbing with friends in Hong Kong and asked him to film a commercial. He was first featured in Leon Lai 's Citibank commercial. In the same year, he also starred alongside Cecilia Cheung in a commemorative subway commercial. From then on, his career began with the Japanese film Dead or Alive 2: Birds . He made his Hong Kong film debut in
376-488: A certain degree. By definition hybrids are still considered Cantonese songs due to the Cantonese lyrics, though the rights borrowed varies country to country. Songs like "Tomorrow sounds like today" ( 明日話今天 ) by Jenny Tseng , "Life to seek" ( 一生何求 ) by Danny Chan , "Snowing" ( 飄雪 ) by Priscilla Chan , and "Can't afford" ( 負擔不起 ) by Jade Kwan were originally composed outside of Hong Kong. Many critics disapprove of
470-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
564-630: A charity event in Harbour City, Hong Kong . The charity proceeds were donated to "Hong Kong Blood Cancer Foundation". He provided English and Cantonese voice work as a Sun On Yee triad member (inspired by the real life triad Sun Yee On ) named Jackie Ma, a major character in the 2012 open world action-adventure video game Sleeping Dogs . Sleeping Dogs is set in the city of Hong Kong, and also features voice work from other established actors including Will Yun Lee , Emma Stone and Lucy Liu . In March 2004, two male teenagers assaulted Chen in
658-416: A common practice among Hong Kong record companies. At that time, Hong Kong's constantly growing music industry acknowledges simply by using those hits, whose already gained popularity, will be the easiest way to reach success in the market. Cover versions were also widely used as a solution to address the shortage of the local hits due to the lack of local composers. Another reason for the use of cover versions
752-500: A culturally challenging atmosphere for the industry. Establishment of Basic Law and language ordinances made the adoption of Mandarin inevitable. In 2019, Andy Lau spoke of his desire for a reunion of the Four Heavenly Kings in an interview with the press. At the turn of the century, Cantonese was still dominant in the domain of Chinese pop . The deaths of superstars Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui in 2003 rocked
846-613: A descending bassline . Cantonese is a pitch sensitive tonal language . The word carries a different meaning when sung in a different relative pitch. Matching Cantonese lyrics to Western music was particularly difficult because the Western musical scale has 12 semitones . Through the work of pioneers like Samuel Hui , James Wong ( 黃霑 ) and Jimmy Lo Kwok Tsim ( 盧國沾 ), those that followed have more stock phrases for reference. Famous lyricists also include Albert Leung (林夕) and Wyman Wong (黃偉文). Tonal constraints have been blamed for
940-502: A feature by well-known Taiwanese rapper MC HotDog , as well as famous singers Sammi Cheng and Jay Chou . Chen released two Cantonese hip-hop albums in collaboration with Hong Kong rappers MC Yan and Chef entitled 三角度 (3 Corners) and 三角度(二) (3 Corners II) in 2012 and 2015 respectively. Chen's foray into the fashion industry accompanied his rising success as a young pop icon. Chen, along with partners Kevin Poon and Billy Ip, became
1034-613: A standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
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#17327794551541128-812: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
1222-453: Is less formal. The lyrics written in colloquial Cantonese make up the majority with compositions done in modern written Chinese . TV shows filmed under modern contexts will use songs written with these lyrics. Most songs share an over-riding characteristic, in which every last word of a phrase is rhymed . The following is an example from the song "Impression" ( 印象 ) by Samuel Hui . The last word of every phrase ends with '–oeng'. Cantopop
1316-729: Is officially making a comeback to the entertainment business after he was spotted filming for Lou Ye 's new project in Guangzhou in April 2016. In 2000, at the age of 20, Chen landed a record deal with Emperor Entertainment Group . It took him a number of successful album releases before he was given the opportunity to produce a hip hop album. His first hip-hop release was in February 2004, called Please Steal This Album backed by MC Yan and Singaporean musician Hanjin Chen. Several singles from
1410-517: Is to minimise the production costs. The practice is also done for business reasons of filling up albums and re-capitalizing on songs with a proven record. The Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards, which is one of the major music awards in Hong Kong since 1979, can reflect the great reliance on Japanese melodies in Cantopop. During the 1980s, 139 out of 477 songs from weekly gold songs chart were cover versions, and 52% of
1504-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
1598-548: The 1980s , Cantopop soared to great heights with artists, producers and record companies working in harmony. Cantopop stars such as Alan Tam , Leslie Cheung , Anita Mui , Sally Yeh , Priscilla Chan , Sandy Lam , Danny Chan , Jacky Cheung , Andy Lau quickly became household names. The industry used Cantopop songs in TV dramas and movies, with some of the biggest soundtracks coming from films such as A Better Tomorrow ( 英雄本色 ). Sponsors and record companies became comfortable with
1692-602: The Central District of Hong Kong. The two teenagers mocked Chen with dance moves outside a record store. Immediately following the dance taunt, both of the teenagers punched Chen. Upon doing so the two teenagers fled the scene, and Chen gave chase. Chen eventually caught up to the two individuals as they were trying to board a bus. They were turned over to Hong Kong Police . As a result of the incident, Chen reported that he sprained his ankle and that his cheekbone and ear were also injured. Chen declined to press charges and
1786-507: The Kensiu language . Cantopop Cantopop (a contraction of " Cantonese pop music") is a genre of pop music sung in Cantonese . Cantopop is also used to refer to the cultural context of its production and consumption. The genre began in the 1970s and became associated with Hong Kong popular music from the middle of the decade. Cantopop then reached its height of popularity in
1880-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
1974-449: The "Five Asian Albums Worth Buying". Besides holding the record for winning the "Ultimate Male Singer - Gold" award (10 times) and "My Favorite Male Singer" award (9 conservative years) at the "Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation" in HK, Eason Chan also won numerous awards at major music award ceremonies locally and in other regions. He became one of the representative figures of Cantopop in
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#17327794551542068-477: The "band fever" cannot put for a long time. Along with the death of the legendary Wong Ka Kui , the leader and co-founder of Beyond , in 1993, and the disband-tide emerged in the early 90s ( Tat Ming Pair disbanded in 1990), the "band fever" gradually faded away and totally got down in the early 1990s. As Cantopop gained large followings in Chinese communities worldwide, Hong Kong entrepreneurs' ingenious use of
2162-420: The 16-year-old model stated that her phone was lost. It was later revealed that Chen had sent text messages to Tse, asking her to pose for him in swimsuits and school uniforms . Tse confirmed that there were no nude photos. Tse reported that she lost her virginity to Chen and adding on that he filmed a two-minute video of her in the bedroom and he also bought sexy lingerie for her. From 2006 to May 2011, Chen
2256-461: The 1980s and 1990s before slowly declining in the 2000s and shrinking in the 2010s. The term "Cantopop" itself was coined in 1978 after "Cantorock", a term first used in 1974. In the 1980s, Cantopop reached its highest glory with fanbase and concerts all over the world, especially in Macau , Mainland China , Taiwan , Singapore , Malaysia , South Korea , and Japan . This was even more obvious with
2350-461: The 1990s when that era's "big-name" singers ( 大牌歌星 ) seemed unapproachable. A number of scandals struck some of stars later in the decade. In 2008, the Edison Chen photo scandal , involving Edison Chen and Twins singer Gillian Chung among others, was the subject of explicit photos uploaded online. The scandal occupied the front pages of the local press for a solid month, and also garnered
2444-507: The 2000s. Cantopop was not restricted only to Hong Kong, but became part of a larger music movement. In 2005, Cantopop began a new upswing. Major companies that drove much of the HK segment included Gold Typhoon Music Entertainment ( EMI , Gold Label ), Universal Music Group , East Asia Entertainment ( 東亞娛樂 ) and Amusic and Emperor Entertainment Group . The decade was also dubbed a "People's singer" era ( 親民歌星 ), as most performers were frequently seen promoting publicly, in contrast with
2538-461: The 2010s. He was the first Chinese/HK singer who held solo concerts in London's O2 Arena and Beijing's National Stadium (Bird's Nest) . In the 2010s, there was revival for boy groups and bands in Cantopop with the rise of C AllStar , RubberBand , Supper Moment , Dear Jane , etc. JSG Best Ten Music Awards Presentation was highly controversial with the ongoing HKRIA royalties case . The case
2632-540: The Furious: Tokyo Drift but he declined. His final film in Hong Kong as of 2013 is The Sniper , which was filmed before his photo scandal . He also filmed a cameo as a thug in The Dark Knight but because of the scandal, his role was reduced and was seen very briefly as a receptionist instead. Some reports states that he was originally cast to play Lau, a corrupted Chinese accountant, which
2726-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
2820-532: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
2914-411: The album topped local pop charts. Chen mentioned the difficulty of fitting in Hong Kong, where Cantopop dominates, but said that hip hop has a great potential. He is featured on M-Flo 's album, Cosmicolor , on the track " LOVE ME, HATE THE GAME " with Chen, Thaitanium and Ryohei Yamamoto . After Chen's comeback in late 2009 he began work on his next album titled Confusion . The record includes
Edison Chen - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-612: The attention of international media. The scandal tarnished the image of the previously "squeaky-clean" Twins, and resulted in their going into hiatus in late June 2008, four months after Gillian was caught up in the scandal. Other events include the street fight between Gary Chaw and Justin Lo . In 2009, Jill Vidal and her singer boyfriend Kelvin Kwan were arrested in Tokyo on 24 February 2009 over allegations of marijuana possession . Kwan
3102-560: The authorities relented, this event reflects attempts at marginalising Cantonese and the ascendency of Mandopop . In the 2010s, Cantopop industry still had outstanding singers and musicians who achieved success beyond the local market and made a mark in the Chinese music scene. Eason Chan is one of the most popular and influential Cantopop superstars. He captures wide audience across different regions, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Southeast Asia, UK, North America, Australia etc. He successfully held world tours in these regions in
3196-426: The cover versions were covers of Japanese songs. Numerous legendary songs of Cantopop superstars Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, for example "Craziness" (1983), "Monica" (1984), "Foggy Love" (1984), "For Your Love Only" (1985), "Evil Girl" (1985), "The Past Love" (1986), "The First Tear" (1986), and "Fired Tango", were cover versions of Japanese hits, showing that covers contributed to the success of superstars to
3290-615: The credibility of the Award has greatly declined. In 2018, Eason Chan released an album "L.O.V.E. " (mainly in Cantonese), which was successful in Taiwan's 30th Golden Melody Awards , winning nominations to three major awards: Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Producer of the Year, Album. Ultimately, the album's producer, Carl Wong, won the "Producer of the Year, Album" award. This was
3384-443: The decline of Cantopop in the late 1990s, for source of creativity being "mined out". Its ramification includes interpretive constraint, where singers have less room for ad-lib change of pitch without sacrificing intelligibility. As a result, pitch change often encountered in western pop music becomes foreign to most of Hong Kong's singers. The first type is the poetic lyrics written in literary or classical Wenyan Chinese ( 文言 ). In
3478-516: The doors for non-TVB artists to perform on the network. The move was described by local media as "reviving the Cantopop music industry." In 2023, Eason Chan released a new album titled "Chin Up!", which included a Cantonese song "Homo Sapiens"（人啊人） with lyrics written by Chow Yiu-fai [ zh ] . This song made Chow won Taiwan's 34th Golden Melody Awards - the Best Lyricist, marking
3572-497: The earliest artists releasing Cantonese records. The generation at the time preferred British and American exports. Western culture was at the time equated with education and sophistication, and Elvis Presley , Johnny Mathis and The Ladybirds were popular. Conversely, those who did not prefer Cantonese music were not considered fashioned or educated. Cheng Kum-cheung [ zh ] and Chan Chung-chug ( 陳齊頌 ) were two popular Cantonese singers who specifically targeted
3666-423: The entertainment industry “indefinitely” following a sex photo scandal , but made a comeback in 2010. Along with his two older sisters, Chen was born in Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada, and is of Chinese and one-eighth Portuguese descent. Chen's father is Edward Chen (陳澤民), a Hong Kong entertainment industry mogul famously known as "Ninth Brother" (九哥). He is of Shanghai ancestry on his father's side. He
3760-582: The film Gen-Y Cops in 2000. He starred in many popular films including Infernal Affairs , Infernal Affairs II , Initial D , and Dog Bite Dog . Determined to expand his horizons to countries around the world, he also starred in the Japanese drama Under the Same Moon . In 2006, he made his American debut as a Hong Kong journalist in The Grudge 2 . He was offered a small role in The Fast and
3854-545: The first actions taken by the government was to denounce pop music (specifically Western pop) as decadent music. Beginning in the 1950s , massive waves of immigrants fled Shanghai to destinations like North Point in Hong Kong. As a result, many first generation Cantopop artists and composers hail from Shanghai. By the 1960s, Cantonese music in Hong Kong was still limited largely to traditional Cantonese opera and comic renditions of western music. Tang Kee-chan , Cheng Kuan-min ( 鄭君綿 ), and Tam Ping-man ( 譚炳文 ) were among
Edison Chen - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-751: The first time in the history of the Golden Melody Awards that a Cantonese album won this award. Interest in Cantopop was renewed in the early 2020s in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong , which led to border closures and restriction of travel. In addition to the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests and the passing of the Hong Kong national security law in June 2020, the resurgence of Hong Kong pride had led many Cantonese natives to support local music artists. The Cantopop boy group Mirror , which
4042-421: The first time in the history of the Golden Melody Awards that a Cantonese song was nominated and won the award. This achievement created a historical record for Cantopop. In 2024, at the age of 79, the renowned Temple Street King, Wan Kwong (尹光）, was voted to the final five of the "My Favorite Male Singer" category at the " Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation ," marking a record in the Cantopop industry. This
4136-481: The first time since the scandal broke in an interview with TalkAsia on CNN . In the interview he reveals his side of the scandal and how he endured criticisms from the public, the media, and from the individuals affected by the case. Three years later, Chen was involved in another photo scandal, this time with a 16-year-old Hong Kong model Cammi Tse. Their relationship was revealed after photos of them together hugging and kissing each other were leaked online and later,
4230-558: The first wave in the 60s, the "band fever" in the 80s did not show an obvious relationship with the global culture at the time being, but much related with the marketing strategy of the local record companies and mass media. Many independent bands and music groups were signed by big record companies, and this made a positive impact to the Hong Kong pop music world, as their works were highly original, with strong individuality, and they were all devoted to writing songs in local language, i.e. Cantonese. The subjects of their works were different from
4324-556: The founders of CLOT Inc., a clothing company geared toward youth culture, in 2003. The company has collaborated with many big clothing companies, such as Adidas , Nike , A Bathing Ape , Subcrew and Disney . CLOT operates multiple stores worldwide through its retail component JUICE STORE, including in Hong Kong, Los Angeles , mainland China and Taiwan . In February 2007, he invested $ 10 million HKD to open his own multi-media company, Clot Media Division, which plans to produce movies, commercials and music albums. In June 2007, he released
4418-431: The future of their relationship was the subject of intense media gossip. Hong Kong police have stated that they confiscated a collection of sex-related photos that involve six other identifiable females and other unidentifiable males. Initially the authenticity of the photos was denied, and digital manipulation was used as the primary explanation for the pictures. However, Hong Kong police and Photoshop experts argued that
4512-434: The greatest impact to the Hong Kong music world. Some renowned bands and groups included: Beyond , Raidas , Tat Ming Pair , Tai Chi ( 太極樂隊 ), Grasshopper ( 草蜢 ), Little Tigers ( 小虎隊 ), Paradox ( 夢劇院 ), Blue Jeans ( 藍戰士 ), Echo , Wind & Cloud ( 風雲樂隊 ), Citybeat ( 城市節拍 ). The second wave of "band fever" also brought a group of new music lovers to the Hong Kong mainstream music world. Most of them were
4606-463: The idea of lucrative contracts and million- dollar signings. There were also Japanese songs with Cantonese lyrics. The "Queen of Mandarin songs" Teresa Teng also crossed over to Cantopop. She achieved commercial success with her original Cantonese Hits under the Polygram Label in the early 1980s. Jenny Tseng was another notable singers, who was born in Macau . In the 1980s, there came
4700-551: The industry. In addition, with the Four Heavenly Kings fading out and the rise of Taiwan Mandopop singer-songwriter superstars like Leehom Wang , David Tao , Jay Chou and JJ Lin , influence of Cantopop started declining with fans turning to Taiwan Mandopop in the 2000s. During the period, a transitional phase also took place with many overseas-raised or overseas-educated artists such as Nicholas Tse and Eason Chan gaining popularity and recognition. In 2006, Time magazine praised Eason Chan 's Cantonese album U87 as one of
4794-644: The influence of Cantonese became vulnerable. Nevertheless, in addition to the 7 million people of Hong Kong and Macau, the genre continues to enjoy popularity among a Cantonese-speaking audience of in excess of 100 million in southern China, plus 10 million Cantonese-speaking diaspora in Canada, Australia and the United States. In 2010, a proposal that Guangzhou Television station should increase its broadcast in Mandarin led to protests in Guangzhou . While
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#17327794551544888-580: The influx of songs from Hong Kong movies during the time. Besides Western pop music, Cantopop is also influenced by other international genres, including jazz , rock and roll , R&B , disco , electronic , ballad and others. Cantopop songs are almost invariably performed in Cantonese . Boasting a multi-national fanbase, the genre has gained popularity in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Additionally, it has found following in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and
4982-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
5076-524: The just-grew-up generation, or the music lovers of the western Avant-garde music, also the Euro-American Rock-band lovers. This contributed to a great change in the population and age distribution of the music listeners from the 70s. Record companies were laying ever more stress on the buying power of these young new customers. The second wave of "band fever" emerged from the mid-1980s (around 1984) and reached its climax in 1986–87. However
5170-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
5264-474: The mainstream (which was mostly love ballads ). Politics and social life were popular subjects for the bands in their creation. The "band fever" also brought variety in musical style to the Hong Kong mainstream music world (which was almost monopolised by Pop-ballad for a long time). Styles like Rock, Metal , Pop-Rock , Folk , Neo-Romantic , Pop and some experimental styles (e.g. Cantorock) were introduced. Among them, Beyond and Tat Ming Pair ( 達明一派 ) gave
5358-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
5452-505: The managing director of Huayi Brothers Fashion Media, claimed they were still married and accused Qin of infidelity. Qin responded on Weibo, stating that she and Gow had already signed a divorce agreement prepared by Gow's lawyer. On March 5, 2017, Chen and Qin's daughter, Alaia, was born. The couple married the same year and have lived in Los Angeles, USA. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are
5546-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
5640-453: The more traditional lyrical styles. The other was more western style music largely from Polydor Hong Kong ( 寶麗多唱片 ). Notable singers from the era include Liza Wang and Paula Tsui . At the same time, television was fast becoming a household must-have that offered free entertainment to the public. For example, The Fatal Irony ( 啼笑因緣 ) and Games Gamblers Play ( 鬼馬雙星 ) took the local music scene by storm as soon as they were broadcast on
5734-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
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#17327794551545828-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
5922-545: The past, Cantopop maintained the Cantonese Opera tradition of matching the musical notes with tones of the language. Relatively few Cantopop songs use truly colloquial Cantonese terms, and fewer songs contain lyrics. Songs written in this style are usually reserved for TV shows about ancient China . Since the 1980s, increasing numbers of singers have departed from this tradition, though some big names like Roman Tam stayed true to traditional techniques. The second type
6016-472: The photos were in fact real and not digitally altered. This brought about a serious reaction towards all parties involved in the scandal. As a result, Chen made a public apology in English to the Hong Kong people and the women involved and indirectly admitted his role and expressed remorse and subsequently announced his indefinite departure from the Hong Kong entertainment industry at a press conference. Due to
6110-468: The police. On the basis of these charges he was convicted and placed on a one-year good behavior bond. He was also fined; the taxi company was granted HK$ 4,700 in compensation for the damage inflicted to the car. In January 2008, Chen was involved in a widely publicised sex scandal when sexually explicit nude photographs of himself taken four years earlier became widely circulated on the Internet. Chen
6204-490: The poll. Early Cantopop was developed from Cantonese opera music hybridised with Western pop. The musicians soon gave up traditional Chinese musical instruments like zheng and Erhu fiddle in favour of western style arrangements. Cantopop songs are usually sung by one singer, sometimes with a band, accompanied by piano, synthesizer, drum set and guitars. They are composed under verse-chorus form and are generally monophonic . Practically all early Cantopop songs feature
6298-407: The practice of covering foreign music and consider it lacking in originality, and many albums promoted themselves as "cover-free". on January 29, 2010, Jacky Cheung released his Private Corner album coining the phrase "Canto-jazz", to describe the concept of the album and the musical style of the songs. In The South China Morning Post , Rachel Mok described "Canto-jazz" as a "unique fusion of
6392-833: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
6486-477: The provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi in southeastern mainland China. Hong Kong remains as the significant hub of the genre. Western-influenced music first came to China in the 1920s, specifically through Shanghai. Artists like Zhou Xuan ( 周璇 ) acted in films and recorded popular songs. When the People's Republic of China was established by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, one of
6580-406: The radio and television. Soap operas were needed to fill TV air time, and popular Cantonese songs became TV theme songs. Around 1971, Sandra Lang , a minor singer who had never sung Cantopop before, was invited to sing a Cantonese TV theme song "A marriage of Laughter and Tears" ( 啼笑因緣 ). This song was a collaboration between songwriters Yip Siu-dak ( 葉紹德 ) and the legendary Joseph Koo . It
6674-631: The scandal, the Google search engine rankings for 2008 resulted in Chen's Chinese name being the number 1 search term in China, and number 3 in Taiwan. Chen was runner-up to US president-elect Barack Obama in the Hong Kong Person of 2008 poll by government-run RTHK radio , with just under 30 percent of votes in the Person of the Year. On 1 June 2009, Chen spoke openly about the sex photo scandal for
6768-640: The second wave of "band fever" (the first wave came in the 1960–70s, which was much influenced by the global Beatlemania at that time. Young people thought that forming bands was fashionable. Many new bands emerged at that time, such as Samuel Hui 's Lotus , The Wynners , and the Teddy Robin and the Playboys . However, the bands emerged in this first wave were just copying the western music style, mostly covering British and American rock songs, and prefer singing in English rather than Cantonese). Different from
6862-545: The then new Laserdisc technology prompted yet another explosion in the market. In the 1990s in Hong Kong , the "Four Heavenly Kings" ( 四大天王 ) — Jacky Cheung , Andy Lau , Leon Lai and Aaron Kwok — dominated pop music, and coverage in magazines, TV, advertisements and cinema. They had wide audience across different regions, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Southeast Asia, and even South Korea. The female counterparts in this era were Sammi Cheng , Faye Wong , and Kelly Chen . The sovereignty handover created
6956-496: The time, many of my friends told me he was a playboy with multiple girlfriends. Later, I found out he had 20 girlfriends during that period.” She also said that the intimate photos of her and Chen were only in their possession, and she did not understand how they were leaked to the media. In 2015, Chen began dating Chinese model and actress Qin Shupei . In May 2016, their relationship was made public. However, Qin's husband, Leigh Gow,
7050-583: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
7144-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
7238-451: The two individuals were released. Their lives would be ruined if I pressed charges. Their mother asked me to forgive them. I went to the hospital and got checked out and since it's just bruises, I decided to let it go. Chen drove to his home after midnight 9 March 2007. The gate was blocked by a Toyota Crown Comfort taxi that had just dropped off its passengers. The taxi driver then signaled Chen to move away so he could pull out, clearing
7332-480: The two music styles" of "light jazz" and canto-pop creating a fresh sound with a uniquely local flavour". She cited Jacky Cheung's Private Corner and Karen Mok's "Somewhere I Belong" among artists who have recorded Cantonese language albums in the new jazz genre coined "canto-jazz". An educational study traced the development of jazz in Greater China and explored the cross-cultural issues in rearranging
7426-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
7520-404: The way for Chen to enter. Chen's security guard told the taxi driver to pull over so that Chen could pass. The taxi driver insulted the security guard. Chen proceeded to have an argument with the taxi driver. Despite the presence of the security guard and other witnesses, he got out of his car and kicked the taxi several times, denting it and breaking all its windows. He was subsequently charged by
7614-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
7708-404: The younger generation. Connie Chan Po-chu is generally considered to be Hong Kong's 657th teen idol , mostly due to her career longevity. Josephine Siao is also another artist of the era. Local bands mimicked British and American bands. Two types of local Cantonese music appeared in the market nearly concurrently in 1973: one type cashed in on the popularity of TVB 's drama series based on
7802-495: Was Roman Tam . Three of the most famous TV soap opera singers were Jenny Tseng , Liza Wang and Adam Cheng . The Wynners and George Lam also amassed a big fan base with their new style. Samuel Hui continued to dominate the charts and won the Centennial Best Sales Award in the first and second IFPI Gold Disc Presentations twice in a row in 1977 and 1978. Polydor became PolyGram ( 寶麗金 ) in 1978. It
7896-510: Was a student at R.C. Palmer Secondary School in Richmond, British Columbia and also attended Hong Kong International School , where he was a classmate with Nicholas Tse . Chen's native language is English. He is also fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin, which he primarily records music in. He speaks conversational Japanese as a result of his early training to be a Hong Kong idol, and he knows some basic Khmer since he learnt it when portraying
7990-504: Was also the first time in over fifty years after his debut that he transitioned from performing at Temple Street to appearing at a major music awards ceremony. The "Wan Kwong phenomenon" caused a stir online, with fans appraising his continuous efforts in releasing his latest song, "Dear Myself," which incorporated AI elements while others voting for him as a counterbalance to the idol genre because they had been sick of Mirror individual members’ live performances and Mirror fans' behavior in
8084-497: Was at this time that the term Cantopop was first coined. The Billboard correspondent Hans Ebert, who had earlier coined the term Cantorock in 1974, noted a change in its style to something similar to British-American soft rock , therefore started to use the term Cantopop instead in 1978. In 1974, as the theme song of The Fatal Irony ( 啼笑因緣 ) was very successful, TVB sold to the mainland and other countries and Cantopop reached overseas audiences through drama series. During
8178-455: Was born in the 1970s and became a cultural product with the popularity of two popular TVB drama's themes songs in the early 1970s: "Tower Ballad" ( 鐵塔凌雲 , 1972) and "A marriage of Laughter and Tears" ( 啼笑因緣 , 1974). The majority of "hit" Cantopop, however, is not entirely local produced but the cover versions of "hit" foreign melodies. Since the 1970s, covering "hit" external songs mainly from Japan, Korea, Taiwan or other Western countries became
8272-591: Was formed through the ViuTV singing competition in Good Night Show - King Maker in 2018, skyrocketed in popularity during this time due to their distinctively local image. Media had described them as a "Mirror phenomenon." Yet, their lacking in vocal skills has sparked controversy and disapproval among the public. In February 2021, Hong Kong's biggest television broadcaster, TVB , historically lifted its ban on four of Hong Kong's biggest record labels, opening
8366-492: Was ground-breaking and topped local charts. Other groups that profited from TV promotion included the Four Golden Flowers . Sam Hui is regarded by some to be the earliest Cantopop star. He was the lead singer of the band Lotus formed in the late 1960s, signed to Polydor in 1972. The song that made him famous was the theme song to Games Gamblers Play ( 鬼馬雙星 ), also starring Hui. The star of TV theme tunes
8460-418: Was in a relationship with Vincy Yeung, the daughter of Hong Kong tycoon Ricky Yeung Chiu Sing and niece of Albert Yeung , the chairman of Emperor Group under which Chen was signed. In 2011, Chen briefly dated 16-year-old Cammi Tse, a member of the modeling group Fantasy. On October 30, 2011, their relationship was revealed and ended when the photos of the two kissing surfaced. In a 2014 interview, Tse said, “At
8554-405: Was never accused of uploading the photos himself and a computer technician was later sentenced for accessing Chen's computer during a repair. Celebrities implicated in the scandal included 8 victims: Cecilia Cheung , Gillian Chung , Bobo Chan , Candice Chan (陈思慧), Vincy Yeung (杨永晴), Mandy Chen (陈育嬬) and Rachel Ngan (颜颖思). Nude photos of Edison's ex-girlfriend, Vincy Yeung, were also made public and
8648-663: Was played by Chin Han . He made his comeback in an Asian-American film called Almost Perfect . On 28 October, during a fashion event in Beijing , Chen announced that he would be starring in Initial D 2. The filming of the movie was scheduled to begin in 2011 but it has been delayed indefinitely. In 2014, he made an brief comeback to the Hong Kong film industry in Golden Chickensss . After eight years of doing short roles, he
8742-405: Was released without charge after 32 days in jail, while Vidal later pleaded guilty in Tokyo court to heroin possession, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, suspended for three years. In the 2010s, Cantopop market shrank with fans, particularly the youth, turning to K-pop and Mandopop . Mandarin became more important as a result of fast growing culturally and economically in China,
8836-577: Was reportedly solved in early 2012 though. In January 2012, the JSG Awards 2011 was again controversial since one of the biggest awards, Song of the Year, was handed to Raymond Lam with his unpopular song "Chok". In 2015 and 2018, the Commercial Radio Hong Kong's "Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation " handed "My Favorite Male Singer" award to James Ng and Louis Koo respectively, which were also controversial. Since then,
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