Huayi Festival 2009http://www.huayifestival.com/

Follow Low Po-Yu in opening your heart and nourishing your soul through music and theatre pieces at the Esplanade.

Design for Living
31 Jan 2009, 8pm

This top billing act for Huayi Festival 2009, a celebration of Chinese arts at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay sees screen luminary Sylvia Chang as lead actress and playwright for this production that has sold out in China and will tour the region in these months.

Usually in the film director’s seat, this time, Chang devotes her maiden theatrical script that weaves her keen observations, thoughts and emotions into an intriguing web of office politics and human relationships against the backdrop of financial turmoil.

Themes like the constant conflict between living and surviving, power struggle and harsh realities of the “corporate zoo” (termed by one of the male Glamorous Office Workers – urbanites decked in smart suits and living it up but leads, David Wang) are well fleshed out by the mostly Taiwanese cast. I like the use of sub-title The when crises hit and the glamour is stripped away, what do you see?

Taiwanese heartthrob Joseph Cheng is surprisingly good in his debut theatrical role as trusting newbie Li Xiang who goes under Chang’s wings. His convincing portrayal of refreshing naivety even manages to steal the thunder from veterans like Chang and Wang at times.

Chang is perfect as the power-hungry, go-getter office matriarch who has an intimate relationship with Wang yet secretly sees him as her biggest office threat. Meanwhile, Wang betrays Chang’s love by hooking up with another rising office star and they both hide a dark secret…with a shocking ending!

Lu Guang Zhong
7 Feb 2009, 3pm

Heard of a folk-pop-rock singer who calls himself Crowd Lu, sports a tousled mushroom crop, black nerd specs, bright tee shirt, navy blue shorts, long white and blue striped socks with matching Adidas pumps?

This Spanish major must be the most popular singing fashion misfit in the Chinese music industry now and the audience at Esplanade’s cosy Recital Studio experienced why. Alternating between his acoustic guitar and chili-red electric guitar, Lu delved right into his first song as he sat on his black swivel stool and sang earnestly into our hearts. Little wonder both his gigs here were sold out despite being only recently discovered.

His tunes like “I Love You” and “Don’t Kill Me” were catchy, with feel-good and at times, comical lyrics. Lu quipped he writes about anything, even about getting a bonus hard-boiled egg when he orders rice! “I guess jacket sales here should be really tough,” as he jibed about our hot weather and had us in guffaws when he candidly sang “Gong Xi Fa Cai, may we eat breakfast heartily like the cows in the Year of the Ox” during his debut hit “Good Morning”.

Lu was simply hilarious to watch with his legs kicking to the music and nerd-cool shy demeanour by saying “yeah” and “hao” (good) when he didn’t know what else to utter, wiping his face and hands with a towel, then gulping water after every song. Lu surprised with a guitar rendition of Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” and impressed with his vocals, especially his famous ultra high-pitched dolphin note that got all of us clapping and cheering. My friend and I admit we were not too familiar with his songs before his gig but we left with heads full of his voice and visited a KTV lounge right after, for more!

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