Hard Core Andy Lau Duk Wah Fans

Hong Kong (this is for you Kim)

The two of them are still filming downstairs of my apartment. Now they are bloodied, so I guess the fight didn’t go so well. I want to note that it is currently 4:57am, and there are still about 40 fans (I counted) outside my apartment. I walked down the stairs and I had about 100 people stare at me because I was tettering down with high heels, a dress and a sorta sexy top (Tonight we had a huge kareoke party celebration for my birthday) and I felt like waving or something. It must be odd to have people stare at every move you make because I was mucho uncomfortable, I just wanted to yell, “Hey! I live around here! Some of us come home late because it’s our birthdays!”

Anyway, as I was going down, Cheung Hok Yau came walking up looking not too happy, so he passed me by, and I stared at him and he looked at me. Andy was freezing coz the fights are in the rain, and his head was wrapped in a towel and he was drinking something hot, sorta sitting on the side of the road.

As I got to my gate there were all these women sitting outside it, and I had to ask them to move so I could get home. But then I stopped and just out of curiosity asked them why they were there and how did they know about it. And they said there is a network of Andy Lau fans who come out and watch him make movies all the time, and they pass on the news to each other. She’s watched about 5 of them in the last few years. Last night she came by at about nine and sat until six in the morning until the shoot wrapped. As we chatted I asked her how old she was because she looked 50 to me and she said she was over 50 and has been a fan of his for 22 years. And started doing this in the last few after she retired from her job. I can’t imagine Andy being that old but I guess he’s passed his 40s. (God, I would give anything for him to touch MY cheek!) And that all the women there (and a few men) all know each other, and it’s like a late night picnic of sorts, as then I had to tell them were they can have morning dim sum in the neighbourhood. The more I looked the more I realized everyone was there was at least over 30, and the average age was 40!!!!! I found that really interesting, and I asked them why they came and they said, “Coz it makes us happy to watch him.” I guess that’s what it is to be a hard core fan of some star.

Then Andy and Jacky started chatting and joking and of course I couldn’t help it and crossed the street just to STARE so I can see what they look like in real life. And then Andy looked over and SMILED, and I looked away coz I was blushing!! Ha Ha. Anyway, then one of the women on the set told me to get back to the other side. So I did. I dunno, must have spent half hour over there and for me that was more than enough, and decided to go home. I couldn’t sit there for seven hours just so I can catch a glimspe of a star.

But the women told me that they’ve rented the laundry next door as a trailer and Andy and Jacky hangs out there before the filming starts and if I want an autograph or a photo, that’s the place to do it. Well, I am really good buddies with the laundry people as that’s where I wash my clothes and sometimes take their dogs for a walk when they are really busy, so maybe they can get me in!! That is if they are filming tomorrow too. Hmm. This is really silly but it’s also so much fun. After Leslie died, I said I would have at least liked to meet him once, and then vowed I should at least meet Anita once, but I never got the chance, so well for my (seemingly never ending) birthday celebration it’s sorta nice and something different.

And how did I go from writing passionately about democracy in China (and going through the trouble of getting it translated) to mooning over movie stars? I dunno. I guess we all have many different sides to our characters.

I Just saw Andy Lau and Jackie Cheung

More Filming No Sleep

Published by Yan Sham-Shackleton

Yan Sham-Shackleton is a Hong Kong writer who lives in Los Angeles. This is her old blog Glutter written mostly in Hong Kong from 2003 to 2007. Although it was a personal blog, Yan focused a lot on free speech issues and democratic movement in Hong Kong. She moved to the US in 2007.

24 thoughts on “Hard Core Andy Lau Duk Wah Fans

  1. Its kind of the same here. You always know when a celebrity type is out at one of the casinos. There are people everywhere. Most are tourists that just happened to see them, but there is also that core group that “stalks” all the celebrities. There are only a couple of people I would even bother braving the crowds for & to my knowledge, they haven’t been to Vegas recently.

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  2. OMG, you live on “xxx Gai”?? I heard that street’s haunted! Have you even seen anything “unusual” around there? Anyway, in case you don’t already know, the movie they’re filming is called 江湖 (pronounced as “Kong Wu”).

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  3. Shhh!! Don’t tell the whole world! It’s won’t be photos of Miss Kitty hidden in the bushes it will be me!
    http://glutter.typepad.com/glutter/2004/02/sickos_killed_h.html
    But I do. And I think the place is haunted. Well it used to be before they rebuilt it. I won’t walk pass it at night, always the otherside of the road. But I think it’s cool to live near the haunted house. How do you know they were filming there anyway? Was it in the papers?
    Yan
    Yan

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  4. Hmm… river and lake? LOL! Just kidding. Hmm… I don’t really know… “gangster society”?
    Oh BTW, Hello Kitty was born in suburb London, England, not Japan 😉

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  5. I think I got it mixed up 江 is it the area of fresh water before it hits the ocean. But I have to look it up. In the mean time I solicited NEVIN for help. My friend says he’s an amazing writer although she’s not gotten around to explaining what he said. He’s our resident Chinese character expert.
    yan

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  6. No, no, no. The term 江湖 doesn’t have anything to do with river or lake or ocean or whatever! I believe it means underworld. That’s it, underworld!

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  7. I saw your S.O.S flashes from my blog. Reminded me of Batman.
    江湖 as a term with unique Chinese characteristics (chiming in fluff: mark you that this is the trendiest language on loan from the impeccable CCP on whom hinges HK’s prosperity and stability as, if you have missed, CH Tung promulgated that HK’s democracy must be developed according to its “special needs”(not exact wording)) is heavily loaded with cultural unances and impossible to render into a blanket English equivalence.
    As far as the movie you talked about is concerned, 江湖 may be translated as “brotherhood”, “fraternity” (never “sorority” as you know Chinese male dictates the on-the-ground and underground societies) or even better “CRIMINAL FRATERNITY”, which is a term commonly used in English.
    BTW, all local newspaper has covered where the movie was filmed that night, eureka!

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  8. Which is actually EXACTLY correct because it doesn’t neccessarily have to be Criminal it just means being in the outside world, coz you can 行走江湖 in a kung fu way or a travel way. It means the wider world of who-knows-what. It also has connotations of doing something for yourself outside of a normal structure right? If you’re running around. So when you are in this enviroment you will meet both good people and bad people, people who you can trust and those who will shaft you. So 江湖 is the place where salt and fresh water meets, and you never know what you get! (See. I speak the damn thing, just don’t read it too well.)
    Yan

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  9. And considering most Chinese people in History were also illterate I think it’s totally possible to understand the nuances of meaning without having to be able to read the characters fully…. (she nods earnestly hoping for some pat on her head she won’t get.)

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  10. “行走江湖”? Yan, you should be able to think up an equivalent English expression with the clue about “江湖” I wrote. As for me, time to the movies (Cold Mountain).
    Someone:
    “Criminal fraternity” that I proposed is the translation for 江湖.
    Dub, 江湖人物 in that case is, as some of you suggested, gangster.
    Other possible but awkward translations for “江湖人物” you may find in a dictionary:
    “Vagabond” (sounds more Japanese than Chinese to me), “itinerant” (entertainer?), “quack” (?), “wanderer/strayer” (remind me of Lord of the Rings).

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  11. He’s good huh? Don’t know where I found him. Oh yes I do. Somewhere on another blog staring at photos of too young girls 😛
    BTW my cousin explained why everyone was staring at me that night. They were probably wondering if I was some star(let), coz why else would some freako be dressed like that in the middle of the night walking pass a film set. Ha!
    Little did they know.

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  12. Hmm… they were probably wondering if you were a prostitute. LOL!
    Btw, don’t you need to sleep? You seem to be here all the time!

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  13. Yes. I get mistaken for that all the time. It’s the squinty Asian Eyes and oriental shaped face, plus my amazing lack of docility. You know when it’s that combination, many a white males get it mixed up.
    I sleep all the time. I sleep too much. I just sleep around the same time you do.

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