Holy & Dangerous

Shalom!

In December, Ada Choi and a TVB camera crew went off to Israel for ten days of filming for On The Road, TVB’s celebrity travel program. Previous installments have featured notables such as Karena “The Canadian” Lam visiting a children’s acrobatics academy in Mainland China and Helena “The Catholic” Law visiting Vatican City.

Ada Choi’s Israel installment had long been planned, but often delayed for a variety of reasons, including the outbreak of a mini-war between Israel and Hezbollah during summer 2006. However, in December 2006, Choi’s dream of visiting the Holy Land was finally fulfilled. It can’t be overstated that going to Israel was a raging passion of Choi’s. In a newspaper interview given just prior to her departure, she said something to the effect of, As long as I make it to Israel, you can kill me before I even get off the plane!

Whoa, eeeeeeasy, Ada. Let’s not go crazy now.

For whatever reason, I, myself, have never had the burning desire to go to Israel for a visit. I don’t think it has anything to do with being incinerated by a suicide bomber with visions of 70 virgins dancing in his head or the threatened outbreak of another mini-war or whatever. There are just other places that are a higher priority for me. Like Hong Kong…Australia…Edmonton…the Greek Isles.

During Christmastime, I purchased a bundle of Rick Steves’ PBS travel shows on DVD, and was much more intrigued by his show on the Greek Isles than on Israel. In fact, I was mesmerized by Greece. White stucco villages nestled into cliffs that overlook the azure Mediterranean! Absolutely lovely.

Anyway, speaking of Chinese people going to Jerusalem, apparently there’s a movement underway by Christian elements in China called “Back to Jerusalem.” If I’m not mistaken, the movement is not specifically targeting Jerusalem for evangelism, but more broadly focusing on sending Chinese missionaries to various countries and nations along the Silk Road, from China to the Mediterranean Sea, within the 10/40 window. Which is cool. Chinese Christians are evangelizing countries along the Silk Road. Americans are evangelizing China. And the Koreans are sending missionaries to America. (Does anyone want to evangelize their homeland?) As for Europe, Australia, Siberia, and every place outside the 10/40 window, they can just burn. Burn, baby, burn!

(A joke!)

Uh, let’s move on to some of Ms. Choi’s travel pictures…

Courtesy of Ada Choi / ACFC

“Can I offer you a pita?” Yes, nothing says “kosher” like the pork-loving Chinese. After I saw this picture, I immediately ordered take-out Israeli food from one of my favorite local restaurants. Mmmm, turkey shawarma… And pork…

Courtesy of Ada Choi / ACFC

Here, you have Ms. Choi holding a frightened Israeli child, who’s dressed up like a Swiss Guardsman. (The Pope! Who’s protecting The Pope!?!)

“Hi, I’m Christian Hong Kong television actress Ada Choi, and this is one of my souvenirs from my recent trip to Israel…an Israeli child! Duty free! Haha! He (she?) may not look very happy, but trust me, this is his ‘ecstatic face.’ You’d lose the ability to appear genuinely joyful, too, if you had to face the daily threat of violence and suicide bombings…or imminent adoption by Angelina Jolie.”

Courtesy of Ada Choi / ACFC

I’m guessing that this is on the way to the Dead Sea.

Courtesy of Ada Choi / ACFC

Here’s Ms. Choi with the Temple Mount and Jerusalem’s Old City in the background. The gold thing is the Dome of the Rock, a.k.a. Mohammed’s Launch Pad, the third holiest site in Islam. Beyond that is the Western Wall, a.k.a. The Wailing Wall, the holiest site in Judaism.

Recently, I read a New York Times article about Americans and foreigners buying vacation homes in Israel, a recent trend that has fueled the high-end real estate market there. One of the major amenities that ratchets up the price of any house/condo/apartment in Jerusalem is a view like the one above of the Old City and the Dome of the Rock (minus the Hong Kong actress). Other pluses include designer reinforced-concrete bomb bunkers and machine gun-wielding security guards with shadowy special forces backgrounds.

Anyway, the Israel footage TVB shot in December has now been edited down into four episodes of On the Road and Ms. Choi has recorded the voice-over narration. The episodes are scheduled to be broadcast in Hong Kong in late March, most likely to coincide with Easter.

Okay, that’s all for now. Until next time (if there is a next time), be well!

In case you were wondering why I named this blog “Holy & Dangerous,” this post is for you.

Aficionados of Hong Kong film will recall the movie that sparked a spate of films in the mid- to late-1990s that focused on the lives, loves, and occasional bloody beatings of young triad gang members climbing their way to the top of Hong Kong crime syndicates: Young & Dangerous.

So popular was the film that it launched a franchise that included at least five sequels and a prequel, as well as numerous knock-offs, including one focused on females called Sexy & Dangerous.

Frankly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if in this slew of copycats there was a title for every aspect of triad life or for various iterations of triad personnel:Crazy & Dangerous. Geriatric & Dangerous. Dangerous & Even More Dangerous. Incontinent & Dangerous. Paranoid & Dangerous. Constipated & Not So Dangerous. Gassy & Dangerous. Racist & Dangerous. Gassy & Racist. You get the picture.

Hence, Holy & Dangerous.

Why not, right? What’s life if it ain’t a thugz life, yo?

So it’s been over six months since I posted anything on this site and nobody noticed. Sad.

In any case, we’re back for the moment, so let’s get caught up on those missing six months with a cursory look at some of the more notable events that took place in Hong Kong Entertainment Christendom since my last post.

First, in September 2006, Ada Choi & Company came to evangelize North America…and I was there! I went to see their show in Pasadena and even dragged my parents along. Ada Choi talked about her gambling-addicted mother. TVB actress Esther Wen talked about beating cancer. Singer Angela Pang talked about getting knocked on the head, losing consciousness, and then ending up in the hospital for six months. TVB character actor Wong Cho-Lam talked about being a short, unattractive teenager who couldn’t get chicks (until he started doing impressions…and found Jesus…and started doing impressions of Jesus). And veteran actress Tomi Wong pretended to be even older than she already is by performing as a geriatric grandmother in some skit with Wong. Interestingly, one or more members of my immediate family could directly relate to the experiences of four out of the five entertainers who spoke. Afterwards, we went to Monterey Park and ate dinner at a Chiu Chou restaurant.

In October, news emerged that TVB actress Maggie Cheung Ho-Yee had converted to Christianity while taking an extended break from acting to recuperate from Graves disease. If you can read Chinese or are adept at snatching coherency from the snapping jaws of obtuse translation software, then check out her blog here.

As most observers of Hong Kong pop culture know, this is the “other” Maggie Cheung, not the more internationally renowned film actress who was severely miscast as a recovering wannabe punk singer/addict opposite a raggedy-looking Nick Nolte in Oliver Assayas’s Clean. Perhaps Nolte and Cheung should have switched roles. Ironically, both Maggies spent their formative years in England, both participated in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, and both were/are actresses for TVB.

December was a huge month for news and happenings. First, after numerous rumors and tabloid allegations, Sammul Chan pulled a Mike Piazza and announced that he is NOT gay. Well, then.

Second, former TVB actress Fiona Leung was injured in a car accident while in Australia to film a program for The Media Evangelism, Ltd. Reports indicated that Ms. Leung suffered broken ribs, as well as a broken face. Thankfully, the most recent reports indicate that she is more or less on the road to recovery.

Third, a December news article revealed that former TVB actor Kong Wah and his wife had become Christians within the last year…although their kids did not, which is interesting.

Fourth, actress May Kwong got married. Christian artistes in attendance included Angela Pang (she of the bopped head and six-month hospital stint), Gary Chan, Noel Leung, and Leanne Li.

Finally, after several aborted attempts over the last year or so, Ada Choi managed to make it all the way to Israel to film a travel program about the Holy Land for TVB. More on this in another post.

The new year has also brought news of babies, babies, babies. The following Christian actresses are either pregnant or have already pushed out a kid: Noel Leung; Cecilia Cheung; Eugenia Lau; and Pauline Yeung. (Wait, is Cecilia Cheung still Christian? Or was that just a phase? Uh, will have to get back to you on that one.) Also, Boston-bred Catholic Flora Chan got married for the second time, to her manager.

Alright, now we’re pretty much caught up with what’s gone on in Hong Kong Entertainment Christendom during the last six months or so.

Next time: “Ada Choi in the Holy Land…” Or, “Who Took My Pita?” Or, “That Sea May Be Dead, But I’m Alive in Christ!” Or, “Kiss Me, I’m Israeli!”