September 3, 2008

Last night I had an extremely enjoyable evening with everyone and today I went back to the office as usual. Yang Jie, the cleaning lady, was all smiles and the minute I walked in she offered me a delicious cup of “milk tea with love.” I started joking with her and said, “You know the HK $10,000 you won last night? I arranged the whole thing and intentionally let you win. Are you happy?!” After Yang Jie heard me say this, she started laughing so hard that she couldn’t stop, and also expressed her gratitude. I didn’t know that a harmless joke or even a not-so-true statement could make a person so happy. If that’s the case, I think it’ll be okay to joke around more often in the future. Ha ha!

As soon as I arrived back in my office, I had a meeting with my colleagues from Beijing and Hong Kong. Afterwards Kath showed me the recent pictures and donations that we received for the Build a School for a Dollar project. I have to be honest, the number of pictures and donations sent to us lately has really decreased.

Only one drawing from a child this month...

If there are teachers or tutors of some organizations who happen to be reading my diary, I hope you can introduce this Build a School for a Dollar project to your students and by sending us your pictures and donations, encourage them to help the poor and impoverished children in China and other places around the world. You may not have been to these places before or might not be able to go there but I am willing to convey the money for you and use your donations in these places to help the local impoverished children so they can learn and be educated in a better environment.

I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has made a donation to the Build a School for a Dollar project. So far we’ve raised enough money to build one school. However, one school is not enough. Build a School for a Dollar is an ongoing project, not just a one-time fundraiser, and the project needs your continuous support. With your support and contributions, many more poor and impoverished children will benefit, so please continue to support us. Thank you!

Later on, Fibe showed me a moon cake that we had just received. Ah! It’s another year already and it’s nearly Mid-Autumn Festival again. I can’t remember when I started doing it but every year around this time I give moon cakes to the elderly people at the rest homes. I know that elderly can’t eat things that are too sweet, so I especially ordered some moon cakes made with less sugar and because they are slightly different from the others, they have the Chinese character “dragon” printed on them.

I’m a Professor

I attended the Savannah College of Art and Design Honorary Professorship Awards Ceremony held in Hong Kong and was named an Honorary Professor of Performing Arts. They thanked me for my continuous efforts in nurturing new artists and my dedication to cinematic arts. At the same time, I became the college’s first honorary professor. Actually, the college has been in contact with me for a while, hoping to arrange a suitable time to award me this honorary professorship title but I haven’t had any free time to make a trip to America. This time they happened to come to Hong Kong and the timing worked well with my schedule so I was able to attend the ceremony and accept this great honor.

The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is one of America’s most comprehensive art and design universities with students from more than 90 countries and campuses located in America and elsewhere in the world. SCAD is an art and design school that possesses the greatest scope of multiple disciplines in all of America and was selected by an international higher education publication as one of the “25 cutting-edge schools with an eye towards the future.”

Paula Wallace, the president of SCAD, awarded me the first-ever honorary professorship from the college and said that they wanted to recognize my work as an actor, director, and producer who never stops learning and creating; a person who has invested a lifetime of energy into refining and improving artistic skills and techniques; and a great inspiration to those who wish to pursue their artistic dreams.

I am absolutely delighted to be acknowledged by one of the world’s most prestigious universities. I’ve tried to do my best at everything I’ve done, never thinking about getting anything in return. When I do something, I never ask for anything in return. As long as I think it is right, I will do it. Just like what I’m doing now: I will sponsor the three winners from The Disciple competition to study at SCAD.  I only want to create more opportunities for new artists. As for their future possibilities and developments, that will depend on their own hard work and effort.

These are the students I am sponsoring for an education at SCAD.

When I was invited onto the stage, the owner of the China Red Sandalwood Palace Museum, Dr. Chan Laiwa presented me with a silk thread embroidered portrait and she told me that this piece of work took six months to complete. The handwork is extremely detailed and very beautiful. I like the picture a lot and I honestly felt very happy.

Specialized Earphone

After the awards ceremony finished, I quickly rushed back to my office because I’d arranged to meet with a company who will make me a personalized earphone. Some of you might be wondering, what kind of earphone? I’ve actually wanted to order a specially made earphone for a long time because each time I attend an event and need to sing live, I have to listen for the music in order to sing. But if the hall or venue is rather large, the music echoes in the hall and by the time it reaches back to the stage while I’m performing, it is delayed. This also means that the music I hear on the stage is delayed so naturally when I sing it is not in sync with the music and sometimes I sing out of tune.

I want to solve this problem and have been trying to arrange an appointment for several years. Finally, I arranged to meet with this company that specializes in making earphones and they’re going to make me a custom made personalized earphone. The main benefit of having this earphone is to eliminate the problem of the delayed music when singing at live events. Since the earthquake that struck Sichuan, plus the arrival of the Beijing Olympic Games, I’ve recorded a good number of songs and even ended up releasing an album. I think that from now on, I will have more opportunities to sing these songs live so this specialized earpiece will definitely be of great use. Ha ha!

You have to hold a stick in your mouth to get a proper fit because the shape of your ear is different when your mouth is open. I thought that I looked a bit like Jonesie or JJ. What do you think?

Although the procedure did not hurt, having cold green goo squirted into your ear is a little unpleasant.

Text and photos copyright 2008 The JC Group. All Rights Reserved.

Sept 3 (星期三)

请继续支持‘一元钱建校’：

          昨晚跟大伙儿过了一个非常愉快的晚上，今天如常的回到公司，保洁员杨姐满脸笑容的奉上一杯可口的‘爱心奶茶’， 我跟她开玩笑的说：「昨天晚上的一万元大奖，我是作弊的，估意给你的，开心吧！」。杨姐听到以后，笑得合不拢咀，连声道谢。原来一个无伤大雅的笑话或是谎言可以让别人这样开心的，那以后多讲一些也没所谓了，哈哈！

          回到公司，马上跟北京和香港的同事开会。然后，Kath就给我看最近收到的‘一元钱建校’的图画和钱。坦白说，最近寄来的图画和钱是少了，我希望如果有老师或者是一些团体的导师看到我的日记，可以跟你们的学生或者是学员介绍‘一元钱计划’，鼓励他们通过寄一些图画和钱给我们，去帮助中国以及世界各地贫困地方的儿童，这些地方你们没有去过或是去不了，我乐意为你们把这些钱用在那些地方，帮助当地的贫困儿童，让这些儿童可以在一个好的环境下学习。

          谢谢所有捐赠过钱给‘一元钱建校’的人，现在善款已经能够建一所学校了。可是，一所学校是不足够的，所以‘一元钱建校’计划需要你们继续的支持，这是一个持续的计划，并不是一次性的。有了你们的支持，就有更多的贫困儿童受惠，请继续支持我们，谢谢！

          后来，Fibe给我看刚刚收到的月饼。啊！又一年了，很快又到中秋节了。我也忘了从那个时候开始，每一年我都会送月饼到老人院给老人家吃，我知道老人家不能够吃太甜的东西，所以，我特别订制了一些低糖的月饼，饼上还印有‘龙’字以作识别。

我是教授了：

          后来，我出席萨瓦纳艺术设计学院（Savannah College of Art and Design）在香港的颁发荣誉教授的仪式，学院认为我对电影艺术及培育新人一直不遗余力，将委任我为该学院表演艺术系荣誉教授，同时亦是学院首个荣誉教授。其实他们一直有跟我联系，希望颁这个荣誉教授衔头给我，只是我一直没有空去美国，这一次适逢他们来到香港，时间又能配合，我就出席领这个荣誉了。

          萨瓦纳艺术设计学院乃美国最全面的艺术设计学府，于美国及法国均设有校舍，学生来自超过90个国家。萨瓦纳艺术设计学院是全美国最具规模的综合性艺术设计学院，曾被国际高等教育出版社选为‘25所最具前瞻力的学府’之一。

          学院的华莱士院长颁发该学院首位荣誉教授给我，是因为他们认为我作为演员，导演及制片人，对艺术的学习和创作从无间断，以毕生精力投入到提升和改进电影艺术技能，技巧当中，这对所有追求艺术的人来就是一个很大的鼓舞。

          能够得到国外最具权威大学的认可，我很开心，我所做的一切是做好艺人的份内事，从没想过得到回报。我做事从来不问回报，只要觉得是对的，我都会去做。正如这一次，我会资助三位‘龙的传人’得奖者去这所学院学习，我只想多给机会新人，至于将来的发展，就要靠他们自己努力了。

          我被邀请上台的时候，中国紫坛宫馆长陈丽华送我一幅丝绣的人像画，她告诉我这个花了半年时间才完工，手工很仔细，很美，我真的很高兴，很喜欢。

专用耳机：

          颁发仪式完结后，我马上赶回公司，因为我约了一家公司为我做私人的耳机。大家可能会问：什么耳机？其实我想订造这个耳机很久了，因为每当我出席一些活动需要我唱歌的时候，只要那个场地比较大，我们表演者站在台上唱歌的时候，音乐在会场回响，很多时候音乐传到台上就会迟了，我们听到的时候也是迟了，自然唱起来不对咀，更差的会走音。

          我为了改善这个问题，约了好几年，终于可以约了这间专门做耳机的公司，为我度身订造一个耳机，这个耳机的好处就是不会有音乐延迟的毛病。自四川地震以后，加上北京奥运的来临，前前后后我都录了好几首歌曲，最后更出了一张专辑，相信往后的日子我越来越多机会唱歌，所以这个耳机将会大派用场了，哈哈！