Source: Oriental Daily Translation: llwy12@ http://asianfanatics.net <<Voices from Africa Charity Concert>>: Jacky Cheung, Steve Wong, and Shirley Kwan perform The <<Voices From Africa Charity Concert>> took place at the Hong Kong International Trade & Exhibition Center last night. Singers Jacky Cheung, Steve Wong, and Shirley Kwan joined forces at the event to raise money for poor children in Africa and also to build schools for them. Quite a few artists from the entertainment industry attended the concert, including John Chiang and his wife Maggie Li, Andrew Lam, Mandy Cho and her fiancé, etc. Beyond band member Steve Wong kicked off the concert by collaborating with a group of African children singing a song he wrote called <<Friends from Afar>>. After his performance, he was interviewed backstage and asked why his wife did not attend the concert with him. Steve replied: “Our son is sick, so my wife cannot leave him. He has a fever – it’s been a couple days already and the fever has not subsided. We are worried that he might have ‘hand, foot, and mouth’ disease, so we are afraid to take him outside. He actually doesn’t know that he is sick and continues to run actively around the house.” When Shirley Kwan came onstage, she took off her shoes and danced as well as sang with the children. Upon hearing one of the children say that his dream was to become a kung fu star like Jet Li, Shirley was moved and said: “A lot of Hong Kong people are actually very fortunate but take it for granted. Like me, I’ve been singing for more than 20 years and realize that my dream has disappeared. I am hoping that tonight, I can re-discover that dream.” As for host Amigo Chui, his performance was up to his usual standards and there were no signs of the nervousness that he had experienced during last month’s earthquake fundraising event. Amigo stated: “This was my first official major hosting event after the case ended, so I definitely felt nervous. My hope is to be able to quickly get back into my work – I am currently in negotiations on a couple job opportunities.” (How about lowering your price in order to get more job opportunities?) “Whether it’s charity events or paid events, I will still do them.” During the concert, God of Song Jacky Cheung was asked about the rampant spread of ‘hand, foot, and mouth’ disease recently and that even Steve Wong’s son possibly contracted the illness. Jacky revealed that both him, his wife May, and his two daughters were affected by the illness previously – both his daughters had fevers and diarrhea for a few days. His wife, who was taking care of them, was affected the worse, as she not only had a fever, she also was vomiting constantly. Luckily, Jacky himself was least affected, only experiencing vomiting and some discomfort. Asked if his family is completely recovered now, Jacky responded that everyone is fine now. He also said that since the illness is contagious, when both his daughters were sick, he would not allow them to go to school for a couple days so as not to infect the other students. Jacky sighed and said that with the illness so prevalent right now, he doesn’t want his daughters to get ill again, but also does not want to take them out of school for no reason, so he has already warned them to extra careful at school.
