Magazine translation: Romance in heart

Magazine translation: Romance in heart

Credit: Fung Bar and Kat @ RaymondLam.org
Requested by: Fox

For women, romance is always the glass slipper in her dreams. The so called romance is strolling along the seaside with her at night, then suddenly jump into the water and scream “I love you”, the so called romance doesn’t have to mean giving her all the roses in the world, it means putting a rose petal in the envelope in every letter. For a man, is romance really a killing weakness?

Someone said bad guys are usually very romantic, good guys normally aren’t. So, for Fung who has portrayed many romantic heroes in ancient and modern times, what is romance?

Starting from zero

Last year under TVB’s arrangement Fung signed with EEG to enter the music industry. This year he’s also filming series after series, and they are all grand productions. Besides “The Master of Tai Chi” which had just aired, he also filmed with TVB’s three other promoted actors: Ron Ng, Sammul Chan and Kenneth Ma in “The Four”. He also accepted “Moonlight Resonance” with increased scenes, from a cameo to the lead actor. For this reason, after he received the “Mainland China’s favourite male artist” last year, he is also a favourite for the TV king award this year.

Even though Fung is raising in popularity now, he has been in the industry for ten years. Like other TVB actors, he has to start from the bottom, working his way towards his goal one step at a time.

Fung was born in Fujian so he can speak Mandarin fluently. After entering TVB’s acting class in 1998, he quickly got the role as a host and reporter on TVB8’s popular show. He had the chance to report on well known stars such as Andy Lau, Damien Lau, Ruby Lin, Kong Wah, Joey Yung and Andy Hui, which began his life in the entertainment industry. These eight months as a reporter gave Fung many benefits and learnings. The basic abilities to remember lines, memory skills, reaction skills, interactive skills, awareness of the camera etc were all learnt from here which gave a solid foundation to his performance and growth.

During his time as a reporter, his most memorable moment is during 1999, when he had to film in Thailand and Indonesia. At the time, he bravely went to “Dinosaur Island” for an adventure. He will remember this experience for the rest of his life. His frequent outdoor filming, lying in the arms of nature turned Fung from a pale, bookish (polite?) boy to a tan skinned, energy filled sunny guy. At the same time this paved way for his better known roles as the Emperor (in A step into the past). Actually, his first role is in “A taste of love”, but his acting was quite raw at the time. However, in his second role “A step into the past”, his acting skills improved greatly, transforming from a weak person to a very brutal emperor, Fung portrayed this change in character at just the right level. Within only one series, Fung had a breakthrough performance, this shows his passion and dedication to his work. This allowed more people to know and approve of him.

Using his handsome looks and maturing acting skills, Fung had the biggest development amongst the TVB newcomers. The audience started to know him in “A step into the past”. Later, he also acted in many of TVB’s grand productions like “Golden Faith”, “Twin of Brothers”, “Heart of Greed”, “The Drive of Life”, he received positive feedback from the audience, and his number of fans are growing. In TVB’s 40th anniversary he also received the “Mainland China’s favourite male artist” award which shows his popularity is quite good. “The Master of Tai Chi”, “The Four” and “Moonlight Resonance” will take his acting career to the next level.

Romance is what you put your heart into

During filming, Fung will always have dating rumours with his female co-stars. From Sonija Kwok, Rain Li, Michelle Ye, Tavia Yeung to Linda Chung, but he has never had any dating rumours with actresses he hasn’t worked with. This shows it was only for promotion. There were rumours that he dated Rain Li because of filming “Stolen Love”, but this never eventuated. These rumours only ended when Rain is dating a producer. “So many rumours and all with co-stars. People in the industry will know they’re just made up. Actually it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t affect our friendships. But if we have to avoid this, avoid that, can’t even be friends, can’t even chat to each other, then this is not good.” Fung doesn’t take these rumours seriously, and understands that in this industry there’s not much he can do.

In “Eternal Happiness” he was the kind Wong Po Siu Wah, even though this character doesn’t experience the growth of the Emperor, at the start he was already the mature and dependable warrior. However, Fung’s performance had many levels, he gave the character dependability, honesty, reliability, standing for the good, bravery, being faithful and other good traits, and revealed them at every level, working from an uneventful character and turning it into a portrayal with many levels. It doesn’t matter whether he’s portraying Siu Wah, or the smart Ben in “Survivors Law”, Fung’s portrayal of his characters’ feelings are always very subtle, don’t know how to create romance to chase the female character, and only quietly caring and giving.

So in real life, what does Fung think about relationships and romance?

The 28 year old Fung had only been in one relationship, and that was when he was 17 before he entered the entertainment industry. It only lasted for about a year. “Maybe it’s because I was in an all boys school, I didn’t know how to communicate with girls. Up until now I still don’t know what girls are thinking, for things that guys think are a big deal, the girls will think nothing of it. For things that girls think are a big deal, I will feel they’re not important. It’s really hard to understand what they’re thinking.” It seems like other guys, Fung doesn’t understand what girls are thinking.

Even though there had been rumours linking him with Linda Chung again from filming “Moonlight Resonance”, Fung’s relationship directions are still unclear. At the moment his full concentration is on working, and is very low key about romantic relationships. So only on TV will we see him longing for a girl, thinking of romantic ways to win a girl’s heart. However, about romance Fung has his own views. He thinks that if there is love, there is romance. By understanding your partner’s feelings, then making some beautiful surroundings is already a romantic event. This is something you can do if you put your heart in it.

So, we eagerly await Fung’s “romance in heart”, who will his “real life princess” be?

Looking forward to the future

Having a rich family background can be a good or bad thing. Like Fung, his interest is in acting, but his father is in the construction business and has companies in HK and China, hoping Fung can take care of the business in the future. His time in the entertainment industry will be limited.

“My father had said when I am 30 years old I will have to look after the business. I’m the eldest son so I have to take this responsibility.” Fung’s father is reported to be in the property, construction materials and building business. He also owns many companies, developing in his hometown Xiamen, and is very respected there. Fung was born in Xiamen and came to HK when he was two years old. After graduating from high school, he went to university in the US. His father hopes he will have some knowledge in construction, and take over the family business. At the hopes of his family, he studied architecture, but after only one year, he returned to HK and entered the entertainment industry.

“I studied architecture so of course I want to be an architect. After finishing the first year, I really wanted to choose the entertainment path. My friends said I’m young so it doesn’t matter. My family didn’t really oppose either. I had this great opportunity so why not try it.”

Graduated from the 1998 TVB acting class, in the beginning he was an entertainment news host, then he had roles as an extra then raising to the lead actor. He also received the “Most improved actor” award.

My family sees me going smoothly in the entertainment industry so they haven’t mentioned anything about a deadline. They understand that I cannot help it, especially in this industry. But I know their feelings haven’t changed, I also have plans, in the end I will go back and help.”

Originally Fung agreed to study architecture because he liked to draw, he picked music as his minor, but his passion is in performing. Doing business? Fung said he’s not sure whether he has an interest in it. “I don’t resent being a businessman, sometimes you can’t say you like or dislike it, if you dislike it you need to develop it as an interest.” It’s like Fung is convincing himself, “when that moment arrives, you must have an interest in it. I have never been in business, I don’t know whether it’s suitable. But at that moment I will give everything, now it’s like getting more life experience. You need personal connections in every industry, it’s the same principle for living life.”

For his family, giving up his dreams and go back home to take care of the family business, this type of story can always be seen in TVB’s series. Fung has portrayed this role before in “Golden Faith”. He loved marine animals but for his family, he went back to work in the jewellery business. “Need to do what I can in the limited time. I am never a time waster. At least hope I can take care of myself, hopefully with capacity to take care of my siblings and family.”

When Raymond was in university he studied music. This developed his acceptance of a wide range of music. So he wishes that he can try out different types of music in his next album. Will he work towards becoming a singer-songwriter? Or hope to win more awards? He says, “at the moment definitely not, because I’m not familiar with composing music or writing lyrics. Even though I had learnt the piano, guitar and clarinet before, but that was a long time ago and had forgotten a lot of it. Now my only goal is to have my own concert!”

He frankly says (which is quite cute), “I had never hoped to win any awards. In this industry if you care too much about winning awards you will feel very unhappy. It’s better to earn more money. To be honest working in this industry is not a game, if you’re not earning any money it’s a waste of time talking about your dreams.”
Fung says being on time is very important for an artist so a watch is an important part of his outfit. He has collected ten or so watches and many of them are gifts from friends. A fan knew he likes watches so she/he gave him one which cost several tens of thousands of dollars. At first he didn’t dare to accept it, but the giver insisted, plus he liked it a lot so he accepted this watch. Fung laughs and says he will work hard filming and sing good songs to repay this person.

In the entertainment industry it’s easy to get mental and physical exhaustion. So Fung really hopes he has time to rest, play basketball with friends or go horse riding, swimming, those activities which are good and relaxing for the body. Of course while relaxing, he won’t forget learning new things, improving himself, the path he has to take is very long.