Feb 17, 2009
link: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Lifestyle/Story/STIStory_339444.html
CALL her Asia's Tina Turner, for 61-year-old Hong Kong singer-actress Liza Wang can still pull off sexy outfits onstage.
But ask the veteran performer about her often cleavage-enhancing and leg-baring costumes, and she will tell you that they are just part of an act.
'I like to give the audience something new every time,' Wang, who plays a show at the Max Pavilion this Saturday, told my paper in a recent phone interview from Hong Kong. 'Show business is my lifelong career and, if I keep doing the same things over and over again, my audience will get sick of me and leave,' she said.
She will be in town with her partner of 20 years, actor and opera singer Law Kar Ying. About 80 per cent of the 5,500 concert tickets for the Max Pavilion gig have been sold, said concert promoter Unusual Productions.
Wang, last here in 2007 for a show at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, broke onto the scene in the Hong Kong serial, Four Daughters (1968), when she was 21 years old.
She went on to star in numerous dramas for Hong Kong TV network TVB, such as The Legend Of Chu Liuxiang (1979).
She was also part of an all-girl singing group, called Four Golden Flowers, with the late Lydia Sum.
Now, the television doyenne is preparing to star in a Cantonese musical based on her life, to be shown in Hong Kong in April.
'Now that I'm 61, I must speed up and do all the things I want,' she said with a laugh.
But she says marriage is not on the cards, despite her long-standing relationship with the 62-year-old Law, who has starred in Stephen Chow films like From Beijing With Love (1994).
'It's good, and I don't think I could ask formore,'Wang, a thyroid-and breast-cancer survivor, said of the relationship.
When asked if there is a potential successor to her crown in showbiz, she answered matter-of-factly: 'No, I haven't discovered anyone at the moment.'
She hinted that newbies on the Hong Kong scene are still in their nascent stages.
'It has taken me decades to establish my image and instill confidence (about my abilities) in my audience,' she said. 'You can't do the same within a mere two years. It's just not possible.'