X celebrity was seen leaving a hotel. He reportedly stayed at the hotel for eight hours with a 17-year-old minor. He is in his thirties. That’s all the news there is about that right now.
I loved X when I was in high school. My friend even decorated frames with his photos for my 18th birthday. I haven’t followed his news in the past five years due to moving onto other interests, but it was still a shock to read the news.
It made me think, is it okay to look up to idols? To love them and support them? We don’t even know them personally. I think it’s perfectly fine to love their character from their series but what about them as an individual?
Then I thought, the same happens to people we do know. People in our day-to-day life. Some people, including the ones closest to us, can betray us and surprise us with their wickedness. Is there a difference between this and when a celebrity does it?
Perhaps we should trust and love others until they prove to us that they do not deserve it. I wonder if this is too simple. Too positive..?
Kwang-ho Hong is one of my favourite singers. He is a musical theatre actor from South Korea. Some of his most famous works include Jekyll & Hyde, The Phantom of the Opera, Notre-Dame de Paris, Miss Saigon, and Death Note. He has starred in numerous other musicals.
A couple of years ago, I was going through a rough time and felt hatred towards all men. I came across a video of Kwang-ho Hong singing “All I Ask of You” from my favourite musical, The Phantom of the Opera (2009). I felt so moved… and decided to open my heart. I think I cried.
I started to search him online and found out that he first played Raoul in POTO. A year later, he played Erik, the Phantom. Kwang-ho Hong was one of the youngest Phantoms in the world!
I also found out that he played Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Jekyll & Hyde. It’s one of my favourite books and “This is the Moment” is one of my favourite songs. He sings it so well. He also played Quasimodo in Notre-Dame de Paris, which is a story I like as well.
As if things were not enough, he also acted as Light Yagami from one of my favourite anime, Death Note (2015). I felt that Kwang-ho Hong and I are super alike in terms of his roles and my interests. I cannot think of any other person who is better suited to play Light.
Kwang-ho Hong is most famous for playing Thuy in Miss Saigon (2014). He went to London and sang in English for West End theatre! West End theatre is huge in the musical theatre industry.
It’s my dream to watch Kwang-ho Hong perform live in a musical. Although I do not understand Korean, I can still appreciate the music. The fact that I do not understand Korean is not too important because I can still feel the emotion he pours into his music.
I hope by doing this post, I can bring more attention to Kwang-ho Hong because he made an impact in my life. He is truly talented at performing live and his accomplishments are impressive. ❤
Hua Chenyu 华晨宇 is a famous Chinese singer. Most of the information online about him are in Chinese, so I decided to write a post in English for non-Chinese speakers (and for everybody to know about him). He is currently my favourite singer.
Nickname: Hua Hua 花花 (means ‘flower’)
Fans’ name: Huo Xing Ren 火星人 (Martian)
After he posted photos with the monkey on his Weibo, the toy ran out of stock.
I first learned about him through a Facebook video that was shared on my homepage. It was him performing the song, My Skateboard Shoes 我的滑板鞋. I thought his rapping was impressive. Afterwards I decided to find more music by him and found the song, Ashes from Firework 烟火里的尘埃. He has a very powerful voice, especially when he performs live.
I like that his music is comprised of different genres, such as pop, alternative rock, folk and classical music. The fact that he is capable of singing to this wide range of music shows that he is talented.
My favourite song by him is Quasimodo’s Gift 卡西莫多的礼物. Quasimodo is a fictional character from the novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Everyone calls Quasimodo “hideous” because of his deformities, and as a result he experiences deep loneliness. In the song, Hua Chenyu sings “Quasimodo’s gift is to enjoy the loneliness” 卡西莫多的礼物 享受孤独. This is my favourite part because he helped me realize that loneliness is not necessarily a bad thing. Often times, we associate ‘lonely’ with negative feelings but to be able to enjoy it is actually quite nice. I can relate to aloneness very well from my personal life, and the moment you begin to enjoy is really an eye-opening experience. Practicing self-love, and finding your own interests and passions are just a couple of reasons why this is important.
Hua Chenyu is someone I consider authentic. Authenticity is something I look for because a lot of artists create content for the sake of being more popular. Hua Chenyu does not care about that (he even has a song called, I Don’t Care 我管你).
Despite being famous, he is an introvert and that’s why his first album was dedicated to the topic of loneliness. He also has some quirks which differentiates him from other celebrities. He does not try to hide who he really is. Hua Chenyu promotes the idea of being true to yourself, even if others do not like it.
Wretched and Divine 