UrbanWire

The flame of love certainly burned bright at the first show of the inaugural National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Children’s Medical Fund Charity Show 2004. The charity show, which saw both local and foreign stars coming together in aid of the NKF’s Children’s Medical Fund, raised a total of $5.1 million in just 3 ½ hours.

Frenzied Fans

The loudest, ear-splitting screams for the night were naturally reserved for the younger set of overseas artistes. With his kung fu inspired item, rising Taiwanese artiste and children’s TV host Zhang Shan Wei kick-started the show with a bang. Cyndi Wang, star of Taiwanese teen drama Westside Story, also upped the cutie-pie quotient with her sugary song-and-dance performance and cutesy school uniform-costume.

The night’s clincher, of course, was none other than the it-band of the moment, 5566, which performed 3 songs on the show. Their mere presence on the show was a crowd-pleaser indeed: they pulled in close to 200,000 calls, the highest amount of the night. [^top]

Family

The show was also somewhat of a family affair for some of the older overseas artistes, who brought relatives along in support of the show. One such artiste was Los Angeles-based Taiwanese songstress Yang Xiao Ping, whose 17-year-old son flew down from the US to support his mother and the good cause.

And while veteran performer Ling Feng was on stage, his wife and daughter made a special appearance, dancing beside him and attempting to clip large peanut shells on his face as he sang. I’ve no idea what that has to do with charity, but it was quite an interesting performance. [^top]

Focus
2 of the 5 artiste stunts may not have been pyro-related, but they were just as dangerous as they were entertaining, and required lots of concentration from the artistes involved.

Christopher Lee’s qigong (an art form that enhances the flow of energy 'qi' within the body) stunts sent the audience into a tizzy; they gasped each time a sword blade hit his chest. And if that wasn’t scary enough, Chris had about 20 arrows pressed into different parts of his body by his colleagues. Ouch, talk about acupuncture.

The leading man wasn’t afraid of the pain, especially when he focussed on the right things. (No, I’m not talking about his alleged girlfriend, Fann Wong.) “I think about helping the kids, and everything’s all worthwhile,” said Chris to UW.

And talking about Fann, her airborne acrobatics act with fellow actor Chen Hanwei was quite a stunner. With the grace of a ballerina, Fann stretched and tumbled in the air while being suspended in the air by cables.

The stunt did look beautiful from the audience’s point of view, but it was no easy task for Fann. Despite successfully attempting a high-wire stunt in April’s Charity Show, this is a totally different challenge for the acrophobic (one with a fear of heights) Fann.

“When I was first called to do this stunt, I thought it would be impossible to attempt,” the high-flyer told UW, “But I really want to help these children, and this kept me going.” [^top]

Fire

The show probably marked one of the few times the water sprinklers in the MediaCorp theatre would be turned off, lest they dampened the fiery stunts by MediaCorp artistes.

Wushu expert Vincent Ng’s martial art skills came in handy with his karate stunt item, where he had to set torches aflame by using only his feet. Despite an injury in his left thigh, Vincent still managed to execute his moves with precision. To up the danger quotient, Vincent also had to break a wooden board which lay floating in a flaming tank.

Daredevil Tay Ping Hui’s stunt was undoubtedly the most dangerous of all, as he had to ride his bike through a blazing tunnel and crash into a stack of burning crates.

“My greatest fear was falling off the bike,” admitted the adrenaline junkie, who’s been riding bikes for more than 15 years. One wrong move, and he would have been – in his own words to UW – “barbequed”.

The finale of the evening would’ve have brought back fond memories of rope skipping during recess – sans the fire, of course. 4 groups consisting of 3 MediaCorp artistes each simultaneously skipped burning ropes. And while they went away with nary a burn mark, the artistes also went away their hearts warmed, I’m sure, for doing their part in aid of such a worthy cause. [^top]

Catch the next NKF Children’s Medical Fund Charity Show 2004 on Jul 18, on Channel 8 at 7pm.