UrbanWire

From a flooded car to staging their first concert. Wilber Pan Wei Bo and Zhang Shan Wei have come a long way before making it big. Urbanwire finds out more during their stopover in Singapore to promote their upcoming concert.

Staging their first ever concert, it was hard not to the see the excitement in Wilber Pan and Zhang Shan Wei’s faces. Throughout the entire show, the dynamic duo will compete to see just who has the better performance, crazier fans, groovier dance moves and anything else that would pit themselves against each other. As soon as they stepped in for the press conference, a friendly squabble in mandarin ensued over who was the better individual.

“What makes this concert so special is the fact that we are giving it an East versus West concept,” said Shan Wei, who will represent the East.

To make things more exciting, the both of them will undergo training separately. Thus, it remains unclear who will emerge victorious in the concert.

“I will definitely win,” Wilber, an American-born-Chinese, said with great confidence.

Being their first ever concert, the hyperactive duo will have a point to prove. Both have already started training separately with Shan Wei emphasizing more on dancing and Wilber on dieting.

“The thought of dancing is quite horrifying,” said Shan Wei, “thankfully, I have dance training during Showbiz [his entertainment show] with Wang Ren Fu [from Taiwanese boyband 5566 member] and I hope it will help.”

As for Wilber, a sarcastic Shan Wei had only one advice for him, “I think you should go on a diet.”

Indeed, Wilber has gained some weight during his stay in China and he gladly admitted it.

“People normally lose weight as they get busier, but for me, I eat even more,” laughed Wilber. He added that a diet since late May and has made him lose 3kg. His current weight is at 70+kgs and he hopes to cut down to 60+kgs before the concert.

A mischievous Shan Wei interrupted, “I seriously doubt he can do so because the agency had offered him 10,000 NT (S$500) for every kilogram he loses, but he actually rejected the offer.”

In retaliation, Wilber said, “Who says being fat or short is bad? I am feeling great now.”

While Shan Wei tried his best not to reveal his ‘secret weapons’, he was unsuccessful in his attempts to do so.

“I am not going to reveal my secret weapons, but I hope that Strawberry Fairy can appear.” Says Shan Wei.

The Strawberry Fairy should not be much of a stranger to fans of Shan Wei or viewers of Showbiz. She is Shan Wei’s female persona who is supposedly ‘married’ to Wang Ren Fu but Wilber claims that the Strawberry Fairy is his ‘girlfriend’.

As if the disclosure of Strawberry Fairy was not enough, Shan Wei leaked another of his ‘secret weapon’.

“Who knows, Wang Xiao Fu [Ren Fu] might just pop by at the concert.” Shan Wei said, before realising the blunder that he had just committed.

It is not easy for anyone to make it big in the entertainment scene. The same goes for Wilber and Shan Wei. At the beginning of their career, they had belonged to the same talent agency, Tian Zhong, set up by Hong Kong Heavenly King, Andy Lau.

Then, Wilber was working for Channel V while Shan Wei hosted for children shows. Nevertheless, the determined duo refused to give up their dream of launching an album. Often, they would annoy their boss (Andy Lau), hoping he would launch an album for them.

“At that time,” Shan Wei jokes, “the staff was concern over the boss’s (Andy Lau) new album launch rather than us.”

It was a double-edged sword for Shan Wei, as he did launch a single four year back, titled Give Me Five. However, the result was disappointing and Shan Wei deems it as a “failure”.

Lady Luck, on the other hand, was on the side of Wilber, who managed to land a role in Ma La Xian Shi, a popular Taiwanese idol drama serial. Things went uphill for him as his dream came true and launched his first album Bi Hu Man Bu (Lizard Dance).

Just as Wilber got his singing career right on track, Shan Wei finally got his break into stardom. He became the host of Taiwan’s popular entertainment show, Showbiz along with 5566 members, Wang Ren Fu and Xu Meng Zhe. His ability to crack up the audience while having the guts to take up bold tasks (think Strawberry Fairy) won the hearts of audience as well as music producers, who offered to cut a record for him.

As such, Shan Wei released his first ever album titled Shi Xin Feng in 2003.

“It was the first album of my life, if you would exclude that ‘failure’ four years back.” Says Shan Wei.

Being famous has not affected their friendship in anyway. After all, they went through so much hard work to become whatthey are now. The nostalgic duo recalls a particular incident where the both almost died twice in the same day.

The not-so famous duo back then, were driving back from a karaoke session during a storm. Suddenly, a tree fell into their path and almost crashed into their car. Fortunately, Shan Wei was quick enough to evade the tree with a quick turn.

Like a scene from the movie Final Destination, it seemed as though death was chasing them. The car slipped into a pool of water and got stuck. Not knowing the danger that lied ahead, the chatty duo started gossiping in the car. Soon enough, the water level rose to their knee levels and they started to panic.

“When we saw a policeman coming towards our direction, we thought help was on the way,” said Wilber, “but the policeman actually came by to ask if we had cigarettes and left!”

“That was when Wei Bo [Wilber] fled from the car, leaving me behind.” said Shan Wei, while giving a sarcastic cold stare at his good friend Wilber.

Shan Wei explains that the car was a gift from his father, thus he was reluctant to ditch the car behind.

“There was an overflowing giant water tank beside us… we would have died once the tank had broken and Shan Wei still refused to leave.”

Fortunately for them, they were saved by some soldiers in the nick of time. By then, the car had already submerged into deep waters.

Escaping from death twice in a day had certainly made them better friends since. But there is something that Wilber and Shan Wei would like to say about each other.

“He is a crazy fan of Doreamon, to the extent of being a pervert.” exclaims Wilber.