April 26, 2010 - Hong Kong Artistes Participate In A Group Song and Concert For Earthquake Disaster Relief.
On April 14, 2010 the remote area of Yushu on the Tibetan plateau in Qinghai Province, Western China suffered a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. During the many aftershocks that followed, many houses, schools and other building collapsed with a resultant loss of life and injury. CCTV hosted a special program to raise money for disaster relief. Eight of the major networks cooperated to air the program which began at 6pm. A total of more than 35 million dollars was raised during the program. This included a single donation from Sir Run Run Shaw of $10,000,000HK, and a donation of $2,000,000 from Peter Lam. The Government Bureau Chief and the Deputy Assistant expressed their gratitude to the performers and the residents of Hong Kong
More than 300 Hong Kong actors and singers participated in a large group performance at the Hong Kong Coliseum. The performers and volunteer workers manned the phones to collect donations for the victims of the earthquake . Earlier in the day more than 100 performers recorded a theme song 《手連心》 following this a children's choir recorded 《這是愛》 Everyone observed a moment of silence for the victims of the earthquake. Following this the celebrated pianist 劉詩昆 played the Yellow River Concerto, while pictures from the disaster area were shown. Andy Lau appealed to people to extend a hand to the victims, after which the group chorus of 《手連心》 was broadcast. Leon Lai said that every time there was a disaster the Chinese people worked together as one, however he suggested that the government set up some kind of warning system. Eric Tsang organized the last disaster relief concert for Sichuan Province, this time however he had a conflict.
Sun Man said that he merely made a phone call and many performers gathered to make the recording with enthusiasm and eagerness to help. Jacky Cheung seemed unimpressed by individual donation amounts, he felt that actor's contributributions shouldn't be the focal point. Harlem Yuji then spoke saying contributions being the intention of the event, but the amount shouldn't be announced. Haken Lee also felt that this was wrong, because it was unfair to performers, to ask how much each contributed. Jackie Chan brought three girls from the area to thank the Hong Kong performers for their help.They sang a traditional Tibetan song in gratitude. A plane had already been chartered to take supplies to the disaster area. There was also thanks to the Chinese Airforce for offering special passage to the plane. He also talked about the strength of orphans who had lost their whole families, saying that the refusal to give up was very moving. Dee Hsu talked about the earthquake in Taiwan saying that she still had a lingering fear. She said that then their family came together and hand in hand crouched down. The feeling was of dread. This allowed her to more understand the feelings of the victims, and hoped to represent the Taiwanese people in lending a hand. Sammi Cheng and Nick Cheung had just returned from the disaster area. They spoke about the medical teams and their respect for the selfless attitude of the volunteers. They also asked people to pay attention to the disaster area children who were either injured of suffering trauma and loss of family members.
Many other performers spoke one after another including Ekin, Sammo Hung, Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Jingchu saying that Hong Kong performers for each disaster, including the Southern China floods, the South East Asia tsunami, the Sichuan earthquake and this current disaster were a powerful cohesive group to offer suppport. and showed to the country and their fellow citizens their care and concern, therefore within the actors and singers world it is only natural that they would all be here to support this fundraising effort. Every time performers can is a short time put out this kind of maajor event, so they already have a lifelong agreement to support anything that is worthy and ask the citizens to support with them.Although they hve no power to alter natural disasters, the Chinese people are strong and resolute and able to prevail in the event of calamity. They are all mindful of the news from the disaster area and the fact that currently people are still in the stage of trying to locate survivors. The directors of the teams met to discuss how to best to use the funds raised to help the victims. They acknowledged that they did not always know individually what to do to help, but when the Hong Kong people join forces the result is amazing.
Because so many people participated there was a certain amount of confusion and chaos. The emcee introduce a stage play but there was no music.Finally Jessica C and Coco Lee sang 《祝福》. More than 2,000 volunteer workers and 400 performers who helped with the fundraising program. After the program the organizers expressed satisfaction with the fundraising achievement, however it didn't compare to the last time. This was partly because there wasn't a fundraising goal, and in addition, SMS and online fundraising continues.The audience also knew that there would be limited seating so many just didn't come. It is unlikely that the performers will actually visit the disaster area. The news that Taiwan suffered another earthquake today was just filtering through, as far as fundraising for Taiwan, they needed to first look at the circumstances.
