22/10/2009 - One Weekly - It Is Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday

Ekin has returned from semi-retirement, though his albums have not sold as well as during the last decade, Ekin has once again seriously entered the recording studio and at the end of this year will once again hold a concert.

Ekin: retirement? I never left, there seems to be disinterest in my work, yet on magazine covers still plenty of relationship gossip.

Ekin breaks up, doesn't break up, gets married, doesn't get married.

Ekin: Private feelings are often commented on and discussed, of course this is not so pleasant to be subjected to, but I suppose it is a topic that the bulk of the people want to pay attention to. It confirms for me that I still have value. I have had girlfriends before, your comparison I clearly understand, I am not a playboy, I am not married, it is not because I change later, I simply not believe these ideas.

Is that you are not willing to undertake such promises?

Ekin: I am most afraid of hurting someone, to see the person beside you cry is very painful. I think many times you can chose the words.

You really like to sing?

Ekin: When I go in this direction I also have this kind of feeling, singing is merely my sideline. Success just success can act as my contribution, but it can't take the place of other hard work. I will hold a concert, many people have told me to practice singing, to prepare anthems that reside in people's collective memories, also is worth this. I don't insist that the singing is outstanding, but it must be able to touch people. Eason Chan does this best, others accept this. Currently I am recording, people have said to me, "I know know you are different now, however, you cannot completely forget yourself, you must find Ekin Cheng." Everyone hopes for a big reform, have to take into account the requests of the audience. People constantly change, even if I do the older things again, they have already changed.

Are you afraid you will no longer be welcomed as in the past?

Ekin: When I filmed Young and Dangerous many people extremely looked down on the movie market, as before supported ten years. People can't forever look backwards, ignoring the past is a blank space, if you have an opportunity, you should try your hardest to take advantage of it. I originally didn't need to make a living and work. It is my choice to buy real estate in Repulse Bay, I regard it as the driving force for work. When a person confronts pressure, only then will he become proactive.

Do you regret signing with EEG?

Ekin: My career sank to the bottom, mostly my own responsibility, at that time, relationship problems, my albums had no spark, my support team lost strength, then the collaboration with EEG suffered a difference of opinion. I had many voices telling me not to continue to sing. So I left as soon as the time was right. This was the time I lost the most. I had people say I was a failure. Even I wasn't prepared for that. How to help a person?

What problems were most unresolved?

Ekin: Mental attitude, meet with manga adaptation movie's popularity downturn, my best songs are love songs, act as heroic characters, suddenly all this completely dried up. I had to transform and film comedy. Of course there is not question. It is my own feelings that were more problematic. My own embarrassment. Later in Thailand I filmed Ultraman, I was able to remain in Hong Kong to do an opera, of course happy, however, legal copyrights wipe out my Thai film, I can't know in advance. Then I became the WWF Ocean Ambassador.

Do you feel stable?

Ekin: During the most popular several years I get up and not know whether I am in Hong Kong or Taiwan. In the evening as soon as I finish work, I immediately sleep in the driver's seven person car. My family say I must buy a two story house, OK! For who? I am eternally not there. Calm descends, and I am mindful of the road home, the scenery is in fact beautiful, have time to go and travel several times with my family. Regardless of what happens in the future, I finally have some happy memories. Unlikely I will only remember that for the benefit of them I bought a two story house. I am 40 years old, I should consider these issues.

Isn't it very troublesome to be pushed toward marriage?

Ekin: It is. You like marriage, it is your thing, you get married. Why expect your idea to be mine? Now and then in Repulse Bay I see newly weds taking wedding photographs, the camera shot afterward is very cold and indifferent. Like a movie dressed up as sweethearts. The marriage system as far as I am concerned has no value, people already map everything out, rely on possessions to follow.

Do you have consensus with your girlfriend or is there contention?

Ekin: We have a mutual understanding. She has never complained to me. Take intentions figuratively, first we only just get to know each other, mutually understand, possibly insufficient time, people invent marriage, still not settled enough, blame responsibility. Under normal circumstances people can be 10 percent honest, 10 percent is not sufficient for a lifetime. Now Not explain responsibility, get married then get divorced, just like throwing away the love of another. You say I am a long time not married. One day if I ever get married I desire success, I see divorce as failure, I fail to understand the time almost over.

Could you at any time change for another?

Ekin: At first with a person you have to walk in step, like going for a walk in a park. The steps have to be identical, slowly, work environments different, so more and more new requirements, naturally distance appears. Are you willing to speed up your steps? Is she willing to slow down? not willing then inevitably the distance increases, more and more likely to separate. People are always greedy to experience fresh feelings, now know a beautiful woman, you might very much want to take off the wrapping paper, do it and then discover it is nothing different, old even, cease to be faithful, actually it depends how much you love the person at your side, if you don't want to see her cry, naturally you are unlikely to waste time.

Ekin says he is an average person and further a responsible one, ask him what is his most difficult responsibility?

Ekin: You interviewed me many years ago you wrote a sentence, that sentence rejected Ekin Cheng as first class, I was very astonished. I spoke very naturally, I hadn't thought before that I cause so much reaction. Several years later, because the identical sentence said again, I practically can't recover. I don't regret, I learned, now if to any person I lose responsibility, I certainly will not say anything. I only can say I became more and more smart, but what someone feels inside and their temperament, that doesn't change. That sentence was "I am willing to take care of Maggie Sui all my life"

Ten years later Ekin and Gigi Leung in 1999 began a relationship, the whole city was indignant. Ekin stood alone against the masses. Ten years later, in 2009 Ekin still feels wronged because of the sacrifice he made, sometimes he calls this to mind. "To take care of someone for a lifetime is really very difficult, remember that a persons lifetime is also very difficult, also to be unchanging, and also owe nothing, even more unlikely."