Kris Philips may not be a well-known name in China but as Fei Xiang, he is known to hundreds of millions of Chinese.
He was the first Taiwan-based entertainer to transfer his career to the Chinese mainland in the late 1980s. He was the singer who gave 63 solo concerts in 12 Chinese cities and sold 20 million copies of just one of his albums, a record that still stands.
Fei left China when he felt his career was at a standstill. He changed back to his original name of Kris Philips and made a fresh start on Broadway in New York.
He had a role in "Miss Saigon", and later became one of the main singers in a concert featuring works by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Now Fei - or Philips - spends half his time on Broadway and half in China.
He has put out two albums in China in the past two years incorporating the elements of Broadway musicals in his songs.
Fei has begun a new round of concert tours in China and Shanghai is his first stop. In his concerts he will present his most popular pieces from the past 15 years.
His first big hits in China are mostly of other Taiwanese singers' successful songs and Western "oldies" as Chinese on the mainland had no access to music from overseas at that time.
His first appearance on the Chinese mainland was in 1987, when he sang two songs in the Spring Festival Gala Show broadcast live on national TV.
He became famous almost overnight. Young women saw him as a perfect Prince Charming: his mixed-blood origins, his great height and his graceful demeanour were all fresh to Mainlanders where pop culture had just started to sprout with the new reform policies.
Fei Xiang will sing his old songs, but will present a completely new image, with long hair and in tight, luminescent shirts.
7:15pm, January 5, 2003
Shanghai Grand Stage
1111 Caoxi Beilu
Tel: 6438-5200
80-580 yuan
Ticket hotlines: 6428-9334,
6217-3055
(Shanghai Star December 20, 2002)
