Fei Xiang, or Kris Philips, gave a solo concert in Shanghai Grand Stage on January 5, singing his best works from his 20-year singing career. When the familiar tunes of Guxiang de Yun (Clouds of Hometown) and Fire of Winter started, the audience sang along.

Fei and these songs are among the foundation stones of contemporary China's pop music scene.

In 1987 Fei was the first singer from Taiwan to perform in the CCTV Spring Festival show. The director of the show, Deng Zaijun, was considering introducing some programmes from Hong Kong or Taiwan, when someone showed her a poster and cassette of Fei.

No one had ever sang and danced like that on the TV screen of the Chinese mainland before. Officials were worried, but Deng insisted on giving him full coverage and had him sing two songs -- Clouds of Hometown and Fire of Winter.

A fire was started, and he became a star overnight. His first cassette album sold 20 million copies. In 1989, he gave 63 solo concerts nationwide, a record that is still unbroken.

Abrupt Change

Fei made a surprising career shift to the United State in the early 1990s, studying drama and becoming a musical singer. He took a role in Miss Saigon, and later went on an international tour with Andrew Webber's musical company. In 2001, Fei and actress Elaine Paige performed together in the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

The two co-operated so well in several episodes of Sunset Boulevard, that both thought of staging the complete play sometime. "The age difference between us, the roles, all fit well," Fei said in his brief meeting with local media before the recent concert. "But to stage a musical needs great investment and long preparation."

A musical singer, Milena Govich was specially invited to Fei's concert tour, presenting episodes of musical plays: Govich sang Don't Cry for Me, Argentina and Fei Memory. The two performed a duet from Cats, during which a picture of Fei's own cat appeared on the large screen in the background.

"People who prefer to love instead of being loved keep cats," Fei once said. But the single, 40-something is not eager to search for his life-long love. "When I was young, I often thought about getting married," Fei said, "but now I no longer think about it, because there seems to be little hope."

In today's world, things change with rapid speed. Everybody is faced with all kinds of stimulation and surprises. "I am no longer what I was like two or five years ago," he said.

Sex a Must

The current age is not fit for the beautiful dream of "happiness ever after", he believes. "An emotional life and sex life are necessary, but not necessarily under the premise of marriage. The words may be against traditional Chinese morality, but it is 2003, I think people should live freely and happily. If there is no opportunity for getting married, we don't have to be burdened with pressure from society and parents and find someone to 'solve the problem'."

Defining his concert, Good Songs of 20 Years, Fei didn't want to draw a clear line between pop songs and musicals. He spends half his time in the United States doing musicals and half his time in the Chinese pop industry now.

Two albums have been published since he returned. He has adopted new music styles, which were not well received among the audience -- the younger generations don't know him well, while the older generations loved his oldies but didn't embrace electro-music.

"There should be no screams as a middle-aged man undresses," said Fei teasingly to the thousands of concert-goers. "I am not F4, I am F40."

Fei presented a new image with flying long hair in promoting the new concert tour, which started in Shanghai and will go on to several other domestic cities before the Spring Festival. But he appeared in his old hair style familiar with Chinese audience. "I kept my hair for a long time in order to take these pictures," he answered journalists that packed the small meeting room. "But it is too much trouble taking care of that much hair, so I cut it off as soon as the pictures were done."

Mixed Upbringing

Fei, whose mother has a Shanghai origin and now lives in the city, was born on Christmas Eve so his parents named him Kris. He went to Stanford to study medicine in accordance with his parents' wishes, but turned to drama after a year. In 1982, Fei was discovered by a talent scout and entered the entertainment industry. He translated his surname Philips into Fei and took the stage name Fei Xiang, meaning Flying.

His tall figure and his Chinese-Western facial features won him large numbers of fans in Taiwan. But when he decided to visit the Chinese mainland, his conduct was viewed as something like treason as the relationship between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait was still tense.

His first album contained mostly works of other Taiwan singers so that domestic producers didn't think highly of it. Half a million of his albums were piled in storage before the Spring Festival Show. But right after the night, they sold like hot cakes.

"The spring festival shows no longer present new works. That is why successful pop stars don't like to appear on it nowadays," he said.

(Shanghai Star January 16, 2003)