QUOTE (flor.a @ Feb 14 2009 3 13 PM)

Err...I know Raymond has a large fanbase in mainland, and he's performed in Japan with Ron and Kevin with famous singers like dbsk at the same event and everything but I don't think they've entirely expanded to other countries. Because I mean, Hong Kong's still a part of China which really makes it one country.
Awards don't necessarily translate to talent. If we're talking painters, they have talent but a lot of them are dead before they're famous. I'm not saying that the artistes have to die to become recognized, but I'm trying to illustrate that talent doesn't have much of an association with time. In reality, it's all about opportunities (especially in tvb), which Linda was lucky enough to get.
Well I do agree with you with your comments on the preceding paragraphs but not on this.
And I know very well this is not a Raymond's thread that I should discuss about him here, but i have just one intention, that is to clarify somethings that are no so accurate about your comments about Raymond
Well, Raymond does not only have a large fanbase in mainland, but his fanbase has expanded to other parts of asian countries too, like Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore. You may have already read in Raymond's thread that he is the first to win the Asian TV Best Actor Title and recently been conferred with the Best TV Series actor in the New York TV program awards.
If people have already formed a perception that Raymond won these awards because of TVB, then I plead that people may want to reconsider that these awards are not decided by TVB. Yes, TVB nominates all the artistes but whether they win or not, the final decision lies in the hand of these international panel of judges. So, with this can we say that Raymond is indeed popular if not well-accepted in those other countries outside of mainland China (or for that matter Hong Kong)?
Undeniably, amongst the TVB A-list (frontliners) artistes...far be it for me to say, I'm not saying that Raymond is the most popular amongst the TVB artistes, but comparatively, Raymond's reputation is indeed perceptible and evident in almost all the Chinese-speaking countries, some chinese-speaking province in the States or even non-chinese speaking countries, he is well accepted and simply for the fact that his name is known to people, this should suffice for us to safely say that he is popular enough to be recognized.
And about your comment that it's all about opportunities, yes, I do agree that sometimes, we need opportunities to get to where we want to be without which it will take us a longer route....but I wish to leave with you this thought that just the 'given opportunities' is not enough to make one succeed in our lives, it's also our own doing, our choice and of course some talents and skills are neccessary means too.
For the case of these TVB artistes, for example, Raymond, yes you may want to say that he was given the opportunity (in which case, he himself also admitted that he's indebted to TVB for all the opportunities) but I want to say that if Raymond does not have the talent and is slacked in his job and not having a good working attitude, I don't think the 'given opportunity' itself will bring him to where he is today.
About Linda, I choose to be neutral here, it's still too soon for us to say whether she'll be successful or otherwise, she is still a newbie to me, even though some argued that she is not. And for this, she does deserve her fair share of time to grow. But I do agree that Linda is lucky to be able to be enlisted as A-list artiste in such a short time as compared with Raymond, Charmaine, Myolie, Tavia and others who had to ride on for 10 years before opportunities are given to them, worst still, some are not even given the same opportunities, i can name a few offhand, people like Leila and Shirley.