17-07-19
‘Kongals’ (or Kong gals) refer to the modern Hong Kong women who are no longer men’s ‘half-time, downtime, spare time or sometimes’. Nowadays, women in Hong Kong are educated, independent, confident and free-spirited. Some ‘Kongals’ may turn annoying by acting like a queen or princess. They make life difficult for others by being demanding, irritable and easily changeable. Yet men in Hong Kong are lucky because these women work, strive, make decisions, and best of all, buy men dinner.
Our singer and actress Josie Ho is a positive version of Kongals. She comes from a super-rich family and is the daughter of business tycoon Stanley Ho. For her many years in the entertainment career, she has always been purposefully on her own―tough, critical, ambitious and struggling with failures but never allowing failures to hurt herself.
I came across Josie in 3 capacities: her senior friend, her lawyer and a stage project co-worker. Despite her strong character, she treats me invariably with refined manners, free from any coarseness which a rock singer may possess. When we talk, she is sweet, polite and calm. Her life may have the other side of the moon. I am curious to find out.
I asked, “Josie, has life knocked you down?” She said, “Definitely. Life has knocked me down too many times. It is not that I don’t feel the frustration. It’s just that I am not afraid of frustration anymore. I cry and laugh. One thing for sure, I am still here.”
I said, “Point-form articles are very popular these days. So, give me 5 incidents of hard time which have bittered your life.”
Josie recalled, “To begin with, my family was very traditional and they did not want any kid to be in the entertainment business. They felt particularly upset when I rejected the offer from a university and made up my mind to be an artiste. Naturally, I had to go through tough times in terms of family pressure in order to be finally myself.”
“Then, I got into a lot of misfortunes at the start of my career. I tried several record and management companies which all did not work out for one reason or another. Some thought I was not their preference. Some changed their personnel or business strategies. Some believed I was not ‘mainstream’ enough for them. I felt so belittled and insecure. Luckily, I got an indomitable will and managed to lift up myself to get out from those dead ends,” Josie continued.
“My style and image inflicted the 3rd hard time upon myself. I must admit I am a strong willed ‘Kongal’. I insisted on my alternative, edgy and uncompromising performing labels. Those were the ways that I would like to express myself. I did not want to pretend that I murmured femininely and elegantly and carried a Chanel lipstick. As you can guess, most audience were looking for eye candies or girls next door. I did not wish trends to own myself. So, it ended up I got a smaller fringe market which nevertheless turned out now to be more sustainable as fans in this market were more loyal,” Josie grinned.
I wanted to know Josie’s hardship encountered when she was in the film business. She said, “Oh! Movie is even a harder ball game.”
She paused, “In the 2000s, Chinese Mainland permitted Hong Kong and the Mainland to co-produce films. They however prescribed a quota system on the number of Hong Kong actors and Mainland actors in a film. Film companies usually used up its Hong Kong quota on our male actors and so there was no more quota left for actresses. As a result, Hong Kong actresses have been losing jobs and declining since the 2000s. I was seriously affected. I was forced to set up my own film production company in order to generate opportunities for myself.”
Josie said, “Presently, I am undergoing the 5th hard time. I have to run the film and concert company, meet huge expenses and shoulder many burdens. Well, this is life and I will not surrender.”
I guess the 6th hard time is when Conroy, the husband of Josie, was very ill and she had to take great care of him a few years ago. I did not ask because I might have been expelled for being too nosy.
Josie Ho, despite her difficult years, is still working very hard to be a great artiste. Her ‘Kongal’ perseverance is a first-rate projection of how a modern woman should be. Josie is always the conqueror of her life, not the captive of fate. She reminds me of a saying ‘if I ever let my head down, it will be just to admire my shoes’.
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