Compiled by SALMA FAIRUS, C.ARUNO AND R.ARAVINTAN
A MALAYSIAN managed to beat 10 other finalists to emerge second place at an international Hokkien singing competition in Fujian, China, China Press reported.
Alice Leow was declared the runner-up at the World Hokkien Golden Melody awards ceremony and Cross-Strait Hokkien Music Grand Prix on Oct 22.
Leow survived the elimination rounds and entered the grand finale along with 11 others.
She wowed judges and the audience with her rendition of Forgiveness.
The first prize was given to Chen Siwei from Taiwan and third place went to Yu Jiliang from Indonesia.
The competition was aimed at promoting Hokkien culture and fostering cultural exchange.
> He gave up a stable nine-to-five job to become a hawker selling mochi at a night market in China’s Hubei province.
Known only as Zhang, 27, he had been earning a monthly salary of around 8,000 yuan (RM4,744) working in the automotive industry, the daily also reported.
However, he struggled to find passion in his job.
He first enrolled in a baking course to learn how to make pastry. Then he bought a tricycle, made a food cart out of wood and painted the whole vehicle pink.
Business was slow in the beginning. He would earn just about 300 yuan (RM177) daily.
Sales picked up when he moved his cart nearer to Hankou University and Wuhan Donghu University in Wuhan.
His pink cart made him instantly recognisable from afar while his mochi proved to be a hit among university students.
Now, he earns around 1,000 yuan (RM593) a day.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
