Fei Xiang

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.

Fei Xiang WIKIPEDIA

Fei Xiang (born Kris Phillips on December 24, 1960 in Taiwan, Republic of China; simplified Chinese: ??; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin: Fèi Xiáng) is a Taiwanese-American pop idol and musical singer. Born to an American father and a Chinese mother, Fei Xiang spent his childhood in Taipei. His eight albums produced during early 1980s for EMI and PolyGram launched hit singles in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. His rise to fame on mainland China came almost instantaneously from his performance at the 1987 CCTV New Year’s Gala [1], an action that was met with great protest by the Taiwan government. Eight subsequent albums produced in People’s Republic of China from 1986 to 2002 have made him a pop idol of the country.

Fei Xiang

In 1991, Fei Xiang extended the range of his performances to Broadway, taking a role in the musical Miss Saigon. Under his English name Kris Phillips, he has performed as a soloist in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber – Masterpiece. In this concert with full orchestra, he has starred with Elaine Paige, performing highlights from The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Sunset Boulevard.

In 2000, Fei Xiang’s return to pop music has increased his popularity more. He has also made a number of appearances in Chinese and Taiwanese programs, mainly by surprise.

In 2006, Fei Xiang starred as the Emcee in Toy Theatre’s production of the musical Cabaret in Singapore.

Kris Phillips is his actual birth name. He was known as Bart Phillips during the time he spent at Stanford University in the late 1970′s as an undergraduate pre-med student. Bart left Stanford University to pursue his dream of an acting career. He moved to New York and was aided by his late sister Anya with his endeavors to achieve this. He never returned to finish his studies eventually returning to Taiwan to further pursue his career as an entertainer. He was named “Kris” as he was born on Christmas Eve. His Chinese name was formed from his mother’s surname “Fei” and choosing Xiang as his given name, taken from a pun of “soaring” in Chinese (??, pinyin: f?i xiáng). Other variations due to different transliteration practices are Fei Tsiang, Fei Cheung and Fei Hsiang.

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