8/18/99
On the night of August the 18th, Vicki again received the criticizing from her fans and the reporters. Unable to stand it any more, she started to cry uncontrollably.
When it was 11 o’clock that night, the television station planned a meeting for reporters to be with the actors/actresses who won awards. When the conference/meeting/celebration started, the reporters discovered that “Little Swallow,” Vicki, didn’t show up. The reporters desperately asked, “Where is the Best Actress, Zhao Wei?” The person in charge of the press conference didn’t know what to say, but answered, “She’s probably busy, maybe she’ll come later, maybe she won’t come at all,” and then urgently sent our crews to find out where Vicki went.
When Vicki finally arrived at the celebration at 11:15, her eyes looked tired and her face showed pressure. All the reporters started to shoot questions at her. “Why did you just arrive? Why were you so late? Why didn’t you come to the press conference yesterday?” Vicki was at a loss of words for a moment, and then finally answered, “I didn’t even know there was a press conference, nobody told me. When I was just informed of this, I rushed here to see my fans. Yesterday, I wanted to come to the press conference, but there weren’t enough body guards, and my agent thought it would be too troublesome, so I could not come. If I did anything wrong, I’m really sorry for everything!” After she finished speaking, she stood up with a forced smile upon her face, faced the reporters, wrung her hands and said, “I’m really happy tonight, I’m happy that my fans picked me to receive the Best Actress award. I don’t want to break up my standing in my fan’s hearts. If I was acting in a old age movie right now, I would bow to all of you!” When she finished speaking here, Vicki’s voice changed into a shaky sound as she tried to swallow her tears, but they flowed down. She quickly grabbed a tissue and started to wipe them away, and then took several gulps of water.
At this time, one reporter stood up and asked, “You are crying right now, is it because you feel hurt, you feel shocked, you’re scared, or because you feel troubled?” Vicki picked up the microphone, and said while she cried, “I’m not scared, the rest of the things you listed, I feel, more troubled than the rest though. I believed I could withstand a lot of pressure, but now at this point, I really can’t take all of this pressure any more!” As she finished this sentence, her weeping turned into a huge waterfall as she cried outloud.
The reporters moved on to question Tang Guo-Li, “You and Vicki both received awards tonight, what do you feel? Tang Guo-Li answered, “I’m really happy I received the Golden Eagle award for the first time, this reward is still very important, because the person who receives the award is picked by the fans, not by critiques or whatever. Vicki made a really cute, and lively energetic “little swallow,” in Huan Zhu Ge Ge, there are tons of fans and people out there who love her character, which proves that she is an pretty good actress. I don’t even think I can watch the films I did when I was twenty years old. Critiques say that she isn’t all that good, but fans think otherwise, why is that? I think that Vicki is still very delicate and sensitive. I hope that the reporters will take that into consideration when they print and write. I hope they will sincerely care about Vicki, protect her, and help her.” These comforting and helpful words from a “big brother” made Vicki cry once again. “I am really touched. I am a really emotional person who gets touched very easily, when I act, it is the same, I get into character very easily. I hope that one day I will be as successful as Big Brother Tang. Right now, I am willing to start all over again, from now all the way back to the beginning(starting point)!” When she finished, she again reached up to wipe away emotional tears.
After awhile, Vicki slowly started to calm down, and started to smile again, and even started to sign ticket stubs, journals, and spare pieces of paper for her fans, all the way till twelve o’clock. Then she hurriedly left.