ملف:Avenue of the Stars 星光大道 (5284210776).jpg

Just like the Grauman Chinese Theatre in Hollywood immortalizes handprints of movie stars on the pavement, the Avenue of the Stars does the same. The stars are honored by their native names written in Chinese characters and Roman alphabet, with a Westernized name added if they are well known by that as well.

Handprints from well-known actor, and more importantly, Cantopop singer, Andy Lau (Lau Tak-wah, 劉德華).

Just days before, I was driving through South Korea while listening to a radio program on the 1980s Hong Kong pop culture. One of the key memories mentioned there was listening to all the Andy Lau hits - and of girls who had crushes on Andy Lau-lookalike Chinese food deliverymen.

The Koreans usually refer to Hong Kong celebrities by the Korean pronunciation of their names. Andy Lau would be known as Yu Deok-hwa. Similarly, Mandarin speakers use the Mandarin pronunciation, Liu Dehua. I am far more familiar with the Korean and Mandarin pronunciations of Lau's name, to be honest.