Barbie Xu schemes her way into showbiz

Summer’s Desire got off to a disappointing start last week, but Barbie Xu and company will be back again this Sunday with even more intense drama. Her character is in the midst of competing for a chance to debut as a singer, while Huang Xiao-Ming re-enters her life as a superstar who might be after her for revenge. Before she gets her big break, the aspiring singer will first get kidnapped and then rescued by Peter Ho. And despite being hurt, our heroine is in no rush to cover her wounds, because she will use them to gain the sympathy of judges who will be deciding her fate.

In real life, Barbie faced her own challenge when she recorded the song “Diamond” for Summer's Desire. The insert track was written by her friend Mavis Fan, and its jazz-like arrangement required a husky voice to perform. She spent two days in the recording studio but was unsatisfied with her singing. In the end, she drank some alcohol and completed the recording by deliberately lowering her voice. Unfortunately, the actress got a sore throat as a result which took a month to recover.

Barbie was also the subject of criticism after the drama's first episode went on air. Netizens are not complaining about her acting, but rather it was her make up that bothered them. There were comments about her eye makeup being too dark and gloomy, while her brows were too thick. She responded through her manager, “That is in fact the real face of (her character) Yin Xia-Mo.” In the original novel, it describes Yin Xia-Mo as someone with “ivory skin, black hair flowing like seaweed, and eyes that are like sea water, but they remain cold even when she smiles.”

source:cpopaccess.com