The Physics Of Fame

If you’ve got the magnetism, direct it to something good. Choi Si-won shows zaneta cheng how to do just that

- Zaneta Cheng

CHOI SI-WON walks into the room, and it’s as if the magnetic field switches and the lodestars change. An exaggeration? Maybe, but it’s a close call.

A room bustling with the clickclacks and chatter of people hanging clothes, setting up lights and taking pictures of the Hong Kong skyline from our set suddenly pauses. Choi is here. One by one, faces light up and the voices of those who are meeting the star for the first time rise in pitch. He takes it all in his stride, strolling around the suite greeting those he already knows by name and others he doesn’t with a smile and a firm handshake.

It’s convincingly sincere. First there’s the running quip — “Sum sum is our passcode today guys, OK?” he jokes with the crew. “Sum sum”, the Cantonese translation of the little finger-heart symbol Koreans have coined is now a running trend in most Asian countries. I ask him what it means. “I don’t know actually,” he says with a shrug. “I think other gestures are big displays of affection but this is a small gesture that carries sincerity? I didn’t actually like doing it that much at first but now it’s fun because it makes people happy — so I do it.”