“I’m not fond of you because you’re not my cup of tea!” These words are generally used to describe a romantic relationship between a man and woman, however it can also be used to describe the relationship between employer and employee. Earlier, veteran actor Yuen Wah (元華) ended his 16 year ‘relationship’ with TVB and decided to join Ricky Wong’s (王維基) newly established company CTI. In addition to admiring his new boss Ricky Wong’s sincerity and resolute, Yuen Wah explains that one of the reasons he decided to leave TVB [for CTI] is because in the past few years, he felt there was no longer a sense of belonging or loyalty with the company anymore – he candidly states: “I really miss the days when Uncle Six [Run Run Shaw] ran things!”Last year, telecommunications giant Ricky Wong decided to try his hand in the television industry – in preparation for his company City Telecom (CTI)’s entrance into the free-to-air television market, he started a massive recruitment mission last September that involved the ‘poaching’ of a large group of TVB’s artists. As a result, many veteran ‘green leaf’ artists ended up joining CTI, including experienced artists such as Yu Mo Lian (余慕蓮), John Chiang (姜大衞), Felix Lok (駱應鈞), Sin Ho Ying (冼灝英), etc. Yuen Wah was also part of this group.
Asked what attracted him to join Ricky Wong’s company, Yuen Wah (Wah Gor) explained: “Mr. Wong was very sincere when he sought me out to talk about joining his company. He invited me to have tea at the Peninsula Hotel and told me that his television station was starting and he wanted me to join – I told him that I would have to think about it, as I was still waiting for the other company (TVB) to contact me to discuss contract renewal. In the end, I waited a long period of time and no one from TVB approached me, so I decided to go with CTI. With my career being an actor, it’s impossible for me to just stop and do nothing -- if I’m offered job opportunities, of course I’m going to do it!” In the 16 years that he had worked for TVB, Wah Gor always had a ‘per series’ contract with them – his contract would get renewed every 2 years and usually TVB would seek him out 3 to 6 months prior to his contract expiration date to discuss renewal. But this time around, things were different -- Wah Gor’s contract expired, yet no one seemed to even notice.
Wah Gor admits that he felt disappointed: “Was I unhappy about it? I actually never really thought about it, as I felt that these type of work relationships will come to an end eventually. In reality, they [TVB] are not obligated to seek you out – unless they feel there’s a need and you’re able to help them – otherwise, they do not have to sign you, since, after all, the company has tons of artists….in terms of whether ‘value’ or not -- if they feel it’s worth it, then they’ll value you. The company’s attitude has always been one of ‘indifference’ – whether you’re worth ‘valuing’ or not depends on who you are: if you’re of monetary benefit, then of course you’ll be ‘valued’, but if you’re the ‘dispensable’ type, then there’s no need to value.”
Due to the government possibly issuing 3 additional free-to-air television licenses in the near future, an impending TV ‘war’ has been looming on the horizon -- with ATV’s drastic decline over the years, TVB has pretty much been the ‘sole’ TV station in HK for a number of years already. Wah Gor agrees that with 3 new stations coming into the picture, the outlook for the industry will very likely change.
He states: “Every country or dynasty is bound to experience periods of prosperity and decline – this year might decline but next year things might be well again. With the government issuing 3 licenses, this will bring competition to the television industry, which isn’t a bad thing – in addition to artists, there were also singers who decided to join NowTV and in the variety show department, some behind-the-scenes crew also left. Here at CTI, there’s a lot more freedom, as we are allowed to appear on other stations if we want to…TVB never allowed that – even artists who went to film series in the Mainland were not allowed to use their original voices – there was nothing you could do, since TVB was pretty much the only game in town due to the lack of competition. As for whether the era of ‘one station ruling the TV industry’ is over – well, that’s too harsh too say, as ups and downs are inevitable with any company – it happens everywhere. Remember in ancient times there was the kingdom of Babylon that was very powerful and prosperous, but later it became a huge mess.”
Beautiful memories of the ‘Uncle Six era’
Thinking back to the old days, Wah Gor expressed that it was actually [TVB’s head of production] Catherine Tsang (曾勵珍) who brought him into TVB by inviting him to film series for them – just like that, his collaboration with them lasted 16 years. Towards his days at TVB, Wah Gor admits: “During the Uncle Six era was when I felt the biggest sense of belonging – in recent times, it was definitely lacking.” This ‘lack of belonging’ was one of the factors that caused him to leave.
Wah Gor provided some insight into some of the ‘changes’ that occurred within TVB over the past decade: “In the beginning, there was definitely a sense of belonging, but later on, not anymore because of the constant change in personnel [TN: specifically in management ranks] – under the new ‘team’, the company’s framework actually changed entirely. Who oversaw things in the past is very different from who oversees things now and the environment is different – as the saying goes, ‘when a dynasty changes, so does its subjects’. When I first entered TVB, the management hadn’t changed yet – it was still the ‘Uncle Six era’ and everything was good – everyone was very happy working there and we didn’t have to worry about personnel [management] conflicts.”
Wah Gor continued: “Within a company, each executive’s policies and direction when it comes to handling matters are bound to be different – if you can’t agree or accept it, then it’s best to find a company that better suits you. Uncle Six’s way of doing things is different from Ms. Fong’s [TN: Run Run Shaw’s wife Mona Fong] – if they decide to change direction and policy, whether the results are good or bad, they need to take responsibility for it.” So with the recent trend of artists and behind-the-scenes crew leaving TVB, then should the person at the top [Mona Fong] be held mostly accountable? Wah Gor replied: “It shouldn’t be that person alone, as he/she has people reporting to them – just like the different departments in government, they function as a team.”
Asked to describe TVB’s current situation, Yuen Wah states: “Stuck in the same place, not moving forward.” Towards the company’s non-proactive attitude, he states that its employees are helpless to do anything: “The only thing we can do is sigh helplessly – after all, with the company getting to this point, what else can be done? The ‘helpless’ part is because the company itself doesn’t care enough to make things better – take the Big 5 record company dispute for example, look at how long that situation dragged out? Same with the Ricky Wong situation as well [the poaching of artists and crew] – add to that the ‘attitude’ that the company takes towards certain employees….that’s why nowadays whenever TVB is mentioned, most of us just sigh and don’t want to talk about it. As for what type of ‘attitude’ the company takes towards its employees, well, you’ll have to go ask them – for me, it doesn’t really matter as much because I’ve always had only a ‘per series’ contract. Some employees are ‘long-term’ workers who signed long contracts with the company – if their contract terms are based on ‘shows’ and they don’t meet those terms by the time the contract ends [TN: meaning they don’t have enough ‘shows’ to fulfill the terms of their contract], they not only don’t get paid, they also have to pay a fine to the company. Can’t really say if it’s a ‘miserable’ plight or not – after all, it comes with the territory and the terms are agreed upon by both parties.”
Return to TVB some day?
As people always say, ‘the world is round’ – this is true in the entertainment industry especially, where the chance of coming full circle is especially high. Wah Gor himself expressed that he will not rule out the possibility of collaborating with TVB again in the future: “It’s definitely possible, but it depends on who is calling the shots – those people who don’t like you, why would they seek you out again? If new people [management] enter TVB and they feel ‘hey, Yuen Wah is pretty good, why don’t we invite him back?’, I don’t have a problem with it at all. The name ‘TVB’ may not change, but the interior [personnel] generally will – if they invite you back to film series for them, it’s usually based on personal relationship.” Asked if there were people in the company who didn’t like him and so didn’t ‘value’ him, Wah Gor replied: “There will be people like that in every company – people who will feel: ‘I don’t like you because you are not my cup of tea, so I’m not going to bother discussing contract renewal with you’. It’s inevitable in any organization – even our current government is not exempt from such issues, let alone a company such as TVB!”
Retire to go till land
Even though he is approaching 60 years old, Yuen Wah has not only signed with Ricky Wong’s CTI, he also continues to go up North [Mainland] to film series when he has time. Asked if he has considered retiring, Wah Gor expressed: “I guess you could consider me ‘retired’ now – retired but not resting. Working right now is pretty much a pastime for me – it keeps me alert and vigorous -- if I don’t work, I’ll get bored. I rented a plot of land in the New Territories area recently where I actually grow vegetables and such – it’s almost like going back to the countryside to till land. With all the talk about the environment and eating organic nowadays, growing my own vegetables to eat is a pretty good thing. My children are all grown now, so I don’t have any more burdens. If in the past, when my children were still young and TVB didn’t seek me out to discuss contract renewal, the situation would have definitely been disastrous!”
Yuen Wah used to be one of the ‘Seven Little Fortunes’ (七小福). [TN: The Seven Little Fortunes were a Beijing Opera School troupe under Master Yu Jim Yuen who were trained in martial arts and various other disciplines at a young age. Other ‘famous’ members of the Seven Little Fortunes include Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao…]. Back during those days of training, Wah Gor was one of the more mischievous ones, constantly ‘fighting’ with his fellow apprentice brothers and when things went wrong, all of them would point at each other. Wah Gor states: “Thinking back now, those days were actually the happiest – we had no burdens and could be as carefree as we wanted. Now as grownups, we have to worry about so many things – paying rent, buying a car, our children’s educations, etc.”
Source: HK Channel (iHKtv)
Translated by: llwy12 @ AsianFanatics
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