TVB 43rd Anniversary Light Switching Ceremony -- 10/18/2010

Photo credit: on.cc


TVB officially kicked off their anniversary festivities with the Light Switching Ceremony that occurred earlier this week. In the past, the Light Switching Ceremony was used as a forum to reveal the nominees for each of the award categories, but nowadays, it's pretty much just a way to announce to the world that the anniversary celebration has officially begun. Pretty much they have a bunch of performances and they have the artists from the 2 anniversary series for that year talk about the series, their roles, thoughts, feelings, etc.

What most people are interested in with the Light Switching Ceremony is the moment when the group picture is taken, as the positions of the artists pretty much tells us who is being 'favored' or 'promoted' by TVB that year -- basically, the closer to the front and middle you stand, the more ‘important’ you are.

Pretty much, below is who stood where in terms of front row (reference picture above):

** Either side of Run Run Shaw: Liza Wang on Shaw's right and Dodo Cheng on Shaw's left (this is traditional -- Liza and Dodo always stand right next to Mr Shaw)

** Liza's side (from inner to outer): Liza Wang, Wayne Lai, Sheren Tang,
Louise Lee, Susanna Kwan, Steven Ma, Linda Chung, Kenneth Ma, Mag Lam

** Dodo's side (from inner to outer): Dodo Cheng, Moses Chan, Charmaine Sheh, Raymond Lam, Myolie Wu, Michael Tse, Fala Chen, Ron Ng, Kate Tsui

Second row:

I can’t figure out everyone who is in the second row, so I’m only going to list the ones I know for sure:

** Right, behind Shaw & Dodo (from inner to outer): Kara Hui, Felix Wong, Wong Cho Lam, Johnson Lee, Louis Yuen, Selena Li, Aimee Chan, Pierre Ngo, Amigo Chiu

** Left, behind Shaw & Liza (from inner to outer): Michael Miu, Jessica Hsuan, Maggie Siu, Raymond Wong, Nancy Wu (?), Joel Chan, etc. (can’t figure out the rest)


People who did not attend:

* Bobby and Bosco are in mainland China filming
* Tavia and Kevin - possibly because very few series this year
* Bernice and Bowie didn't attend either
* I don’t think Roger was there either because he would have been near the front if he were there.

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My thoughts:

 -- First of all, I have a huge problem with TVB putting Mag Lam in the front row with all the siu sangs and fa dans! She does not deserve to be there at all – not only because she ISN’T a ‘fa dan’ (she’s a newbie, for goodness sake), she hasn’t even participated in any series yet (well, at least not yet, though the word is that TVB is planning a movie and series for her). She is pretty much just some girl who won a singing contest that TVB organized – THAT’S IT! I mean, there were SO MANY people they could have put in that spot – for example, Jessica or Maggie (former fa dans) or if TVB didn’t want to because they are not ‘favored’ or contracted, then how about Kara? Surely the well-respected, 7 time Best Actress in Film and a contracted artist deserves that spot more than Mag??? Or, if worse case, TVB couldn’t find anyone else to put there, then just leave that spot empty – with a little bit of creativity in terms of those standing behind and next to that spot, I’m sure they would have been able to hide the ‘emptiness’ of that spot if they really wanted to! Arghhh!!! TVB and their stupid decisions again!!

-- Based on the lineup of Wayne, Moses, Raymond, and Steven, I’m even more convinced about the ‘theory’ that I talked about in my previous post – that Raymond is less favored than Moses now and TVB is pushing Moses for the TV King award rather than Raymond.

-- I’m actually not surprised that 80s/90s veterans such as Michael Miu, Felix Wong, Maggie Siu, Jessica Hsuan, etc. are in second row as opposed to first row because for TVB, they are considered ‘passe’ already and they needed to make room for the newer generation (90s/00s) siu sangs and fa dans (well, except for the select few from the older generations who are more ‘favored’ right now, for various reasons).

-- I do think it’s interesting that TVB still put Louise Lee and Susanna Kwan in the front row, especially since neither one has any ‘representative’ series this year – plus I highly doubt that they will factor into the awards race this year, since it looks like TVB’s focus is on the younger / middle generation folks this time around. Not only are they in the front row, they are actually more towards the ‘middle’ than Steven, Linda, and Kenneth. They sort of seem out of place right there in the front row among all the ‘young’ siu sangs and fa dans…I wonder why TVB put them there versus in the second row – perhaps as ‘space fillers’ since some of their other siu sangs and fa dans who WOULD have been in the front row (i.e. Tavia, Bosco, Kevin, etc.) didn’t attend….but then again, if they are ‘space fillers’, then wouldn’t it make more sense to put them at the end rather than near the middle?

-- Of course, all the supporting and ‘green leaf’ artists are in the middle rows or towards the back, which I personally think sucks, since these are truly the artists who drive and in many cases, even carry the entire series – they really aren’t recognized as much as they should be (speaking a little from personal bias here too because I prefer to watch most of the supporting and green leaf artists rather than many of today's 'supposed' siu sangs and fa dans). I also think it sucks that some of the more well-known green leaf and supporting actors (i.e. Evergreen, Ben, Elliot Ngok, Susan Tse, etc.) are in the 4th row and back (though I think Raymond Cho is in 3rd row, which is great if true) whereas a lot of the Miss and Mr Hong Kongs are in 3rd row (now they should REALLY go in the back).