Thursday, October 21, 2010

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).

8 comments:

  1. What are you talking about? Come on now. Be more grateful. Since the others are in the back, they could catch up on their naps (since TVB put in extra hours for them earlier). *mwuahahahaha* YES, love my sarcasm?

    I heard from some rants around, Louise Lee is actually very respected OR being favored. OR something. BUT I can't be sure. So that explains it. (Though I do not think much of her acting - EVEN in the old days.) Susanna is cool though. I think they put some people there just to shut the public up about not respecting the veterans. (Another tactic.)

    And I can't see anyone in that picture. Gotta go hunt down for more closeups! LOL!

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  2. Better images here: http://www.alivenotdead.com/hyn5/TVB-43rd-Anniversary-Light-Switching-Ceremony-profile-1093117.html

    Just slightly closer, LOl.

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  3. Haha...love the sarcasm (cuz I'm just as sarcastic...lol)!

    Hmmm...I think your theory about Louise and Susanna are quite valid -- with Louise, I also think it's because she won TV Queen 3 years ago and was in top 5 after that, so they can't possibly stick her in the back. As for Susanna, well, I guess she DOES have CBML...

    Thanks for the link. The picture actually is bigger if you click on the image -- I'm able to see certain people, but still can't figure out most others. I actually checked several websites and unfortunately, some of the other pictures I found aren't that much better. The only reason why I figured out some of the others is because they were in other individual pictures and I recognized the outfit...lol.

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  4. I also searched around too, but mostly couldn't see much.

    I was able to spot Tsui Wing WAY in the back and some others. I can't see Ray though. I meant I thought he's in the 3rd row but can't be sure.

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  5. Bernice tweeted that those who were schedule to film did not attend the lighting ceremony. Since she and roger are filming the same sitcom, they couldn't attend.

    Everything is bulllllll with tvb nowadays.

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  6. Tvbaddict: Thanks for the info. No wonder I didn't see any of the artists from that particular sitcom. Though it does make me wonder if they did attend, where would they have stood?

    I agree -- everything with TVB is just BS nowadays.

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  7. TVB Lighting Ceremony this year is laughable and dull. What's with Mag Lam's position?

    among those who didn't attend:
    Tavia - filming The Truth
    Bosco - filming Racecourse in Qingdao
    Bowie - ?
    Roger - Filming sitcom
    Bernice - Filming sitcom
    Kevin - filming something in mainland?

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  8. zzXyz: I agree -- the ceremony was soooo boring...I liked the previous format better where they would reveal the top contenders for the various award categories...

    I say that TVB should just quit wasting their time and do away with the Lighting Ceremony altogether -- just do the group picture so we can see who they favor that year and that's it (since that's the only part that everyone is interested in anyway)...

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