My ‘TVB Rant’ # 23: TVB expanding into Mainland market – good news or bad news?

First off, my apologies to those who have been actively following my blog, as I recognize that I’ve been doing a poor job keeping it updated lately – some things came up and I just haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to it as I would like.  Though I’ve continued to stay on top of the latest ‘happenings’ in the HK entertainment world, I unfortunately haven’t found the chance to ‘blog’ about stuff or do too many translations lately, so I’ve actually got a long list of stuff that I would like to post about still – hopefully I’ll get a chance to do so more consistently in the coming months.

Anyway, back to the post at hand….

I know I haven’t ‘ranted’ about TVB in a long time – of course there has been plenty of stuff to rant about the past few months (probably enough for several posts actually…LOL), but as I said earlier, I’ve had a lot going on, so haven’t had time to gather all my thoughts into a coherent post until now. 

Amongst the many TVB-related ‘happenings’ worth ranting about lately, one piece of news from the past few days got me worked up enough to rant about at the moment:  recently, TVB outlined in more detail their ‘plans’ for expanding into the Mainland China market (they already started doing so a little while back with the creation of TVBC – the Mainland China arm of TVB – but didn’t really talk too much in detail about their plans until now). 

Before I go into my actual rant, let me set the background for this post by briefly summarizing what TVB’s plans are in the Mainland (based on an interview that Virginia Lok did with ND Daily, which was published yesterday – link to original article here).

In summary, the plans are as follows:

.—The goal this year is to elevate the status of TVB artists in the Mainland.  Therefore, any programs that TVBC invests in, TVB will recommend its own ‘contracted’ artists (primarily their own ‘biological’ children who are under management contract) for the programs.

.—More ‘collaborative’ series (series where HK artists will collaborate with Mainland artists – similar to what they did in the series Drive of Life, Growing Through Life, etc.) will be filmed.  TVB will provide the scripts and the artists while SMG (the production company that TVB is collaborating with in Mainland) will provide the filming locations and equipment.

.—TVB siu sangs and fadans will formulate ‘teams’ that will travel to Mainland and collaborate with various ‘teams’ of artists over there.  Also, TVB will continue to seek out other Mainland TV stations and film/TV production companies to collaborate with as well.  Artists who rarely ever film in Mainland (those mentioned in the interview include Moses Chan, Fala Chen, Wayne Lai, Kate Tsui, etc.) will eventually be heading up North one after another…

.—One of the goals that Virginia Lok (as head of the Artists Management Department) has been actively pursuing is to push the current ‘second tier’ TVB artists (VL mentions artists such as Eliza Sam, Christine Kuo, Rebecca Zhu, Oscar Leung, etc. in the interview)  up to ‘first tier’ fadan / siu sang level.  With many of the ‘first tier’ artists heading to Mainland, this will open up the door for TVB to further push this goal in the upcoming year.

.—As for the question of where their scripts will come from (since TVB will be providing the scripts and most of their long-time scriptwriters already left the company), Virginia Lok stated that they are ‘encouraging’ more variety in scripts by having them come from different sources – for example:  Eric Tsang will be writing some scripts specifically tailored for TVB; artists such as Wong Cho Lam will continue to provide ideas and outlines of scripts for TVB’s scriptwriters to work with. 

.—This year, TVB will be sending 10 of its singers to participate in the popular Mainland singing contest “Voice of China”.   [Note:  VL didn’t elaborate on this so not sure if she means TVB-groomed singers such as those who came out of their own singing contest “The Voice” or their so-called ‘actors/actresses turned singers’ – my guess is that she means their “The Voice” singers, as I’m assuming that TVB isn’t going to be foolish enough to send their actors and actresses (most of whom can’t sing to save their lives) to a Mainland singing contest where everyone is levels above them…it would be way too embarrassing….]

.—Lastly, according to Virginia Lok, they are hoping to reach a wider audience in HK – meaning break the tradition of catering to ‘housewife’ audiences only and instead try to appeal to more younger audiences. [TN:  Hmmm…not sure how true this part is because VL’s boss – TVB’s Assistant General Manager Au Wai Lam – stated in an interview for TVB Magazine last year that they will continue to cater to housewife audiences in the future because that’s the majority of the audience pool in HK].

In a nutshell – towards TVB’s ‘lofty’ goal of establishing TVBC and expanding into the Mainland market, TVB’s director of external affairs Tsang Sing Ming had this to say:  “We believe that with this method [creation of TVBC], it will encourage some of the siu sangs and fadans who were previously interested in leaving to stay behind now.  At the same time, it will also attract those ‘heavyweight’ artists who already left – such as Charmaine Sheh, Sheren Tang, etc. – to return.  The ‘worth’ (aka salaries) of TVBC artists will be calculated according to Mainland market rates.”   [TN:  I guess this means TVBC artists won’t have to work for ‘dirt cheap’ measly salaries like their HK counterparts do:  good news for those who get ‘chosen’ to be TVBC artists, but definitely bad news for those who remain behind in HK and must continue to ‘slave’ for peanuts (unfortunately, this is majority of the artists currently at TVB – especially the veteran third/fourth line ones….)]

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Now that the background is laid out,  here goes the rant…..

To be very honest, I actually don’t really give a damn about TVB expanding into the Mainland market, as I don’t watch Mainland series anyway and I’m not planning to watch in the future either (doesn’t matter if some of my favorite artists film in the Mainland – the series just don’t interest me).  So basically, what they decide to do over there is not my problem – that’s for the Mainland entertainment world to ‘worry’ about.

The piece that I’m most concerned about is how this expansion into the Mainland thing is going to affect TVB in HK – both the quality of series overall as well as the artists who will be ‘left behind’ so to speak. 

In terms of artists, I’m referring specifically to those third/fourth/fifth tier ‘green leaf’/’gam cho’ artists who are not ‘popular enough’ (meaning they are not on the ‘most favored’ list) to be given the time of day by TVB.  What’s going to happen to these talented green leaf artists who, under the current ‘system’, are already largely ignored and neglected by TVB?  What are the options?  Continue to work slave hours for cheap TVB at below market salaries that are barely enough to make ends meet in the hopes that 20 years down the road (if they make it that far) they will finally be able to climb to ‘recognizable’ status?  Or get out now while there’s still a chance and find something better to do than to work for a company that doesn’t give a damn about them (and never will as long as there are other more ‘popular’ artists to tend to)?

Of course, the ideal situation would be for these artists to ‘have a way out’ in the form of being able to continue doing what they love best (acting) in their own home territory (Hong Kong) -- namely, having the option to work for a different TV station in HK that better suits their needs.  Unfortunately, with this whole free TV license thing still in limbo (and no clear end in sight), the options are very limited – artists who still want to film TV series in HK must either work for slave-driving TVB or the ‘most likely soon to fold’ ATV (newsbrief: ATV’s top exec James Shing recently announced at FILMART that they will go back to producing series again – hmmm…given ATV’s current situation, let’s see if that actually pans out or not).  HKTV is probably the best option out there for most of these artists, but until they get their license (which could take a LONG time), it’s still a bit of a risky choice.

Oh and how about the quality of future series that TVB produces?  I mean, you’d think that TVB learned its lesson from the drastic decline in the quality of their series the past decade or so – just when you think that the quality couldn’t get any worse, now they’re planning on mixing in more ‘collaborative’ series  in the years to come, despite the fact that those types of series were never well-received by HK audiences (understandably so). 

And even with the collaborative series thing aside, the quality will still continue to suffer because the fact of the matter is, many of the ‘second tier’ artists that TVB is planning to promote JUST DON’T CUT IT – majority of the them need to go through acting training big time (oh and while they’re at it, some of them should go through ‘Cantonese as a Second Language’ courses as well…). 

Hmmm….all this makes me think whether TVB’s move to expand into the Mainland market is really because they want their artists to be ‘more known’ in Mainland (as they claim) or they’re actually motivated by something else (like greed and the hunger for power, for example).  I mean, honestly, TVB already has a huge problem with lack of capable artists at home (HK) -- instead of trying to ‘expand’ their empire further, shouldn’t they be more concerned with ‘fixing’ the issues they have at home first (by investing in acting training and changing some of their antiquated policies for example)?

The piece that gets me really worked up about this whole thing is the fact that TVB is so adamantly opposed to opening up the market in HK to allow more free TV stations in (and are doing everything in their power to prevent new licenses from being issued).  Sure, I understand the ‘argument’ about trying to protect business interests and profits, etc. but fact of the matter is, those are just excuses because anyone with common sense knows that TVB is not going to go bankrupt just because more TV stations are added to the mix.  I mean, let’s be real – we’re talking about a company that makes billions of dollars every year and while most companies are struggling to even survive, they are still turning over a hefty profit year after year (and now with the full-fledged expansion into the Mainland market, they will be raking in even more profit due to the lucrative market over there).  Given the great prospective and outlook in their favor, why does TVB need to continue selfishly holding on to their monopoly in HK when they know full well that they are stifling the growth of the industry (and threatening people’s livelihoods in the process)?

Bottom line – I don’t have the answer to whether TVB’s expansion into the Mainland is a good thing or bad one, as it really depends on the way you look at it.  But I do know that for me at least, I’m not too thrilled about it (for the reasons stated above).  Whatever the case, let’s see where this decision of TVB’s ends up leading...

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 20: Virginia Lok’s ‘Cheap Shot’ at Former Artists Who Left TVB

As most of you probably know, the annual Shanghai Film and Television Festival is currently being held this week in China and with the number of TVB artists who have gone up North to ‘dig gold’ in the Mainland, of course it’s no surprise that quite a few current (and former) TVB artists were in attendance at the festival. Well, since the event is sort of a big deal in China and many industry people would be in attendance, it’s also not surprising that TVB’s ‘top brass’ Virginia Lok would be in attendance as well – plus many of the TVB artists who went were among her ‘favorites’ in terms of current and/or former biological sons/daughters (for example: Charmaine Sheh, Kevin Cheng, Myolie Wu, Bosco Wong, Moses Chan, etc.), so of course she would go there to show her ‘moral support’, right? (for those who didn’t notice, I’m being somewhat facetious here…)

Anyway, I normally wouldn’t give a damn about Virginia Lok attending whatever event, however one thing she said while being interviewed by reporters at the festival really bothered me and so I felt the urge to ‘rant’ about it. Among the many things she said (and she said quite a lot, but mostly in regard to the artists she was there to support, which I don’t care much about), below is the part that got me ticked off:

"Towards the 'poaching' of artists by rival stations in recent years, Virginia Lok used the phrase 'iron-clad TVB, running water generals' to describe the situation. She expressed that artists 'jumping ship' is not enough to make them [TVB] fearful because the artists that the other stations 'poached' are not the best ones -- the most popular siu sangs and fa dans are still with TVB."

(Source: Excerpted from Mingpao article)

First of all, for those who are probably thinking this might be another instance of the Media ‘twisting her words’ – well, I can tell you that it’s not because I’ve read several accounts of what she said from various news sources as well as watched clips of it on TV / internet and pretty much all of them relay the same message. (I had actually read similar comments from her when I was catching up on Weibo yesterday, but waited to say anything until I had better ‘confirmation’ that she actually did say what she said). So for the reasons I stated just now, I am making the determination (for myself) that the words above did indeed come out of VL’s mouth.

Ok, so with the ‘validity’ piece squared away, here’s my reaction to what VL said: BULLCRAP!!!! (sorry for the strong language but just had to get it out of my system). What does she mean by the artists who left not being the ‘best ones’? And the comment about TVB being able to retain the ‘most popular’ siu sangs and fa dans so they have nothing to worry about? What an arrogant, distasteful, abhorrent ‘cheap shot’ at the artists who formerly worked for her! For someone in her position (top management at TVB), I would expect for her to ‘know better’ than to ‘diss’ her former employees like that in public – so unprofessional! (believe me, I should know, since I’m in a high level management position myself). Besides, what she said was a lie anyway because many of the artists that left TVB WERE the ‘best ones’ that they had (nice of her to completely ignore that fact, huh?) Now, I understand if the artists themselves talk crap about other artists or about their current / former employer because they are not in positions of authority anyway and can pretty much say whatever they want (yup, that’s the reality, people) – but as a top executive of the ‘number one’ TV station in HK, she more than anyone should be watching what she says. Judging from many of VL’s comments from the past few years though, it’s obvious she doesn’t get this concept (which further reinforces my long-held opinion that she is not fit for her job and should have been fired a long time ago).

I mean, come on, let’s face it – from an acting / talent perspective, almost all of the artists who left can run circles around those ‘pretty boys/girls’ of hers any day! Felix Wong for example – don’t tell me he is not a better actor than all of those untalented pageant winners and all those other ‘pretty boy’ artists that TVB loves to promote! And in the ‘popularity’ category – find me a follower of Chinese TV series who did not like or remember Felix as Kwok Jing in TVB’s 80s version of LOTCH (many people still affectionately call him ‘Jing Gor Gor’ to this day – almost 30 years later!) or his memorable performance as Ding You Kit in LBIA! (Basically, find me anyone who doesn’t feel that Felix Wong is ‘popular’!!). Or how about Bowie Lam – talented, award-winning, and highly sought after not just in HK but in Mainland China as well as other Asian countries. Oh and what about all those veteran ‘supporting actors/actresses’ who joined CTI (i.e. John Chiang, Paul Chun, Shek Sau, Savio Tsang, Samuel Kwok, etc. – or pick a name from the list here)? What, just because they normally play ‘supporting’ roles that means they can’t act? Um, hello, most of those ‘supporting’ artists were playing lead roles before most of us were even born (and most of TVB’s current siu sangs/fa dans were probably still in diapers)!!!

Stupid witch! Hearing VL spew such crap makes me despise her even more than I already do (if that’s even possible considering how much I already hate her…LOL). As a long-time supporter of TVB, it’s disappointing for me to see such inept, crappy management running the station to the ground! If that’s the type of nonchalant, arrogant attitude that TVB is going to take in the face of the impending TV station battle, then they absolutely deserve whatever demise they have coming to them!

[For the record….as much as I’ve been a supporter of TVB over the years and I want to see them improve, it should NOT happen at the expense of the rest of the HK entertainment industry! Besides, what's the point of constantly trying to encourage them to improve through well-intentioned constructive criticism when they don’t give a crap themselves about improving (at least that’s the ‘vibe’ that VL’s comments are giving me)? This may or may not change my ‘perspective’ about TVB and the battle of the TV stations, but it certainly does dash any inkling of hope I had of TVB perhaps wanting to change for the better!]

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 14: Should TVB continue to be an ‘artist management’ company? Is TVB’s ‘jack-of-all-trades’ mentality leading to its downfall?

Ok, I know I had said that I didn't want to do another ‘TVB rant’ post for a few weeks at least, since I had already done so many of them recently....BUT I can't help it, as I've been mulling over this idea for the past few days and really wanted to blog about it...

As I'm sure you've all heard by now, the 'buzz' in the HK entertainment industry these past few weeks has primarily focused on the recent aggressive 'poaching' of TVB artists, producers, scriptwriters, copy editors, artists managers, etc. by newly formed TV stations (especially Ricky Wong’s City Telecom) -- pretty much they reached out to almost everyone at the company (at least that's what the Media has been reporting, but of course, we all know we should take what the Media says with a grain of salt....)

Anyway, one thing that this whole poaching situation has done so far (which I can't really say is a bad thing) is bring to light alot of the internal 'issues' that exist at TVB -- issues that, to be honest, really are not 'secrets' in that most people (both within and outside the industry) know they exist, but just decided (for whatever reason) to 'sweep' under the rug for so many years. As a quick recap, let’s look at some of the ‘issues’ (aka ‘problems’) that have come to light through this fiasco (Note that the below are only the ‘issues’ that we hear about most often and is NOT all-inclusive):

1) TVB is cheap – This is no surprise, neither is it a secret, as TVB is known for not paying their artists much money. The company itself has even admitted on several occasions that what they pay to artists has always been lower than what’s currently in the market.

2) Long hours, no rest – Again, this is no secret…artists and behind-the-scenes crew alike often work long hours with very little rest. (Artists often tell stories of how they get off work at 4am after having been there since 6am the previous morning and only have time to go home to shower, then are back at work again by 6am.) In fact, this is something that has been going on for decades already (dating back even to the 80s). Personally, I’m not surprised -- since TVB runs its operation like a factory where they are churning out their series one after the other like an assembly line, of course this type of situation is going to occur.

3) Blatant (and not so blatant) Favoritism – I think I’ve ranted enough about this topic already, so I’m not going to go into it again in this post (if you’re interested, feel free to read my previous TVB rants, as I touch on this topic in at least ½ of them, if not more). All I’m going to say is that it’s obvious to pretty much everyone (except for die-hard TVB supporters, that is) that the management plays favorites – and I don’t care how much the management tries to deny this, it’s still not going to change the perception.

4) Lack of respect for veteran artists – This sort of goes hand in hand with point #3. And again, this is no surprise either – just look back at the series from the past 7-8 years and it’s obvious what the current management thinks of veteran artists. In their view, the veteran artists are basically a ‘tool’ to help them promote their favorite biological sons and daughters (and also to ‘fool’ the audience into watching the series and thereby boosting the ratings). Just look at the number of veteran artists who have ‘complained’ about TVB in the past 7-8 years -- whereas in comparisons, I have not heard a single one of the ‘favorites’ currently being promoted complain – and the disparity in treatment is obvious.

Since we all know that the above are already ‘common’ complaints about TVB and have been discussed numerous times in all sorts of arenas in the past decade or so, I’m not going to focus on these particular ‘issues’ in this post. Instead, I’m going to focus on an ‘issue’ that was sort of alluded to in many of the previous articles about this situation, but never really discussed : should TVB even be doing the function of artist management in the first place or should they just stick with what a TV station should truly be doing – producing series?

There has been a barrage of criticism aimed specifically at Virginia Lok (TVB’s director of production and resources and the person overseeing the artists management department) in the past few weeks (which to me, is late in coming – I mean, it took people 8 years to see how much of a bxxch she is??). Most of the criticism has been about how she neglects a lot of the artists (especiall y the veteran ones) and even when their contracts are close to expiring, she doesn’t bother to discuss contract renewal with them (that is, unless the artist is on her ‘favorites’ list of course). There are other complaints as well (I could surely spend an entire ‘rant’ on all of the complaints against Virginia Lok), but for the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus primiarily on the ‘neglect’ one.

One of the ‘excuses’ that TVB (via their spokesperson Tsang Sing Ming) has used to ‘defend’ Ms Lok is that she is not ‘purposefully’ neglecting artists – it’s just that the artists department is so huge and she has so much work to be done that it’s difficult for her to ensure every artist is ‘taken care of’ as well as they would like (personally, I feel that’s a BS excuse, but that’s beside the point right now). Ok, fine – if TVB wants to use this lame excuse, then my ‘response’ to them is: Well, then TVB should think about whether their company is suited to do the ‘artists management’ function in the first place!

I mean, the last I checked, TVB is supposed to be a TV station first and foremost – well, at least that was the intention when Run Run Shaw first started the company back in 1967. But yet, over the years, instead of remaining purely a TV station, TVB has morphed into an entertainment empire, foraying into other arenas such as music and movies. In addition to creating their own music division (TVB Music, which was established in 2003) and their own movie production company (Shaw Brothers studios, which started up again 2 years ago), TVB continued to perform the ‘management company’ (aka ‘agent’) function for artists who choose to sign management contracts with them.

Granted, the function of managing artists has been in existence since the start of the company, but given the complexity of an artist’s career nowdays, how feasible is it for TVB to continue doing this function? I could understand the reasoning behing why TVB would want artists to sign management contracts because that way, they could tie the artist down to only servicing their station and in that regard, control the artist (which I’m totally opposed to, but that’s a whole other ‘rant’). That may have worked back in the beginning years (in the 70s for example) when there were fewer artists to manage and also the artists had less complicated careers. But nowadays, with the ‘norm’ in HK for an artist to be involved in more than 1 ‘arena’ (TV, movies, music) of the entertainment business, it’s no longer as simple as managing an artist’s career in television – as the artist’s manager / agent, there is the added responsibility of managing their movie and singing career as well (plus all the product endorsements, sponsorship events, etc. that go along with it). When all of that is taken into consideration, TVB is no longer purely a TV station, but rather, a TV station / record company / movie studio / management company. If TVB were able to do all 4 things well, then ok fine – but the fact of the matter is that they’ve been doing a half-you-know-what job in EACH AREA in the past few years. Not only that, but the core function of the company’s existence – producing quality TV shows – has eroded to the point that it’s virtually non-existent now (basically, the quality has gone down the toilet – and that’s an understatement!). And on top of that, the artists themselves aren’t happy because of the poor jobs that TVB is doing with managing their careers.

If we are to go with TVB’s argument that they have too many artists to manage and with the complexity of some of the artists’ careers, it’s getting overwhelming for them to handle, so it’s possible that they may have neglected some of the artists – well, then WHY continue to be in that situation? Why can’t TVB just recognize that they can’t be the ‘jack of all trades’ trying to control the entire HK entertainment industry anymore and ‘stop the bleeding’ by scaling back on some of the functions that they really should not have been involved with in the first place?

In looking at all the events that have transpired in the past few weeks (as well as all the ‘issues’ that have accumulated in the past few decades), I feel that in order for TVB to ‘truly’ fix their problems, the action they need to take is to refocus the company back on the ‘core’ of their existence – producing quality TV shows and series (after they fire Virginia Lok, that is – and yes, I’m biased against her). This means that they need to get rid of all the ‘excess’ functions that they were doing (music, movies, artist management) and go back to their roots. Instead of trying to tie down an artist to their station by trying to be the ‘agent’ managing their career, TVB should get out of that business and leave the ‘managing’ to the people who specialize in it (and yes, there are PLENTY of companies as well as individuals out there who specialize in the agent / manager thing). This is definitely a ‘win/win’ solution for both TVB as well as the artists for the following reasons:

1) TVB doesn’t have to worry any longer about being perceived as ‘favoring’ certain artists they manage over others because they won’t be ‘managing’ anyone. All the artists would be ‘free agents’ whose sole relationship with TVB would be to film series for them and that’s it. In a sense, it would work similar to the whole ‘per series / show contract’ that TVB currently has with a lot of artists – the artist would sign a contract agreeing to film a particular series or a certain number of episodes for TVB and once the contractual obligation is fulfilled, they can decide whether they want to continue collaborating on a transactional basis. Overall, the relationship with the artists would be healthier.

2) Image-wise, this would definitely be better for TVB, as it would do away with the whole biological child (artist managed by TVB) versus non-biological child (artist not managed by TVB) problem that has plagued TVB for decades and is the subject of much criticism (as well as scorn) whenever awards time rolls around. It would definitely level the playing field.

3) For the artists, they can gain more experience working with different TV stations and different people – they can truly ‘expand their horizons’ even within HK instead of being stuck working for the same company year after year.

4) By focusing on just ONE thing (producing TV shows / series), it will hopefully allow TVB to go back to producing the QUALITY programs that had once defined them as a TV station. Oh, and by the way – they don’t have to worry about the ‘money’ aspect because if even if they are only doing ONE thing, if they do it WELL (meaning EXCELLENT), the ‘money’ (revenue / profits) will eventually come – I mean, it’s common sense…as consumers, we are more than willing to pay for a quality product, especially if we know it’s well worth the amount we pay – but we are definitely not going to pay for a product that is shoddy and easily broken (the smart ones won’t at least).


Concluding thoughts…

How likely is the above going to happen? Well, honestly I doubt it, given that TVB has been in existence for more than 40 years and is pretty much already ‘set’ in its ways. I think the only way they will be able to do it is if Mona Fong (Run Run Shaw’s wife and TVB’s current Vice-Chairman) rescinds her powers and let’s someone who is willing to embrace the above concept run the company instead. Oh, and definitely they have to get rid of that ‘evil cancer’ Virginia Lok too because so many employees hate her, many of them may not be willing to even give TVB a chance with her still there!

Follow up post to TVB Rant #12: Steven Ma's (馬浚偉) Interview with Mingpao Weekly

As a follow up to my earlier rant about TVB's double standard (see TVB Rant #12), below is a great article that gives insight into what inspired yet another rant from me against TVB.

The article is an interview that Steven Ma had with Mingpao Weekly that was just published this weekend. In it, he outlines very clearly his reasons for why he is leaving TVB -- and does so in a manner that is gracious yet revealing.

Also included is TVB's Artist Department Head Virginia Lok's response to Steven's interview...compare her 'accusatory' response with Steven's gracious one, and you will see why I loathe Virginia Lok so much.

After the article, I also included some comments that I posted regarding this article in AF.

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Article originally published on 09/17/2011

Source: Mingpao Weekly Issue 2236 (as posted on HKChannel)

Translated by: tamaya @ steven ma fanblog

Admitted that He has “Weak Affinity” with Lok Yi Ling; Steven Ma Reveals the Reasons for Tendering his Resignation.

Steven Ma, who has worked in TVB for eighteen years, shockingly requested termination of his contract. I sought confirmation from the horse’s mouth and he candidly admitted its veracity. “I’m not asking for an increase in salary, or for the tv king award, it is just that I am at the bottleneck now, and that I just can’t see any further growth, which makes me uneasy.”

The year before (2009) Steven had already decided to leave the nest but general manager, Stephen Chan, personally persuaded him to stay back, and promised him lots of opportunities to grow in different areas, and so he decided to stay. But with the changes in the higher management, after Apprentice Chef, things came to a halt. The steadily accumulating anxiety and anger ignited by the company's rejection of the Mainland grand tv series production, "The Founding of Yuan Dynasty", finally exploded. “I want to exert it is not that TVB is bad to me but that I often met with unhappy issues….” Is it because of someone’s suppression? “If you want me to answer “no”, I can’t do that!” Naturally, it brought to mind the persistent widespread rumors that Steven and Virginia Lok do not get along. For the first time, Steven speaks out what he had suppressed in his heart for a long time, “Virginia Lok and I, weak affinity!”

For the past few years, Steven has been standing firmly as a first line siu sang, and the series he leads in have high ratings, however, his name never appears in grand productions or in Mainland tv series, either. Moreover, the commercials and advertisements, stage performances and other side jobs all have to depend on himself too. Finally in June this year, he was invited by Tsui Siu Ming to shoot a 50-episode epic historical grand production, "The Founding of Yuan Dynasty", which greatly elated him. “Siu Ming Gor approached me to portray Liu Bingzhong (劉秉忠). He was the founding minister who assisted Kublai Khan (Hu Jun) to found the Yuan Dynasty. Though not a first lead,his role has lots of room to elaborate, moreover, I can also learn from the veteran actors, plus the series will premier next year on CCTV1 on prime time. It will help to further my career. It’s a very good opportunity.”

Without even discussing the fee, he had already indicated his interest to Siu Ming gor his acceptance of this series (reported fee was 1.5 million rmb). He handed the offer to his tvb manager, Hillman, to follow up. Very quickly Hillman responded that Virginia Lok had rejected the offer. The reason being his contract prohibited acceptance of series that will not air on TVB. I recalled distinctly that Myolie Wu’s Mainland tv series was broadcasted early this year on cable tv, and also that Ron Ng snagged the Cable tv king award with his role in another mainland series, why not Steven?

“I don’t know other people’s contracts. I know that my contract has such a clause. Honestly, very regretful but what to do?” He told Siu Ming gor his situation and politely declined the series. Who knows two months later, he received a message that Siu Ming gor was still waiting for him and urged him to vigorously fight for it . At that moment in time, Steven was so touched he felt like tearing up. He forwarded the text message to Ms. Lok to ask her to reconsider. The return text message came with the same previous response: “All artists in this company are subject to this provision in their contract stipulation.”

Afterwards was the most difficult twenty four hours. All that he had gone through in TVB, the happy and unhappy fragments all floated before his eyes. “No matter how hard I continue to shoot series, the outside jobs are truly not many. I believe Hillman is already very diligent in helping me but unfortunately the outcome is always less than satisfactory.…The year before when negotiating with Stephen Chan, I didn’t request salary raise, I’d only wanted to have more opportunities to experience new things. It's only when Stephen Chan agreed to them that I signed up. In the beginning there was Apprentice Chef but when management went through changes, I was back to square one again! I know I’m in a better situation than others, but after 18 years as an artist, one hopes for improvement, right? Can you allow me space to pursue a longer term artistic life?”

Mulling over it he evoked that notion that had been stored for a long time in the back of his mind and activated it. He sent an official letter style text message to Virginia Lok requesting an early release from his contract. (The contract terminates June next year.)

“To make this decision was not easy. I thought of Zhan jie (Catherine Tsang), Uncle Choi (Leung Choi Yuen), they've been good to me. Even Stephen Chan, though the days of our interactions are not long, but these two years I can see that he has been trying very hard to fulfill his promises to me. I’ve the utmost respect for him.”

But to pursue better growth he, in the end, still sent out his text message. The day was August 21. It was rumored that the finale of 'The Life and Times of Sentinel' peaked at 40 points, but the company showed not reaction to it; however it held an ostentatious celebration for Life of Omission that had the same peak rating, and that this had so enraged Steven that in a fit of anger he decided to terminate his contract, this clearly does not hold water as it was not until August 26th that ‘Sentinel’s finale was aired.

“Do you think it's little kids playing toys? If I want a celebration I can pay for one out of my own pocket. I’ve done that many times already.” About Michael Tse's upfront upbraiding him for being “immature”, Steven smiled and said: “I’m not very familiar with Michael. I believe he was just kidding. Steven,I, will never carry out any action because of not having a celebratory event.”

Because talks are still in progress, Steven cannot reveal his rationale for terminating the contract. He can only say that after sending out that text message, on the very next day, Run Run Shaw’s secretary, Chan Fai Kong Run, contacted him to investigate his situation, and soon after, Virginia Lok through Hillman arranged for a meeting with Steven in tvb city. They talked for a while, and shortly there was news that Stephen Chan and Mark Lee had both agreed to exempt that clause from his contract, and permit Steven to accept “The Founding of Yuan Dynasty”. The contract (tn:series) is almost complete now. When finished with shooting “Prosperous Father, he will head up north; it seems like a happy ending.

But Steven says his wanting to terminate his contract has not wavered. “I guess lots of people must be thinking how come Steven is being so audacious. I want to take this opportunity to say, outwardly I’m very strong, I'm used to confronting life and death separation, but it does not mean that I don’t have feelings. When I submitted my request to be released from my contract, it wasn't on a whim. From the moment I sent out that text message, my decision to leave was resolute.”

There are rumors that there are many artists management agencies in Hong Kong and Mainland beckoning him to their companies. Have no choice but to leave, is it because of him be suppressed by a certain person? "If you want me to answer you with a “no”, I can’t do it! Company has many talented people, no need for you to especially do anything for me, but at least, be a little bit fairer!” When brought up the rumors that he has never gotten along with Virginia Lok, he quipped: “Virginia Lok and Me, weak affinity. Don’t know why but we just can’t communicate. And after a while, feel very distant. Some people (tn:tvb human resource department) I can’t even remember. TVB is my management agent.” (tn: as opposed to solely VL)


Virginia Lok's Response to Steven's news article

Responding to Steven Ma’s “weak affinity”, Virginia Lok say: “I hope all artists understand whether have weak or strong affinity with me is not important, what’s important is to have affinity with TVB! Artists are the company’s resources, of course, I will work hard to help everybody fight for opportunities. But not everything, I, Ms. Lok, say is fine then it’s fine. To be successful, also has to depend on opportune timing and favorable conditions.”

She admitted that she does not have much contact with Steven other than business. “ TVB has so many artists, there’s not way I can have contacts with each and every one of them. Unless like Xu Ting Keng (許挺鏗) signing the records company or Fook Lu Sau held a concert, only then will have more mutual contacts. Sometimes when an artist want to make a request and talk personally to me, only then will set up a private meeting to eat together, like Charmaine Sheh.”

Steven claims he has signed contract with TVB for six years, but stage performing, commercials and ads, and other side jobs are far in between, everything has to depend on himself and his colleague to fight for. Ms. Lok say: “I also have asked Hillman (Steven’s manager) why Steven’s jobs are not many? Hillman said that many clients had asked about fees, schedules, but clients are fickle, one minute like this the next like that, so maybe in the end picked another artist. For this I truly feel it is a bit regrettable but you know, there’s supply and there’s demand.”

Talking about “The Founding of Yuan Dynasty’s” contract woes, what came out of Ms. Lok’s mouth was a different version from Steven’s. She said that day she received Steven’s text message, only then did she know about this situation. “That was a Sunday. I immediately called up Hillman to ask what happened? Hillman told me it was because company couldn’t accept certain clauses in the contract. I knew Steven truly wanted to shoot this series. I had helped him ask the company if it could cooperate with him. But during the meeting, they all did not want to waive the clause on the contract. Moreover, he is not even the first lead in the series.”

This stipulation, is it true that all mainland series that the artists participated in must be aired on tvb? “No. Actually, Siu Ming gor and I are very familiar to each other. We once worked together in Rediffusion Television (RTV). If he had truly wanted Steven to shoot in this series he would have called me but he didn’t. Through Hillman I contacted Steven . And we discussed the matter again. Steven expressed that he truly wanted to shoot this series. So I called up Siu Ming gor to ask him to help, to ask the producers to be more accommodating. Consequently the other party accommodated, and we successfully resolved this matter.”

She remembers that it was after successfully resolving this matter with Siu Ming gor that she received Steven’s text message to terminate his contract. “I don’t consider that is an official letter style. In his message, he seemed dispirited, like the company does not care too much about him. But then this is not the first time he expressed his unhappiness. He has expressed his unhappiness to Stephen (SC) and to Zhan Jie (Catherine Tsang). Once in a dinner, after consuming some wine he related his grievances to Executive Deputy Chairman, Norman Leung, and became quite teary as he spoke. Everybody hurriedly comforted him."

“I feel that maybe it is almost year end, and close to the anniversary awards ceremony so he threw some tantrums! Usually prior to and after the anniversary ceremony we seldom negotiate contracts with the artists, too sensitive. Steven’s contract will end next year. We had intended to discuss his contract after the anniversary ceremony.” Steven has expressed his wish, will Ms. Lok make gestures to retain him? “Of course want to retain him. Steven has achievements and has put in efforts, even if does not want to sign management contract, can also stay back to shoot series….but, can he terminate his contract early?"

.*******.

My response to the article:

.-- Great recap of the REAL story....I like how Mingpao presented both sides so that people can decide for themselves who they want to believe.

.-- I personally found Virginia Lok's comments insulting -- especially the part where she practically "accuses" Steven of trying to use his contract thing to gain advantage at the awards ceremony. What a tactless (and stupid) thing for someone in her position to say! As a manager myself, I'm disgusted by VL's blatant bias and lack of professionalism...she's definitely not a good manager -- that's for sure!

.-- Also, I almost threw up when VL tried to make herself sound like a "hero" because she 'supposedly' helped Steven get his Mainland China series back...she's so "full of it", it's not even funny....

.-- The other thing I found interesting with this interview is the issue regarding the contract. It behooves me that TVB would put a stipulation in their artists' contracts stating that TVB artists are not allowed to participate in a Mainland series unless that series airs on TVB....The question I have is: Really? I would be curious to see if the contracts for the other TVB managed artists who filmed series in the Mainland the past couple years (i.e.: Charmaine prior to her contract ending, Kevin, Tavia, Ron, Myolie, Raymond, etc.) had that same stipulation -- if so, then TVB is definitely limiting the growth of their artists, since that greatly narrows the options for their artists in terms of series that they are allowed to film in Mainland (since not every Mainland series will end up airing on TVB).

However, I actually have a feeling that there is no such stipulation in the other artists contracts and TVB is just using this as an excuse to hold Steven back from further opportunities (which means that TVB is trying to play favorites again by allowing their favored artists to film in the Mainland but not others). I mean, it really doesn't make sense to me that they would put such a stipulation in the artists contracts, especially considering how big the Mainland market is and knowing how it's virtually 'impossible' for TVB to try to control that market by buying the broadcast rights for every single series. If that's truly the case, then it's no wonder that majority of the artists in HK don't want to sign management contracts with TVB....heck, if I were those artists and knew ahead of time that the opportunities would be so limited, I wouldn't sign with them either!

.-- And of course, this makes Michael Tse's comment even more insulting and shows more than ever how arrogantly and stupidly he (Michael) answered. Hey, if Steven could respond with such grace and help Michael "save face" by saying that he was probably only joking, the least Michael could have done was just shut the hell up!