Stephen Chan’s Powers Resurrected; Danger for Virginia Lok’s Camp Ahead?

TVB’s General Manager of Broadcasting Affairs, Stephen Chan (陳志雲) has been successfully acquitted of his bribery and fraud charges. Stephen will make a mighty comeback to TVB, starting tomorrow. This might spell danger for TVB’s Production and Resource Director Virginia Lok (樂易玲), who had testified against Stephen in court. Virginia was, in fact, spotted with watery eyes while watching the news of Stephen’s acquittal yesterday. It was thus rumored that Virginia will leave her position this coming November.

The “beloved generals” under the “Virginia Lok camp,” Raymond Lam (林峯), Michael Tse (謝天華) and Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣) initially had high chances of winning the TV King and TV Queen award at the year-end TVB Anniversary Awards. But now that the tide has turned against their favor with Stephen’s return to power. The priority to win those TV King and Queen awards were given to those “Stephen Chan camp” members who had not waited for his return in vain and they include Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), Steven Ma (馬浚偉), Fala Chen (陳法拉) and Tavia Yeung (楊怡).

Following Stephen Chan’s majestic return to TVB, Stephen who had earlier seen his fair share of loyal subjects and traitors during his fall from power, was rumored to be launching operation vengeance upon his comeback. This re-ignited the heavily rumored power struggle between the “Stephen Chan camp” and the “Virginia Lok camp.” Virginia Lok had earlier submitted a testimony against Stephen Chan, citing him as “selling artists like clueless piglets that are to be slaughtered” (meaning allegedly selling artists to event organizers without their prior knowledge or consent and arranging them to be there without paying them or TVB for it).

When asked yesterday, Virginia denied that she had resigned in a bid to avoid Stephen, “How is that possible? No, I won’t. It was so tough to wait for such a perfect ending to this matter. Also, nothing has happened and our morale was revived instead so why would I want to resign? Hopefully there won’t be any more unhappy matters.” (Reporter: Did you contact Stephen?) “I did send a short text message to him. After knowing that he will return back to work this coming Monday, I didn’t disturb him anymore. I will talk to him when he returns “to work.” (Heard that Wong Hei (王喜) who was under Stephen Chan’s camp, was targeted earlier on?) “TVB has never changed our position towards Wong Hei. TVB is currently short of manpower. It was because he (Wong Hei) had to shoot a mainland drama and couldn’t fork out time. As long as the drama is suitable and he wishes to return, TVB will welcome him back at any time.”

Myolie Wu: “We Have Never Split Into Camps”

Raymond Lam was rumored to be one of Virginia Lok’s “beloved general.” There were also speculations that “Virginia Lok’s camp” has lost its status and could thus turn from winning anniversary awards to not winning any awards anytime now. In reply to this, Raymond responded, “There have always been such rumors. Awards are not the most important to me. The most important is to win recognition from the audience.”

Myolie Wu (胡杏兒) who re-captured the audience’s spotlight through her performance in Ghetto Justice <怒火街頭>, will be attending the TVB Anniversary Awards with her battle masterpiece, The Queen of All <萬凰之王>. Myolie expressed, “We have never split into camps. I’m not worried about the awards. The most important is to do your own job well.”

Wayne Lai who was rumored to have the chance to win the TV King award for the third consecutive time based on his capacity as a “Stephen Chan camp” member, replied, “I wish to clarify. Actually it was during the Rosy Business <巾幗梟雄> period that I had more performances and thus, had more work communications with Mr. Chan but we were not on familiar terms with each other. By saying that I’m under the ‘Stephen Chan camp’ is really thinking too highly of me. Furthermore, Forensic Heroes 3 <法證先鋒3> has yet to premiere, hence my confidence towards winning the TV King award is still 50-50. The TV King award involves many elements including the number of votes voted, which is according to public opinion. Of course, I obviously wish to become TV King for the third consecutive time and to make history. However, I also look highly upon Raymond Lam and Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎).” (Reporter: But they are all from the “Virginia Lok camp” who have lost power!) “It’s also not differentiated under that clearly lahs.”

Steven Ma Grateful to Stephen Chan for Fulfilling His Dreams

Fala Chen who has been labeled under the “Stephen Chan camp,” emphasized that she was not split into any camps. Asked whether she felt that her chances of winning the TV Queen award would increase significantly, Fala responded, “It is still one month away from the TVB Anniversary Awards. The TVB Anniversary show is not out yet hence it is still too soon to tell. Winning of awards does not depend on the higher management staff. It is  reliant on the role and the ratings of the drama.”

Steven Ma, who was rumored to be under the “Stephen Chan camp,” professed that his work chemistry with Ms. Lok (Virginia) wasn’t as high. Steven continued, “I admit that during July last year when I sat down to discuss my TVB contract renewal with Ms. Lok, we didn’t rub off each other well and I was without any jobs for one whole month. After that, I was fortunate to receive Mr. Chan and Catherina Tsang’s (曾勵珍) assistance. Mr. Chan even promised to shoot Apprentice Chef <大廚出馬> and he did carry it out. In fact, Mr. Chan has helped me to fulfill many of my wishes.” (Reporter: Do you have the confidence to win an award?) “I do not know whether I belong to the ‘Stephen Chan camp’ but I have always adopted a ‘follow fate’ approach regarding the awards and anyway, my mentor is Catherine Jeh and not Mr. Chan.”

Steven Chan and Wong Hei swore to bring trouble-makers to justice

Sings karaoke to celebrate, uses songs to relate meanings

Stephen Chan who was cleared of all earlier bribery and fraud charges, will be returning to “office” with a newly proclaimed innocence on Monday. Stephen will continue to work for TVB as a general manager. (He had already been reinstated as at November last year) Although the matter has officially come to an end, it was rumored that another bloodshedding scene was about to occur. Stephen Chan’s majestic return to TVB has been supported by Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of TVB, Mona Fong (方逸華) and new TVB boss,”Shell King” Charles Chan (陳國強). However, Stephen’s probable direct confrontation with the principal prosecution witness of his corruption trial, TVB’s Group General Manager Mark Lee Po-on (李寶安), upon his return to TVB was billed as the “show” to look out for.

Wong Hei who had sheltered Stephen against all odds during Stephen’s corruption lawsuit, was insanely happy for his friend’s acquittal. Yesterday morning, Wong Hei uploaded four photos on Weibo, seeming like he was using the songs to relate the meaning. Singing to the sentence, “Hatred which is like the sea and raging in every possible way”, from the theme song of  The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber《倚天屠龍記》 and turning to sing another sentence, “Vowing to bring evil-doers to justice”, from the theme song of One Sword《一劍鎮神州》. It certainly leaves one wondering whether the extracted lyrics conveyed some special meaning and whether it was a form of warning for the internal strife that was approaching.

Ever since Stephen Chan was in trouble, Wong Hei did not bother about the rumors or cared one bit about the consequences of offending the senior management staff and accompanied Stephen to court hearings, throwing his implicit support behind Stephen with his actions. Wong Hei was even earlier rumored to have been requested to compensate and end his premature contract with TVB as a result. The day before yesterday, when the final hearing ended, upon knowing that Stephen has been acquitted, Wong Hei was even more emotional than Stephen himself. As it turned out, Wong Hei was supposed to be filming in the Mainland on that fateful day but specially requested for leave to return to support Stephen. Wong Hei also celebrated for Stephen that very night.

Raises cup to drink, karaoke song lyrics all carried a meaning

Wong Hei made a “live” report over Weibo, tweeting about the current happenings of their happy karaoke celebratory session. Although he looked alone and was holding up a wine glass in the photo, Wong Hei tweeted that he did a bad thing. Turned out that Wong Hei had made an exception from his Buddhism beliefs and drank wine. He even hilariously donned a plastic bag over his head and held the mike to sing at the same time. Wong Hei later captured a footage of the MV. The most intriguing part was the lyrics on the scene, “Transforming into a sword and vowing to rid the evil-doers” and “Feelings like the sky, wide like the ocean, hatred like the sea, raging in every possible way”.

These two songs were sung by Adam Cheng (鄭少秋). The former song was from “One Sword” while the latter song was from  “The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber”. Both songs seemed to convey a special meaning and especially considering that they were sung by Wong Hei who abhor the evil-doer as a deadly foe, it was still uncertain whether he was singing out his inner thoughts at that point in time. The reporter had tried contacting Wong Hei yesterday but to no avail. It was known that Stephen had also returned to his residency late at night.

Virginia Lok denies leaving TVB

It was rumored that in a bid to avoid the battle, TVB’s Production and Resource Director Virginia Lok had prepared to leave TVB this coming November. Yesterday, in reply to this, Virginia responded, “Don’t be silly lahs! There’s no such thing.” Virginia professed that now is the time where there is a rainbow after the storm and morale is running high so everyone should give it their all and do an even better job. She hoped that there won’t be any more unfavorable rumors as everyone’s working together as one.

Maintains a collaborating work relationship with Wong Hei

Asked Virginia whether she’s trying to keep Wong Hei, Virginia expressed that Wong Hei was currently working in the Mainland. Even the last three episodes of Hong Kong Back Then《香港演義》was only completed when Wong Hei returned to Hong Kong after rejecting the jobs in the Mainland. Virginia continued to say, “I have always said that Wong Hei is TVB’s lead actor. The Burning Flame《烈火雄心》series that he acted in were extremely popular. He is a good actor. We will definitely invite him back if there is any role that suits him. Wong Hei’s situation is similar to Adam Cheng, Kenix Kwok (郭可盈) and Idy Chan (陳玉蓮) where we have maintained a close collaborating relationship with them. TVB needs many actors to conjure up different groups of acting performances.” Virginia also remarked that the entire matter regarding Wong Hei and TVB wasn’t as dramatic as perceived by the outside world. The matter had nothing to do with Stephen Chan. In actual fact, it was because Wong Hei had other external commitments and it also depends on whether he has a spare schedule.

The return of Stephen Chan marks liquidation for several artistes, Virginia Lok does not believe that there is a blacklisting list

With Stephen Chan’s falling back into position, it was believed that a storm was bound to be brewing. Some media reports speculated that Stephen would fight heavily for the artistry department thus not only was Virginia Lok’s position under threat, it was rumored that a bunch of actors and fadans were implicated and would be liquidated in a blacklisting move too.  The blacklist apparently includes Virginia’s “most treasured artistes” such as Raymond Lam, Bosco Wong (黃宗澤), Michael Tse (謝天華) and Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎) . With two giants in a power struggle, it was indeed inevitable if the artistes were to be used as sacrificial items.

With regards to rumors that Stephen was planning to heavily contend for the artistry department, Virginia expressed her take on this matter through a phone interview, “Please don’t use such awful-sounding words. From the beginning to the end, Stephen is my boss. Earlier on, because the corruption case was still under investigation, we had to make special arrangements so I temporarily reported directly to Group General Manager Mark Lee Po-on. However, many things were done under the knowledge of Stephen as we often consulted him for pointers. I request everyone not to associate this rumor with him. Firstly, Stephen is not such a person. Now that the verdict has a perfect ending, everyone should recollect their fighting spirit and put their heart into doing their best.”

Virginia re-emphasized that there is no such thing as splitting into camps in TVB. As the company has plenty of artistes under their wing, it was not possible for one person to get along well with all the artistes. Virginia also said that irregardless of whether it was Catherina Tsang, Tommy Leung (梁家樹) or even Chan Hui Guang (陳輝光), she gets along well with them and has no problem talking to them thus she hoped that the media wouldn’t make things sound so scary.

Virginia expressed that she wasn’t the least worried that her position might be threatened. Then what about earlier rumors that she was planning to leave TVB? Virginia replied, “It wasn’t easy for things to be alright now hence we should do our jobs a little better.” Virginia also implied that she completely did not believe that there was such thing as a blacklisting list. She pointed out that those on the alleged blacklisting list were all TVB’s first line actors, TVB gives them jobs and hope that the dramas they shoot will become popular with the audience.

Members from the “Virginia Lok camp”: Do your jobs well

Myolie Wu who was viewed as a member of the “Virginia Lok camp” was busy filming TVB’s new drama, The Endless Exchange of Enjoyment《換樂無窮》. Myolie expressed that there has never been a splitting into any camps. As she was an artiste, her main task was to do her jobs well hence she was never worried about being liquidated. Whereas Linda Chung replied that she doesn’t believe the rumor as she has joined TVB for seven years now and work has always been assigned by her company. She will just work hard in doing her best and that both Stephen Chan and Virginia Lok were very good to her.

Roger Kwok will ask after Stephen Chan if he meets him

Roger Kwok (郭晉安) who currently had no filming on hand, grew to learn of the developments in the Stephen Chan’s case through the news. About Stephen Chan’s acquittal from all the charges, Roger expressed that of course he hoped that Stephen would be alright. Will he console and ask after Stephen then? Roger replied, “If I happen to see him then of course I will but I won’t specially go and console and ask after him.” Mentioned about the rumors that Stephen’s comeback signify his return to power and that he will get rid of rebels, Roger professed that he has always did his job well hence he wasn’t worried. On the other hand, Raymond Lam responded to the acquittal of Stephen Chan, “Happy, congratulations to Mr Chan!” (Reporter: There were rumors that Stephen was planning to liquidate the artistes under the “Virginia Lok camp”?) “I won’t comment about this.”

In other news, Nancy Sit (薛家燕) was not worried that Stephen’s return to his position might cause a major “shake up” in TVB. Nancy Sit instead hoped that Stephen would continue to develop talents and let TVB become more and more excellent.

Source: Oriental Daily, Mingpao

This article was translated by Ah K, a Contributing Writer at JayneStars.com.