Wong He Thanks TVB for Waking Him Up
In a recent interview for i-Cable’s Star Chatroom <星級會客室>, former TVB actor Wong He (王喜) confessed that Stephen Chan (陳志雲) was “absolutely” the reason behind TVB’s disinterest in renewing Wong He’s management contract back in 2011. That year Stephen Chan, TVB’s former general manager, was embroiled in a corruption scandal, and while most TVB artists chose to break ties with Stephen, only Wong He stayed firmly by Stephen’s side, proving his loyalty.
Loyalties divided, TVB asked Wong He to pay a fee for early contract termination. Wong He officially ended his 16-year relationship with TVB on September 28, 2011, and was reportedly treated coldly on his last day.
Wong He’s high profile support for Stephen Chan received great media coverage, and some reports went off to claim that Stephen and Wong He were a pair of intimate partners as close as family. Wong He expressed that he does not regret his decision in supporting Wong He, stressing their strong bond and friendship. He added that after reading a report about Stephen’s legal situation, he once considered selling one of his estates in order to help pay for Stephen’s lengthy lawsuit, but was grateful for hear that he did not need to do that in the end.
Currently busying himself with filming television dramas in the mainland, Wong He jokingly thanked TVB for refusing to renew his contract. He described TVB’s gesture as an alarm clock which woke him up from a deep, ignorant slumber. “It forced me to go out and test my limits,” said Wong He.
After a year of working in Mainland, Wong He said he had already saved enough money to purchase another estate. He said, “I could only film one drama per year at TVB and the remunerations were separated into monthly payments. My highest monthly salary was only at $13,500 HKD. How could I save enough to buy a house with that?” He also revealed that there was a period of time when his mother would indirectly ask him questions if he needed economic help. “Having to make my mother worry for me… I feel like a bad son,” he said.
Thanks to Wong He’s good friend Kingdom Yuen (苑瓊丹), Wong He was able to obtain more performance opportunities. Receiving over a million RMB for his show performances in one year, Wong He expressed that he now has a stable income. “My family can rest and be at peace now,” he said.
Source: Ming Pao
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
“Wong He expressed that he does not regret his decision in supporting Wong He” ???
Btw, I’m watching his first fireman drama at midnight, and it’s awesome
LOl i was thinking the same thing, I think there has to be a typo. I really like Wong Hei! What is the show called? I want to check it out.
Burning Flame! But, only the first installment was good.
Burning flames?
It’s called 烈火雄心 Burning Flame (1998) and it also stars Louis Koo and Esther Kwan. The sequel Burning Flame II (2002) has a different storyline with a cast that includes Maggie Cheung, Alex Fong, Yoyo Mung and Flora Chan. Burning Flame III (2009) has again a different storyline with Kevin Cheng, Bosco Wong, Myolie Wu and Aimee Chan. All three series are by the same producer but from different writers and directors, all with Wong He in a leading role.
Burning Flame was excellent.
No. 2 was still decent, even though the story line and characters were changed, mainly because the actors were still good, like Maggie Cheung and Stephen Au (and especially the girl that played Wong He’s daughter, I don’t think tvb have ever found another child actor who was so convincing)
No 3. was just rubbish all round, poor acting and storyline and they also had Wong He in a coma for like half the series so we were left with ‘I’m good looking but have no expressions’ Kevin Cheng to carry the series. FAIL
Cm’s comment on Kevin Cheng is so LOL. And Burning Flame is just awesome. One of the best TVB series of the ’90s. So sad as well 🙁
Ohh okay, I thought you are talking about his new mainland stuff. Gotcha!
LOL…I actually just finished re-watching Burning Flame 1 recently as well. Honestly, only the 1st installment was truly worth watching — BF2 was decent but not as good as the first one and BF3 was HORRIBLE (and that’s putting it nicely). Thanks to TVB for ruining yet another great franchise.
Anyway, glad to see Wong He doing so well. I read about his ‘last day’ at TVB awhile back ago and it’s really a shame at how he was treated at the time. While I may not necessarily agree with Wong He’s tempermental actions at times, I do have alot of respect for him after seeing how he stuck by Stephan Chan throughout his trial (when practically everyone else had ‘abandoned’ Stephen)…he’s definitely a very loyal friend.
Wong hei might has lots of faults but you really cant doubt his character. He also appears to be one of the few to continue visiting Gordon liu through his illness
He’s a loyal friend and loyal employee and a good actor. As usual TVB messed it up for themselves!
Gawd yes, Wong He should have told TVB to fly kite when they wrote him out of Butning Flame 3. That installment ruined the franchise for me completely. Hated Kevin Cheng’s and Myolie Wu’s characters in it!!
I don’t care what people say about Wong He, I think he’s a very genuine guy and loyal friend. Good actor too. Glad to hear he’s doing well in China and getting more remuneration for his efforts. TVB is a sinking ship, not worth looking back!
BF was his hit series at TVB. I really enjoyed the first installment.
happy for wong hei who indeed has strong principle in life and not easily give up…definitely we all knew wong hei and stephen chan are into “same interest”…yet i really admired wong hei for his loyalty…glad to know his wages now can afford him with another property..btw, he also should not bash TVB like how felix did and now felix is stuck..TVB indirectly has helped him to advance and open the road easily into mainland for him and bowie lam as well…i wondering what did wong hei involve in with mainland performances?
Nice to see that Wong Hei is doing well.
I detest the 3rd installment of the Burning Flame story.. Wong Hei’s character is so petty in the drama. Such downgrade.. terrible!!! BAD TVB!
cuz they were promoting kevin
I’m a wong he fan since his early debut as O.K. Tuck (Food of Love, 1996). Absolutely adore him!
Me too!! Glad to hear that hes doing good in Mainland!
Yes, I love Food of Love as well. I think the Hong Kong tv audience pretty much fell in love with him after that series.
Food of Love was when I became a fan of Wong He too! 🙂 I also really liked his chemistry with Fennie Yuen in this enjoyable series.
Great to see Wong Hei doing well after leaving TVB. I have not heard about him for a long time and have not seen him in a mainland series yet even after seeing so many. Hope to see him in a series soon. Also great to hear that he and Kingdom Yuen are good friends and that she helped him out.
Actually, Wong He has been doing quite well. He’s sort of going down Michelle Ye’s path in that he’s not just acting in Mainland series, he’s also producing them as well (plus he’s involved with the scriptwriting piece, which isn’t surprising since he’s always been one of those actors who is very particular when it comes to the scripts for their series). And of course, he’s still got his radio show thing with CRHK.
Also heard that Bowie Lam is doing extremely well too — he’s making alot of money and most importantly getting opportunities to participate in projects that he would never have gotten at TVB.
Definitely great to see these artists doing so well…proves that their decision to leave TVB was correct!
I’m also glad these previous TVB artist doing so well. Beside higher income, a lot of the artist have more opportunities to go into other area beside acting. TVB is like those company to get your experience, once you have enough you leave for career advancement…because if you stay it is like stuck in a dead end job.
I miss Bowie Lam!
It’s great to hear Wong Hei is doing well. He’s such a talented actor. TVB didn’t want to renew his contract and wanted him to pay a termination fee? Wow.
Yup — the termination fee thing is one of those ridiculous ‘policies’ that TVB needs to get rid of because that’s a big reason for many of their artists leaving. For some, it’s not necessarily the monetary amount they have to pay, but rather the principle of the whole thing — I mean, how does it make sense that you sign TVB as your management company (which means they are supposed to arrange all your work for you), yet they fail to do their job (because they are too busy arranging work for their favorites), so by the end of the contract, you still have ‘shows’ leftover that you didn’t fulfill, so you get ‘punished’ because of it (by having to pay the company back for the shows you didn’t fulfill)…meanwhile, the company gets away scott-free despite not having done their ‘artist management’ job. No wonder so many artists have complained about how ‘insulting’ TVB’s contract terms are. I would be ticked too — luckily Wong He was ‘lead actor’ level, so the fee thing didn’t affect him much…but imagine how those 3rd/4th/5th line artists who are barely making enough money to put food on the table must feel…
Love Wong He! So said to see him leave TVB but glad he’s doing well afterward!! Keep up the good work!
I am glad many more TVB actors are able to find work in Mainland and making better income. Although this means many quality actors/actresses would leave TVB, it is good to to know they are compensated rightfully. I think TVB is the only entertainment that rips off huge from their talent.
Really enjoyed him in Twilight Investigation (hence the avatar :P) he always seemed “real” to me when acting. Glad he’s finding success outside of TVB.
Really glad to hear he is doing well and has no regrets about the whole TVB thing.
They treated him horribly, only Stephen Chan came out smelling like roses from that whole incident. Wong Hei really has the brotherly loyalty thing down though. (imo, misplaced)
What a hero. Doubt many of his contemporaries would behave the same way faced with the same trouble.
I don’t understand though, he said they declined to renew his contract, but then asked him to pay the early termination fee?
How do those 2 things work together?
Either they didn’t renew his contract, or he broke it early and had to pay a fee. Which is it?
As I remember, TVB did not want renew his contract and there was like 1 month left on the existing. Wong Hei want to leave, TVB told him he have to pay a fee for early contract termination. It was very petty on TVB side, once the news got out they terminated his contract.
They call it an early termination fee, but it’s really a ‘penalty’ fee that the artists pay for not fulfilling the terms of their contract (of course, ‘termination fee’ sounds better than ‘penalty’, right?). So for example, let’s say the artist signs a 2 year contract and are expected to do 60 ‘shows’ within that time period, but then at 1 year 11 months (1 month left on their contract), the artist still has 10 ‘shows’ left and decides to leave because no one at TVB bothered to contact them for contract renewal (which usually occurs several months before the current contract expires), then the artist will be required to pay a ‘penalty’ for the 10 shows that he/she didn’t fulfill. Of course, if by that time, all 60 shows were fulfilled, then no fee is due even if the contract is broken off early. Oh and the other ‘kicker’ is that the fee is at TVB’s discretion — they can choose to waive it if they wanted to, as they’ve done it on numerous occasions (so of course, it depends on the person…if they like you or if you’re a ‘big name’, most likely they won’t bother with the ‘petty’ fee).
Next, I hope Maggie Siu will stop working for TVB and just retire, do business or just act in movies. TVB is treating her like dirt too! Giving her so many crappy supporting roles to play. Smh. Why, Maggie why? Your dignity is worth more than that.
I like pp with strong character like Wong Hei and Jessica Hsuan, no wonder they are good friends.
I’m a great fan since day 1, very sad with what happened to him. Hope he’ll stay out of “friends” affairs & concentrate on himself in the future.
Hard to believe that a leading actor would only get such a low monthly salary. Why could he only film one drama per year as well?
Ive never really been a fan of Wong Hei to be honest, I didnt mind that he wasnt in that many dramas.
And you read his news! lol
The “Burning Flames” series cast changes gradually show up the downngrade in TVB’s talents (started with Esther Kwan and ended with Aimee Chan. I still remember the Hua Mu Lan serie with Wong He and Michelle Chan. Oh the glory days when you can easily find the serie with two decent actors, now always “I like the main actor/actress but ehh… why this girl/guy here?”