2009年5月26日

In Contrast: Interview in well-written English


Speak up against the odds

Natalie Wong


THE YOUNG REPORTER (TYR)
Hong Kong Baptist University 

Bringing glamorous revenue or glory to TVB, the largest local television broadcaster, may be the goal for many of its artists, but a former Miss Hong Kong contestant chose to expose its dark side that the other 4,000 staff members dare not to touch on.  

TVB's senior executives considered the young lady a threat to their corporate image as she “talked too much” publicly. One of the incidents triggering the termination of her contract with TVB took place when she offended them by opposing a “hidden guideline” for local artists – to behave politically correct, which means “to secure your job, say nothing about politics and religion.”  

That might be the reason why, as she says, audience could always see celebrities strolling around in charity events but seldom see their faces in political activities.  

“Those stars are proud of being a member of Hong Kong's entertainment industry but when asked if there are any constructive ways to contribute to Hong Kong, they could hardly utter a word.” She says eloquently. She looks smashing and confident in her casual jeans.  

She soon left TVB with no regret and now she is a model, an actress, an online radio host, and a popular blogger. With her outspoken personality, people started to remember her name – Erica Yuen Mi-ming. 

Recently, the 28-year-old lady has further steered her career towards a more provocative area – the political arena.  

She was the first artist appearing as a political commentator in a news and political commentary programme of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) called Pentaprism II, in which she commented on taxi fare increase and the Chief Executive's blunders in the two episodes shown in November and December last year. 

She recalled that Tse Chi-fung, the producer of the programme, approached her after she expressed her views on the floor of the City Forum held in Victoria Park in October, criticizing Liberal Party's policy on employment.  

“I believe RTHK employed me partly because I am a celebrity, having high publicity among citizens.” Another reason may attribute to her critical mind and sharp opinions, which have attracted viewership by the tens of thousands on Youtube. 

She says she learnt to think critically and cry out against injustice when she was in St Stephen’s College. “My parents divorced when I was young. I was then sent to a boarding school since nobody had the time to take care of me as my Dad was travelling around for business.” 

Ms Yuen then gained a degree at Tufts University in the US in 2003 majoring in economics. After that, she worked at a large business company in Hong Kong for a year and decided to take part in the beauty contest.  

As “the pursuit of fame and wealth” remains a stereotyped image of showbiz, she admitted that her decision to enter the entertainment business was a hard one for her father and friends to accept until she started to write as a newspaper columnist and published a book. “They know I am not those gold-digging public figures after reading my articles, “she says relieved. 

Whenever she has a chance to give comment in the public, she would first analyze the news and sometimes asks for more information from Lion Rock Institute, a Hong Kong based think tank she belongs to that promotes free market based public policy solutions where some members are columnists and editorial writers of Apple Daily such as Simon Lee Chao-fu. Her views are based on the principle of supporting democracy and free market policies. 

Among the million types of flamboyant women on the planet, Ms Yuen and Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher may be categorised in the same group as their outspoken characters coincide.  

Thatcher once said, “I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.” 

Ms Yuen openly traded biting remarks with seasoned political commentator Albert Cheng Jing-han, nicknamed Taipan, over controversies in “Sunday Taipan”, a political commentary talk-show of NOW TV.  

Sparkle is important in a talk-show. Partnering with Taipan, Ms Yuen says that it was “an exciting task as there are usually no scripts, no standard quotes.”  

“I think Taipan wishes to mirror David Letterman in the style of hosting, but it's still a long way to work out an efficient approach.” She adds referring to Letterman, a world class talk-show host in America, who has won consecutive six Emmy Awards of the CBS show‘Late Show with David Letterman’. 

Being green in politics, she says she is not qualified yet to occupy key positions in social advocacy. She also says that it is more challenging for her to be persuasive as the audiences know her showbiz background. 

Yet, as an artist who has been frequently featured in Hong Kong’s tabloid magazines, she fits perfectly to “bust the bad guys” and tries to set the local entertainment business on “a more righteous footing” as she says.  

She frequently uploads to her three blogs to express her viewpoints. One of her blog posts analysing the so-called “scandals” in local tabloid magazines has been translated into English and posted on EastSouthWestNorth, an English-language Web log that dealing with Chinese politics and media that is arguably the “most content-rich, reliable and illuminating,” according to a Reuters reporter.  

Netizens respond powerfully and enthusiastically to her often sarcastic comments. Some agree with her, some admire her, some rebuke her and some even curse her. She says, “I am grateful to all interactions we have. They help me explore what human nature is.”  

In 2006, her onslaught against female pop singer Stephy Tang’s practice of judging the quality of a book by just glancing over a few pages was quoted by Apple Daily as the day’s entertainment news headline. In a single day, her web-journal attracted about 300,000 hit counts. “Stephy is really popular I would say,” she says grinning with her eyebrow raised. 

There are many reasons why young women participate in the Miss Hong Kong Beauty Pageant. Some may see it as a step up the career ladder, others as a way to become a Hollywood star. For Ms Yuen, it is a way to “let her voice be heard” as she says. 

“So many behaviours in the showbiz industry are away from fairness. A lot of so-called ‘super stars’ are ‘privately’ outspoken. They grumble in their peer circle but never say it out loud. So the problem is never solved. If they’re victims, they will always be victims,” she says boldly. 

She condemns the recent scandal over ten female artists in TVB concealed the identity of the offender after being sexually harassed.  

However, she admits she had lost numerous commercial contracts as the clients disliked her blunt criticism. She insisted, “I will not alter my character to please anyone as long as I believe expressing overtly is worth doing.” 

Talking about her future plans, the petite, feisty lady has big ambitions. Starting up a skin-care business, teaching investment strategies, producing TV shows, setting up a new political party and running for the next Legislative Council are all possibilities.  

For such kind of person who is always going beyond limitations, she is capable in surprising ways to “let her voice be heard” in the future.

18 則留言:

匿名 說...

While this article is interesting I'm afraid the English is quite far from well-written. It's full of substandard grammatical mistakes, much to my disappointment. However, the viewpoint of the article is definitely worth some thought.

2005mhk18@gmail.com 說...

Well-written as in he reporter is a local university student.

Justin 說...

The english has room for improvement.

I really think Taipan has no clue how to conduct a successful interview. He likes to bully and berate his guests no matter what show he's hosting. He's not entertaining, he's not informative. I can see why he was a popular radio show jockey, but that's it. Cheng has lost me completely, and he's certainly no Letterman (and I don't even like Letterman).

匿名 說...

I think a lot of local univerisity students can write better english than her. Don't forget she's from Journalism ! She supposed to have better language skills. Article angles are okey.

Juanjaime 說...

try www.thedailyshow.com if Taipan is into political satire and ridicule.

As 御宅族 and/or gamers say,
glhf (Good luck and have fun)

匿名 說...

did u post this coz she is writing in favour of you?

her work is just meh...~tones out there better than her.

but fyi: erica ur english is that great anyways so...

匿名 說...

the standard for "good english" is ... at least no (or v. few) grammatical mistakes... ~_~"""

i wonder what your standard is, rica...

匿名 說...

students studying abroad doesnt mean good english; u should hv known better erica

unless u are from top overseas U; so plz no bias against local students

匿名 說...

Erica, don't write such stupid comment --> well-written English

Coz this reflects your English standard indirectly as well

I mean, a real good english person won't comment this as "well-written" English.

Maybe you want to praise this person or post this out because the content mentions how good you are. But.. pls... don't try to distract others with such stupid comments

匿名 說...

This reads like a rough draft -
disjointed sentences jumbled up into a great big mess...

Disastrous

Unknown 說...

Well, at least this essay is way better the post above it but far from well written.

匿名 說...

.ɥbnouǝ poob s,ʇɐɥʇ 'buıʇıɹʍ ǝɹɐ noʎ ʇɐɥʍ puɐʇsɹǝpun uɐɔ ǝ1doǝd sɐ buo1 sɐ

匿名 說...

首先乜嘢為之 well-written English?係咪寫得一手無械可擊嘅 text book grammar 就係 well-written 呢?本人並非 English major 但係呢篇報導讀來流暢達意、用字洽當而無乜亂點拋所謂嘅 big words,除非讀者目的要挑瑕疵,否則冇乜大問題喎。

匿名 說...

回上一個留言:

無/好少 grammatical mistake 只係基本要求... 都不一定能稱得上是well-written, 更何況呢篇文章稱不上是 "無/好少grammatical mistake"

試諗諗,正如你去看一篇中文的文章,如果文章的意思係令人睇得明,但係你又睇到它文法幾處有錯,你還會說它是well-written嗎? ~_~"""

2005mhk18@gmail.com 說...

都唔明一個“well-written"都可以引來這麼多討論。
我相信很多blog reader和香港市民都寫不出這個水平的訪問來。用well-written去讚美一下大學生,大家都要咁mean?

一貫香港人作風:grammar準=英文好

讀讀這篇文章:
http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/template/apple_sub/art_main.php?&iss_id=20090517&sec_id=12187389&art_id=12765121&cat_id=3530509&coln_id=3530511

匿名 說...

我覺得篇文章ok喎,用字意思簡潔清晰,好多出黎做野既大學畢業生就連表逹清晰d既email都寫唔出,加上Erica係標題寫明係In Contrast,指既當然係同個參選港姐既email比較啦,我已經覺得係well-written有餘,反而係批抨既人寬容度不足...

匿名 說...

"Well-written" is well written. Commonly understood (by English as first language people) and smooth in proper English terms and phases. Gramma varies in different part of the world. Why so serious?

I've seen a memo posted on an office in Hong Kong. Its terms are very difficult. I considered that wasn't well-written for the purpose. Who will bring a dictionary to read that short memo just about saving office resources?

匿名 說...

Although the articles is far from perfect, the writer surely deserves a little clap considering she is merely a student from a local university.

IMO, don't turn yourself into a merciless bitch who fails to acknowledge of others' great work and magnifence.