Videoage International January 2020

30 January 2020 V I D E O A G E Int’ l TV Distribut ion Hal l of Fame producer at Radio and Television Singapore (RTS), the first television station in Singapore. The public station began in 1963 as Television Singapura, and two years later merged with public Radio Singapura to form RTS. After several rebrandings and reorganizations, it became MediaCorp, a public broadcast conglomerate, in 1999. Naturally, Chua’s move to Hong Kong was recorded by an article in Singapore’s newspaper, Eastern Sun , as it was considered a big news event. The two cities are in the same time zone, just a four-hour flight away from each other. In his book, Chua explained that he left for Hong Kong when the colony was caught up in the midst of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1972). He grew up in a Singapore, which, in 1946, the year Chua was born, was declared a U.K. colony. He left it after Singapore became an independent republic in 1965. However, when he reached Hong Kong in 1967, the British colony was besieged by Chinese Communist guerrillas, and police armed with tear gas patrolled the streets constantly. Thirty years later, Chua also witnessed another British handover, that time to China. Hong Kong became a British colony in 1842, and 156 years later it was returned to China due to a 99-year lease (which ended in 1997) that was negotiated with China in 1898. Now, 23 years after the handover, China is, once again, trying to put the former colonyunder itsdictatorial thumb, sparkingviolent demonstrations and clashes between police and residents. This time, however, the police aren’t fighting the Communists, but the residents. Chua stated that neither handover affected his television business because they happened before Internet, streaming, mobile phones, and social media came into play. Chua’s TV career started at ADS-7, a TV station inAdelaide, Australia, just after he graduated from Adelaide’s King’s College in 1964. He returned to Singapore in 1966 to work for Radio and Television Singapore before leaving for Hong Kong. Both journeys had their own stories: “I went to Australia because the mother of my Anglican pastor returned to Adelaide and promised to mentor me,” Chua said. “I went to Hong Kong because I didn’t see opportunities in Singapore and by chance I heard that Hong Kong was about to start its first TV station. I applied and got the job to help start up TVB.” “My interest in television,” he explained, “started in 1963 when I heard that Singapore was about to start its first broadcast TV station.” Chua’s family was in the clothing business, manufacturing their own brand of children’s wear. The only family member in show business, Chua recalled, “was my grandfather on my mother’s side who produced Chinese stage opera, the so-called chiu cho opera.” In Hong Kong, where he was nicknamed the “Whiz-kid,” Chua launched the variety show Enjoy Yourself Tonight (or EYT ) on TVB, which became one of the world’s longest-running live shows, lasting for 28 years. He also produced the Miss Hong Kong beauty pageant show in 1973. In 1976, Chua was the first to introduce videotapes for home use into Hong Kong and opened a Video Centre to convert Chinese films for VHS and Betamax video players. WhenChinaopeneduptoforeignTVadvertising in 1979, Chua started the first advertising agency, which worked with Guangdong Television (in the province of Guangdong, north of Hong Kong), and promoted Citizen watches. In 1983, Chua started to regularly commute between Hong Kong and Singapore, which he did for six years, to run Singapore’s Hoover Live Theatre. The venue, originally called the Shaw Brothers Theatre, was taken over by Chua and his partner CL Ding, and featured local Hong Kong and Taiwanese performances. While going back and forth from Singapore to Hong Kong, Chua also produced Guess Who’s Coming To Yum Cha , an English-language situation comedy for Hong Kong’s TVB Pearl. In 2003, with his own production company, Chua then produced the interactive quiz show Everyone Wins , which aired in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Vietnam. A year later he created an interactive online TV channel, Health & Lifestyle, which is no longer active. Chua went back to production in 2015 with the reality show Someone Who Cares for Hong Kong TVB-2. A year earlier he was appointed to the board of advisors of RTHK, Hong Kong’s public broadcaster, which was known as GOW from 1928 until 1976, and now operates seven radio stations and three TV channels. In 2013, Chua ventured into the food and beverage business by opening the “Tim Ho Wan” restaurant in Singapore, which became a franchise with over 40 outlets throughout Asia. In 2015, Chua opened “A La Bakery” in Hong Kong. In 2016, he acquired the franchise rights for “Kam’s Roast Goose” restaurant in Singapore, and in 2018 he acquired the international franchise rights for the “Ju Xing Home” restaurants. The popularity of Chua’s restaurants is aston- ishing. In 2013, during a break from the Asia TV Forum, Chua took a group of Western attendees at the Singapore market to his “Tim Ho Wan” restaurant, where theywitnessed a line stretching around the building and what could have been a four-hour wait for a table. Fortunately, the boss’s presence meant that the group didn’t have to wait very long. They were quickly whisked into a private room. A group of ATF attendees and friends at Chua’s “Tim Ho Wan” restaurant in Singapore Hong Kong daily newspaper Ming Bao featured a long profile on Chua in 2014. The book Chua authoredon the golden years of HongKong TV The staff of Robert Chua Productions in 1974 Robert and Peggy with VideoAge ’s Dom Serafini and friends at Caffé Roma in Cannes at MIPCOM 2019 (Continued from Page 28)