Cantonese
Cantonese is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou and its surrounding area in Southeastern China. It is the traditional prestige variety and standard form of Yue Chinese, one of the major subgroups of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi, it is the official language of Hong Kong and Macau. Cantonese is widely spoken amongst Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western world. While the term Cantonese refers to the prestige variety, it is used in a broader sense for the entire Yue subgroup of Chinese, including related but mutually unintelligible languages and dialects such as Taishanese; when Cantonese and the related Yuehai dialects are classified together, there are about 80 million total speakers. Cantonese is viewed as a vital and inseparable part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swaths of Southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as in overseas communities.
Although Cantonese shares a lot of vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation and lexicon. Sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. A notable difference between Cantonese and Mandarin is; this results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar but are pronounced differently. In English, the term "Cantonese" can be ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton, the traditional English name of Guangzhou; this narrow sense may be specified as "Canton language" or "Guangzhou language". However, "Cantonese" may refer to the primary branch of Chinese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, "Cantonese" is used for Cantonese proper. Speakers called this variety "Canton speech" or "Guangzhou speech", although this term is now used outside Guangzhou. In Guangdong and Guangxi, people call it "provincial capital speech" or "plain speech".
Academically called "Canton prefecture speech". In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, the language is referred to as "Guangdong speech" or "Canton Province speech", or as "Chinese". In mainland China, the term "Guangdong speech" is increasingly being used amongst both native and non-native speakers. Given the history of the development of the Yue languages and dialects during the Tang dynasty migrations to the region, in overseas Chinese communities, it is referred to as "Tang speech", given that the Cantonese people refer to themselves as "people of Tang". Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Yue branch of Chinese varieties, it is called "Standard Cantonese"; the official languages of Hong Kong are English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has many different varieties. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and tribunals.
It is used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language alongside Portuguese; as in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in everyday life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is mutually intelligible with the Cantonese spoken in the mainland city of Guangzhou, although there exist some minor differences in accent and vocabulary. Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China. Due to the city's long standing as an important cultural center, Cantonese emerged as the prestige dialect of the Yue varieties of Chinese in the Southern Song dynasty and its usage spread around most of what is now the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi. Despite the cession of Macau to Portugal in 1557 and Hong Kong to Britain in 1842, the ethnic Chinese population of the two territories originated from the 19th and 20th century immigration from Guangzhou and surrounding areas, making Cantonese the predominant Chinese language in the territories.
On the mainland, Cantonese continued to serve as the lingua franca of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces after Mandarin was made the official language of the government by the Qing dynasty in the early 1900s. Cantonese remained a dominant and influential language in southeastern China until the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and its promotion of Standard Chinese as the sole official language of the nation throughout the last half of the 20th century, although its influence still remains strong within the region. While the Chinese government vehemently discourages the official use of all forms of Chinese except Standard Chinese, Cantonese enjoys a higher standing than other Chinese langua
Alan Tam
Alan Tam Wing-lun MH is a Hong Kong singer and actor as well as composer. He played a major role in developing the Cantopop scene in the 1980s as he was known for singing romantic ballads with modern arrangements. From 1983 to 1987,Alan Tam received numerous music awards and won Most Popular Male Artist and IFPI Award for successive four years,which made him the most famous superstar singer of Hong Kong in 1980s. In early 1988,he publicly quit all pop music award ceremonies and put most efforts in searching new direction for Cantopop music. Today, he is still active in the film industry, releasing new albums on a regular basis. Since the late 1980s, he has served as a mentor for the cantopop music industry, earning the nickname the "Principal" or "Principal Tam". Today he is seen across the media in Hong Kong, mainland China and various parts of East Asia participating in all types of entertainment-related events and charity activities; as of 2013, Alan Tam has launched a total of 115 solo albums and has sold over 35 million records worldwide.
Tam was born in 1950 to renowned football player Tam Kong-pak, who represented the Republic of China national team during the 1936 summer olympics. Tam has been close friends with Eric Tsang's family since childhood as their fathers were colleagues in the police force and played football together, he attended Chi Lin Buddhist Secondary School. He majored in Economics while attending Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore. Tam wed Sally Yeung Kit-mei in 1981, they have no children. Tam met his partner Wendy Chu in 1991, his son Tam Hiu Fung, born by Chu, has not followed his father's footsteps into showbiz despite media reports. Alan's primary wish was for his son to finish schooling. Tam developed a passion for music in his secondary school years in Hong Kong, he formed. They subsequently entered an amateur singing contest and took the first prize to begin a career in the entertainment industry, appearing in a number of TVB variety shows; the group disbanded, he reformed into the band The Wynners with Kenny Bee in 1973.
The Wynners performed in English. Tam was one of the two lead singers in the band until it split in 1978. Alan Tam established a foothold on the Cantopop scene with songs dating back to the late 1980s like'Embrace','Flower in Water','Half Dazed, Half Awoken' and the popular'Love Trap', his first album as a solo artist was'Naughty Boy' in 1979. An early success was the song'Love in Autumn', first performed in 1984. Tam's first album as a solo artist was "Naughty Boy" in 1979, he releases such as "Love in Autumn" in 1984 or "Embrace", "Flower in Water" or "Half Dazed, Half Awoken" achieved commercial success. In the 1981 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards he won his first major individual song award, his 1984 albums of, 1985 formed a successful trilogy of albums. In 1987 he made an announcement, he continued to release albums for the next 30+ years. From 1981 to 1988 he won a top 10 song award every year; this was in addition to his winning a top 10 song award every year from 1983 to 1987 for the Jade solid gold awards.
In 1993, he released the English album "My Love", in collaboration with Korean singer Kim Wan-Sun. The Hong Kong press reported a fierce rivalry between Tam and fellow singer Leslie Cheung. Although both artists were at peace with each other, it was the fans who created the spectacle of a musical feud. In the late 90s, the singers brushed aside any doubts about their friendship, appeared together in galas and other special programmes. In 1999, Leslie Cheung, together with other 17 singers, participated in the Album "Paying Tribute to Alan Tam" and collaborated to produce the single remix of Tam's popular songs "Illusion" and "Foggy Love". In 2003, he teamed up with fellow artist Hacken Lee for a major world tour entitled Hacken; the name is a play on a Chinese idiom which means "neighbours". Up to 2013, they have performed around the world in countries like China, United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Macau and Japan with over 100 concerts. Since 2006 he has been helping his godson Kelvin Kwan establish a career in the Hong Kong pop industry.
One of his signature fast songs "Love Trap" earned him the 25th Anniversary Jade Solid Gold song honour award in 2006. By 1995 he had sold more than 20 million albums. By 2005 he had launched more than 104 albums, 800 songs, he has taken part in 264 concerts. In 2007 he was the recipient of the 30th Hall of Fame Award from the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong for his 30+ years of contributions to the Hong Kong and Chinese music industry. In the 1970s, Tam hosted the variety show The Wynners Show and took part in the television drama Over the Rainbow, he decided to pursue opportunities in Taiwan in 1980, starred in renowned director Pai Ching-jui's A Girl Without Sorrow. He subsequently starred in more than ten films in Taiwan including The Funny Couple and Part Time Job, he starred in a number of films like Armour of God with Jackie Chan and Master Wong v. Master Wong, a parody of legendary Canton kung fu fighter Wong Fei Hung. In 1981 Tam won the Best Actor award at the Golden Horse Awards for his r
Multiple-camera setup
The multiple-camera setup, multiple-camera mode of production, multi-camera or multicam is a method of filmmaking and video production. Several cameras—either film or professional video cameras—are employed on the set and record or broadcast a scene, it is contrasted with single-camera setup, which uses one camera. The two outer cameras shoot close-up shots or "crosses" of the two most active characters on the set at any given time, while the central camera or cameras shoot a wider master shot to capture the overall action and establish the geography of the room. In this way, multiple shots are obtained in a single take without having to start and stop the action; this is more efficient for programs that are to be shown a short time after being shot as it reduces the time spent in film or video editing. It is a virtual necessity for regular, high-output shows like daily soap operas. Apart from saving editing time, scenes may be shot far more as there is no need for re-lighting and the set-up of alternative camera angles for the scene to be shot again from the different angle.
It reduces the complexity of tracking continuity issues that crop up when the scene is reshot from the different angles. It is an essential part of live television. Drawbacks include a less optimized lighting which needs to provide a compromise for all camera angles and less flexibility in putting the necessary equipment on scene, such as microphone booms and lighting rigs; these can be efficiently hidden from just one camera but can be more complicated to set up and their placement may be inferior in a multiple-camera setup. Another drawback is in film usage—a four-camera setup may use up to four times as much film per take, compared with a single-camera setup. While shooting, the director and assistant director create a line cut by instructing the technical director to switch between the feeds from the individual cameras. In the case of sitcoms with studio audiences, this line cut is displayed to them on studio monitors; the line cut might be refined in editing, as the output from all cameras is recorded, both separately and as a combined reference display called the q split.
The camera being recorded to the line cut is indicated by a tally light controlled by a camera control unit on the camera as a reference both for the actors and the camera operators. The use of multiple film cameras dates back to the development of narrative silent films, with the earliest example being the first Russian feature film Defence of Sevastopol and directed by Vasily Goncharov and Aleksandr Khanzhonkov; when sound came into the picture multiple cameras were used to film multiple sets at a single time. Early sound was recorded onto wax discs; the use of multiple video cameras to cover a scene goes back to the earliest days of television. The BBC used multiple cameras for their live television shows from 1936 onward. Although it is claimed that the multiple-camera setup was pioneered for television by Desi Arnaz and cinematographer Karl Freund on I Love Lucy in 1951, other filmed television shows had used it, including the CBS comedy The Amos'n Andy Show, filmed at the Hal Roach Studios and was on the air four months earlier.
The technique was developed for television by Hollywood short-subject veteran Jerry Fairbanks, assisted by producer-director Frank Telford, first seen on the anthology series The Silver Theater, another CBS program, in February 1950. Desilu's innovation was to use 35mm film instead of 16mm and to film with a multiple-camera setup before a live studio audience. In the late 1970s, Garry Marshall was credited with adding the fourth camera to the multi-camera set-up for his series Mork & Mindy. Actor Robin Williams could not stay on his marks due to his physically active improvisations during shooting, so Marshall had them add the fourth camera just to stay on Williams so they would have more than just the master shot of the actor. Soon after, many productions followed suit and now having four cameras is the norm for multi-camera situation comedies; the multiple-camera method gives the director less control over each shot but is faster and less expensive than a single-camera setup. In television, multiple-camera is used for sports programs, news programs, soap operas, talk shows, game shows, some sitcoms.
Before the pre-filmed continuing series became the dominant dramatic form on American television, the earliest anthology programs utilized multiple camera methods. Multiple cameras can take different shots of a live situation as the action unfolds chronologically and is suitable for shows which require a live audience. For this reason, multiple camera productions can be taped much faster than single camera. Single camera productions are shot in takes and various setups with components of the action repeated several times and out of sequence. Sitcoms shot with the multiple camera setup include nearly all of Lucille Ball's TV series, as well as Mary Kay and Johnny, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, Three's Company, The Cosby Show, Friends, Will & Grace, Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, Mom, 2 Broke Girls, One Day at a Time. Many American sitcom
Sandra Ng
Sandra Ng Kwan-yue is a Hong Kong actress, film director and producer. The daughter of the actor Kenneth Ng Kam Tsun, Ng was born in Hong Kong, where she attended St. Stephen's Girls' College. Encouraged by her parents, she began her entertainment career at the age of 16, she is most known through her comic roles, where she pokes fun at her plain looks. She has collaborated with Stephen Chow, notably in All for the Winner, Magnificent Scoundrels and Royal Tramp, among others. In a career spanning over 20 years, she has filmed over TV shows, she co-hosted Club Sparkle, a celebrity talk show, during the first half of 2009 and is a radio personality for CRHK. Her radio program, He She Hit, aired from 12am to 2am on Monday to Friday, she received the Best Actress Award at the 2003 Golden Horse Awards for her role as a prostitute in Golden Chicken. In 1996, she dated the film director Peter Chan. In 2006, they had a daughter named Jilian. Sandra Ng on IMDb
TVB
Television Broadcasts Limited is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong. The company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, TVB Pearl as its main English service. TVB is headquartered at TVB City at the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate, it began operations on 19 November 1967. The company was registered on 26 July 1965 and was co-founded by Sir Run Run Shaw, chairman from 1980 to 2011, together with Sir Douglas Clague and Harold Lee Hsiao-wo of the Lee Hysan family; when TVB first began broadcasting it was known and promoted as "Wireless Television" in Chinese to distinguish it from the cable television broadcaster, Rediffusion Television, which became ATV. It is still referred to with that name, although ATV switched to "wireless" broadcasting as well. TVB is known for its dramas, produces the Miss Hong Kong and Miss Chinese International pageants, it has been the most dominant broadcaster in Hong Kong.
The government set up a working party in the early 1960s to study the idea of setting up a second television station in Hong Kong, where the only television at that time was the wired, subscription-supported Rediffusion Television. There was debate as to whether the second station should be set up as a Crown corporation, as with the BBC. Another challenge lay in procuring enough content for the new station. In 1962, Director of Information Services J. L. Murray stated that while English programming could be purchased from other countries, "no country is producing a mass of suitable pre-recorded material in Chinese". Though Hong Kong was regarded as a centre for film production, it was considered a challenge to source enough Chinese language content for another television station, as most of it would need to be produced in Hong Kong. Regardless, there was commercial interest in the concept. A government franchise for a new wireless television station was opened for tenders on 6 February 1965 and closed on 6 August 1965.
On 25 January 1966 it was announced. The new Television Broadcasts Limited station on Broadcast Drive in Kowloon Tong, Kowloon was opened by Governor David Trench on 19 November 1967; the governor spoke of the potential for television to better society, stating that the new station would play a significant role in "helping and enlighting our people", calling television "one of the most potent means of disseminating information there is". The first images shown on the station were a live transmission of the Macao Grand Prix, which began broadcasting at 9:00 am that day and was interrupted by footage of the opening of the new station; the first colour broadcast was made, a feature called "London Calling Hongkong" which constituted greetings from former governors Alexander Grantham and Robert Black. Following this was a piano recital by Chiu Yee-ha, who had performed at the opening of the Hong Kong City Hall; the new station broadcast English-language channels. The Chinese channel, called TVB Jade, began regular service on 4:30 pm that day on Channel 21, while the English service began at 6:00 pm on Channel 25.
The inaugural programming lineup included Enjoy Yourself Tonight, a Chinese language variety show, Meet The Press, an English current affairs programme. Hong Kong's mountainous topography posed a challenge to TVB, Hong Kong's first television station broadcast wirelessly. A network of transmitters, built atop various mountains, helped provide coverage to the territory; the main transmitter was built at Temple Hill, above Kowloon, to reach most of the main populated centre of Hong Kong as well as parts of the New Territories. Two broadcast relay stations were came into operation on 15 May 1968: one at Lamma Island expanded coverage to Pok Fu Lam, Repulse Bay, parts of Stanley, while another at Castle Peak covered Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Ping Shan. A third booster station, located on Cloudy Hill, was activated in June 1968 and brought TVB reception to Fanling and Sheung Shui. TVB receives praise for its programming from a wide range of demographics, including the middle class, as was the case with its 2004 historical drama series War and Beauty.
Its programme line-up features a steady stream of soap operas, variety shows and other populist fare. TVB has been criticised for signing exclusive contracts with many local celebrities which restrict them from appearing on other local television stations. Hong Kong's Cable T. V. claims. In fact, many artists do not have exclusive contracts with TVB and are free to show up in programmes produced by other local television stations or out-sourcing production houses; the annual TVB Music Awards ceremony is one of the biggest for Cantopop personalities. It is rumoured that TVB distributes the awards to those who are obedient to the company's demands, the Independent Commission Against Corruption has investigated the arrangement of the awards, it ruled. Afterwards, TVB reformed its music programmes in a bid to reestablish their authority. On the other hand, TVB was awarded the National Association of Broadcasters's International Broadcasting Excellence Award in 2001; the award recognised the company's outstanding contributions to the community through a wide range of charitable programmes and activities.
Hong Kong thus becomes the first city in Asia to receive this prestigious award in this area. In 2
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese known as Modern Standard Mandarin, Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin Chinese, or Mandarin, is a standard variety of Chinese, the sole official language of China, the de facto official language of Taiwan and one of the four official languages of Singapore. Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a tonal language with topic-prominent organization and subject–verb–object word order, it has more initial consonants but final consonants and tones than southern varieties. Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There are two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan. Aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters.
Many characters are identical between the two systems. In Chinese, the standard variety is known as: 普通话 in the People's Republic of China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. Standard Chinese is commonly referred to by generic names for "Chinese", notably 中文. In total, there have been known over 20 various names for the language; the term Guoyu had been used by non-Han rulers of China to refer to their languages, but in 1909 the Qing education ministry applied it to Mandarin, a lingua franca based on northern Chinese varieties, proclaiming it as the new "national language". The name Putonghua has a long, albeit unofficial, history, it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or "common tongue/speech", was conceptually different from the Guoyu, or "national language"; the former was a national prestige variety. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different.
Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called "the common speech of the modern man", the spoken language adopted as a national lingua franca by conventional usage; the use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai and Lu Xun influenced the People's Republic of China government to adopt that term to describe Mandarin in 1956. Prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the official term for Standard Chinese; the term Guoyu however, is less used in the PRC, because declaring a Beijing dialect-based standard to be the national language would be deemed unfair to speakers of other varieties and to the ethnic minorities. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca. During the government of a pro-Taiwan independence coalition, Taiwan officials promoted a different reading of Guoyu as all of the "national languages", meaning Hokkien and Formosan as well as Standard Chinese.
Huayu, or "language of the Chinese nation" simply meant "Chinese language", was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name "Huayu" to refer to Mandarin; this name avoids choosing a side between the alternative names of Putonghua and Guoyu, which came to have political significance after their usages diverged along political lines between the PRC and the ROC. It incorporates the notion that Mandarin is not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. Hanyu, or "language of the Han people", is another umbrella term used for Chinese. However, it has confusingly two different meanings: Standard Chinese; this term, as well as Hànzú, is a modern concept. A related concept is Hànzì; the term "Mandarin" is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire. The Chinese term is obsolete as a name for the standard language, but is used by linguists to refer to the major group of Mandarin dialects spoken natively across most of northern and southwestern China.
In English, "Mandarin" may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name "Modern Standard Mandarin" is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the shared language from other northern and historic dialects; the Chinese have different languages in different provinces, to such an extent
Stephen Chow
Stephen Chow Sing Chi is a Hong Kong film director, producer, political adviser of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and martial artist. Chow was born in Hong Kong on 22 June 1962 to Ling Po Yee, an alumnus of Guangzhou Normal University, Chow Yik Sheung, an immigrant from Ningbo, Zhejiang. Chow has an elder sister named a younger sister named Chow Sing Ha. Chow's given name "Sing-chi" derives from Tang dynasty Chinese poet Wang Bo's essay Preface to the Prince of Teng's Pavilion. After his parents divorced when he was seven, Chow was raised by his mother. Chow attended Xiehe School, a missionary school attached to the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China in Prince Edward Road, Kowloon Peninsula; when he was nine, he saw Bruce Lee's film The Big Boss, which inspired him to become a martial arts star. Chow entered San Marino Secondary School. After graduation, he was accepted to TVB's acting classes. Chow began his career as a temporary actor on television, he graduated from TVB's acting classes in 1982.
Chow began to find some success with the children's programme 430 Space Shuttle. In 1988, Chow entered the movie industry through the film Final Justice, which won him the Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor. Chow shot to stardom in The Final Combat. Fight Back to School became Hong Kong's top-grossing film of all time. In 1994, he began directing films. In the latter half of the 1990s, China began to warm to his films and he became Stephen Chow Phenomenon. In 2001, his film Shaolin Soccer grossed over US$50 million worldwide. Chow won Best Director and Best Actor at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, the film went on to garner additional awards including a Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Picture and Best Director. In 2004, his film Kung Fu Hustle grossed over US$106 million worldwide. Chow won Best Director at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and Best Picture of Imagine Film Festival as well as twenty international awards, his film CJ7 began filming in July 2006 in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo.
In August 2007 the film was given the title CJ7, a play on China's successful Shenzhou manned space missions—Shenzhou 5 and Shenzhou 6. CJ7 became the highest-grossing film of all time in Malaysia. In 2013, his film Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons became the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time. In 2016, his new film The Mermaid broke numerous box office records: Biggest opening day, biggest single-day gross after its seventh day of release, biggest opening week of all time in China. On 19 February, it became the highest-grossing film of all time in China; the Mermaid was released in Vietnam on 10 February, 2016. On 14 March, it became the third-highest-grossing film of all time in Vietnam, it has now grossed over US$553.81 million worldwide and is the highest-grossing movie of all time in Asia. Stephen Chow became the ninth-top-grossing Hollywood Director of 2016. Hua, Cheng. 《周星驰：做人如果没有梦想，跟咸鱼有什么分别》. Xicheng District, Beijing: Sino-Culture Press. ISBN 978-7-5075-4635-4. Stephen Chow on IMDb Stephen Chow at AllMovie
