Ho Kwok Wing (河國榮) Interview

"While studying a Bachelor of Medicine degree, I met my Asian friends and became more and more involved with their activities at the university, and increasingly interested in things happening in and around China Town, Sydney; things such as yum cha and Hong Kong movies. 
By the third year of my degree, my studies were rapidly declining and I was unable to pass the year-end exams.
While repeating year 3, I made the decision to quit Medicine, save money and move to Hong Kong.

In 1985 and 1986, I had the good fortune to meet and work with both Leslie Cheung and Alan Tam. I was a free volunteer worker at their concerts, usually involved in driving them around Sydney and basically being a messenger boy. It was the atmosphere at their concerts and the welcome I personally received whenever performing Cantonese pop songs in various singing competitions or local variety shows that attracted me to the world of Canto-pop singing. In 1986, I made the decision to go to Hong Kong and try to become a Canto-pop singer, no matter how remote the chances of success might be. After saving money while working as a pancake chef/dish washer at Pancakes Manor (Sydney) and as a dish washer and kitchen assistant in the Kensington Colleges dormitories of the University of New South Wales for one year, I packed my bags and flew to Hong Kong, arriving on the wet, rainy evening of May 31, 1987"

"I studied French in high school for three years but didn't use it. I can't remember any of it now. In my early years in Hong Kong, I studied a few terms of Japanese. I can remember a little of it but not enough to keep a conversation.
In the late 90s, I studied four and a half terms of Mandarin at the excellent New Asia Yale-in-China Chinese Language Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. My Mandarin is very usable and I use Mandarin pinyin more than anything else whenever I need to type Chinese articles.

In my dreams, I'd like to learn Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Spanish and German "

"I could speak a few basic sentences, usually related to the time, or food, or Canto-pop stars and music; not much else though. I remember a short visit to Hong Kong in August of 1985 when at a bookstore, I was asked simply 你邊到來? (Where do you come from) and I had no idea what he was asking. My companion at the time hoping to impress the people around us with this Cantonese-speaking gwai lo friend of his was pretty embarrassed."

"The intonations. In the beginning, I was using the Linguaphone cassette course and it had a big problem. It was missing the middle level intonation (tone 3 in jyutping).  When first learning Cantonese, I thought about the intonations of every character before I spoke and I tried to hear the intonations of every character I heard. Without knowledge of the middle level intonation, I had great difficulty in both speaking and comprehending much of the Cantonese I was exposed to at the time.

In August of 1985 when I visited Hong Kong for a week, I found another cassette course in a bookstore. This course "Cantonese in 100 Hours" used the Yale pinyin method and was both accurate and useful. This course made it possible for me to really begin comprehending and using the Cantonese language.

Intonations have always been the hardest part of the language throughout the years. Native Cantonese speakers quite often have a hard time explaining the intonations and I usually find myself asking people to repeat two characters rather than just the one I'm interested in. The second character uses an intonation that I'm familiar with and gives me a reference point for the first intonation. For example, if I need to ask the intonation for the character 食 I might ask the person to repeat the characters 食飯 because I know the pronunciation for the cooked rice character and can use it as a reference for the eat character.

To make things even more difficult than they already are, many Cantonese characters change their intonation depending on which other characters they're with at the time. It can make things very frustrating indeed.

Some pronunciations can be difficult. Remembering and correctly pronouncing the short and long vowel sounds can be quite problematic at times. For example, au and aau or ai and aai."

"Not much! That said, I picked up many aspects of the Cantonese language by instinct more than anything else. In particular, I've had very little difficulty with the spoken Cantonese grammar. Written grammar is much more difficult."

"Other than Cantonese in 100 Hours, my greatest aids would have been a hard-bound Yale Press Cantonese dictionary, TVB scripts (in Chinese), Hong Kong Canto pop songs and one invaluable friend and tutor.

There are many other resources out there for people learning Cantonese but unfortunately, I didn't take advantage of them. The Sydney Lau courses have been highly regarded for many years although it's getting harder to find his Cantonese courses now.

Some people promote watching TV as a learning tool. I believe that this is only appropriate to children who are highly malleable and don't have pre-established concepts of the sounds and grammar found in language that adults have. Personally, I never found TV useful until I had a basic understanding of the language. On the other hand, Canto-pop was extremely useful, especially in learning how to read and speak the Chinese characters in Cantonese."

"I had two or three lessons in Sydney when I was trying to learn one of Alan Tam's songs. Otherwise, I've had no formal training in Cantonese, more the pity for me. With formal training, I could have learnt the language in one third of the time it took me and I heartily encourage others to attend classes if they can."

"I met my wife at an English school. She was my student for three lessons. We became friends and then partners.

She has been an important source of help during my years of learning Cantonese. On the occasions when I ran into an unfamiliar character in my TVB scripts, I would usually ask her.  From time to time, she also corrects my pronunciation during conversation. 

More than anything else though, I believe that the TVB scripts have been the most important part of my Cantonese learning experience. 

Incidentally, we don't speak English at home. In fact, I rarely speak English at all."

"Learn the intonations. Find a course which includes a spoken table of many if not all of the sounds and intonations and practise that table every day. It's only with exposure and practice that you'll learn to hear the difference sounds and speak them accurately.

If you've ever watched American Idol, you may have wondered how some of the contestants can possibly imagine themselves as potential pop stars. The problem is their hearing. They can't hear perfect pitch and therefore everything they sing sounds perfect to them even if it's painful for everyone around them. Pitch recognition can be learnt though and that's what you need for Cantonese. You may think that your intonations are correct, but if everyone around you is having trouble hearing the words you want to speak, then you probably need to continue training your pitch. The more you listen and speak, the more you'll hear and the more accurately you'll speak.

I would also recommend that people learn the Chinese characters. I think one of the things that made learning Cantonese easier for me was that I was learning many of the characters from day 1, possibly because I spent a lot of time reading and singing Canto-pop song lyrics. The advantage of knowing them was that the thoughts and ideas that I wished to express belonged to a real object, a character instead of just a random sound. It was therefore easier to remember the characters.
It was also easier to instinctively derive the meaning of new words (as opposed to characters) by combining the meanings of the individual characters, something not possible if you only remember the sounds rather than the characters behind the sounds.

One more hint. If you learn the Chinese characters, don't learn them by stroke. Learn them by parts. It'll make the learning much easier. For example, the character 杯 (cup) is made up of two parts, 木 (wood) and 不 (not). In this case, learning two parts is much easier than learning 8 strokes!"

"I'm definitely not the most famous Cantonese western speaker in Hong Kong. One or two priests and the previous leader of Hong Kong are much more famous than I am.

Do I still make mistakes? All the time. I'm doing more and more official speaking and that's much harder than casual conversation. Radio talk shows and TV guest appearances usually bring out errors in my Cantonese because I'm either nervous or I'm using grammar and terms that I rarely use. But I'm a Caucasian so nobody minds and it's usually not embarrassing."

"No. One of my friends is in the Hong Kong Legislative Committee. He's very much up to date with the slang of the day and he can really confuse me at times. Most of that slang is used in circles that don't involve me though so I don't feel that it's important to keep up to date. It's far more important for me to be able to write good Chinese because my Chinese writings will have far more impact on other people and myself than any slang that I might learn."

"Canto-pop songs are the reason I can read. TVB scripts are another reason. In the early days, I used to pull out a dictionary every time I ran into a character I couldn't read. That doesn't happen very often any more.

Being able to write Chinese is probably a product of several different things. Canto-pop songs and TVB scripts no doubt have their part to play. More importantly though would be the time I spent studying Mandarin at the Chinese University and the hundreds of hours I spent reading Hong Kong Chinese newspapers in Starbucks coffee shops during my early years of depression back in 2000 to 2001.

I didn't have any motivation to learn to write, only to read. These days though, I occasionally write for the am730 newspaper and that's more than enough motivation to get me to practise and improve my Chinese writing."

"I don't actively try to improve my Cantonese standard; never have. Other people are far more active in this regard. There are students of Cantonese out there who would serve as great examples to others trying to learn the language because they're studious and conscientious (yourself included [hah! - /\dam]).

I guess that the only thing I can prove is that you'll learn the language much easier if you live in Hong Kong. On the other hand, there are countless Caucasians living in Hong Kong who can't speak more than one or two sentences of Cantonese even though they're lived here for ten or twenty years, so I guess a desire to learn and a willingness to make mistakes are also essential.

By the way, if you love the language, you'll never feel that it's 'good enough'. You'll always be working (passively or actively) to improve yourself."

"I'm a cynic. I'd say your chances of being hired to provide such a service are small because for most film production companies, cost is more important than quality. I think your chances of being hired to provide such a service for marketing and advertising firms is much higher because they have better budgets to work with."

"These days, TVB's schedule is tighter than it's ever been before. I've just finished filming 刑事情報科 and all of our scripts were faxed to us one or two nights before the filming. A normal night of shooting in the studio is around 9 to 10 hours involving 8 to 10 scenes. For the leading actors and actresses, it's a very stressful schedule.

On-location shooting usually happens during the day and the schedules do not make allowances for the needs of the actors and actresses. It is therefore not uncommon for them to finish studio shooting at 3am, get home by 4am, leave home again at 6am and be ready for on-location shooting by 7am.

Unfortunately, without time to study the scripts, all the actor can do is hope to accomplish is to memorise the script in time for the shoot. Acting becomes a distant second in priorities. Nobody in the production units are happy with the situation but nothing can be done about it and we accept it and move on, doing the best we can."

"Unfortunately, there's very little that foreigners can do in Hong Kong. We are the virtual "Chinese actor in America". The movie industry is not doing well and TVB is the only active producer of television serials. If you'd like to try your chances, you could send in your resume to the Talent Department at TVB. Be sure to let them know that you read and speak Cantonese and that you have acting training and/or experience. 

There's also a new actors' meetup group building up here in Hong Kong. You can learn more about it at http://acting.meetup.com/3/. The group already has 130 enthusiastic members and is growing fast. I believe that they might be the future of Hong Kong's film and television industry so join the group if you can."

"Yes, all the time."

"The best? For me, it's the opportunity to act and perform. I wouldn't be able to do this back in Australia where the industry is struggling. 

The worst? China's pollution (blue skies are a rarity now) and MSG and / or too many fried foods with little or no taste. I relish the few chances I get to go home to Australia and eat fresh food from my parent's garden."

"I've never been pushed to improve in any aspect of my acting. If I've received any pressure to improve, it's been from myself. It was my frustration with being unable to improve my acting skills that lead to the decision to study acting in L.A. for 3 months in 2004. I'm also the only person who expects and demands that my Cantonese dialogs improve with each new series. For TVB, their only requirement is that the Cantonese is understandable by the audience. Of course, they're always very happy if you can deliver more than the minimum requirement.

One of my frustrations at TVB is that sometimes when we're rushed for time, the directors don't care if my Cantonese is not up to par. They're very quick to say 'next scene'. If I ask for a retake under these circumstances, the usual reply is "heh, it's ok. that's the way gwai los speak." I don't get this often but when I do, it upsets me because I'm deprived of the chance to do my best. Regardless of whatever anybody thinks, my Cantonese is important to me and I always hope and strive to speak it well when I'm working.

The very first part I played at TVB was in 1988. From memory, I was for all intents and purposes a plank of wood standing on its end speaking Cantonese without expression.

In actual fact, learning to act while speaking Cantonese was the biggest challenge of my career. It was many many years before I was able to speak the Cantonese dialogs fluently and naturally while acting the part. It's much harder than it looks, and I sometimes selfishly enjoy watching Hong Kong actors suffer when they're required to speak English dialog. I also envy anyone who grew up with multiple languages. These people never have any problems using those languages no matter what the environment or requirement. Europeans in particular seem to grow up with more languages than any other people, often a minimum of three languages.  I hope they realise how lucky they are."

"I've never studied martial arts and I've rarely had to pretend to use martial arts in my acting career. There's not much point to my learning martial arts although knowing the basics and being able to portray an accurate stance or position would be useful occasionally. The fact is that there are several extremely talented Caucasian martial arts actors in Hong Kong. If movie parts require martial arts, there would be no point in asking me to perform the part with these hard working dedicated martial artists available and willing to work."

"It depends on your level of competency. If you're a beginner and don't have very accurate intonations, many of the locals will respond in English. It's not that they're snubbing you as much as taking the opportunity to practise their own English and impress you with it. These days, I'll respond to these people in English and not worry about it. If you really want to practise your Cantonese though, just keep speaking in Cantonese. It's not going to matter that they reply in English and it shouldn't worry you.

If your pronunciation and intonations are very good, most locals will recognise it as such and will respond in Cantonese. They won't feel that it's necessary to use English and they'll feel that there's no point in trying to impress you with their English.

Interestingly though, I still find myself in situations where people wonder if I can understand what they're saying. The other day, a reporter wanted to discuss an interview with me and she asked me once or twice during the discussion if I understood what she was saying. Some locals find it very difficult to accept that a Caucasion can speak Cantonese well. It's a foreign notion to them (pun intended).

The fact is that Cantonese is a very difficult language to learn and very few Caucasians in Hong Kong speak it well. That said, there are many more Caucasians trying to learn Cantonese now that ever before so things are changing; for the better as far as I'm concerned. When Hong Kong was an English colony, many Caucasians living here assumed that it was the local people's responsibility to learn and use English. Many of the Caucasians were also expats with excellent corporate remuneration packages. These days, there are far fewer over-compensated expats and many of the Caucasians living here respect Hong Kong and its people. That's a good thing."

"I always use Cantonese. I'll only use English if the person I'm speaking to prefers and insists on using English."

"Mandarin is not likely to eclipse Cantonese any time soon. Most of the Chinese population living outside of China speak Cantonese and most of the television programming for overseas Chinese is therefore made available in Cantonese. TVB and other Hong Kong film production companies also pretty much own the overseas market. Chinese firms on the other hand are far more interested in the potential of their local multi-billion-population market.

Mandarin may overtake Cantonese, but not any day soon."

"I sing in both Cantonese and Mandarin (which is easier to sing because the melody is not governed by the intonations of the characters). I will be putting samples up on my website soon. 
I'm also hoping to do more in the singing arena this year. My two biggest obstacles with singing are the extreme anxiety I feel when I perform publicly, and my very poor collection of songs. I plan to overcome both of these obstacles this year."

"I initially created a blog to share with the rest of my immediate family which now lives in three different places throughout Australa. Eventually, that blog failed because my family was too busy to contribute to it. While writing for that blog, I realised that many of my writings could be made public and my public blog was hence born.

I don't know of any friends in the entertainment business who write their own blog. Many actors don't know enough about computing to develop their own blogs or they're not aware of the many easy-to-use blog systems now available. Unfortunately, it's also true that many of the leading actors at TVB would probably be too busy to write their blogs given that they easily work 18 hours or more each day."

"Any character which has a life involving more than simply giving orders   and preferably one without authority."