Bosco Wong: “TVB Gives Me a High Salary!”
The cast of new TVB crime series Police Dog Brothers <警犬巴打> including Bosco Wong (黃宗澤) and Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣) attended its blessing ceremony at TVB City today. At the event, Bosco and Linda were asked to comment on TVB’s current situation in regards to leaving employees and their own plans for the future.
Bosco stated he was unaware of the reports on Kate Tsui’s (徐子珊) decision to leave the station after the expiry of her management contract. However, he admitted the entertainment industry is quite small, and claimed it does not matter if Kate’s contract is renewed or not as long as she maintains a collaborative partnership with the company.
Although Linda has heard of the reports, she expressed she did not personally ask Kate about her situation. When questioned if she also has plans to take her career elsewhere, Linda exclaimed TVB is an amazing platform that serves as a great training center. She currently has no plans to leave the station since her contract has not expired, but still remains open to other incoming opportunities.
Contrary to tabloids, Bosco disagrees that TVB is currently lacking fadans and stated there are still many girls in the company. He believes it is a good thing that many of the actresses are of the younger generation, and added he will try to maintain a youthful appearance in order to match them. When asked to comment on TVB’s inability to keep talented artistes, Bosco remarked, “It’s pretty normal. My restaurant also lost some employees.”
Earlier, veteran artistes Eric Tsang (曾志偉) and Michael Miu (苗僑偉) reportedly suggested that TVB’s pay is too low. In regards to this, Bosco denied and expressed, “TVB gives me a really high salary. Whether the pay is high or low is subjective and differs among people. I don’t work for money.”
There were also recent speculations that TVB had plans to star Linda, her boyfriend Philip Ng (伍允龍), and previously rumored boyfriend Ruco Chan (陳展鵬) together in an upcoming series. Linda clarified the rumors are false, “There is no such thing. A lot of people asked me about it, but I’ve never heard of such information. However, I won’t deny any work opportunities and will do whatever the company asks me to. It’s called contract spirit.”
This article is written by Shirley for JayneStars.com.
Is it just me that I think Bosco has aged quite a bit recently…he looks rather haggard these days. Hope it’s just the weight issue.
@tess Yeah, I think he needs to put back on some weight. His slimming product commercials have been forcing him to diet diet diet for 3-4 years nonstop already — cutting fats too drastically makes ppl age faster
Hmm…not sure if it’s just me but I find Bosco’s response (about artists leaving and the low salaries) really retarded. For him to deny that TVB’s salary is low is stupid in my opinion because even TVB management themselves have PUBLICLY admitted that the wages they pay their artists are way LOWER than market price. Besides, if Bosco truly thinks that he’s being paid a high salary by TVB, then why does he even bother filming in the Mainland? His “high” salary at TVB should be enough for him to live off of, no? Oh and what does he mean by “I don’t work for money anyways”??? Is he saying that even if TVB doesn’t pay him, he will still film for them because he loves them so much and will always remain super duper loyal to them? What a bunch of baloney! I don’t know about you guys, but to me, his response sounds like a foolish effort to kiss TVB’s you-know-what…
@llwy12 i think “i dont work for money” means that he didnt became an actor because of money in the first place,acting is his desire and his dream thats why he said he doesnt work for money. maybe tvb is low paid but is this really tvb fault? the one to blame isnt realy tvb i think but the hk government. maybe with the new tv station coming can help to change this situation?
@kolo Actually, I read the original article in Chinese and that particular sentence was poorly translated. His meaning was that money is not of huge significance to him…
In terms of TVB paying low salaries — I don’t see how that is the government’s fault? It’s not like the government mandated to TVB that they have to pay their artists below market price (TVB is not a government-owned station, so they don’t have he power to dictate salaries). Besides, if it was government mandate, how was Bosco able to get his “high” salary then? As much as I hate the HK government, it makes no sense to blame them in this instance when TVB is the one choosing to pay their artists dirt cheap salaries so that more money can go into the executives’ pockets. Also, this low salary issue has been a pain point with TVB for decades (dating back to the 70s), it’s just that artists back then were fine with it because they were treated with respect and dignity and were shown that the company valued them in other ways. But when stingy Mona Fong took over, things started to change and were made 100x worse when that lackey of hers Mark Lee was hired (as a former accountant, he’s known for being a tightwad who calculates down to the penny). And TVB obviously is able to pay high salaries if they want to, as they’ve done so for other artists in order to prevent those artists from leaving or to attract artists who haven’t filmed for them in a long time to come back….so it pretty much boils down to TVB choosing to pay low wages on their own accord….
@llwy12 I agree with you that the Government of Hong Kong has nothing to do with the low salaries paid to artistes by TVB. As a matter of fact, TVB is paying higher salaries now in order to attract their artistes to stay due to Mainland Chinese competitions and high salaries.
In the days of 1980 and 1990, there was no demand or competition from Mainland China, TVB artistes got no where to go except maybe to Malaysia or Singapore. The overseas markets for Chinese drama series were pretty small at that time. Therefore, artistes couldn’t complain or jump ships. Personally, I think artistes are just people working in the entertainment industries. Why should they make so much more than than regular people in Hong Kong? I am sure most (if not all) people have to work very hard in order to have decent livings.
Is it just me or there is just too many dramas from 2014-2015 with Linda Chung as lead actress? Her acting is not terribly good, but I guess other fadans leaving the station is the cause. But if you keep having Linda starr in so many dramas, the viewers would get sick watching her.
I think Bosco doesn’t really care about his salary at tvb. He’s probably paid a high amount because he’s one of the top siusangs. He films in mainland because he wants more exposure. he has his seafood restaurant and his real estate properties so he’s pretty loaded with or without tvb
@kolo He meant his salary is high by his personal standards. Since TVB manages his other incomes, his paychecks include his mainland series, stage performances, and product endorsement (post-commission) earnings. So his claim that TVB pays him a lot is not a lie. Either way, like @holiday said, he’s loaded with or without TVB so it doesn’t matter to him.