Flora Chan to Become a Teacher If All Else Fails
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Flora Chan (陳慧珊) was once a top TVB fadan along with Jessica Hsuan (宣萱), Ada Choi (蔡少芬), and Kenix Kwok (郭可盈). After marrying her manager, Mike Chung (鍾家鴻), in 2006, she soon left TVB due to her husband’s bankruptcy.
Currently pursuing a Masters degree at Hong Kong University, Flora also needs to spend time making sure her daughter receives a good education. Although facing financial pressure, she insisted on sending her daughter to an international school, paying nearly $10,000 HKD each month. The family is dependent upon Flora, as Mike remains home unemployed, occasionally playing cards with some friends since his company went bankrupt in 2012.
An insider revealed that Flora greatly angered producer Tommy Leung (梁家樹) and TVB management executive, Virginia Lok (樂易玲), by suddenly dropping out of filming for Triumph in the Skies 2 <衝上雲霄II> last year. “Everything was all set. We even tried our best to accommodate her so she can take care of her daughter. All of a sudden, she rejected us saying the drama requires her to fly away constantly, and she can’t stay with her daughter. Tommy and Ms. Lok are very angry. They made it clear that they will not be using her in a while.”
Flora then contacted other TVB producers for filming opportunities. Earlier, producer Joe Chan (陳維冠) reportedly had a role available for her in his new drama, Aerobic Girls. However, an insider revealed that Ms. Lok was highly against the decision. She does not like the idea of accommodating Flora to take care of her daughter.
“She thinks Flora’s acting skills went downhill in 2009’s Suspects in Love <搜下留情>. The drama’s viewership ratings were not the best either,” the insider said. Furthermore, Flora has not confirmed filming Aerobic Girls herself, and there is a high chance she will not end up with the role.
If her career is unsuccessful in the entertainment industry, Flora revealed that she would return to the United States and become a teacher, since she is interested in entering the field of education.
Source: Sudden Weekly #922
This article is written by Shirley for JayneStars.com.
What a loser. I hated her role in Suspects in Love too, so damn annoying. I was rooting for Sharon Chan’s character to be with Joe Ma the whole way. Can’t believe that her real life personality is also crap, rejecting the drama after everything had been arranged for her.
To me, it sounds like TVB desperately wants her back, so of course they’re willing to make accomodations
LOL…funny that people are so quick to formulate negative opinions about celebrities based on articles from local tabloids. This kind of attitude is what keeps these gossip mags in business….
Anyway, whoever wrote this article is damn lazy because all of the same stuff was already printed previously in another gossip mag….they just took the same crap and transferred it to their own magazine.
I actually feel sorry for Flora because she’s pretty much in one of those “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” positions right now….if she doesn’t go back to film for TVB, she will continue to have the same negative rumors written about her every couple months….if she does go back to film for TVB, not only will she gear treated like crap, she will also get dragged through the mud by the Media (similar to what they’ve been doing with everyone else who returned). My advice to Flora is to just leave HK and continue her studies elsewhere…
I agree with ou llwy12!! I feel bad for Flora too. At least she is well educated and has a back up plan if staying in the circle does not work out. Many actors and actresses don’t stay in the circle forever and come and go all the time. But whatever happens, I wish her the best and will miss seeing her if she leaves HK and the circle.
maybe her daughter got sick? we only heard one side of the story ….
i’m sure if it was as great the paper said it, she wouldn’t have turned it down.
Aiye…another one of those worthless gossip mag ‘stir up the crap’ articles! Can’t the Media leave Flora alone
and let her concentrate on her studies? Why must they dig up the same baseless, stupid stuff every other month to write about?
What do they mean by “if all else fails”? They don’t know what they are talking about. Flora decided a long time ago that she was eventually going to move to the U.S. and become a teacher — that’s the main reason why she went back to school to get her Masters (and aiming for a Doctorate later on). I guess the HK Media is ignorant enough to think that she is going to school (investing all that time and money) for the heck of it?
It’s lame articles like these from the tabloids that make my blood boil!!
I actually think Flora does wish to film for TVB, but she just really couldn’t film Triumph in the Skies 2 cuz it happens to be a drama in which she has to fly away all the time? Seems to me like she’s grasping at any filming opportunities she can, but Virginia Lok is just holding a grudge against her and preventing her chances of work. Pretty sure she would accept Aerobic Girls (or any other drama really) if it isnt for Virginia Lok being against it.
Why you guys give Flora the benefit of doubt but not 620? Which can confirm that 620 really hold the grudge against Flora? Mind you that 620 only handle the schedule of contracted artists, not the filming set. So it’s pretty hard to her to put a hand in the casting since Flora isn’t a contracted artist of Txb.
Haha, we’ll the doggies needs to deliver to their master but are too lazy to do the hard work and ends up finding stuff from the garbage can 🙂 Don’t get angry la the doggies must be ashamed of their poor work ethic, lol
really wish she was in triumph in skies 2
I doubt Flora has to resort to being a teacher. There’s bound to be acting jobs available. Only problem is she doesn’t want to be away from her daughter. Up to Flora to decide what’s more important.
No, she wants to be a teacher. It’s not a “last resort” as described. That’s why she’s going back to school, to get a qualification to teach in the US, and have in fact rejected offers because she wants to get her masters. Acting jobs would be her “last resort” if she doesn’t graduate.
Your comment indicates prejudice against being a teacher. If that profession is Flora’s interest, then she should pursue it. It’s a choice, not a “last resort.” The title of this article and your comment show immaturity and pride.
I am commenting on the article and am saying I DOUBT Flora has to teach to make ends meet. The article implies she is not getting any filming opportunities and I am saying I DOUBT that is true.
In terms of salary, of course teaching cannot compare to acting. That’s the simple truth. The article is saying she needs to work to help the family so financially, acting should be more optimal than teaching.
virginia lok should be kicked out of the company, unless she can act.. hehe
I want Catherine Tsang to be kicked out as well.
Agreed! Both of them are no good. In fact, they need to get rid of the entire management team over there and put in people who actually give a care about running a successful TV station business!
what did Catherine Tsang do?
Well other than play the favoritism card …
actually that’s bad enough to be kicked out.
@pandamao
http://www.jaynestars.com/news/tvb-director-knocks-jenny-laus-head-in-a-fit-of-rage/
http://www.jaynestars.com/news/tvb-scolds-jenny-lau-for-leaked-video-clip/
http://www.jaynestars.com/news/tvb-releases-unedited-jenny-lau-maltreatment-video-clip/
LOL – thanks Joey.
The video unfortunately no longer available but i watched it when it was first an issue.
yeah Catherine and Virginia equally bad .. what about Tommy Leung?
Sometimes I can’t help but to like them since they created so many great fa dans and siu sangs for me to watch. I know people have their complaints but I’m enjoying Mandy Wong, Ruco Chan, Myolie Wu, Linda Chung, Steven Ma …
That incident made me dislike Catherine more than Virginia, but the one I dislike the most right now is Sandy Yu. Pffft.
agreed. sandy yu took out most of the fun
Sandy Yu is of course annoying, especially her answers toward the “future” of Txb in any time she appears.
Do you notice that Catherine Tsang “appeared” more after Sandy Yu joined? So if Catherine Tsang leaves, Sandy Yu might to with her.
As for Tommy Leung, he rarely gives out opinions on anything or shows off his power, only focuses on his work: producers. Lolz, in his daughter’s wedding, more stars happily went than the Txb award. It shows that Tommy Leung is liked.
Flora should be a better teacher than an actress.
If her career boomed in the age of the social media, gosh.. Can you imagine all the insulting names she would have been given? Nowadays we have insulting tags on all the fadans for their looks, like gwing
Oops accidentally submitted
Gwing, horse face/pinocchio, sausage lips, man, paralysed face…
How lucky she is born 10 years earlier.
Not trying to insult flora, just pointing out this insulting trend is definitely a a side aspect of our online connectivity,
Did Flora and her fellow fadan go under the knife or had injections during their time? I can’t remember any news about them from then.
Kenix’s transformation is rather telling.
The others? Maybe? But definitely subtle, and can be explained by make up or angles. There may not be any news, because there was a time when people do not see photos of stars from day 1 to day 9999 side by side.. Those who did, are usually obsessed fans who live in denial, comparable to some fans today who still insist about pinnocchio being natural. Those people aren’t gonna say anything negative about their idol. So unless the changes were on the scale of dodo cheng, we arent as focused on it andusually explain them getting prettier as advancement in make up, weight loss, etc.
Isn’t she a bit old to start a teaching career? But i guess it really depends on what she teaches … chinese, probably no problem, but other things? Heaps of younger candidates from better US institutions
Not old at all. She can be a teacher/tutor in universities.
I don’t think you are ever too old to be a teacher…. You may be too old to start an acting career at an old age, but not teaching…
Some of my best professors are folks that left their industry and decided to teach, see business school CEOs becoming professors at universities. These are the ones that aren’t so busy focusing on their research paper that they take the time to teach the students with real life experiences.
* i seriously want an edit button .. so many typos and grammar mistakes.
Yeah, from industry to teaching in business sounds normal. This applies if Flora were to teach acting. Other than that, she hardly has experience other than acting.
Why don’t the husband just find a job?
maybe depression crippled him
Why does the economic burden always have to fall on the guy? What if he does have one but does not make enough so the wife has to help out too?? it is sad that some think that it always has to be the guy that supports the family financially. Times are different now and in many cases, it is the women whom are the breadwinners.
Why both don’t work and contribute the family together?
His reputation is pretty bad now and since he works as artist management, if no artist on hand, he can’t restart his work.
Why he dun try other work, I have no idea.
the stress shows on her face. she isn’t aging as nicely as other fadans in her generation.
teacher in the US? she has a better shot in hong kong. the demand for teachers in the US isn’t high. the last time i check, she’s pursuing her master’s in english right? nothing special if she were to teach in the US.
They can afford botox. Her husband is bankrupt.
don’t think she needs botox, just a good diet and exercise
I don’t think that is true since I am in the teaching field too. Competition isn’t as bad as other fields but of course there is competition and challenges for every field. There is actually a shortage of teachers in some areas since not many want to be teachers due to the low pay.
I thought she wanted to be a kindergarden or elementary school teacher? If so, there is definately a shortage of those…
flora chan can take over virginia lok’s position at tvb.. virginia and her management team sucks
I’m not a big fan of Flora’s acting but it’s sad if she can’t come back just because there is nobody to take care for her daughter when she is filming. I know some Flora Chan’s fans who hate Mike Chung so so much even before her marriage and now the tabloids are painting him as the exact bad image that the fans predicted. If it’s true, Mike Chung is such a terrible husband. He dun have a work, so just takes care of the daughter for Flora to work, other than playing card and drinking around. The daughter is also his.
Is that true? I didn’t know her husband is just jobless and doing nothing. In that case, flora should have accepted tits2.
I don’t know if Mike Chung is really that jerk of a man or not, but it’s an undeniable fact that most of Flora Chan fans hate him even before they got married. They even dun want him to be Flora’s manager.
i am not a big fans of her…feel sorry for her too…but her acting on Suspects in Love is really not good…maybe she is really not belong to this industry anymore…maybe being a teacher is better for her…
I never read about tvb accommodating flora so she could be in triumph in the skies 2, so what did tvb do?
I wonder what the initial script for TITS 2 would have been like if Flora had accepted the job? Would Belle and Sam have reignited their romance after the death of Zoey? If so, then I wish Flora had accepted the part as I always preferred Belle to end up with Sam in TITS. Also, oood opportunities don’t come by often, especially for older actresses above 40. Flora may never get to play another character as well loved as Belle in TITS. It’s probably her most famous role, aside from her forensic pathologist character (the name of that drama escapes me right now) in that drama with Bowie Lam.
Sad to say that Flora is not aging very well, and I don’t see her having a bright future with TVB even if she returns.
was it untraceable evidence? i thought she’s been good in many of her series like healing hands, foj5, mr. diana, a threshold of an era…
Yes, that’s it – Untraceable Evidence! UE was Flora’s break-out TVB drama. It was her role in that drama (and its popular sequels) which cemented her no-nonsense, intelligent ‘professional woman’ persona, which she would have difficulty shaking off in other dramas later on in her career. Fans simply didn’t like to see Flora play whimpy or whiny and weak women, and she worked best when she acted as doctors or lawyers. Her role in ATE wasn’t very well received because she was a love fool for Gallen Lo’s character. Actually many complained about Belle’s whiny fickleness in TITS also, but that drama was such a hit for its overall romantic and dreamy feel, and Flora had great chemistry in TITS with both Francis Ng and Joe Ma.
The problem with Flora’s comeback series ‘Suspects in Love’ was that it was a boring script and Flora really looked dowdy and drab playing a histronic, not very smart woman, with a very uninspired storyline. She was showing her age and it didn’t help that she couldn’t dress up or glam up at all. Even pairing her up again with Joe Ma didn’t inspire much excitement for the drama.
Typo – mean to say *good* opportunies
I used to like Flora in her earlier works, it’s kinda sad to hear such news. it must be tough having to work, study and parent simultaneously, with a single income source and the high cost of living, I really hope things work out for her, be it acting or teaching.
I don’t understand… if she’s the breadwinner and has a filming opportunity, why can’t her husband look after the daughter when she’s away working?
Doesn’t she trust the husband enough to leave the daughter in his care? Or doesn’t he want to “deal” with his daughter?
It’s admirable that she puts family first, but still… having both parents out of a job sure isn’t going to help the daughter at all.
Well, being a breadwinner and is like putting your family first. Some people think a woman who works is not putting family first. I think that working and supporting the family financially is the foundation of it all. If you just want to stay home with the kids, then who will bring home the bacon?? you have to put that into consideration too and not just think that it is like the olden days where the husband works and brings home the money while the wife just sits at home with kids and does the housework. That is old school thinking…At least one parent has to work, but these days in most cases both parents have to work or else it is not enough…
If Flora is so keen to be with her daughter, that is , to look after her then perhaps acting would be a bad choice as she will have to spend lots of time at her job, besides having to spend a lot on things like clothes and make-up. As some of you have suggested a teaching job would suit her better.
She doesn’t show any commitment. If she promised to film it, then she shouldn’t have left. Why couldn’t she have brought her daughter with her while filming or ask a friend to take care of her just for a little while? She should have thought before agreeing.
TVB wanted to accommodate her daughter right?
is her hubby a gambler?
I wonder why everyone is assuming that her husband does not work?? Maybe he does but it is still not enough?? You seriously do not know since the standard of living in HK is so high that unless you make a lot them even 2 mediocre incomes are not enough.
Just because this article says that her husband is unemployed does not mean that he truly is.
You just have to live within your means. The wage floor here is $30/hour and social welfare is low and food’s pretty low if you live like a local. It’s just the rent that’s stupidly expensive.
Like really, stupidly expensive.
Social welfare is high, high I meant.
I wanted to say seeing the doctors is low ($45HKD) but I guess I jumped the gun. There’s also a public housing scheme which offsets the rent/housing problem
Exactly, in any part of the world, your mortage/rent is always the biggest chunk of your income. But in HK, the rent is a killer…. If you can’t even afford a roof over your head, then everything else will fall apart.
Mike Chung’s previous work is artist manager, but after his media company bankrupted, we don’t see him as manager for any artist, so can assume that maybe the article is not wrong.
” After marrying her manager, Mike Chung (鍾家鴻), in 2006, she soon left TVB due to her husband’s bankruptcy…” that would be incorrrect. she didn leave tvb because of his bankruptcy- she left well before he went broke.
Yes, I found this part very inconsistent too. I don’t think Flora is really as desperate as the article makes her out whatever the case.
Me too… They make it seem like Flora is so desperate when I don’t think she truly is.
Never liked her acting. She’s also not pretty, looks very auntie and outdated.
I heard that her husband was very picky about all the characters and scripts that Flora acted. He always wanted to make changes at the last minute, which upset many producers at TVB. Most people hated Mike Chung, and indirectly Flora Chan
Flora’s family (siblings and parents) are in the US; thus childcare through family is not an option. Add to that, with her spending habits rather higher than most of the TVB actors (past or present) or even the whole HK Entertainment Circle. Even Mimi Lo 罗敏庄, Sonija Kwok 郭羡妮, Sunny Chan 陈锦鸿 and Louis Cheung 张繼聰 have children themselves, they don’t go out, spend it on a flat in an upmarket area and/or take a substantial loan to start up a business, only to end up going bust later on.
Her daughter’s school fees alone is already about the equivalent of renting an average flat in the HK suburbs, yet she’s still living near Bisney Road (an upmarket residential area near the Queen Mary Hospital) along with buying groceries at a supermarket that specializes in imported goods, especially after Mike’s bankruptcy. She should pull her daughther out of the ESF School system just to save up on the budget. As parents, we have to make sacrifices at times of economic turbulence.
I even think Mike should lobby with his friends to maybe get a job to support his growing daughter, after all he bought this child into the world too, it’s not just Flora’s.
Maybe MIke is trying but it isn’t working out?? It is hard to find decent employment these days and in a place like HK, it is even harder…
She took it for granted the acting job she had. She is going to find out the harsh reality that teachers are controlled by unions and their pay are leveled for many years (expect no pay raises). Most important is stress, it is not a rosy job unless you teach incoming elementary school students. I laugh at my gf’s salary as a teacher, then the laugh is on me because she is having fun and enjoying it.
Thats the key to it all. Those who have ‘heart’ in what they want to do and become look pass all the cons I.e. salary, work environment and etc.
Those who choose to weigh out everything…well they stumble for a very long time in life.
It is not only money but you need to like what you do as well. IT would be really boring and frustrating to do a job that you hate.