Oceane Zhu: Angel With An Accent
With her gorgeous smile and beautiful face, Oceane Zhu (朱璇), is part of the new breed of actresses emerging from the Miss Chinese International pageant to be promoted to become the next generation of TVB’s leading ladies. Oceane and other past Miss Chinese International winners including, Fala Chen (陳法拉), Christine Kuo (苟芸慧), and Eliza Sam (岑麗香) are very popular among male viewers, branding them as “goddesses”. Among the winners from overseas, Oceane speaks with the heaviest accent.
Despite this, Oceane was offered many opportunities to shine after winning the Miss 2008 Chinese International title. She starred in film, Prince of Tears <淚王子> and was nominated for Best New Performer at the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Asian Film Award in 2010. Oceane was also cast in many TVB dramas such as Twilight Investigation <囧探查過界>, Seven Days in Life <隔離七日情>, Sergeant Tabloid <女警愛作戰>, Be Home For Dinner <誰家灶頭無煙火>, and King Maker <造王者>.
Oceane is well received with the audience due to her beauty and bubbly personality. However, most of the viewers commented that Oceane needs to drop her accent in order to have a bright future with TVB.
Difficult to Live Up to “Goddess” Label
Oceane wants a chance to play an ugly woman to challenge her acting skills. She wishes to try out many different roles including a person with a mental illness, a hateful person, or an ordinary housewife. Oceane does not mind being onscreen with no makeup to show a different side of her. She continues to work very hard to improve her acting.
Heavy Accent a Hindrance
Despite trying hard to learn to speak proper Cantonese, Oceane still has difficulty breaking her accent. She is not too worried in being criticized along with the “Quartet with Heavy Accents,” namely King Kong (金剛), JJ Jia (賈曉晨), Christine Kuo, and Eliza Sam who received the label after their performances in Ghetto Justice 2 <怒火街頭>. Oceane said honestly, “I am obviously worse than them. When it comes to a heavy accent, I am number 1.”
Understanding that the audience will become annoyed from listening to her speak with such a heavy accent, Oceane hopes the audience will look beyond this and enjoy her other qualities. “If the audience notices that I worked very hard to improve my acting, I will be very happy.” For example, audiences have accepted King Kong and find humor in his Cantonese.
Oceane’s ultimate goal is to be like Shu Qi (舒淇), who does not speak perfect Cantonese but still earns respect from the audience due to her great acting skills. With hard work, determination, and an angelic face, Oceane has a great opportunity to be successful in her acting career.
Source: The Sun
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I think she is absolutly beautiful and her acting skills are actually pretty good.
I prefer Ocean than Christine Kuo.
Ocean acting skills are much better and her accent still bearable.
She is pretty and humble.
It sounds like a lot of tvb’s actress is from either miss chinese pageant or miss HK.
That’s how it was back in the days, too.
Kenix, Ada, Marianne, etc. are all from the beauty pageant.
that’s true. It has always been like this
Oceane has a beautiful smile, one which can really light up the screen. Wishing her all the best.
out of the newer generation i absolutely adore her! shes gorgues and has the sweetest image. Can see her being the next big thing only if tvb gives her a chance!
definitely support oceane zhu 😀 <3
also, she kinda reminds me of the newer generation of Gigi Lai. The image and everything….idk why tho…haha does anyone else agree?
Yes same here. Always thought she was some what similar to Gigi lai
No not like Gigi, Oceane has a bigger face and Gigi has more doll like features.
No way. Gigi Lai is more prettier, she glow. Oceane is more of eyes and smile appearance, but she does not glow.
“Oceane’s ultimate goal is to be like Shu Qi (舒淇), who does not speak perfect Cantonese but still earns respect from the audience due to her great acting skills. ”
I am not one of them.
I think 舒淇 purposely talk with that accent and refuses to change it. You know its her when she talks. Only 舒淇 can pull that off.
Same here. She is overrated
It’s a known fact that as long as you are good looking, then your acting skills and Cantonese ability is irrelevant.
I’m looking at you Shu Qi and Richi Ren/Jen.
What the hell, you guys.
You’ve both lived in HK for almost 20 years.
Just what the hell.
Richi Ren speaks better cantonese and he is first and foremost a singer.
Shu Qi… no comment. And I beg to differ on the good looking point.
None worse than Michael Wong though.
Seriously, I think shu qi’s Cantonese is not bad. I can totally understand her in interviews. Same w/ Lynn hung. Maybe b/c they don’t speak very fast.
Richie ren’s Cantonese has gotten worse but I don’t think he stays in hk anymore.
Michael Wong has no excuse b/c he lives in hk and should have practiced Cantonese w/ his wife Janet ma.
maybe MW purposely speak bad Cantonese so he can be outstanding? or he was trying to funny? LOL
Takeshi Kaneshiro’s cantonese was not top notched, but boy could he act. His 1990’s HK filmograhpy was incredible.
I still fail to understand why perfect Cantonese ability is so important
Well when you act in a cantonese film preferably an actor with moderate to good cantonese skill is preferred. Same with english languaged film. I feel such an expectation is reasonable.
Terminator,
TVB artists are different in their appeal versus film actors. Film actors are valued for their acting abilities and ability to draw box office traffic.
However, TVB artists these days seem to be more about how “promotable” a personality is versus simply having acting talent. The key is still “affinity with the audience” and whether audiences like that artist. Dubbing the voice might work in dramas, but the artists still has to connect with audiences through other platforms, such as radio interviews, mall promotional events, etc. The appeal for TVB artists are more localized. Many promotional events are held in places such as malls, where the artists has to closely interact with the masses, sing, crack jokes, etc.
It is as much a personality sell to be a successful TVB leading artist these days. Communication skills obviously involve speaking the local dialect properly, especially in HK which seems intolerant of heavy accents.
I watched a news clip of Oceane at a promotional event and while she carried herself well, she spoke in Mandarin before the crowd and there wasn’t much reaction from those present. Perhaps she can converse in Mandarin with local advertisers, but this will always make her seem like an outsider.
I feel that Oceane’s greatest buzz was right after the release of “Prince of Tears,” in which she had a leading role and was nominated for HKFA Best New Performer. TVB put her in many promotional events afterward (but as mentioned above, she didn’t seem to connect that well with live crowds due to accent). Her supporting roles, while allowing her to remain in the conscious stream of viewers, has slipped in media attention as opposed to Christine Kuo and Eliza Sam.
Same with Christine Kuo.
Christine Kuo seems to be really promoted now, but I won’t be surprised if she only end up with supporting roles at the end if she don’t improve her acting and cantonese.
Takeshi Kaneshiro speaks 5 languages. I think he’s excused from this.
So, if perfect canto-speaking ability is crucial to promotability and connection with audience, then it begs the question on why TVB does not keep its talent recruitment within the HK domestic market instead of reaching out to foreign nationals (especially Canadians) who invariably would have less command of the dialect as well as connectivity with the local population.
What Jayne’s getting at is it’s hard to empathize with actors if they don’t speak good Cantonese.
And just as well. If you’re going to live in HK and you expect HK people to give you money so you can earn a living, least you can do is learn some damn Cantonese.
She has long ways to go… Like her… better then Christine.
Hmmm. Rambling here, but doesn’t Fala still get criticised for her accent as well? Is that the general consensus in HK or is it more of a haters thing? Whilst not without flaws, I do think she sounds perfectly understandable…
If it’s not your native language/mother tongue, I guess it’s hard to grasp all the nuances. You know how certain actors can nail an English/American/whatever accent (e.g. Meryl Streep), is it hard for Mandarin speakers to put on a Cantonese accent?
Mandarin and Cantonese are kinda like different languages. Imitating a British, Austrailian, or American accent is easier b/c u are still speaking English. It would be comparable to if u asked a Beijing actor to speak mandarin w/ a shanghai or Taiwan accent. That’s not hard to fake.
i like her too, pretty even w/the accent.
hope she gets more prominent roles….
She is one of my favorite new artists!
Tvb should export her to film mandarin drama …
I like her along with Christine Kuo. They are rare beauties, elegant, charismatic, and and a gem to watch. Hope to see more of them at TVB. I frankly don’t care for the other actresses with their plain looks(for ex, Mandy Wong, she really BUGS me and the annoying Natalie Tong as well), I don’t think those kinds of ppl should be in the “entertainment industry.” they are not special enough nor do they stand out.
But so is Wayne Lai. He is not in the common sense good looking but he is a great actor. So according to you, only beauty queen or ppl who are beautiful can appear on TV. Then your daily tv programs will be filled with sub par actors and actresses who can see but can’t act. Mandy n Natalie can act better than those newbie beauty queens now
Geez, it’s ppl like you who make plastic surgeon super happy. Superficial !
OH PLEASE, this is my taste, what right do you have to question it? just cause i didnt like your favorites.
There are always exceptions to the norm, Wayne Lai is one.
BTW, Natalie and Mandy’s acting stinks to me.
Whether are not these actress are my fav or not, (btw I still think Natalie Tong is still stif) but they are still better than those newbie beauty queens.
It is statement from ppl like you which drives actress like Tavia to go rumored modify her nose. Now all we see us her nose.
I question ur superficial taste because if we hv ppl like u in charge in Txb then ppl like Koo Ming Wah or Wayne Lai or Power Chan will never be seen.
Don’t know why I spend time arguing with you n ur superficiality.
Personally I like a mixture of good-looking and ordinary looking people, I mean how many good-looking people do you see in everyday
life. A variety of looks will make the drama
more believable.
🙂
Oceane Zhu is hot. Her face looks like a husband stealer so maybe those parts would suit her.
What happened to 陳爽? She was hot and speaks with an accent.
Jaynestars had a couple articles on sherry chan. She is getting married soon but is still acting in bit parts like for TITS2.
I like Oceane, is she from Paris?
what?
Norika,
I believe Oceane was born in China (Beijing??), but she went to study in Paris and ended up competing in local beauty pageant and then Miss Chinese International.
um, I dont remember her at all :/ Who is she as the role she play?
She was in 7 Days with Bosco Wong, Sonija Kwok, Steven Ma and Joyce Cheng.
Oops, I meant 7 Days in Life as the undercover policewoman
I think Oceane looks better than Christine, JJ and Eliza. She’s so much cuter too.
Angel? LOL I thouhgt it was supposed to be goddess or BB 🙂
Don’t mind her poor cantonese bc it makes her a lot cuter 😀 while some others are just annoying.
I guess Oceane is different than chirstine and Eliza who seems to enjoy the title of Goddess. Oceane deosn’t want ppl to label her as a pretty vase w/o acting skill. Anyway.. I still can’t figure how Eliza is label Goddess when her look is so plain
Like I said earlier HK is a place full of goddesses, hehe.
More goddesses are born each day while the goddesses powers are declining.
For the guys is should be reaching supersaiyan lvl, hahaha
I wonder who already reached the Super Saiyan level? TVB is bs anyway for giving such label to Eliza and Christine.. they have yet to reach even “decent” level.
Don’t know if it’s the media or TVB.
Yeah, when I think of the term “goddess” I imagine someone of unparallelled beauty.
Ron has reached supersaiyan lvl 1 that’s why he turned into a hungry wolf 🙂
I’m still trying to figure out how Eliza got labelled Goddess as well. She’s not exactly beautiful and elegant but I do find her facial features quite cute in my opinion.
I rather listen to her talk than aimee chan
Funny Oceane and Christine Kuo can speak perfect Mandarin, so why can’t they just act in Taiwan or China. For god’s sake…
Because competition is intense in Taiwan? And in China they will have to compete with locals? I do believe they will move on later on, like Michelle Ye who can speak mandarin, cantonese, etc.
I love Oceane Zhu. But, I was surprised to see this article. She doesn’t seem to be a candidate for promotion by TVB and she doesn’t have any buzz in the media lately compared to Eliza Shum, Rebecca Zhu and Christine Kuo. I’m glad thought to see this feature article of hers. 😀
Oceane Zhu is not a great actress. She need to work on her emotional scenes which she tend to underact. But, overall, her acting is still natural. She didn’t sound awkward or reading from the script in her speech.
One advantage Oceane has is her great charm. She is one of the few actresses that have always been forgiven for her lack of Cantonese fluency. Aimee, who speaks better Cantonese, was bashed to no end for her ‘bad’ Cantonese, but, I seldom see Oceane getting bashed. Her charm just override her flaws.