Oceane Zhu, Elaine Yiu Happy with “Shades of Life” Results

TVB’s weekly drama Shades of Life <我們的天空> received over 2000 complaints from an episode that aired last Sunday, which starred Oceane Zhu (朱璇). In the episode Same Root, Oceane portrayed a mainland mother who had to face a new life with her daughter in Hong Kong. The episode averaged 24 points, a 6-point viewership increase from its premiere episode. Despite its ratings success, some viewers were furious with the episode, claiming it was propaganda and very “weiwen”, a Chinese Communist Party term for maintaining stability. However, Oceane and the show’s regular, Elaine Yiu (姚子羚), said they were happy with the series’ results thus far despite these complaints.

On August 1, the stars of Shades of Life attended a promotional event for the series. With an average of 24 points and a peak of 25 points, Shades of Life was the highest-rated program that aired on Sunday. Oceane said that despite receiving complaints, the company also received many praises for the episode. She believes that more complaints meant more people were watching the series. She is happy to know that the viewers are responding to the episode and that any kind of comments, whether good or bad, are worth to take notice.

Some of the complaints pointed out that the episode gave the people of Hong Kong and mainland China poor images, but Oceane expressed that people would have different perspectives. As for herself, she said she chooses to be neutral, and that both Hong Kong and mainland China have had their unflattering moments. She does not believe that the episode would bring more hatred to the mainland Chinese by the Hong Kong people.

Elaine said she is not afraid that the complaints would affect the ratings of the series. She hopes that the audience will continue to support the drama with an open mind.

Shades of Life producer, Franklin Wong (黃華麒), said he expected to receive complaints. He explained that his previous series, the long-running RTHK series Below the Lion Rock <獅子山下>, also received similar complaints 40 years ago when the series aired a similar episode. He stated, “I do not agree that Same Root carries anti-Hong Kong sentiment. There are also plenty of good Hong Kong characters. Some audiences also erroneously compare new immigrants to guest smugglers (水貨客). They are very different.”

Source: Ming Pao

This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.