Having gone from being a prestigious anchorman and journalistic icon in Taiwan in the early 1980s to what netizens have dubbed “the most prominent narrator in history,” 72-year-old Sheng Chu-ju (盛竹如) has thrown off the shackles of professional journalism to show the public his true colors.
Once an anchorman for the reputed TTV, one of the country’s oldest TV stations, Sheng was crowned the best anchorperson at Taiwan’s Golden Bell Awards in 1982 and 1983.
However, in 1997, he took a leap of faith with a new career as the lead narrator for the Taiwanese crime drama Taiwan Chameleon (台灣變色龍), the first TV production in the country that recreated various civil and criminal cases with mostly moderate, but sometimes exaggerated modifications.
Photo: Star Chinese Channel
Speaking in an unhurried manner and with clear articulation, Sheng incorporated his journalistic expertise into his narration for the crime drama and often intrigued audiences with his most memorable line: “Let’s keep looking (讓我們繼續看下去).”
His charisma and riveting voiceovers helped the TV program build a large, loyal audience base and garnered ratings as high as 45 percent of the total audience share at its peak.
Sheng decided to take a second leap of faith in the 1970s to make his name in the entertainment industry jungle.
Having been a special guest on the popular Taiwanese entertainment talk show Kang Hsi Lai Le (康熙來了), a narrator for home furniture commercials and a guest star in a music video of two-man comedy band One Two Free (自由發揮), Sheng may be a relative newcomer as an entertainer, but he certainly knows how to work his subtle humor and catch the audience’s attention with a playful side that he had seldom revealed before.
While Sheng, who appears to take his time speaking, is hardly the first to come to mind at the mention of the word “speediness,” he himself may suggest otherwise.
“I am more of a forward if we are speaking in terms of basketball players,” Sheng said.
“Especially when it comes to playing mahjong, I am always ahead of others when it’s my chance to win ... only the other three players are usually old fellows already in their 80s,” he said.
Sheng’s strong sense of responsibility to his profession was clearly demonstrated when he survived a horrific helicopter crash.
After the chopper plunged to the ground, Sheng’s first priority was not to address his injuries, but to conduct an on-the-spot interview for his TV news station.
However, the man who was willing to endure injuries for the sake of work is also the same man who missed a scheduled news report because he was too occupied drinking and watching basketball with martial arts novelist Gu Lung (古龍).
“Most of our public image on TV is just a pretense,” Sheng said.
Speaking about the sensational story line of the crime drama that many deemed to be his “magnum opus,” Sheng said he was also concerned that the shows “set some bad examples.”
“When a crime is recreated in detail, the chance of it being imitated is higher. However, the truth is that most news reports on criminal cases nowadays tend to be far more revealing than what we have seen in the shows,” Sheng said.
As for what the future holds, Sheng said he did not set any limits for himself and was ready to embrace every opportunity in life.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS