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.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires