Sheren Tang: In Hong Kong, there are not many dramas about good women. Basically, female artistes above the age of 30 do not have many roles to play. Their artistic life in Hong Kong is not long; they have to venture into China market.

Mainland producer Yu Zheng:
We have a huge cast; we do not let our female artistes work for more than 14 hours daily, and one costume for our drama can cost tens of thousands. Which part of these can TVB achieve?

Apart from Charmaine Sheh who was rumored to have left TVB for Mainland, there are others like Joe Ma and Bowie Lam. Recently, Tavia Yeung, Myolie Wu and Raymond Lam have also gone to Mainland to act in the dramas. So does the Mainland just welcome dramas as long as they are first-line artistes from Hong Kong? Not necessarily. Mainland producer Yu Zheng, who spared no efforts in ‘poaching’ Hong Kong artistes, revealed to NanDu reporter, “Three years ago, apart from those Hong Kong movie stars who were able to sell their flims here, there are only Charmaine Sheh and Sheren Tang. Three years later, it is still the case. Last year, the dramas that were selling very well in the Mainland are just ‘Rosy Business’ and ‘Realm of Conscience’. That’s it. Charmaine Sheh and Sheren Tang, they dominate half of the market all these years.”

Sheren Tang, who has ventured into the Mainland market, is considered the representative of the earlier generation before Charmaine Sheh. Last year, after Sheren Tang got the Best Actress twice in a row, Head of department of TVB Le Yi Ling once said that she would offer a high price to sign this ‘outsider’ as TVB management contract artist. But it failed. Recently Sheren Tang turned down TVB’s offer to play a courtesan role in its ancient drama, and accepted Mainland’s offer of as high as 3 times more than TVB to play a role in ‘Allure Snow’. Yu Zheng, who is known for producing ‘women’ show, and Sheren Tang have become good friends after working together for many times. Yu Zheng accepts the interview by NanDu reporter and talks about the cooperation with Sheren Tang in the recent years, and also about the experience of ‘poaching’ TVB artistes.

In Hong Kong, good artistes are not being respected and actresses do not have a long way.
NanDu reporter got to know the other side of Sheren Tang, when she got very popular due to the drama ‘War and Beauty’ in 2004. During the costume tryout for ‘War and Beauty’, the four artistes met the reporters together but the cameras were seldom on Sheren Tang. That kind of invisible discrimination and exclusion made Sheren Tang feel that it is very tough to be a good female actress in Hong Kong. At that time, Sheren wrote a letter to the actress whom she admires, Liu Xiaoqing, who just got out of prision. The two of them forged a friendship. When she did not get the TVB best actress award although she was the hot favorite in 2004, Liu Xiaoqing told her “Come back to Mainland to act, the Mainland needs female actresses like you. The mainland market is very huge and the audiences are very loyal. They would want to watch you, as long as you are good at acting. Age is not a problem at all. So long as you work hard towards your acting, the audience would love you. I even want to act till I die or until I don’t want to act anymore!” This has stunned Sheren. She thought for a long time about her position in TVB and said “In Hong Kong, there are not many dramas about good women. Basically, female artistes above the age of 30 do not have many roles to play. Their artistic life in Hong Kong is not long; they have to venture into China market. In the Mainland, who would say that Siqin Gaowa is old, should retire and not act anymore? Everyone will only say that she is very good at acting, and her artistic life deserves worthy respect. There are many roles of different ages. In fact, the older the age of the role is, the more scenes there will be for the role and sometimes it can even be the lead of the drama.” This is also why Sheren Tang had her first thought of wanting to venture into the mainland market.

Since then, Liu Xiaoqing has been helping Sheren to get roles in mainland dramas. After ‘Hui Niang Wan Xin’, the first mainland drama for Sheren which Liu Xiaoqing also had a part in the drama, became popular, many mainland producers came forward to ask for Sheren. Yu Zheng , known for writing scripts about women, had an affinity with Sheren Tang because of the drama ‘Rose Wild World’ that they cooperated three years ago.

How Sheren Tang has the foresight and chooses the correct script?
Not abandoning Hong Kong dramas completely, Sheren raises price after winning Best Actress based on “No Regrets”

As long as she could act together with her idol, no matter how small the role is or how little the pay she gets, Sheren would go all out to act well when she accepted her first mainland drama ‘Hui Niang Wan Xin’. Now, her pay in the mainland has increased by a lot and she is also known for being very picky when it comes to choosing the script.

There are rumors that say Sheren Tang turned down the offer of TVB’s new drama to act in the hundred thousand RMB per episode drama, ‘Allure of Snow’. Although she was crowned twice in a row for Best Actress, her pay still remains at thirty thousand HKD per episode in TVB. Yu Zheng told the NanDu reporter “The offer that I gave to Sheren is the highest price that a TVB artist can get for acting in the mainland drama. Actually it is considered very high in the mainland. Even though there are rumors that say whoever is getting how much money but to really get hundred thousand per episode is really a very high price. In comparison to mainland actresses who are like Sheren in terms of age and status, Sheren is still getting higher than them.”

However to Yu Zheng, he thinks that Sheren agreed to accept the offer is not due to the money. “She is too picky, these few years she seldom acts in other dramas apart from my ‘Rose Wild World’ and Li Shunci’s ‘Women under the arch’. At her age, she is no longer pursuing fame and wealth, she has everything. She is willing to act only when there is a very good storyline and a role that captures her. In ‘Allure of Snow’, Sheren will act as a snobbish woman with harsh words but deep within loves her family. She will have almost the same amount of scenes as the lead actress, Dong Jie. For an actress her age, it is quite difficult to find a role that has so many scenes and yet able to portray her acting skills.”

In response to those artistes who have ventured into the Mainland market and accept any lousy roles just because of the money, Sheren Tang insists that she chooses the work that she thinks has quality. Last year she did tell the NanDu reporter that she would rather turn down the Mainland’s offer and give up the high pay just to leave a schedule for “No Regrets” because she has confidence in the script and cast. Apparently, this decision that she made is farsighted. She was crowned the Best actress twice in a row based on “No Regrets”, and her pay in the Mainland has increased once again, from 70,000 to 100,000 per episode.

Mainland showbiz is getting more attractive in the recent years, with dramas of billion dollar budget emerging, actors having enough sleep... "Can TVB do the same?"

In the recent years, mainland has productions that are good, the conditions and facilities are also way better than TVB. The cast are treated well, and they get many hours of sleep every day unlike in TVB, where they have to stay up till very late. Moreover the pay is 3 to 4 times much higher than TVB; who would not want a higher pay and better welfare?” This is what the Hong Kong artistes who go to mainland say, the most frequent words that reporters hear. And of course, Sheren Tang is no exception.

Last year, Sheren accepted the role in “No Regrets” regardless of the price. She knew that the story is during the war period and it would be a great challenge for TVB, with limited resources in production. For a new drama, TVB usually has a budget of only 2 to 3 million HKD, whereas for Mainland, it can go over tens of millions RMB, and it is the case for the recent years. ‘Allure of snow’ is just one of the many dramas about women in the Mainland, and yet the budget for the production has estimated to be almost 1 billion RMB! Each episode production goes over 2 million, which is used for building the palaces in the drama and also to build a replica of the Suzhou Garden.



During the finale of ‘No Regrets’, Sheren Tang said with disappointment “We cannot go beyond Hong Kong to film; we can only stay in the city street in the TVB studio so it does not look very real. To film such troubled times during war, we have agreed to use tattered and torn clothing. But every time when the costumes arrive, there are all brand new! We did try to fight from the company but it is still a systematic company, it is hard to do something extra just for one drama.” This kind of frustration is getting rare in the Mainland team in the recent years. The mainland showbiz has huge amount of resources in terms of money. Dramas with billion dollar budget, luxurious cast, team of international cast are no longer trendy and new.



Of course Sheren cleary knows the upper hand that the Mainland production group has. “’Allure of snow’ has a cast much bigger than TVB and the modeling is by the well-known Hong Kong Film Award winner who also did modeling for the movie “Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom of Flame”. How much money can a set of costume for Sheren Tang in TVB cost? In this drama, we give her 15 sets of costumes and each costs a few tens of thousands. We will not let our female artistes work more than 14 hours a day and Sheren told me she would at most work for 13 hours. These are all in the contract that we will sign. Which one can TVB achieve?” From the tone of mainland producer Yu Zheng, it is not hard to tell the widening gap of the two entertainment showbiz and also the direction of people.