Despite the growing amount of disputes between Hong Kong locals and Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong’s television channel TVB Jade recently aired its first episode of Inbound Troubles, which sparked an array of complaints claiming the show is deepening already severe cultural conflicts.
January 14th marks the show’s first episode, presenting the eclectic cast, comprised of an aggressive Hong Kong tour guide (Angela Tong), an aspiring singer born in Hong Kong, but raised in the Mainland (Wong Cho Lam), and a love affair between a Hong Kong man struggling to speak Mandarin (Roger Kwok) and his interest (Man Yee Man).
The show already plans to portray real life conflicts that have occurred, including last year’s incident in which locals were allegedly prohibited from taking photographs in front of Tsim Sha Tsui’s Dolce and Gabbana store. Since the show’s pilot, Inbound Troubles has already reached upwards of 60 complaints and members of the cast, crew and even the show’s director, Wong Wai Sing, have claimed to be harassed.
Tsang Sing-ming, TVB’s deputy controller of external affairs, announced that the show was never meant to evoke controversy and “the essence of the show is about how mainlanders can integrate themselves into Hong Kong society”.
In spite of the show’s criticisms, Inbound Troubles received an average of 1.9 million viewers after the first episode, showing that the drama’s unconventional plot seems to be generating more than just controversy.
Go to:
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Showbiz/Story/A1Story20130119-396595.html
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1131883/tvb-drama-draws-complaints-fuelling-hong-kong-mainland-conflict