Gregory Charles Rivers

Gregory Charles Rivers
Chinese name 河國榮 (traditional)
Chinese name 河国荣 (simplified)
Born (1965-04-30) 30 April 1965
Australia
Years active 1988–present

Gregory Charles Rivers (Chinese: 河國榮; Jyutping: Ho4 Gwok3wing4; born 1965) is a Hong Kong actor of Australian heritage.

Biography

Rivers hails from Gympie, Queensland, and attended medical school at University of New South Wales, where he was friends with students from Hong Kong who introduced to Cantopop. After obtaining his degree in 1987, he moved to Hong Kong.[1][2] Two weeks after he landed, he ran into some band members of Alan Tam, who he had driven for whilst in Sydney, and was invited to sing with him.[2]

Now speaking fluent Cantonese, he was a TVB actor until 2008.[3] As a debutant with a modicum of Cantonese, Rivers auditioned for a role for a caucasian at TVB and was surprisingly chosen.[2] Rivers adopted a Chinese name, made up of the Chinese equivalent of "river" (河) and the name of his idol Leslie Cheung. He jokes that he was "TVB's token Caucasian for 20 years straight", having played many different stereotyped role in more than 200 dramas for TVB.[2] He has also appeared on stage, as protagonist, in 2005. The Aussie often says that in Hong Kong, he's found America. He is also a frequent YouTube poster, having his own prolific number of video clips of himself and his many colleagues within the Hong Kong media industry.[4]

In a TV interview aired on 19 March 2007 on TVB, Rivers mentioned his reason for learning Cantonese was his association with Hong Kong Cantonese-speaking friends during his time at university at the age of 20 years. It was this close friendship which led him to become more interested in the learning the language when he first heard the songs sung by Leslie Cheung, inspiring him to learn the words so he could sing it.

In October 2007, Rivers was one of the four non-Chinese TV actors featured in an in-depth interview and feature story 'Hello Neighbour' in Muse, discussing his sense of cultural identity and how he sees his work.[5]

Although from Australia, he voiced the aspirations of Hong Kongers with his commitment to Hong Kong and its way of life.[6] His performance of the song "Forever ATV", which made fun of the apparent government support for Asia Television – the Hong Kong television station that was on the brink of collapse and finally stripped of its broadcasting licence – was awarded "2015 Hong Kong's most popular male singer" on TVMost's 1st Guy Ten Big Ging Cook Gum Cook Awards Distribution in Jan 2016.[2][6]

Filmography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
TVB (1988–2008)
Movies

References

  1. ↑ 香港一家人﹕河國榮安貧樂道 [Hong Kong family: Gregory Charles Rivers]. Ta Kung Pao (in Chinese). 3 May 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "From Gympie schoolboy to Asian pop star: Hong Kong celebrates Gregory Rivers with top award". ABC News. 14 January 2016.
  3. ↑ 文國駿 (5 May 2014). 嘆生活艱難河國榮擺檔賣首飾. 蘋果日報 (in Chinese).
  4. ↑ HoKwokWing – via YouTube.
  5. ↑ Chow, Vivienne (October 2007). "Hello Neighbour". Muse Magazine (9): 44–57.
  6. 1 2 "How TVMost show made its audience feel like Hongkongers". EJ Insight. 12 January 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, February 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.