Frankie Lam Believes Hong Kong's Education is Lacking

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Acting for over twenty years, Frankie Lam (林文龍) has worked with all the major Hong Kong television broadcasters as well as Mainland China. Becoming a breakout star in his twenties, Frankie described his former employer TVB as the “Old World” compared to HKTV’s production methods.

“The filming methods under the ‘Old World’ and HKTV are very different. An actor’s rest period alone is worlds apart. In the ‘Old World’, I didn’t sleep for five days and five nights. However, HKTV allows 12 hours of sleep [every night]. However, since I was only in my twenties, if [TVB] said they wanted to promoted me, I couldn’t complain that the working conditions were too harsh. Otherwise, the opportunities would be given to someone else. The reasoning is very simple: ‘If one eats salted fish, one must withstand thirst.'”

Since HKTV failed to obtain its free-to-air broadcasting license from the Hong Kong government and the online ratings were low, the station announced that it will no longer develop dramas. After three years, Frankie’s drama Hidden Faces <三面形醫》> was finally released – and much to his dismay, the drama did not perform as well as he thought it would. In contrast to TVB, many of HKTV’s dramas are fairly dark and revolve around rather touchy subjects. Hidden Faces explores the world of plastic surgery and the sacrifices for beauty. In order to showcase the authenticity of the plastic surgeries, real life procedures were used in the series. Unfortunately, the series was too mature for the viewers taste and ratings were subpar.

Talking about his HKTV debut, Frankie sighed, “To be honest, I’m not really enthusiastic about it since there has been no response at all. From being full of hope to waiting over three years [for its broadcast], all these positive energies have disappeared! Even though Hidden Faces has been released, it’s akin to one of TVB’s warehoused dramas – there’s no excitement for having it aired.”

Criticizes Hong Kong Education

With one more HKTV series Night Shift <夜班> to be released, Frankie lacks optimism for its reception. Despite the bleak future with HKTV, Frankie speaks enthusiastically about his personal life outside of work. With his daughter entering first grade next year, Frankie admitted that he had thought about immigrating to Singapore for the sake of his daughter’s education.

Both Frankie and Kenix Kwok (郭可盈) view the Hong Kong education system in a very negative light. He said, “It is meaningless for Hong Kong schools to keep giving more homework. This does not stimulate children’s imagination, resulting in all children becoming the same.”

Although he wants a good education for Tania, Frankie expressed the importance of healthy learning and vowed to never become a monster parent who forces their children into doing homework every day. In comparison to other parents, Frankie will not enroll Tania in endless extra-curricular classes, but will give her freedom to express herself naturally. “The journey of growing up should involve play because it will be [a lot of work] after elementary school. Of course, we should have lots of fun during these years!”

Marriage with Kenix

Since Kenix grew up in a wealthy background, the media often portrayed Kenix as marrying beneath her means. Frankie did not mind the gossip, as he has been working diligently to give his family a comfortable life. The couple’s marriage was threatened in 2009 with Frankie’s involvement with Mainland actress Vicki Dong, but they learned to cherish each other and worked out the problems in their relationship.

Together with Kenix for 21 years, Frankie revealed that he is an attentive husband. He is not a confrontational person and will avoid arguing with Kenix. He also shows his appreciation through gifts. “Women loves gifts. Even if a man only earns a salary of $10,000 HKD, he should give a $10,000 HKD purse to his girlfriend. I will give gifts to my wife during holidays. I remember all the important dates. There are several months in the year that are especially busy: my wife’s birthday in November, Christmas in December, my daughter’s birthday in January, Valentine’s Day in February, our marriage anniversary in March, and our dating anniversary in April. I’m free the rest of the year!”



Creds: stheadline

 

Test scores are meaningless in school (it's important to get into a good University though to further your education ). The true skill that kids need to learn from school is problem solving, not memorization.

 

Should mostly be housewives and their son

TVB is family friendly dramas that you can air in prime time slot (dinner time). For touchy subjects which sometimes are more interesting, better to leave them for the weekend or non-dinner times. You don't want to be seeing shit that upsets your stomach when you're eating (if that's the case, didn't watch the drama) g