Phua Chu Kang
Encyclopedia
Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, also known as PCK Pte Ltd or Phua Chu Kang for short (鬼馬家族 in Chinese), was a Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

an sitcom on MediaCorp TV Channel 5
MediaCorp TV Channel 5
MediaCorp Channel 5 or Channel 5 is a 24-hour free-to-air English and Malay language television channel based in Singapore....

. The show debuted in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 in 1997. A sequel, Phua Chu Kang Sdn. Bhd. debuted on NTV7
Ntv7
Natseven TV Sdn Bhd or better known as ntv7 is a terrestrial television channel in Malaysia. It was launched nationwide on 7 April 1998 and was the country's third private free-to-air TV station after TV3 and Astro. Its mission is to promote a happier and more enlightened Malaysia...

 on March 25, 2009 and will air in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

's MediaCorp TV Channel 5
MediaCorp TV Channel 5
MediaCorp Channel 5 or Channel 5 is a 24-hour free-to-air English and Malay language television channel based in Singapore....

 on October 6, 2009.

The sitcom centers around an eccentric contractor with his trademark yellow boots and large facial mole. While it carries the traditions of a sitcom, many unusual elements were used such as flashbacks, quick gags and celebrity cameo appearances.

Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd

The series revolves around the Phua family, most notably Phua Chu Kang (Gurmit Singh
Gurmit Singh
Gurmit Ottawan Singh Gurmit Ottawan Singh Gurmit Ottawan Singh (born March 24, 1965; is a popular Singaporean actor, host and comedy performer. He is best known for his role in Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, and is one of the leading artistes in MediaCorp.-Life:...

), a contractor who boasts that he is the "Best in Singapore, JB
Johor Bahru
Johor Bahru is the capital city of Johor in southern Malaysia. Johor Bahru is the southernmost city of the Eurasian mainland...

, and some say Batam
Batam
Batam is an island and city in Riau Islands Province of Indonesia, known for its free trade zone area as part of the Sijori Growth Triangle, is located off Singapore's south coast...

" - this is despite the fact that he has only two men working for him and they are both inept and lazy. He is also noted for his famous cliché or catchphrase: "Don't play play" (pronounce as "pray pray" according to his articulation). There is also another famous catchphrase which is being used in his famous 2003 music video called "PCK Sar-vivor Rap", that is, "Use your brain!" . His personal clothing trademarks are his yellow pair of boots, curly hair, a giant black mole
Melanocytic nevus
A melanocytic nevus is a type of lesion that contains nevus cells .Some sources equate the term mole with "melanocytic nevus". Other sources reserve the term "mole" for other purposes....

, and long nails on his pinky fingers. Phua Chu Kang is portrayed as an "Ah Beng
Ah Beng
Ah Beng, from , is a stereotype applied to a certain group of young Chinese men in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore and Malaysia. The stereotypical view of an Ah Beng is a young Chinese man or teenager who lacks cultural refinement or indulges in criminal activity or is involved in brawls or...

", which is a Singlish
Singlish
Colloquial Singaporean English, also known as Singlish, is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore.Singlish is commonly regarded with low prestige in Singapore. The Singaporean government and many Singaporeans alike heavily discourage the use of Singlish in favour of Standard English...

 slang for a stereotypical, uneducated Chinese gangster, complete with habits such as hoisting one leg up on the seat of a chair when he sits down and growing one long fingernail to scratch his ears.

His family and Relations

Phua Chu Kang lives with his wife, Rosie (Irene Ang) who loves playing mahjong
Mahjong
Mahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players...

 and wearing loud, colourful clothing. At the end of Season 6, she gave birth to twins, Romeo Ferrari and Crystal Jade. Chu Kang's brother is Anthony Phua Chu Beng (Pierre Png
Pierre Png
Pierre Png is a Peranakan Chinese Singaporean MediaCorp television and film actor and comedian who works on both Channel 5 and Channel 8 . He is best known for his role as Phua Chu-Beng in Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd and as Mo Yangyang in Holland V...

) who works for PCK Pte Ltd as an architect (his specialty being designing toilets). While Chu Kang is often regarded as strong but stupid, Chu Beng is the sissy but smart son. The one person who drives Chu Beng crazy is his obsessive compulsive vegetarian wife, Margaret Phua (Tan Kheng Hua
Tan Kheng Hua
Tan Kheng Hua is a popular Singaporean actress best known for her role as Margaret Phua in Singapore-based MediaCorp TV Channel 5's longest-running hit television sitcom Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd...

) who consistently makes fun of her brother and sister in law. Together, they have a son, Aloysius Phua (Marcus Ng), most notably known as "Aloy" for short, who worships his uncle more than his dad.
Another family member is Ah Ma (Neo Swee Lin), Chu Kang and Chu Beng's mother. She left at the end of Season 4 to be with her new love.
Chu Kang's two lazy workers are fat and lazy King Kong (Charlie Tan) who loves "tau huay"
Douhua
Douhua or doufuhua is a Chinese dessert made with very soft tofu. It is also referred to as tofu pudding and soybean pudding.-History:...

 (a Chinese bean curd dessert) and slow-witted eyecandy Ah Goon (Ray Kuan) who dresses in revealing denim cut-offs all the time. In season 2 Phua Chu Kang's old Classmate Pang Sai appeared for one episode. Along with Gurmit Singh, Charlie Tan has been an original cast member with the series, winning hearts from Season 1.

Former Cast Members

  • Alwin Low acted as Ah Boon (from season 1 to season 2).
  • Don Yap acted as Ah Soon (from season 2 to season 3).
  • Neo Swee Lin acted as Ah Ma (from season 1 to season 4).
  • Edwin Chong acted as Phua Chu Beng (in season 1).

Production history

The Phua Chu Kang character made his first appearance in the second season of "Gurmit's World", a comedy in which Gurmit Singh portrayed his 'relatives' in a series of skits.

In addition, PCK handed out clues at one of the detours of The Amazing Race 3
The Amazing Race 3
The Amazing Race 3 is the third installment of the reality television show, The Amazing Race. This season featured 12 teams of two, with a pre-existing relationship, in a race around the world, making it the first season to have 12 teams...

. Participants in the race were required to locate an HDB apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...

 in Choa Chu Kang
Choa Chu Kang
Choa Chu Kang is a major residential town and neighbourhood and is a suburban area in the West Region of Singapore...

, Singapore where they would be given the clues by PCK. Apparently, the original idea was to have PCK at the pit stop alongside Phil Keoghan
Phil Keoghan
Philip John "Phil" Keoghan is a New Zealand-born television personality, best known for hosting the U.S. version of The Amazing Race on CBS, since its 2001 debut. He is also the creator and host of No Opportunity Wasted, which has been produced in the United States, New Zealand, and Canada...

 (at the end of every stage of The Amazing Race, there would be a local person dressed in traditional clothing welcoming the contestants to the country), but Singaporeans protested that this would give foreigners the wrong impression of the local people in general. http://ch5.mediacorptv.com/wassup/interviews/view/70/1/.html

In the debut season of the show, Edwin Chong played Phua Chu Beng but ceased to be in the cast as of season 2. Pierre
Pierre Png
Pierre Png is a Peranakan Chinese Singaporean MediaCorp television and film actor and comedian who works on both Channel 5 and Channel 8 . He is best known for his role as Phua Chu-Beng in Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd and as Mo Yangyang in Holland V...

 permanently took over the role from the second season and has made the role popular ever since.
In the year 2003, during the SARS
Severe acute respiratory syndrome
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is a respiratory disease in humans which is caused by the SARS coronavirus . Between November 2002 and July 2003 an outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong nearly became a pandemic, with 8,422 cases and 916 deaths worldwide according to the WHO...

 outbreak, PCK had also appeared in a music video called "PCK Sar-vivor Rap". http://ch5.mediacorptv.com/wassup/announcements/view/181/1/.html This 4-minute long music video is to teach the local people on how to prevent SARS in their country. Sar-vivor Rap (Video) Moreover, it also comes with an audio version (with remix) of the song. Sar-vivor Rap (Audio Remix) In addition, his music video also comes with a limited edition compilation album which the album name is "The Sar-vivor Rap" which was announced for its album launched on July 1, 2003 and it was available in all Singapore local music stores. http://ch5.mediacorptv.com/wassup/ch5announcements/view/194/1/.html This album also includes 14 bonus tracks from artises such as Mandy Moore
Mandy Moore
Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore is an American singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Moore became famous as a teenager in the late 1990s, after the release of her teen pop albums So Real, I Wanna Be with You, and Mandy Moore. In 2007, she took an adult pop-folk direction with the release of...

, Destiny's Child
Destiny's Child
Destiny's Child was an American R&B girl group whose final line-up comprised lead singer Beyoncé Knowles alongside Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Formed in 1997 in Houston, Texas, Destiny's Child members began their musical endeavors in their pre-teens under the name Girl's Tyme...

 and Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson
Jessica Ann Simpson is an American recording artist, actress, television personality, and fashion designer whose rise to fame began in 1999. Since that time, Simpson has achieved many recording milestones, starred in several television shows, movies, and commercials, launched a line of hair and...

.

The character has recently also made a guest appearance on the seventh episode in a local sitcom called ABC DJ
ABC DJ
ABC DJ is a Singaporean sitcom on MediaCorp TV Channel 5. This show is most notable for its culture shock and racial discrimination media.-DJ and Master Zhang:...

. http://mobtv.sg/Web/UserPortal/Detail.aspx?TI=TId3a16ba24957496b8f15852cd4bb14b5

PCK has also appeared on two TV advertisements. He, along with Chu Beng, made his first advertisement appearance regarding the introduction of 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...

 mobile services and phones in Malaysia by Maxis
Maxis Communications
Maxis Communications Berhad is a Malaysian cellular operator company headquartered at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was started in the year 1993. It uses the dialing pref ix identifier of "012" , "017" and “0142”. Their mobile services are provided over the 900 & 1800 MHz GSM band and as July 2005,...

 and recently, an advertisement called Bob's Big Surprise. http://www.singapore-expo.com.sg/events_more.asp?EventID_in=550

The last season of this show, Season 8, was aired on October 31, 2006 in Singapore. In this season, there were many guest appearances from other famous local television shows to mark the end of the PCK series. Moreover, according to Gurmit Singh
Gurmit Singh
Gurmit Ottawan Singh Gurmit Ottawan Singh Gurmit Ottawan Singh (born March 24, 1965; is a popular Singaporean actor, host and comedy performer. He is best known for his role in Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, and is one of the leading artistes in MediaCorp.-Life:...

, season 8's shows were more exciting and interesting than episodes in previous seasons. http://ch5.mediacorptv.com/shows/sitcom/view/1342/1/.html

On May 23, 2009, Phua Chu Kang and Rosie made their appearances on the Mass Rapid Transit
Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore)
The Mass Rapid Transit or MRT is a rapid transit system that forms the backbone of the railway system in Singapore, spanning the entire city-state. The initial section of the MRT, between Yio Chu Kang Station and Toa Payoh Station, opened in 1987 establishing itself as the second-oldest metro...

 (MRT), as part of a campaign by Singapore Kindness Movement
Singapore Kindness Movement
The Singapore Kindness Movement is a non-profit organization that executes public education programs aimed at cultivating kindness and graciousness in Singaporean society. It was officially launched in 1997...

 and the public transport authorities. A music video titled "A Happy Journey Starts Like That", similar to the earlier "PCK Sar-vivor Rap", substitutes the security video that is currently shown at LCD displays on other MRT lines. The video reminds that commuters should be gracious and thus creating a happy journey for everyone.

Achievements

Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd won "Best Comedy Programme" at the Asian Television Awards
Asian Television Awards
The Asian Television Awards is an appreciation to recognize and reward programming and production excellence in the Asian television industry. Held every December, the Awards draws about 1,400 entries each year from a wide range of broadcasters, including free-to-air TV stations and pay-TV...

 for six consecutive years from 1998-2003. The cast also won "Best Comedy performance by an actress"- Neo swee lin(1999), Tan Kheng Hua
Tan Kheng Hua
Tan Kheng Hua is a popular Singaporean actress best known for her role as Margaret Phua in Singapore-based MediaCorp TV Channel 5's longest-running hit television sitcom Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd...

(2001) and Irene Ang(2002) as well as "Best Comedy performance by an actor"- Gurmit Singh (1998-2001&2003).

Singlish criticism

This popular comedy is notable for its characters' use of Singlish
Singlish
Colloquial Singaporean English, also known as Singlish, is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore.Singlish is commonly regarded with low prestige in Singapore. The Singaporean government and many Singaporeans alike heavily discourage the use of Singlish in favour of Standard English...

- a hodgepodge of English, Malay and Chinese Dialects- in everyday conversation.

Much like another popular Singaporean sitcom, Under One Roof, the show was put under pressure by the government to use proper English instead of Singlish
Singlish
Colloquial Singaporean English, also known as Singlish, is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore.Singlish is commonly regarded with low prestige in Singapore. The Singaporean government and many Singaporeans alike heavily discourage the use of Singlish in favour of Standard English...

. Critics of the show have labelled Phua Chu Kang as an inaccurate or disgraceful representation of Singapore, and denounced his appearance in The Amazing Race. However, Phua Chu Kang remains immensely popular in Singapore and Malaysia.

Trivia

  • King Kong (played by Charlie Tan) is the lazy, keng-kah-liao (Hokkien for 'Tries to escape all forms of work') of PCK Pte Ltd. In reality, Charlie runs a media and events company and hosts many live shows. He has also appeared in many other English TV productions over the years, prior to PCK Pte Ltd, like Growing Up, Under One Roof and Shiver, and has starred in several children's programmes on TV12 and Kids Central (now known as Okto). Along with Gurmit Singh, Irene Ang and Tan Kheng Hua, Charlie is an original cast member of the hit show, successfully reprising the King Kong role, and starring in all 8 seasons, spanning over 10 years.
  • Ah Goon (played by Ray Kuan) is the goondu (silly person) of the show. In reality, Ray is actually the one with the most impressive academic qualifications of the entire cast. He graduated with honors in Building
    Building
    In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...

     and Real Estate
    Real estate
    In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

     from the National University of Singapore
    National University of Singapore
    The National University of Singapore is Singapore's oldest university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered....

    .
  • Ah Goon is the worker replacing Ah Boon and Ah Soon who also played as Chu Kang's employees in the earlier episodes. They are related as cousins in the series. They also appeared together in an episode featuring them as an upcoming boy band.
  • Gurmit has also made two appearances on Living with Lydia
    Living with Lydia
    Living With Lydia is a Singaporean TV sitcom that was produced by MediaCorp and aired on Channel 5 from 2001 to 2005.-Overview:...

    . In his first appearance we learn that his PCK character once had a somewhat romantic encounter with the series' main character Lydia Lum (Lydia Sum) when she first arrived in Singapore in 1979 to be a "Singapore Girl
    Singapore Girl
    Singapore Girl is a consistent visual advertising slogan applied to depictions of stewardesses of Singapore Airlines dressed in the distinctive "Sarong Kebaya" SIA uniform since 1972 and remains a prominent element of SIA's marketing....

    ." His second appearance was in a cameo as himself with the judges from Singapore Idol
    Singapore Idol
    Singapore Idol is a television show on Channel 5 of MediaCorp TV. It is a competition among undiscovered singers in Singapore. Like others in the Idol series, it is modelled after Pop Idol. The current judges are singer/songwriter Dick Lee and record producers Florence Lian and Ken Lim. Previous...

    .
  • Gurmit's PCK character has also made an appearance on the sixth season of Under One Roof
    Under One Roof
    Under One Roof may refer to:In television:* Under One Roof , an American comedy series previously titled Spencer* Under One Roof , a Japanese series...

     in 2001 where he was called to do renovations for the house of Ah Teck & Dolly's son and daughter in law (played by Andrew Lim and Selena Tan
    Selena Tan
    Selena Tan is an actress and the owner of Dream Academy, most notable as one of the famous Dim Sum Dollies. Tan started acting at age 14. She was educated at Fairfield Medthodist Secondary School and graduated with a law degree from National University of Singapore.-Movies and TV appearances:*...

     respectively.)
  • Gurmit once ate his prosthetic mole, after it fell into a bowl of bubur-chacha which he later had to eat for a scene.
  • Both Singh and Fiona Xie
    Fiona Xie
    -Career:Xie was spotted by a talent scout at the age of fifteen while was studying in St. Hilda's Secondary School. She modeled for numerous print and television commercials in Singapore and Hong Kong before joining MediaCorp Studios as a full-time artiste in 2001....

     would later team up together as regulars on the 2008 sitcom Calefare
    Calefare
    Calefare is an English-language Singaporean comedy series that debuted on Saturday August 9, 2008 on MediaCorp TV's Channel 5 as a "Sneak Preview," airing right after the National Day Parade. The series then began their regular Tuesday night 8:00pm airing on August 19, 2008 for its 13-week run...

    .

Episode guide


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK