Winning TVB stars

He used to play small supporting roles. But last Saturday in Singapore, Hong Kong actor Ruco Chan finally had his day in the sun.

The 37-year-old won the My Favourite TVB Actor award at this year's StarHub TVB Awards held at Marina Bay Sands.

Along with the Favourite TVB Actress accolade, it is the top award at the ticketed fan-oriented event.

When receiving his award, Chan said, "In my first few years, I didn't meet with a lot of success. But I told myself that if I keep at it, my day will come. Today, it has. Thank you."

He has been slogging away in the industry since he was 17. According to reports, he graduated from TVB's Artist Training Class in 1994, left in 1998, joined rival station ATV in 2001 and re-joined TVB in 2008.

After the ceremony, he said: "Getting an award is certainly an encouragement to me."

Charmaine Sheh, 39, won My Favourite TVB Actress.

She said, "It's not easy to get an award. A lot of people help us, from the scriptwriters to the lighting crew. This award does not just belong to me, but to the whole team."

Him Law and Sharon Chan won the new My Favourite TVB Supporting Actor and Actress awards.

Best New TVB Artiste went to Louis Cheung, who played a villain in the thriller Black Heart White Soul.

Said the 35-year-old, "I'd like to thank all the seniors and friends who didn't scold me and taught me many good things.

"This is my first time in Singapore and I love bak kut teh."

Black Heart White Soul bagged the most number of trophies - four in total, including My Favourite TVB Drama, Male Character (Roger Kwok), Female Character (Kristal Tin) and On-screen Couple (Kwok and Tin).

Linda Chung, 30, who wore a colourful floral dress, won the Red Carpet Star Award for the second year running.

The former beauty queen, who was Miss Chinese International Pageant 2004, said,

"Singapore is such a vibrant and exciting place, so I wore many flowers to capture this feeling."

She was asked to perform a catwalk onstage and sportingly complied, complete with a pageant-style wave.

The StarHub TVB Awards was started in 2010 to thank viewers in Singapore for their support of the station's programming on StarHub TV.

The awards ceremony this year was hosted by Carol Cheng and Derek Li and was attended by about 2,000 audience members.

Some performances of the night included Hong Kong singer Alex To's sexy rendition of the song Kiss. Nancy Sit and Wong Cho Lam also performed the song We Are Singapore, dressed in traditional ethnic outifts.

A total of 17 awards were presented, with 13 open to public voting.

The event was telecast live on E City (StarHub Channels 111 and 825) and will be repeated on VV Drama (StarHub TV Channel 855) on Saturday at 8pm.

This article was first published on October 13, 2014.
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