Talk:Stephen Chow

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Contents

[edit] His surname

Is his surname "Chiau" instead? A report on SCMP, the best selling English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, on Page C1 on November 24 used "Stephen Chiau". — Instantnood 16:21, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

He uses Chow in movie credit. But it is very possible that his official name on his ID card spells Chiau. It is also possible that it was a misprint on SCMP though very unlikely. Hong Kong took in millions of refugees from various parts of China when China opened its gate right after the civil war. The spelling of their names depends on the dialect of these refugee's origins. Many younger generation inherited the spelling of their father's names which were done without a standardized transliteration back in the refugee rush during 1940 and 1950. Chiau is a very uncommon spelling for his name. Note that when the Chinese refugees rushed to the British colony half a century ago, the majority of these refugees (except those who were exposed to Western influence in Shanghai) didn't know any English. i.e. the spelling of their own names was at the mercy of the workers/interpreters who handled their registration for the British government. There might or might not be a consistent transliteration system in use back then. Another factor is the origin of these refugees. The system in use might not work well with how the refugees pronounced their names in their own arcane Chinese dialect. Given the wide diversity of spellings of the same name, I would bet the transliteration back then was an arbituary thing.Kowloonese 01:55, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
Google found 39K entries for Stephen Chiau and 1.9M entries for Stephen Chow. The former may be his lesser-known official name and the latter his stage name. Kowloonese 23:55, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
The news report was about a man who's convicted for keeping the lost identity card of Chiau. A possible way would be looking it up in the court proceedings. — Instantnood 19:14, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
It shouldn't matter too much which is his real name, as printed on ID. Many Chinese artists do not use their original name but adopt a screen name. What matters is how he is addressed by his fans. It truly makes no sense that the title of the page is Stephen Chow but he is constantly referred to within the article as Stephen Chiau.--Andi kan 04:27, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
Not to belabor the point, but his "real" name is 周星馳. Everything else is an approximation of this name. "Chow", "Chiow" "Chiau", "Tshao", "Txiau" would all be attempts to toss together western sounds to approximate his name. Its kind of like reading street signs in Bangkok- you'll see a nearly infinite number of ways to approximate a single thai word using roman characters. Dxco 20:15, 14 February 2007 (UTC)
It really should be Chow uniformly, per all these comments. Chow is his trade name, whether or not it's "correct" (whatever that means). It is clearly the spelling which is most frequently used in English, and so we must go with it per WP:NC(CN). Barring any new ideas in this discussion, I will change it in a few days. Staecker 12:50, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The triad connection

Is there any solid evidence on the claim of Stephen's triad connection? It is a serious accusation. If it is just hearsay, shouldn't it be deleted? Wilsonbond 18:58, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't know the answer, but I am not surprised. Movie business means big money. It is common knowledge that the triad are involved in many cases. Some people theorize that it is the reason why an unproportionally large number of Hong Kong movies are about gangster, police story etc. because it is the subject these filmmakers are most familiar with. Kowloonese 02:06, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
Guns are not allowed in Hong Kong, wich is the main reasson why the gang uses Axes. Something for wich the Triad is very noticeable for is the use of cuting weapons for intimidation.


[edit] Poor English

There's a few examples of poor English in this article that really need to be cleaned up. In some cases, I really have no idea what the author was intending to say. For instance, "In Stephen Chow's performance, mo lei tau scripts was once fashionable in Hong Kong." What does that mean?

Well, I guess it means "mo lei tau type of films were once more popular in Hong Kong" or something, (can't decipher Engrish...argh.) also, remember to sign your posts using four tildes. --Ericlaw02 16:26, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Professional career

"...continuing Chow's infamous tradition of introducing young female actresses ..." Why is "infamous" used here? Does scandal frequently result from this, or is this simply a matter of the wrong word being used here? ("infamous"=bad, "famous"=good).Dxco 00:46, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Been months since that comment, so I just deleted the 'infamous'. Totally loaded word here, makes Chow sound misogynist or something. Beagle17 19:08, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

A check on Google shows that all other Web references to Chow playing "Black and white vampire" came from this Wiki entry. This needs a citation. Beagle17 19:05, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Quotes?!

Do we really need to have those quotes here? I don't think they give any meaning for normal readers of Wikipedia Rskoly 10:12, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

And the las ones aren't even translated. Leave that to wikiquotes. ViccoLizcano(unsigned)

[edit] Better Picture Please!

Someone should find a better picture of Chow that can be legally used. Half of his face is covered in this one! ask123 (talk) 20:38, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Journey To The West

Sony Pictures in collaboration with China Film Group [CFG] have given the go ahead to Stephen Chow to start work on Journey To The West with a budget of 100 million US. With Stephen Chow, Kitty Zhang Yuqi. An epic retelling of a 16th century Chinese literary classic. Mr Chow is currently in discussion with Will Smith star of I Am Legend to collaborate. [1] Blimey! Twobells (talk) 22:57, 14 April 2008 (UTC)