Phua Chu Kang

Not to be confused with Choa Chu Kang.

Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Andrea Teo Kenneth Liang
Starring	Gurmit Singh Irene Ang Pierre Png Tan Kheng Hua Marcus Ng Charlie Tan Ray Kuan
Country of origin	Singapore
No. of episodes	167
Production
Executive producer(s)	Ong Su Munn
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	MediaCorp TV Channel 5
Original run	September 25, 1997 – February 11, 2007
External links
Website

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 Singaporean sitcom on MediaCorp TV Channel 5. The show debuted in Singapore in 1997. A sequel, Phua Chu Kang Sdn. Bhd. debuted on NTV7 on March 25, 2009 and will air in Singapore's MediaCorp TV Channel 5 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.

Plot Summary and Cast

Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd

Phua Chu Kang
First appearance	Season 1; Episode 1
Last appearance	Season 8; Episode 14
Portrayed by	Gurmit Singh
Information
Nickname(s)	Kang Kang
Gender	Male
Occupation	CEO of PCK Pte Ltd
Family	Anthony Phua Chu Beng (younger brother), Ah Ma (mother)
Spouse(s)	Rosie Phua Chin Wei
Children	Romeo Ferrari, Crystal Jade
Relatives	Margaret Phua (sister in law), Aloysius Phua (nephew)

The series revolves around the Phua family, most notably Phua Chu Kang (Gurmit Singh), a contractor who boasts that he is the "Best in Singapore, JB, and some say Batam" - 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!" (pronounced as "blain"). His personal clothing trademarks are his yellow pair of boots, curly hair, a giant black mole, and long nails on his pinky fingers. Phua Chu Kang is portrayed as an "Ah Beng", which is a Singlish 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 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) 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) 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" (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. Participants in the race were required to locate an HDB apartment in Choa Chu Kang, 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 (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. [1]

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 permanently took over the role from the second season and has made the role popular ever since.

In the year 2003, during the SARS outbreak, PCK had also appeared in a music video called "PCK Sar-vivor Rap". [2] 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. [3] This album also includes 14 bonus tracks from artises such as Mandy Moore, Destiny's Child and Jessica Simpson.

The character has recently also made a guest appearance on the seventh episode in a local sitcom called ABC DJ. [4]

PCK has also appeared on two TV advertisements. He, along with Chu Beng, made his first advertisement appearance regarding the introduction of 3G mobile services and phones in Malaysia by Maxis and recently, an advertisement called Bob's Big Surprise. [5]

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, season 8's shows were more exciting and interesting than episodes in previous seasons. [6]

On May 23, 2009, Phua Chu Kang and Rosie made their appearances on the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), as part of a campaign by Singapore Kindness Movement 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.^[1] 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 for six consecutive years from 1998-2003. The cast also won "Best Comedy performance by an actress"- Neo swee lin(1999), Tan Kheng Hua(2001) and Irene Ang(2002) as well as "Best Comedy performance by an actor"- Gurmit Singh (1998-2001&2003).

Singlish criticism

Main article: Singlish

This popular comedy is notable for its characters' use of Singlish- 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. 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 and Real Estate from the National University of Singapore.
• 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. 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." His second appearance was in a cameo as himself with the judges from Singapore Idol.
• Gurmit's PCK character has also made an appearance on the sixth season of Under One Roof 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 respectively.)^[2]
• 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 would later team up together as regulars on the 2008 sitcom Calefare.

Episode guide

• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 2)
• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 5)
• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 6)
• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 7)
• Phua Chu Kang episodes (Season 8)

See also

• Phua Chu Kang Sdn Bhd
• Phua Chu Kang The Movie

References

• Ex-teen actor starts jail term for insubordination in NS - AsiaOne
• Ex-teen actor starts jail term for insubordination in NS - Straits Times
• Actor's detention upheld - Today

1. ^ As graciousness drive starts, some want penalties imposed, Today, Zul Othman, 25 May 2009
2. ^ http://www.mediacorpsingapore.com/entertainment/television/2001011002.htm

External links

• Phua Chu Kang at the Internet Movie Database
• Phua Chu Kang - The Musical Official Site
• Phua Chu Kang Programme Showcase
• An interview with the show's stars about Phua Chu Kang - The Musical (Article No. 1)
• An interview with the show's stars about Phua Chu Kang - The Musical (Article No. 2)