At the TVB Anniversary Gala held on Saturday, event MC Grace Chan (陳凱琳) had people shaking their heads with tears and laughter when she uttered a wrong Chinese idiom to the camera, causing veteran host Carol Cheng (鄭裕玲) to immediately clarify the mistake after commercial break. The annual live show, which was to celebrate TVB’s 49th anniversary, was hosted by Carol Cheng, Liza Wang (汪明荃), and Nat Chan (陳百祥), with the support of co-hosts Grace Chan, Janis Chan (陳貝兒), Wong Cho-lam (王祖藍), Luk Ho-ming (陸浩明), and 2016 Mr. Hong Kong runner-up Karl Ting (丁子朗). In an MC segment where Grace was to express her thoughts on the hard work by TVB artists, the Canadian-raised actress erroneously used the four-character idiom “smashed into pieces” (粉身碎骨; fan san seoi gwat) instead of “dashing ahead regardless of safety” (奮不顧身; fan bat gu san). Carol immediately clarified Grace’s actual meaning after commercial break. Grace’s misuse of her four-character idioms stirred netizens’ interest, and the Brother’s Keeper 2 <巨輪II> star once again became a hot topic of discussion online. Netizens left both negative and positive reactions toward Grace’s mistake. Her boyfriend Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎), who showed up at a camera commencement ceremony for the new Fruit Chan (陳果) film Made in Kowloon <九龍不敗>, defended Grace and said, “She’s never really studied Chinese before, and so she always messes up her idioms.” (What language do you guys communicate in?) “Sometimes Cantonese, sometimes English. Mandarin too. So three languages.” Kevin said it is not uncommon for Grace to mix up her idioms, as she often commits the same mistakes when she’s shooting dramas. “This isn’t her first time. When she was working with my friend Ben Wong (黃智賢) in a drama, she always got her idioms mixed up in her dialogue. But because she said them so naturally and fluently, it took them a while to realize it.” The 47-year-old found Grace’s mistakes endearing, adding that he would make sure to give her more advice “when [he goes] home.” He then added with a laugh, “She wanted to say ‘fan bat gu san,’ right? Not bad! It kind of makes sense. Both have the word ‘fan’! We get what she’s trying to say. Both can be interpreted to mean hard working.” After interviewing Kevin, the reporters phoned Grace, who said, “[Kevin’s] always been very supportive and encouraging. When I shot Wulin Revival <翻生武林> with John Chiang (姜大衛) and Ben Wong, they always joked about how I spoke fluent gibberish.” Creds: Oriental Daily
Both idioms have the words "fan" and "san". Next time just say "fan" and "san" (or "san" and "fan") and we the audience can just interpret it as working hard!
