James Chu, Meet "James Chu"

Time: 3 P.M., June 10.

Place: Office of the Director, Department of Cultural Affairs, Nationalist Party (Kuomintang).

Teng: Have you ever seen my show?

Chu: Yes. One evening my wife and I got a phone call from a friend who said you were doing an impression of me. I took a look. It was fun.

Teng: Do you know why I did it? My father is a Hakka, but he works in a liquor distillery of the Taiwan and Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau with some people from Foochow. I used to go there to play when I was little, and some of his co-workers spoke Mandarin exactly the same way you do. As soon as I heard the way you speak, I felt warm and close to you, like I was seeing an old friend. It's even easier doing Samuel Shieh, governor of the Central Bank of China, because he talks just like my father.

Chu: I'll tell you a little joke. An old Hakka man from the mainland recently came to Taiwan to visit his relatives. After he saw Governor Shieh on television, he said only one of these government officials here in Taiwan speaks Mandarin properly and that's Shieh. [General laughter.] I've been wondering, how did you come up with the idea of doing impressions of political figures?

Spokesman, hail

Teng: Actually, it was sort of by accident. I always wanted to perform but my father didn't approve, so it I wasn't until I was 27 that I managed to join the professional ranks. I started out doing routines in nightclubs just to make a living. Audience levels have progressed in the past few years, society is more open and everyone has their own political views, so I started doing political takeoffs and impressions.

When I heard you on TV about six months ago, I thought I ought to be able to do a good impression of you, but my friends said, "Why imitate him? He's not a big figure in the news." I told them, "Just wait and see. He will be as soon as the elections roll around." And sure enough, you showed up on TV a lot then and my impression of you was a big hit.

Chu: When I'm out walking down the street, people used to call out Director Chu or Mr. Chu, but now they yell "spokesman." They must have picked it up from your program, I suppose.

Spoofing political heavyweights

Teng: Doing an impression requires gaining an in-depth understanding of the person involved. You have to pay attention to everything they say and do, and not just imitate the voice and gestures, with off-the-wall contents that have nothing to do with their work. I don't think that's fair to the person concerned. I'd like to hear what your opinion is of impression routines.

Chu: I look on the positive side.

I studied mass communications and lived in the U.S. for 25 years. When I came back to Taiwan, I used to tell friends that if we spoofed the president in cartoons and on television, if we told jokes about people in the news, if the people involved accepted it and everyone liked it, then it would mean our political culture had made some progress.

I came back in 1988 and then took over at the Department of Cultural Affairs. During the past three and a half years, I've seen newspaper cartoons starting to make fun of the president and the premier and the appearance of programs like yours. I feel it's a welcome development.

Teng: You were a scholar before entering government and becoming a public figure. Do you ever get tired of handling the treatment that comes with it? Are there any aspects that are hard to deal with, such as being spoofed on TV like this?

Better service next time

Chu: Actually, it doesn't bother me at all. My job is mainly serving reporters. If the news can be announced, I announce it. If it can't, I've got to watch what I say. I take phone calls from reporters at home every evening from 9︰30 to 11︰30, because if you don't give them news and they print erroneous news that they got from somewhere else, they lose face and I look bad.

When I was a student in the U.S., our cultural communications teacher told us a joke about new brides from different cultural backgrounds.

He said that even before she's engaged an English bride discusses with her husband-to-be whether the children should go to Oxford or Cambridge. When a Chinese bride hears a rat gnawing at the rice bag on the evening of her wedding night she tells her husband, "A rat's eating your rice, "but when she hears the same thing later in the night she says "our rice." And a Japanese bride tells her husband, "My apologies! If the service has been poor, I'll try to do better next time."

Our department does press liaison and we're always having to tell reporters, "Sorry! If the service has been poor, we'll try to do better next time," so I often quip that I'm like the Japanese bride in the joke.

Teng: A reporter once wrote that you said you were "very interested" after seeing my routine but you hoped the contents would be "toned down a bit."

Chu: That's not true. I never said that. But a colleague once told me that your program used your impression of me for a commercial....

Professional ethics

Teng: That wasn't right. After I recorded it, I said it wasn't right, that advertising a program in someone else's name is a commercial action and that even though it was my acting, it was your voice and image. But as an actor, I had to obey the company's decision and do it.

Chu: We see it the same way then. As far as journalistic or advertising ethics are concerned, using a person's name requires obtaining the consent of the person involved. It wasn't right to use me for a commercial. As for your acting, I don't have any opinion at all. Actually, using your name and looks in a commercial would be much more effective than mine.

Teng: For instance, I do an impression of Chen Shui-pien now that I'll bet is 80 percent on, but I can't allow myself to use it in a commercial and sell things.

Chu: Hey! You do look a lot like Chen Shui-pien in some ways.

Teng: It's awful. Since I starting doing him, I go for a walk down the street and everyone calls me Chen Shui-pien. It's a pain!

A sure ticket to fame

Chu: How do you learn an impression?

Teng: First I watch videotapes over and over and try to imitate the person. Then I collect articles and other materials about him. Finally I do an impression in the mirror until I'm happy with it and it makes me smile.

Chu: When I was a teacher in the U.S., I used to ask students to record themselves speaking on videotape and then watch it over and over to find faults for improvement.

Teng: Maybe I've been at it a long time, but it's all right for me just to practice in the mirror.There are still some people I can't imitate, though. It may sound odd, but anybody I do an impression of seems guaranteed to become a big figure in the news.

Chu: [Laughs.] When friends in political circles get together, we sometimes kid each other by saying, "So Teng Chih-hung is doing a takeoff on you now!"

Teng: Frankly, the mass media do have a lot of power. President Kennedy was elected because he beat Richard Nixon in a televised debate, didn't he?

Kennedy vs. Nixon

Chu: I happen to have studied that little piece of history quite closely.

The debate was held in Chicago in 1960. Kennedy went there a week ahead of time, rested up in a hotel and rehearsed for all kinds of eventualities. Nixon rushed into Chicago on the afternoon of the same day. His face looked exhausted and his feet were hurting, which affected his performance.

Kennedy's campaign advisors had been busy beforehand, fooling around with the lecterns. They made Nixon's a little lower and they put a bright white light on it that made him look pale and pasty faced. His popularity dropped heavily after the debate.

What's curious is that polls afterward showed that most people who watched it on television thought Kennedy had won, but most people who listened to it on the radio thought Nixon had, because they couldn't see those effects. So we're in an era where television is a powerful medium and packaging is crucial.

Teng: Another election is coming up soon. Do you approve of candidates appearing on variety shows?

Chu: I guess so, as long as it's legal. But the problem of fairness is difficult. If you invite some candidates and not others, the ones that were left out will be unhappy and so will many voters. It's a complicated issue.

Teng: It's been really wonderful to be able to talk with you today, Mr. Director. My sister's three-year-old daughter likes to imitate the way you talk now, saying "the party" this and "the party" that. I stayed there overnight once and slept in late, and she told her mother, "Be quiet, the party's still sleeping."

Chu: [Laughs.] That's all your doing!

[Picture Caption]

The two James Chu's--one real and the other counterfeit-- got along famously.

Go ahead and ask your questions; "the Party" is present. I'm Teng Chih-hung in false packaging.

Go ahead and ask your questions; "the Party" is present. I'm Teng Chih-hung in false packaging.