Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, also known as PCK Pte Ltd or Phua Chu Kang for short, was a Singaporean sitcom on MediaCorp TV Channel 5. The sitcom centres on 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.
The series revolves around the Phua family, most notably Phua Chu Kang, 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". 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!". 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 Phua Chin Huay 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 who works for PCK Pte Ltd as an architect, while Chu Kang is often regarded as strong and witty, Chu Beng is the sissy and compliant son. The one person who drives Chu Beng crazy is his obsessive compulsive vegetarian wife, Margaret Phua Hwee Lian who consistently makes fun of her brother and sister-in-law. Together, they have a son, Aloysius Phua. Another family member is Phua Ah Ma, Chu Kang and Chu Beng's mother. She left at the end of Season 4 to be with her new lover. Joining the cast after, is Ah Loon who plays Rosie's overbearing mother. Chu Kang's two lazy workers are the fat and lazy King Kong who loves "tau huay" and slow-witted eyecandy Ah Goon who dresses in revealing denim cut-offs all the time.
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 The Amazing Race 3, PCK handed out clues at one of the detours. Participants in the race were required to locate a HDBapartment 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, but Singaporeans protested that this would give foreigners the wrong impression of the local people in general. In 2003, during the SARS outbreak, PCK appeared in a music video called "PCK Sar-vivor Rap". This 4-minute-long music video is to teach the local people on how to prevent SARS in their country. It also comes with an audio version of the song. In addition, a limited editioncompilation album called "The Sar-vivor Rap" was launched on 1 July 2003. This album also includes 14 bonus tracks from artistes such as Mandy Moore, Destiny's Child and Jessica Simpson. In 2001, Phua Chu Kang also made a cameo appearance on the Mandarin drama The Hotel. The character made guest appearances on four other local sitcoms: ABC DJ in 2006, the Mandarin sitcom My Genie together with Rosie, Living with Lydia in which PCK revealed he had a somewhat romantic encounter with the series' main character Lydia Lum, when she first arrived in Singapore in 1979 to be a Singapore Girl, and in the sixth season of Under One Roof in 2001 where he was called to do renovations for the house of Ah Teck and Dolly's son and daughter-in-law played by Andrew Lim and Selena Tan respectively. 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. In 2003, PCK appeared in another commercial in Malaysia introducing plant-based administration for pain relief by Kinohimitsu that was aired on TV1, TV2 and TV3. On 23 May 2009, Phua Chu Kang and Rosie made their appearances on the Mass Rapid Transit, 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. 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, Tan Kheng Hua and Irene Ang as well as "Best Comedy performance by an actor"- Gurmit Singh.
Singlish criticism
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.
