TV personality David Wu is someone who comes alive on stage. Recently Wu played the role of emcee at the opening of CHINA ROUGE – a venue he describes to P.Ramakrishnan as “a class apart”
For a generation that grew up on Asian TV of the 1990s, David Wu Dai Wai – “the Wu-Man” – is an easily recognizable face. As emcee at the opening of CHINA ROUGE, the Chinese-American ex-VJ’s trademark irreverent humor with a hip-hop flavor was a nostalgic treat for the audience.
A youthful-looking 45, Wu may have proved himself on numerous occasions over the past two decades, but the experienced host confesses to still getting pre-show jitters. “My hands shake a bit; my tummy feels funny,” he says, scanning pages of notes on CHINA ROUGE. “I don’t have a script per se – just bullet points… For a venue such as this,” he adds, glancing over the club’s high ceilings and imposing artwork and giving an appreciative whistle, “there’s a moment when you need to absorb it all.”
Switching seamlessly on stage between Mandarin and English, Wu is a born host – his stated nervousness not at all apparent – and the night goes without a hitch. But it wasn’t always so, says Wu. He remembers fondly the trial-and-error days of his early years in live TV. “We were making things up on the fly – we were so young, the station was so young,” he grins. Wu famously hosted Channel V’s Go West program, which taught American slang to young Chinese. “That entire show was made up in a few minutes,” he admits. “We had zero budget to work with – a room, a camera, a few props; and I started familiarizing [the audience with] hip-hop terms, sports terms – the slang that really isn’t taught in school... It’s amazing how that resonated, as I see the ripple effects years later… The strangest people come up and tell me about terms they learned!”
In the dot-com-bubble era, Wu’s fans might have thought they had lost him, as he swapped live TV for the world of Hong Kong cinema. “Man, I was in some bad movies!” he says, with his trademark self-effacing humor. “Um, how can I put this delicately? Ended up on late-night cable on an endless loop!”
Fortunately, with his easy wit and charm, Wu has since enjoyed a second successful career hosting events such as openings and award shows – mainly in China, and his newfound home of Taiwan.
How has he found this trip to Macau, and his first stay at the Galaxy MacauTM? “It’s been great – the hotel, the club,” he says. “It’s really a class apart.”
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