美國新冠疫情日記0804

TV Media Star Rest In Peace

Anthony Yuen, a leading Chinese-American TV media star, has passed away in Taichung, Taiwan. He was a media icon for almost one-half century, both in print and television. Because of his professional position, he interviewed many VIPs and political icons all over the world. Through the TV screen his show was televised around the globe.

I met him in Los Angeles many years ago. We both graduated from the same university, Taiwan Chengchi University. When we started in the newspaper business, I went to LA many times to find more knowledge about the business. In the early 80’s there was a group of people that had organized a daily newspaper and had purchased many typesetting machines. All of these investors were so excited on that day. I met one of the local senior news editors then, Mr. J. C. Liu and toured their office.

Mr. Liu hosted a dinner and welcomed me and among the head guests was Anthony Yuen. Since we all had graduated from the same university, he told me all his stories about the media business. He looked very intelligent and was a good talker. Actually, he was one of the top news editors in the Chinese news media circles at that time. At that dinner table Mr. Liu strongly advised me that if I wanted to get into the newspaper business, my first priority should be to get a printing machine. Just like when you open a restaurant, you must have a kitchen. I took his advice to heart ever since that day. Otherwise, we don’t think we could have ever continued our media business until today.

In his later days, Anthony Yuen went to Taiwan and Hong Kong and became a very famous TV talk show host and interviewed many world leaders.

Both Mr. Liu and Mr. Yuen passed away recently. The Asian news media in the United States is still in its peak time and both men contributed to this success. We really give so much credit to these media pioneers who devoted their lifetimes to the news. Their contributions to society will always be remembered.

新聞尖兵阮次山辭世

曾經在美港台新聞界服務近半世紀的新聞界前輩阮次山先生上月在台中辭世，他早年在美國各大華文媒體可謂是拓荒者，近二十年來他參加了香港電視媒體，曾經走遍世界，採訪過無數政经領軍人物，其名聲可謂享誉全球華人觀眾。

阮先生早年在洛杉磯時曾有一面之緣，我們是大學校友，都畢業於政治大學，屬前後期同學，在美南新聞早創時期，我到處去取經，尤其是華人媒體最發達的南加州，當時有一份當地僑學商各界共同投資的《加州日報》，聲勢甚大，辦公室購置了數十台排版植字機，當時電腦排版系統尚未出現，我和另一位新聞界耆老劉宗周先生參觀過後，他當時就告訴我：“老弟，他們搞錯了，要買的是印報機器不是植字，就如開餐廳，一定要有廚房才能隨時炒菜。”

當晚這位劉老請客，其中也有阮次山先生在座，第一次見到這位高談闊論的學長，領會他對新聞事業之熱愛，也是當年美國華人媒體一支擲地有聲的筆桿。

多年來我特別感激劉老宗周先生之箴言贈語，因為他的一句忠告，我們在媒体大道上拼搏了數十年，和阮學長一樣，他們是在新聞戰场上一名凋謝的戰士，海外華文媒體為你們感到驕傲，你們都已經打了一場美好的仗，請一路好走 ⋯⋯⋯