Taiwanese Star Wang Ta Lu Just Embarrassed Himself At The Golden Rooster Awards

Public speaking is a very scary thing and it’s not something everyone can do with aplomb. Especially Taiwanese actor Darren Wang Ta Lu. The 28-year-old star was a presenter at the Golden Rooster Awards on Saturday (Nov 23) and while it was supposed to be his chance to charm Chinese audiences, he, well, screwed it up. Royally.

First, he fumbled when he introduced the award category, calling it “art film” instead of “animated film”, though he did manage to correct himself. Then he raved about Ne Zha, which is now the highest-grossing non-US animated film of all time, although the movie wasn’t one of the animated films nominated in the category.

Chinese netizens also took issue with his Taiwanese accent, particularly the way he pronounced ‘Ne Zha’ as ‘Nuo Zha’, and how he had zero chemistry with fellow presenter Chinese actor Liu Haoran. Like how they tried to announce the winner in unison, only to end up hilariously out of sync. And they knew they messed up too, as both actors let out awkward laughs after their epic fail.

When Ta Lu was interviewed backstage, he admitted he was really nervous while presenting the award, adding: “I said the wrong thing and pronounced the word wrong, I feel so embarrassed.”

It’s not the first time Ta Lu has flubbed his lines at an awards show. In 2016, the actor, who shot to fame after starring in the coming-of-age mega-hit Our Times, was a guest at the Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) held in Hongkong. Maybe it was nerves or maybe he couldn’t read what was written on the teleprompter but he suddenly went off script and started to not make sense at all. So head-scratchingly funny was his ‘performance’ that it would still be lampooned till this day.