THE collection of ornamental tortoises runs the length of a room, against one wall, in the mansion.

They are there, so Mr Robert Chua (right) said, because 'it represents longevity, and it's also a reminder to slow down'.

His 40-plus years in Asian television covers the longevity bit, but the 62-year-old will not slow down.

Since The New Paper called after his most recent award - early this month, he received the In Style China Television Entrepreneur Award from the Shanghai Media Group - Mr Chua has been fast on his fingers with one update e-mail after another.

It is exactly this dogged attention to detail that has made this pioneer of broadcasting the success he is.

Babyboomers will recall the name Robert Chua - 'Only old people recognise me today' - as the genius behind the popular Enjoy Yourself Tonight (EYT), the first live show on Hong Kong's TVB (which had its run here). EYT ran 20 years.

The veteran has a knack for spotting the next big thing: Teresa Teng, Bruce Lee, Leslie Cheung, Lydia Sum, all appeared on his (executive-produced) variety show. 'People forget, I discovered Lydia Sum,' he said.

Mr Chua was born in Singapore to an upper-middle class family whose wealth provided him and his brothers with personal housemaids. When his parents divorced, the boys were packed off to board in St Andrew's School.

He said in a phone interview from Hong Kong, which has been his home for the past 40 years: 'Certainly, parents should send their children to boarding school. I learnt to fend for myself. At home, I was safe in the hands of the maid.

'Let them go away, grow independent, confident.'

At 17, the confident, independent Mr Chua got his first taste of television after college in Adelaide, as a prop assistant with an Australian channel.

From then, there was no stopping the lean, bespectacled, self-confessed TV junkie.

When he was 20, Hong Kong's first terrestrial TV station gave him a job. 'I told them to wait some weeks, as I needed to go home to celebrate my 21st birthday. I knew no one in the colony then.'

He was candid about his break. 'The Chinese have no confidence in their own people. They don't trust the young. It was a 'gweilo' (Caucasian) who gave me the job.'

Apart from discovering a string of stars on his EYT show, he also created the first Miss Hong Kong Pageant.

Surrounded as he always was by wannabe actresses, singers, beauty queens, it was a curiosity that the playboy-in-his-youth did not marry some starlet.

He said: 'Because I knew exactly what they were like!'

Mr Chua married Shanghainese Peggy Jen in 1974. The elegant Ms Jen's background is in television as well. She was going to join her family in Canada when he chased her all the way up north until she said yes.

Bob & Peg

The Bob & Peg relationship is a solid partnership. He said: 'My entry into China (1979), I owe 150 per cent to Peggy.'

The media entrepreneur next launched China Entertainment Television Broadcast (CETV) in 1995, with his own money. 'That was one uphill battle,' he noted.

Friends thought he was insane to pump US$400,000 ($570,000) in the satellite service. In 2003, he sold his CETV stake to Time Warner.

It was typical of his X-factor - risk, gamble, passion, faith. And his money is where his mouth is, if need be.

You can lead him off the subject of TV, but the tycoon is cable-hardwired; television is his lifeline, almost.

There is the sadness of not being at his mother's bedside when she died in 2002. In her last years of ill health, he visited often. She could hardly speak, but would put a finger on his mouth in response.

On his dad, he said: 'My father is 88 this year, and he still drives!'

Of today's generation, he said: 'They are helluva smart, very bright, but also too spoilt because they are given everything, so they don't have to work as hard as we did.'

Another lot who makes a poor impression on him: The ridiculously rich.

'They invest in properties; that's not contributing to society because that doesn't create jobs nor generate business.'

Since last year, Mr Chua has focused all energy on his cross-media interactive (simulcast over Internet/3G) Health & Lifestyle Channel (HLC).

His none-too-shabby lifestyle is but a simple one.

'I tell you,' he said, 'some weekends, I am in my room upstairs and we actually have room service from our helper!'

Later this month, he will be at the Global Social Innovators Forum in Singapore, together with other speakers, including his actor friend Jet Li.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Nov 26, 2008.