Zhang Haijie

Zhang Haijie (Chinese: 张海洁; born 28 August 1971) is a highly reputable news anchor at Singapore's largest television broadcast network, MediaCorp TV Channel 8. Since 1 May 2008, she has been reporting news on "News 8 at Ten" every weekday night, 10pm.

Haijie is currently a part-time PhD candidate at Nanyang Technological University's Chinese division, researching the changing political role of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry before Singapore's independence.

She has a blog called Woman In The News [http://blog.xin.sg/blogs/haijie/] . It could also be linked from MediaCorp's website [http://www.xin.sg xin.sg] .

Career

Prior to coming to Singapore in Year 1998, Haijie worked in the Shanghai Cable TV Station for one and a half years as a financial news host. One week into her initial job as a trainer where she worked at the MediaCorp's News Department in 1998, she was given the chance to report the 1pm news instead.

Due to the audiences admiration for her confident and precise news reporting skills, Haijie was then promoted; where she reported the 10pm news on MediaCorp TV Channel 8 till Year 2001. At the end of 2001, Haijie resigned from MediaCorp News and crossed over to rival station SPH MediaWorks Channel U. The move was much speculated by the media as saying that she was unhappy she lost the Best Current Affairs Presenter award to fellow colleague Ng Siew Leng in the Star Awards 2001; thus she resigned.

The move to SPH MediaWorks Channel U proved successful, where Haijie gained instant fame among the audience and she was recognised as one of the best news anchors in the region. She hosted the highly acclaimed progamme, Inside Out, which explores various social issues in Singapore and the region. The programme was extremely well received, which set the recorded with sky-high viewership ratings which till now, no other current affairs programme has managed to beat. Ever since, Haijie has gained many fans, thus earning her the name of a celebrity news anchor.

In 2005, due to the media-merger, SPH MediaWorks closed down. Haijie was invited back to MediaCorp's News department, but she rejected the move. During the period of Years 2005 to 2008, Haijie travelled around the world and also gave tutorials to university students. She also appeared in talkshows on UFM1003 FM.

After three years of disappearance from TV as a news anchor, Haijie announced on 07 January 2008 that she would make a comeback on MediaCorp TV Channel 8. She would assume her duties as a news anchor again in February 2008. Her comeback was extremely anticipated and many TV audiences welcomed her back. Her first television appearance after her comeback was on 19 February 2008 where she reported the government's financial budget on the 10pm news.

Family

Haijie was born in Xi'an, China, where her father was a school principal while her mother worked as an architect. Haijie is the youngest of 4 children; she has 2 older sisters and 1 older brother. She is not married and has been a Singapore citizen since 2003.

"For more details, visit the the website provided at the external links section - Anchored Woman."

Awards

* Asian Television Awards 2003 - Best Current Affairs Presenter Runner-up (Inside Out)
* Top 50 Asian Idols, organised by "Lianhe Zaobao" (2004)("Note: Haijie has also been nominated twice in the annual Star Awards.")

Trivia

* She was previously known as Helen Cheung, but is now using her Chinese name.
* Haijie is a favourite for the highly contested category of Best Current Affairs News Presenter in the upcoming Star Awards 2008.
* Haijie has been rumoured to be in a relationship with Creative Technology founder Sim Wong Hoo, although neither have commented openly on it. She broke her silence for the first time in The Straits Times interview on March 3, 2008, and said that she has never met him before. Many audience too felt that it was just media speculation.

External Links/News/Interviews

* [http://www.asiaone.com/Just+Woman/News/Celebrities/Story/A1Story20080305-52835.html Anchored Woman (Published on March 3, 2008 in The Straits Times Life! cover story, The Monday Interview)]
* [http://www.xin.sg/article.php?article=13460 Zhang Haijie makes a comeback! (in Chinese)]
* [http://video2.channelnewsasia.com/cnavideos/chineseplayer.asp?skin=Player1.swf&player=chineseplayer.swf&filename=xin_021408_haijie1.flv Haijie rehearsing for the news]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgmKBwL2_R4 Zhang Haijie makes a comeback in TV news, promotional trailer]
* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/helencheung/join Zhang Haijie Fan Club]