Look up ala, Ala., ALA, a la, or à la in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Ala may refer to:

• Ala (demon), a female demon in the Serbian and Bulgarian mythology
• Ala (Odinani), an Alusi in Odinani
• Ala (Roman allied military unit), a Republican-period, largely infantry, formation of 5,400 men
• Ala (Roman cavalry unit), an Imperial-period, purely cavalry, formation of 500 men
• Ala (Telugu, an Indian language), means a sea wave

In language:

• à la, French for 'in the style/manner of' commonly used in English

In geography:

• Åland Islands using ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code
• Alabama, a state in the U.S.
• Ala, a town in Trentino, Italy
• Ala, Hiiu County, village in Pühalepa Parish, Hiiu County, Estonia
• Ala, Valga County, village in Helme Parish, Valga County, Estonia
• Ala dağları, a mountain range in the Taurus chain, Turkey

In science:

• Ala ossis ilii
• Ala of sacrum
• Alae (anatomy) or ala, a feature of the anatomy of many nematodes worms
• Alanine, an α-amino acid
• Alpha lipoic acid, a nutritional supplement
• Alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid
• Ala, the alar part of a nasalis muscle
• D-Aminolevulinic acid or δ-ALA
• Members of the P4-ATPase family in Arabidopsis thaliana: Aminophospholipid ATPase (ALA)
• Wing of ilium

In technology:

• Active Line Access, a standard for supply of services in fibre networks

In organizations:

• ALâ ( Adult Community Theatre, Arts and Education, ) Galway, Ireland
• Aspiring Litigators of America
• Aerotransportes Litoral Argentino, a former Argentinian airline.
• Allgemeine Anzeigen GmbH
• American Latvian Association
• American Legion Auxiliary
• American Library Association
• American Lung Association
• Arab Liberation Army
• Arakan Liberation Army
• Arizona Lutheran Academy
• Association for Laboratory Automation
• Australian Lacrosse Association
• Automobile Legal Association, a former American automobile club similar to the AAA

In codes:

• Åland Islands' ISO 3166-1 country code
• Alcatel's former NYSE stock symbol
• Almaty International Airport's IATA code

In other uses:

• A List Apart, a webzine for web designers
• USS Ala (YT-139), a ship of the US Marine

People surnamed Ala:

• Hossein Ala' (1882–1964), former prime minister of Iran

See also[link]

• Al-Ala, the 87th chapter of the Qur'an

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Stephen Chow 周星馳
Chinese name	周星馳 (Traditional)
Chinese name	周星驰 (Simplified)
Pinyin	Zhōu Xīng Chí (Mandarin)
Jyutping	zau1 sing1 ci4 (Cantonese)
Birth name	Chiau Sing-chi
Ancestry	Ningbo, Zhejiang[1]
Born	(1962-06-22) 22 June 1962 (age 50)[2] Hong Kong
Other name(s)	星爺 (lit. Grandmaster Sing) 周星星
Occupation	Actor, Screenwriter, Director, Producer
Years active	1981 – present
Parents	Lin Bo Yee ( Mother )
Awards Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actor 2002 Shaolin Soccer Best Director 2002 Shaolin Soccer Golden Bauhinia Awards Best Actor 1996 A Chinese Odyssey Best Director 2002 Shaolin Soccer Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards Best Actor 1996 A Chinese Odyssey Golden Horse Awards Best Director 2005 Kung Fu Hustle Best Supporting Actor 1988 Final Justice TVB Anniversary Awards Jade Lifetime Achievement Award 1999 Other awards Asia Pacific Film Festival Best Actor 1992 Justice, My Foot Blue Ribbon Awards Best Foreign Language Film 2003 Shaolin Soccer Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival Silver Scream Award 2005 Kung Fu Hustle

Stephen Chow Sing-Chi (Chinese: 周星馳, born 22 June 1962) is a Hong Kong actor, comedian, screenwriter, film director and producer.

Professional career[link]

Stephen Chow began as a temporary actor for TVB.^[3][4] He entered TVB in early 1980s, and was trained there, although he had few opportunities to appear in films.^[3] Chow graduated from TVB's acting classes in 1982.^[5] Chow began to find some success with the children programme 430 Space Shuttle,^[6] which he co-hosted with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai.^[7]

In 1987, Chow entered into the movie industry through the film Final Justice, which won him the Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[6][7]

While Chow became quite well known on TVB for his comedies (especially 1989's The Final Combat), he shot to stardom in 1990's All for the Winner. This film made him and his older sidekick Ng Man-Tat two of the most sought-after stars in the Hong Kong film industry.^[6] Chow would collaborate with Ng on many of his more successful comedies, including Shaolin Soccer. Chow became Hong Kong's undisputed No. 1 comedian, taking over the mantle of Michael Hui. Unlike Hui, Chow's comedies are of the mo lei tau genre. With his expert comic timing and "rubber-faced mannerisms",^[6] Chow ranked alongside Andy Lau, Chow Yun-fat and Jackie Chan as the major box office draws of the 1990s.^[8]

In 1994 Chow began directing films, starting with From Beijing with Love, which he co-directed with Lee Lik-Chi. In the later half of the 1990s, mainland China began to warm to Stephen Chow movies. His film duology A Chinese Odyssey (1994) became (and remains) a cult classic in mainland China, baffling many Hong Kong observers, as the duology did only moderately well in Hong Kong. Nonetheless, on the mainland Chow rapidly became one of Hong Kong's most iconic film stars. ^[9]

In 2001 his film Shaolin Soccer grossed over 60 million HK dollars.^[10] The film won Best picture, and Chow won Best Actor and Best Director at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Awards, receiving a total of seven wins from 2001–2003, including the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Picture and Best Director.^[11] It was his first international hit and established his reputation in the West. In 2004 he directed the film Kung Fu Hustle winning 18 awards including BAFTA Best Film not in the English Language, five Golden Horse Awards and six Hong Kong Film Awards.^[12]

Chow's film CJ7 began filming in July 2006 in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo.^[13] In August 2007 the film was given the title CJ7 (長江七號 Chang Jiang qi hao), a play on China's successful Shenzhou manned space missions—Shenzhou 5 and Shenzhou 6.^[14] This film introduced newcomer Kitty Zhang as his romantic lead. In 2011, news was released that Chow had started work on a new Chinese Odyssey project. He is to star as well as co-direct, produce and screenwrite. He is to co-direct with Derek Kwok. Other names have included for the project are Anthony Wong, Show Luo and Shu Qi The film is to be more CGI based than the original version.^[15]

Influence[link]

In the whole 1990s, Chow had made lots of famous movies and his movie style has known as Mo lei tau (無厘頭），which means mindless; a rather crass form of humour he often employs in movies. Chow often casts relatively new young actresses to play opposite him, especially as romantic leads, and many of these actresses have gone on to have successful film or music careers of their own. These actresses are collectively called the "Sing girls", and include Karen Mok, Vicki Zhao, Sharla Cheung, Athena Chu, Michelle Reis, Christy Chung, Gigi Leung, Cecilia Cheung, Huang Shengyi, and Zhang Yuqi.^[16]

Filmography[link]

^[17]

Awards[link]

Chow promoting CJ7 in Malaysia

See also[link]

• Cinema of Hong Kong
• Cinema of China

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stephen Chow

• Stephen Chow at the Internet Movie Database
• Stephen Chow at AllRovi
• Stephen Chow at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase