Although Joey Wong gained success as an actress and singer in the 1980s and 1990s, it wasn’t what she had wanted for herself.
The 59-year-old, who was born in Taiwan, spoke about her experiences in a Xiaohongshu video posted on May 11.
She said: “I have two older brothers. My parents didn’t really care much about them, but they would put their expectations on me. I became very stressed.”
Joey added she didn’t really like showbiz when she was young but her mum had wanted her to be an actress.
“Since I was young, I felt I was born to satisfy her dreams,” she admitted.
She recounted her mum bringing her to auditions when she was in primary school.
“She would rather not have money for groceries for a week than not sign me up for an audition,” she laughed.
Once, Joey was told to perform with a short script she was given, but she couldn’t. “How would I know how to act? I was only in primary two, I didn’t know what to act.
“My mum, who was standing at the side, kept telling me to move, but I just stood there. After the audition, as we were going home, she knocked on my head all the way… Why is my life so bitter?”
She added she wasn’t someone who would express her opinions openly, so she kept to herself.
Joey debuted in showbiz in 1983 in the Taiwanese film It Will Be Cold by the Lakeside This Year. Her breakthrough came in Hong Kong film A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), where she played the beautiful ghost Nip Siu Sin, which established her as a film icon across East Asia.
She left the industry in 2004 after filming Shanghai Story and moved to Canada. She now operates a moxibustion therapy centre in Vancouver.
Joey said in the latest video that because of her audition experiences, she continued in showbiz when she was older.
She explained: “I am someone who cherishes opportunities that were given to me, which led me to walk this path [as an actress].
“There was a period when I was in Canada that I felt lost in life. When I thought about my experiences since young, I wondered about my purpose of coming to this life… It seemed like I no longer have any other paths in life…
“As I reflected, I looked within myself and felt that there are many things in life that I shouldn’t cling on to. We should learn how to take it easy and look for growth within our life.”
She also shared in a previous interview that after leaving showbiz at the peak of her career, she suffered from depression and later found peace through religion and treatment from traditional Chinese medicine.
[[nid:735525]]
yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com
No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.
Read the full article here
