It’s rare for me to
take the time to translate articles about artists (or entertainment-related
news) that I’m not too familiar with or that I don’t care too much about.
This has always been a huge factor that I take into consideration when I choose
articles to translate or artists (or entertainment-related news/events) to
write about, since I have very little time to dedicate to writing and don’t
want to waste it on something meaningless to me. Of course, this little
‘rule’ of mine isn’t going to change anytime soon, but there will always be
those occasions where an ‘exception’ comes into play – the article below is one
such ‘exception’.
For the record, I’m not a fan of
Angie Cheong’s by any means. Sure, I have seen many of her TVB series –
including her most representative work, A
Kindred Spirit (真情) – and feel that she’s a pretty good actress who is comfortable
to watch, but that’s about it. To me, she is just like most of the other
actresses whom I’m ‘neutral’ towards in terms of acting – I don’t object to
watching her in a TV series if she happens to be part of the cast, but I
wouldn’t seek out a series to watch just because of her.
With all that said,
my sentiment toward Angie as an actress hasn’t changed and probably never will
– but after reading the below interview that she did with Mingpao Weekly
Magazine, I’ve gained a lot of respect
for Angie as a person….more specifically, as a woman and a single mother.
I will admit that when I first read the article, it moved me to tears, perhaps
because it struck a chord with me and it echoed some of the same sentiments I
have toward children. Reading Angie’s story, the things that impressed me
the most are her positive attitude toward life, her perseverance in the face of
adversity, her tremendous strength and courage in light of the difficult
circumstances she faces daily (i.e. being a public figure and a single mother in a largely
‘traditional’ Chinese society that’s also home to a ‘relentless’ tabloid
culture), and most important of all, the absolutely unconditional love she has
toward her adopted son.
This article reminded
me once again that, at the end of the day, when you remove all the ‘glitz’ and
‘glamour’ of the entertainment industry, celebrities are ‘ordinary’ people who
go through the same trials and tribulations just like the rest of
us. With all the negativity and controversy in the entertainment
industry as of late, it’s very refreshing to read such a heartwarming,
uplifting, positive interview!
Ming Pao is actually one of the
few ‘respectable’ Media outlets left in HK that still consistently publishes
in-depth, non-sensationalized, worthwhile interviews with Asian celebrities /
entertainment people / public figures – of course, I attribute much of this to
the veteran reporters at MP (such as Wang Man Ling, Wong Lai Ling, Tsui Yong
Yong, Charles Fok, etc.) who have built trusted relationships with artists over
the years due to their good reputations and work ethics (though it’s also a
testament to the overall direction that the MP editorial crew as a whole has taken
over the years).
The below article is definitely a
worthwhile read – hope you find it as meaningful as I did!
.******.
Mingpao Interview –
Angie Cheong learns the meaning of true love from adopted son: “No more regrets in life”
Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2370
Article originally
published 4/11/2014
Translation: llwy12
(Original
interview written by MP veteran reporter Wang Man Ling 汪曼玲)
When
she started her acting career back in 1993, Angie Cheong (張慧儀)
portrayed a lot of ‘sex symbol’ roles, both in television as well as film. In 2003, she was involved in a relationship
dispute with her (now ex) boyfriend, which caused her to leave Hong Kong and
settle in Beijing instead. After 10
years of working abroad, Angie returned to HK once again in 2013 to film new
TVB series Never Dance Alone (女人俱樂部).
For
today’s interview, Angie brought along her adopted son Hanson, who sat next to
her as she chatted with me [veteran reporter Wang Man Ling]. Despite sacrificing so much for Hanson, Angie
expressed that she has absolutely no regrets
-- in fact, she actually finds great joy in taking care of her son and
finds the entire experience very rewarding.
For Angie, Hanson is definitely a gift from God.
Hanson’s
impact on Angie’s life has been tremendous, to the point that she plans on
opening up a special needs facility -- Angie’s
Home – in the near future, with the goal of helping even more children who
may need special care and attention. Through her son as well as other special needs
children, Angie made an important discovery:
‘true love’ – a love that is
unconditional and doesn’t ask for anything in return -- really does exist in
this world! Because of her son, Angie no
longer has any regrets in life.
.--.
Even
though Angie Cheong took the ‘sex symbol’ path for much of her early acting
career, she did have her limits in that she always refused to ‘reveal all’ in front
of the camera. Returning to the acting
world now, so many years later, Angie realizes how much she has truly
matured. “In my younger days, I was very
headstrong and unruly. I was constantly
chasing after romance in a relationship and at one point, I actually felt that
I had found the right man to spend the rest of my life with – in the end, I
found out how wrong I had been.”
Angie
met her ex-boyfriend through her passion for dancing – he was a professional
dancer and when the two of them started dating, she admired him greatly. Being young and immature at the time, Angie
naively thought that enjoying the romance in their relationship was equivalent
to finding love, so she didn’t really bother with trying to establish a deeper
understanding of her boyfriend’s character.
It wasn’t until after they had announced plans for marriage that Angie
finally discovered her boyfriend’s true colors – all along, he had never been
loyal to their relationship and actually had X number of girlfriends. “That was back in 2003 during the height of
the SARS outbreak – the two of us went from ‘discussing’ his infidelity to
‘arguing’ about it and in the end, it became a physical altercation.”
Battered
and bruised, Angie called the police for help.
Unfortunately, the situation got out of hand from there, to the point
that she had no choice but to hold a press conference to explain the situation
to the media as well as the public.
“After that, I felt that I could no longer stay in Hong Kong -- every
time I saw people whispering behind my back, I felt that they were gossiping
about me.” She eventually chose to leave
HK and settle in Beijing, where no one knew who she was.
With
the hope of healing the wounds from her past relationship, Angie fled to
Beijing all alone – she had cut off contact with her friends and had zero
income. When she arrived, the first
thing she did was rent a small flat so that she would at least have a roof over
her head. In terms of her career, Angie
felt that she no longer had the drive or passion to pick up acting again in the
Mainland: “Back in HK, I felt a sense of
accomplishment and satisfaction pursuing my acting career, but in Beijing, I
somehow lost that drive and motivation.”
She realized that it was time for her to leave the entertainment
industry and her acting career behind her – in order to survive, she had to
find other means.
The path to business was
not easy
All alone by herself in a foreign country,
Angie understood that she had to find a way to make a living in order to
sustain herself. Since she is originally
from Malaysia, Angie came up with the idea of starting a business importing
specialty fruit spreads from her home country.
“Being in an unfamiliar environment, I didn’t have many options. To get things off the ground, I basically
went to the local supermarkets, looked up the names of agents on the labels of
various products, then went ‘door to door’ trying to find a suitable company to
collaborate with.” Playing down the situation, Angie continued,
“In the end, I was able to find a distributor to collaborate with. To tell you the truth though, fruit spreads
actually aren’t very popular in Beijing, so the path to starting the business
wasn’t easy at all. Initially, I was
only able to make just enough money to survive and stay afloat.” Angie didn’t give up easily though – she
took the time to learn about running a business and slowly built her
foundation. Eventually, the friends she
had made in the business world were touched by her sincerity and perseverance,
so they started giving her leads and introducing her to associates, which
helped her to build up a network of connections. After 9 months of hard work, Angie finally
experienced a major breakthrough – she was able to successfully persuade a
famous dessert shop from HK to open stores in Beijing and in the process, she
was able to earn a nice commission as well as consultant fees from the project.
Later
on, Angie and her friend opened up a printing shop and the business was quite
profitable – that is, until the banking crisis occurred in 2008, after which business
started declining drastically, so she decided to close the business and move to
Guangzhou. “[In Guangzhou], I also did
not know anyone and was unfamiliar with my surroundings, so I went back to
doing my fruit spread business. I found
a place to live in a small city that was about an hour’s drive from the main
city.” One by one, Angie built up her
business connections once again: when
she got her hair washed at the local salon, she would strike up a conversation
with the hairdressers as well as customers there; when she saw her neighbors around she would
chat with them and get to know them – eventually she was able to build up a
wealth of knowledge about the business environment in her city. Seeing that there was a pretty large market
for ginseng and herbal tonics in Guangzhou, Angie opened a store that
specialized in selling herbs. Over the
years, she was able to build up a consistent customer base that would sometimes
place orders for several hundred thousand dollars at once.
Despite
the success she has been able to achieve with her business ventures, the path
that Angie took to get there was anything but easy. As an example, Angie recalls her experience
with the dessert shop project back in Beijing, “That dessert shop had no idea
who I was and I actually wasn’t familiar with them either. I did some research about them online, found
the phone number to their corporate headquarters, then utilized my many years
of business experience and skills to slowly persuade them. The efforts paid off -- I was able to speak
with the CEO and eventually close the deal.”
The
amazing amount of persistence, endurance, and perseverance that Angie exhibits
toward her work is indeed worth complimenting, however she insists that her son
Hanson should get the credit instead.
Having adopted Hanson in 2006, Angie is tremendously grateful for all
the valuable lessons she has learned from him.
One of the biggest lessons she learned from her son is to never give up
in the face of adversity – instead of being discouraged whenever things go
wrong, she takes a positive approach and views the situation as a gift from
God, a blessing in disguise; as long as she is willing to persist and never
give up, things will get better.
Her son was once in a
coma for 9 weeks
Since
her company serves as distributor for many different products, Angie’s schedule
can get quite busy, but that has not prevented her from devoting all of her
personal time to taking care of Hanson. A
few days a week, Angie would go pick up her son from school, feed him his
dinner in the car, then take him with her to the product launch events she had
to attend – he would sit there quietly as she went onstage to introduce the
product and wait patiently for her to finish her work. By the time the event ended around 8 or 9
o’clock at night, Hanson would be so tired that he’d fall fast asleep – gently
carrying her son in one arm, Angie would carry his backpack, lunchbox, and the
bags containing her company’s products in the other arm and head home for the
night. Any ordinary person facing such
a difficult situation might not be able to endure for long and Angie certainly
was no exception – initially, the fatigue and helplessness she felt would bring
tears to her eyes, but then she would look at her son and be reminded of her
blessings from God -- immediately, she would swallow her tears and continue on.
When
I [MP’s reporter Wang Man Ling] invited Angie for this interview, she asked if
she could bring her son along with her, to which I replied, “Of course!” After meeting the two of them, what I found is
that Angie actually can’t bear to part with her son for even a minute – plus
the day of the interview was a Sunday, so of course Angie wanted to spend as
much time with Hanson as possible. All along, I had heard that Angie’s son has
health problems, but when I first set eyes on Hanson, he didn’t look any different
than kids his same age (10 years old) except for being a little bit on the
skinny side.
It
turns out that Hanson has congenital heart disease and has been seeing a
specialist doctor since birth. With his
complicated medical condition, treatment has definitely been expensive -- an
ultrasound alone costs 5500 HKD while the best pediatrician from Queen Mary
Hospital costs more than 4000 HKD per visit.
Angie expressed that her son was one reason why she decided to return to
HK: “When I received Eric Tsang’s phone
call inviting me back to film a TV series, the first thing that came to mind
was that the medical facilities in HK would be able to provide my son with more
comprehensive treatment, so I agreed to return.”
Back
when Hanson was only 4 months old, doctors had to perform surgery on him
because his weak heart was not pumping enough oxygen to his brain and the rest
of his body – he was in a coma for 9 weeks and though he survived, the
repercussions were damaging. Due to his
condition, Hanson will need to go through another even bigger surgery in the
future that is high risk and bears only a 50% survival rate – with his young
age, the doctors won’t even consider the surgery until he is older and his body
is able to handle it. Angie expressed,
“It wasn’t until I listened to the doctor’s detailed explanation that I really
got scared and worried for my son. All I
can do now is pray and turn the situation over to God.”
The
blood oxygen level for ordinary people is usually 90 percent or above, but for
Hanson, it is constantly only at 70 percent.
Because of his fragile condition, many hospitals weren’t willing to take
him in at first, but later on, Angie was able to find a hospital that would
accept him and help him get the treatment he needed. Angie describes Hanson’s condition as similar
to being at a high altitude all the time while severely lacking oxygen,
“Because of this condition, Hanson cannot get overly tired and exhausted. I also have to be careful not to let him
catch a cold, as his body temperature must always remain at a certain level.”
The sudden cry of ‘Mommy’
Looking
back, Angie expressed that adopting Hanson actually was not a part of her plan
at first. While in Beijing attending an
event for a brand of chocolate that her company distributed, Angie met the
chair person of Pingan Inn (平安之家) [TN: Pingan Inn is a charity organization that works with orphanages to
provide special needs and handicapped children with medical care and other
services]. Since Angie was
interested in doing some charity work anyway, she agreed to pay a visit and see
what she could help with. Perhaps it was
fate, but that visit ended up changing Angie’s life forever. The first time she saw Hanson, the volunteers
at the organization were giving him a bath – she noticed the little boy’s
purplish skin as well as how thin and frail he looked. Then later on, Angie was observing a group of
kids playing and eating ice cream when Hanson, who was playing happily nearby,
suddenly ran up to Angie and yelled out ‘Mommy!’ “When I heard that sudden cry of ‘Mommy’, my
heart instantly melted! I could feel the
blood rushing from my feet to my head -- at that moment, I had the urge to pick
up that little boy in my arms and carry him home with me!”
Despite
Angie’s affinity with Hanson, the process of adopting him would not be easy --
it turns out that a family in the U.S. had agreed to adopt him and were already
working through the paperwork at the time.
Angie was not deterred however – every day for the next three weeks, she
would go to Pingan Inn to take care of Hanson; rain or shine, she would be
there from early in the morning to late at night, devoting almost 100 percent
of her time to caring for him. Angie
expressed, “I don’t know if it’s because my hidden motherly instincts suddenly
came to the surface – I just knew that I really really wanted to adopt this
little boy.” Seeing how attached Angie
was to Hanson, the chair of Pingan Inn
made an exception and allowed her to take Hanson home to care for temporarily
until his adoption paperwork was completed.
Miraculously, Angie was notified a few months later that the family in
the U.S. decided to give up on adopting Hanson, which meant that Angie would
now be able to adopt him.
For
her son, Angie is willing to sacrifice anything. In addition to spending a lot of money on
tuition for international school as well as all the medical fees for his
illness, Angie also devotes a lot of time and energy taking care of him. Anyone else in the same situation might find
it too exhaustive physically and mentally to care for such a child – Angie, on
the other hand, finds joy in caring for Hanson:
“Taking care of him, I feel that I am surrounded by happiness!”
The baby left under a
bridge
Every
morning, Angie wakes up at 6am, cooks breakfast for Hanson, prepares his lunch,
then at 8am, she heads out the door to take him to school – from there, they
take the ferry to North Point where Hanson’s school is located. While Hanson is at school, Angie goes to buy
groceries at the local market and also takes care of matters related to her
business; at 5pm, she picks up Hanson from school and then heads home to cook
dinner.
Since
adopting Hanson, Angie has kept her social life to the bare minimum – she doesn’t
go out unless it’s absolutely necessary, as she doesn’t want to leave her son
alone by himself. When she had to film
TVB’s series last year, she hired a part-time nanny to help her take care of
Hanson at night until 6am in the morning. “When I returned home from filming at 6am in
the morning, I would immediately take over, making breakfast and taking Hanson
to school…sometimes I would also have to shoot a few scenes during the day,
then go pick up my son and head home to cook dinner -- I actually had no time
to rest. I almost didn’t make it through
the end of filming, so I had to hire another nanny to help me out during that
time.”
Hanson
was born with a heart defect and was abandoned as a baby. A good Samaritan found the abandoned baby
under a bridge and took him to Pingan Inn,
where Angie met and adopted him 3 years later.
According to experts, babies that
were abandoned at birth will usually grow up with a heightened sensitivity
toward being left alone by themselves.
Because of this, Angie is often weary about leaving Hanson alone. She recalls one time when she and Hanson were
playing happily at home, she opened the door and walked outside for a minute to
throw out the trash – immediately, Hanson started crying loudly, as he thought
his mother was leaving him. At that
time, Angie realized how afraid Hanson was of being left alone and being
abandoned once again. Understanding her
son’s temperament, Angie vowed never to leave Hanson at home alone by himself,
even for a minute. “I truly can’t bear
to hurt him in that way [leaving him alone].”
Angie explains to Hanson that the
two of them are best friends in this entire world and nothing will ever
separate them, “To have this kind of life now, I’m very grateful! Through Hanson, I’m finally able to understand
what ‘true love’ really means – sometimes, it’s not necessary to be in a
romantic relationship in order to experience true love.”
Asked
about whether she would consider dating again, Angie expressed that she is
happy with her life currently and being loved by Hanson is more fulfilling than
any romantic relationship. She
emphasizes that if she were to date again in the future, her other half must be
able to accept her adopted son, “Any man who loves me must love Hanson as well
and treat him as his own son. He also
must understand my love for Hanson and the sacrifices I’m willing to make for
him.” Since adopting Hanson, Angie did
try dating a few times, but cut off the relationship once she discovered that
the guy did not share the same love she has for Hanson. “I’m the type of person who, if there’s a
little bit of food, I will let my son eat first -- I would rather starve than
let him go hungry. My son is number one
priority in my life.”
The
fact that Hanson has been able to live this long is already a miracle. Because of his illness, his kidneys and liver
are damaged and the constant lack of oxygen to his brain also affected his
speech – to this day, Hanson still has difficulty articulating his thoughts
clearly. The first few years were especially
difficult, as Hanson’s speech was severely limited and he mostly relied on
nodding or shaking his head to communicate with others – Angie had to carefully
and patiently observe his body language to understand what he needed. “Now that we’ve been together for 8 years, we
understand each other extremely well. He
already knows what I want to say before I even open my mouth and I already know
what he wants to express before he tells me.”
Seeing
Angie’s selfless love and sacrifice for her son, I can’t help but praise her
heart of gold; feeling a bit uneasy, Angie humbly responds, “In my mind, what I’m
doing isn’t anything special -- there are many people out there doing greater
and more outstanding things than me. For
me, being able to feel so blessed and experience true happiness are more
important.”
Miracle child
Asked
about Hanson’s current condition, Angie expressed that she has already prepared
herself mentally and emotionally to accept whatever may happen: “I understood a long time ago that Hanson
being able to survive this long is already a miracle. Perhaps because he is surrounded by love, he
is able to live a happier and more fulfilling life. I can’t control life or death, but I can do
my best to give Hanson the best quality of life possible and pass on that love
to other special needs children in the future.
I don’t want my existence in this world to be in vain. When Hanson does leave me, I know that we will
eventually see each other again in Heaven.”
Even at such a young age, Hanson can already
sense that he is ‘different’ from other children. When he first noticed the scar on his chest
from the surgery he had as a baby, he would innocently ask Angie, “Mommy, why
am I like this?” to which his mom would tenderly reply, “Hanson, you’re a
little angel that God sent to change the life of a woman named Angie Cheong --
because of this ‘mission’, you had to suffer a little bit of pain. In the future, when we’re both in Heaven, I’ll
be relying on you to take care of me!”
Right now, except for Hanson, nothing else matters
in Angie’s life. “I’ve come to realize
why ‘true love’ is so important for many people. When the two of us are together, we feel
complete happiness and joy. Even doing
the simplest things such as having dinner together or taking a walk outside, we
are able to find great happiness in it.
Hanson sleeps with me in my bed and every night, after I tell a story
and he falls asleep, I stare at his face and feel so much love and warmth in my
heart.”
Love has indeed changed Angie’s life
forever. Her heart is more at peace and
she is able to take a more optimistic, proactive approach to life. In the past, when she was still active in the
entertainment industry, Angie was a ‘night owl’ who often stayed awake until 1
or 2am in the morning; since Hanson entered her life, she has adjusted her
lifestyle and now takes on an ‘early to bed, early to rise’ routine. “My mom used to worry about me all the time
and wanted me to find a good man to take care of me. When I visited my family in Malaysia
recently, they saw firsthand how much I had changed. My mom was so surprised that I went to bed
even earlier than her!”
As for her career, Angie states that she will
continue to work hard at it, but she already has a plan for the future: some day, she will return to Malaysia and
enjoy life with her family. “My life
will then truly be without regret!”
