linda chung - latecomer reaches the shore first

Linda Chung - Latecomer Reaches the Shore First

[Express News Weekly #457]


Unofficial statistics say that the average age of TVB 'fa dan' (leading lady) is 30 years old.

Looking at Gigi Lai Chi, Charmaine Sheh Sze Man, Ada Choi Siu Fan, and Maggie Shiu Mei Kei, they've all already come of age. Even rising stars like Tavia Yeung Yi and Shirley Yeung Sze Kei are no longer 25.

Linda Chung Ka Yan is perhaps the youngest leading lady with the most credentials.

Before we reveal her age, let us first look at the caliber of her co-stars. In the hot series Heart of Greed, she fights with 30 year-old senior Yoyo Mung Ka Wai. In the as-yet-unreleased The Gem of Life, her rival is a woman who must apply heavy make-up before being seen.

Linda's youth makes her a winner
Latecomer first to reach the shore, in 2003 Linda was a pageant queen and last year she won the "Most Improved Actress" award. What's really rare is that she's been out for over three years, but still hasn't been degraded into playing roles of sluts.

Her image is much more precious than her bust-hurling "Miss Chinese International" predecessors such as Bernice Liu Bik Yi and Michelle Ye.

"I want to keep my image, all-together quite 'clean'."

At 23 years old, Linda is truly without additives, so let us hope that she will not end up like Gigi Leung Wing Kei.

Looking at magazine pictures of the modest Linda, she doesn't mind riding the subway and shops in ordinary stores for bargains. Even neighboring girls cannot be like Linda.

"I came from a very poor family. I couldn't afford too luxurious of a life. When I came to Hong Kong to be an actress, I insisted on riding the subway instead of walking."

Entering the entertainment industry for three years, is it possible to still be a white piece of paper? Looking at recent years, Linda has gone from a girl who is not very noticeable to a celebrity in a red bikini at a swimwear show. The names involved [in rumors] with her include Ekin Cheng Yi Gin, Raymond Lam Fung, Moses Chan Ho, and so on.

The most scandalous picture includes the one when Raymond was in the same car as she when he changed pants. The most up-to-date story written about her is that she is trying to steal Bernice's boyfriend, calling Moses to meet her going to work.

Days... are not innocent any more.

'Third eye' has a good judge of people's character
"I've gone through many rumors; Johnny Tang Siu Juen, Ekin, Raymond, Moses, not one is true. I didn't see Raymond change his pants! I didn't have a ride in Moses' car! I haven't had contact with Ekin since filming finished!" Linda was extremely emotional [about this topic].

"I answered reporters' questions. Yes is yes, no is no. If I answer 'No comment,' people will take my silence as an answer." This is experienced by experienced stars and newcomers alike, there's no difference. Look at Charmaine's response to rumors. They will again write about her, but she isn't resentful or angry. Linda, however, is so aroused that she almost wants to raise three fingers up and swear [her innocence].

"Ah! I'm really scared to look at these reports. Furthermore, I'm scared that my mommy will see it and worry." Linda says that many people told her that she'd change after entering the industry. That's why she is extremely watchful of herself.

"I remember that a senior reminded me: You're in Hong Kong without anybody and anything. This makes you appear very fragile. Many boys will take this opportunity to protect you. You have to use your 'third eye' in order to judge people."

Being naive doesn't equal to not having a brain. Linda says that after she entered the industry, there have continuously been people who pursue her; it's just that she hasn't been moved [by them]. "If you invite me out to dinner, I will go and just invite another friend out with me." Suddenly, I come straight to my point and ask if there are many 'siu sang' (leading man) who pursue her. "Hmm... I think there won't be pursuits. Everybody is signed on to be managed by TVB. I don't think they would dare." Linda's answer sounds right, but is pretentious.

When asked of Linda to appraise her rumored boyfriends, she was only willing to discuss one, which was Ekin. "I worked with him as my partner in a series. His character is great. We have no contact privately. In the time when we filmed Always Ready I would talk with him about my problems. What I didn't know, he would teach me." Rumors may not necessarily be true, but looking at Linda's eyes, there's a feeling of gain and loss.

'Cinderella'
Linda was born in Vancouver, Canada. She has an elder brother and sister. Her parents labored vigorously to support the three brother and sisters. "You ask me why I'm so hard-working? It's because when I was little I saw that my parents suffered a lot because of work. They didn't finish their studies. They had plans for me to complete university."

Linda says that their house is near a cemetery. It's an area where poor people reside.

Although the family of five was poor, their lives were very blissful. "Every morning my daddy left to go to work. My mommy went to the restaurant to sell 'dim sum' once she finished seeing me off to school. When I finished school, my mommy would take me to where she had a cleaning job to clean. Afterwards, we would go home to eat dinner. My daddy would then wash the dishes. My mommy would hurry to go off to her second job."

Linda is a real-life 'Cinderella.' When she was at school, there were must-have schoolbags and pretty pencil cases, but she never owned any of these. Her clothes were hand-me-downs from her elder sister. "When I was 16 or 17, my classmates all learned how to apply make-up. They were wearing strappy tops to school, but I always wore a black jacket and some very old-fashioned glasses. No one ever said I was pretty."

After being accepted into Vancouver's UBC University, the 'ugly duckling' finally transformed into a swan. "After my daddy bought contact lenses for me, I finally had boys pursuing me. The most magical was a ball where I changed into a one-piece dress and when the class saw me they were stunned."

The 'turned beautiful' Linda represented Vancouver in the "Miss Chinese International" pageant. However, when talking about beauty, if there's one mountain, there'll always be another mountain that's taller. [This is a Chinese saying that means that there'll always be someone who is better.] Even before the competition, she had already planned to lose. "The 'hot door' candidates were Tsui Ji Yin, Mandy Cho Man Lei, and Hung Hau Ling. Every time we did an activity, the reporters would definitely take pictures of the 'hot doors.' I was a 'big cold door.' The reporters would move pass my side and wouldn't look at me. At that time, I really didn't have any confidence. My 'kind' is very ordinary, how did I expect to be viewed as important?"

From a 'big cold door' to the surprising pageant winner, it turns out that Linda has to thank judge Kelly Chen Wai Lam. "The day before the competition, we went to see the judges. The reporters asked Kelly afterward if she had a favorite. It's because she said the one phrase, 'Linda Chung is very sweet,' the second morning, a number of reporters crowded around waiting for me to appear to take pictures and said I was 'very hot' and must win the competition. It was again very 'magical'."

Magic Time
Coming to Hong Kong for three years, Linda's tears have been even greater than in all of her 18 years in Canada.

"I wasn't happy because no one helped me. If I had a problem, I had to go deal with it myself. A lot of people say that I am lucky because I got leading roles as soon as I entered the industry. The problem was that I simply didn't know how to act. Every day I would ponder how long it would take until I can do well."

Linda's first acting role was as "Hung Bak Lam" in the modern version of Virtues of Harmony. "At the start, I didn't even know a grain of Chinese. I lived in Canada. I could only ask the tea-ladies and hair dressers to help me to add phonetics and then just learn them line by line when I got home. Every day I would learn numerous Chinese words. Every time I filmed a series, it was like a test."

Compared to others of her generation, Linda moved quickly. In her second series, Always Ready, she already played a leading role. Other actresses endure seven or eight years to fight for an opportunity, but Linda just opened her hand and received it.

"My acting was bad," Linda forces a laugh.

Linda is a self-critic. Last year, she depended on Always to win "Most Improved Actress." Compared to her pageant championship, it was an even greater surprise.

"That night, we were celebrating the TVB anniversary. As soon as I sat down, my name was already called to go on stage. It was like a dream. It was only after I got off stage that I cried." Her situation is like Charmaine, who won two awards in one night. Current times create a hero. "It's the first real 'Magic Time'." Her smile is sweeter than sugar.

Look Up

Last year's surprising winner of "Most Improved Actress" Linda worried most about going out and being scolded by people.

"Going out, I really feared that the audience would scold me. I knew that I simply wasn't enough yet. My acting was quite bad. I'm sorry." Her confession is cute.

Recently, Heart of Greed allowed Linda to greatly turn around her situation. From a lot of criticism, she now has many people who praise her.

"Filming Heart, if I wasn't talking lovingly with Raymond, I was arguing. I have very little experience in dating. That's why two weeks before filming, I hid at home and watched Korean series to have a crash course in acting. I examined them on how to argue and how to cry. It turns out that acting requires the usage of your pair of eyes, not your mouth."

In last week's episode of Heart, "Seung Joi Sum" discovered that "Ching Leung" had another woman. The ratings reached 39 points, beating the episode with the death of Lee See Kei's "Dai Kai" by 5 points. Linda finally gained face and can be a person who lifts her head up high.

"When I go out, people call me 'Seung Joi Sum' and praise me for doing a great job."

Linda Chung's story tells us that this world doesn't have "magic" or a lucky life. There's only hard work and making strives.

My thoughts: The first thought running through my mind was, "What? Again?!" She is really getting a lot of media coverage by newspapers and magazines! Thankfully, this article is completely different from her past features. I was very relieved and happy about that. Even if I don't get bored translating the same thing over and over again, other people will get tired reading the same thing. I'm not sure how it compares in length to the other articles, but it is a nice, meaty piece.

Awesome pictures from this interview with Express News Weekly! Thank you for an honest, refreshing, and good interview that revealed even more about Linda.

I think this is the first article in which Linda has addressed the "controversy" over her winning "Most Improved." I think it's great. Even I, as her fan, didn't want her to win because I felt she wasn't good enough for it yet. I'm glad she felt the same way. TVB should have given her the award this year as she has shown improvements by leaps and bounds in Best Bet and Heart of Greed. Honestly, her performances in 2006's series were lacking. After Linda won the award, I got the sense that she wasn't so "happy" winning it. As it turns out, it's true! Linda knows very well her own predicaments and issues. She's a smart girl. She's honest with herself. She knows that people wouldn't be happy with her win, but what could she do? Reject the award? I'm so glad Linda is finally getting her deserved praises from all around now!

Ekin is Linda's idol. She was so happy to work with him as she expressed so herself in the costume fitting of Always. In an interview with Alex Fong a few weeks ago, Linda disclosed that she fell for her co-stars when she first started filming. They were Hawick Lau, Steven Ma, and Ekin. It's clear from how highly she talks about Ekin that she feels fondly towards him, but of course, only in a student and mentor way.

Linda has described "Seung Joi Sum" as being a role similar to those in Korean dramas. I'm really surprised that she took acting tips from Korean series! In any case, it seems to have worked. Heart truly is a turning point in her career. She finally learned how to act, how to cry, and so on and people are much more receptive towards her now. Linda is really happy these days because so many veterans, co-stars, and viewers are praising her. The latest praise she received was from big-time veteran Adam Cheng, who has been watching Heart. Adam says, "Linda Chung - she uses her heart [in acting] and I found that she improved tremendously!" Like the article says, she can finally be proud of her work and lift her head up high.

Like I said, the tide is turning and even this article agrees with it. There's only one way to go from now on and that's up. Congratulations, Linda! I'm so proud of you and your successes.