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A veteran journo spills little-known details about the retired star and her ex-boyfriends Hongkong billionaire Peter Lam and Taiwanese singer Chyi Chin.

By
Jonathan Fam
There are few actresses as enigmatic as Joey Wong. The 54-year-old shot to superstardom after starring in Tsui Hark’s 1987 movie A Chinese Ghost Story, where she played Nie Xiaoqian aka the most famous ghost in Asian cinematic history.
With mega fame also came huge media interest in her love life and the star soon became a scandal magnet, with her two relationships — the first to Hongkong billionaire Peter Lam, the second to Taiwanese singer Chyi Chin — dissected to death in the tabloids.
A veteran Hongkong journalist known only as Bai Lu Mei recently dedicated an Apple Daily column to Joey, revealing little known details about the star’s love life.
According to Bai Lu Mei when Joey first moved from Taiwan to Hongkong in 1985, she had to live in the hostel provided by Shaw Brothers Studio. And because she didn’t have many friends then, Joey would often ask Bai Lu Mei out for coffee and meals.

The journo would go on to describe Joey as being very innocent, but at the same time, also very stubborn and opinionated.
The actress and Bai Lu Mei got very close and she would consult the journo before she took on any role. When she was offered to star opposite Leslie Cheung in A Chinese Ghost Story, Bai Lu Mei encouraged Joey by saying “Tsui Hark is a very outstanding director, so you really have to treasure this opportunity. This is your moment.”
True enough, the movie turned her into a superstar. But even though her career was flourishing, Bai Lu Mei said that Joey, at that time, was yearning for love and was involved in a number of scandals.
Worried for the actress, Bai Lu Mei tried advising Joey to be careful with matters of the heart but the latter was set in her ways and the friends eventually drifted apart.

In the early ’90s, Joey got involved with Hongkong billionaire Peter Lam, who was also very married. Their scandalous relationship was the talk of the town but the couple eventually broke up after three years together. The split, Bai Lu Mei said, affected Joey greatly and was the catalyst for her leaving Hongkong.
According to Bai Lu Mei, Joey is not a gold-digger. When they were dating, Peter bought her a HK$13mil (S$2.2mil) mansion, which was considered very expensive during that time.
After they broke up, Joey felt that it wasn’t fair for Peter to continue paying the monthly installments. But she also knew that she wouldn't be able to pay for the house on her own, and so she planned to give the mansion back to Peter.
A close friend of Joey’s soon found out about this and she related Joey’s predicament to her tycoon boyfriend, whom Bai Lu Mei refers to as Mr L.
Mr L felt that Joey had “a lot of backbone” for doing what she did and so he decided to buy over the mansion. In fact, he paid HK$20mil (S$3.4mil) for it, which was way over its market value. And because of that, Joey was able to cash out from the sale.

When she left Hongkong, Joey moved back to Taiwan for a while, which was when she fell in love with Chyi Chin.
According to Bai Lu Mei, just when the couple was about to throw a wedding ceremony in Tibet in 2001, Chyi Chin’s ex-girlfriend Taiwanese singer Fang Mei Fang sued him for abandoning their son, locking the former couple in a legal battle.
Joey was shocked by the revelation — she had no idea that Chyi Chin was a father — and she soon lost faith, not just in their relationship, but with love in general.
In 2004, Joey announced her retirement from acting and moved to Vancouver where she still lives, regularly updating her followers with her selfies.
Photos: Weibo
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