Vincent Wong Wants To Be His Daughter’s Friend As His Parents Were “Pretty Distant” When He Was a Child

TVB actor Vincent Wong  comes off slightly aloof and intimidating when you meet him for the first time. Especially because the 1.86m actor is so tall he towers over everybody in the room.  

When 8days.sg meets the 39-year-old actor, who was in Singapore last week for the Let’s Talk About Health Fair, we are immediately impressed by how effectively trilingual he is. 

“What language do you speak in? English? I can do English,” he tells us confidently.  

The actor, who recently went to China to film Chinese reality competition series  ‘Kaibo! Qing Jing Xi Ju', where teams compete in comedy acting, is also fluent in Mandarin and, of course, his mother tongue, Cantonese.  

Vincent is also busy meddling with the window blinds in the room like a vampire spooked by daylight, and for a moment 8days.sg is slightly envious of his alabaster complexion.   

He later explains, however, that he is dealing with a skin allergy and minimises contact with direct sunlight. The actor reckons his allergy might be an adverse reaction to the climate difference between Hong Kong and China as he constantly jets between the two for work. 

To better protect himself, Vincent wears protective sleeves underneath a turtleneck and jacket that only expose his knuckles and fingers. We know he rushed over straight from the airport for the interview but this wrapped up in Singapore? We’re sorry about our local weather.   

Maybe it’s the humidity, maybe it’s his cool persona. Several minutes into the interview, it still seems like the actor doesn't smile much. So much so the photographers present have to prompt him to smile for pictures.  

But things take a softer turn when we bring up his 11-year-old daughter with TVB actress Yoyo Chen, 41, and his reserved demeanour gives way to effusive hearty chuckles.  

8DAYS: Hi Vincent! Welcome to Singapore! You’ve been spending a lot of time furthering your career in China recently, which surely means you miss spending time with your family. 

VINCENT:  I have to support my kid and also my family, and I have all these responsibilities. I gotta work, so they understand my sacrifice. Due to COVID and the quarantine system [back then], whenever I went to China from Hong Kong, I had to quarantine for about three weeks which I thought was a waste of time. So I talked to my family and we decided that I’ll just  stay in China and explore the market there.  

And I’m proud that my daughter, who’s only 11, actually understands and she said: “It’s fine, you have to work.” But of course when I go back to Hong Kong, I spend most of my time with her, and as a father, that’s the least I can do. 

How different is in China compared to TVB? 

TVB has their own system of how they create drama and content. And in China, they learn and grow really fast and the production is really strong right now. All these big platforms like iQiyi and MangoTV have a lot of budget to work on each episode so the scale is bigger. Since there’s more resource, they have more room to create something better maybe? Of course I’m from Hong Kong and I certainly look forward to see if we have such scale of production in Hong Kong [in the future].  

How tough has it been adapting to a new work environment?  

I think being an actor who uses Cantonese as my primary language, it’s always the most comfortable for me to act in Cantonese. I think that’s one of the biggest challenges for me is having to work in Mandarin. Plus I have to work in the genre of comedy in China, and that’s pretty tough for me. 

Since you’ve been working in China, do you think your daughter QQ is now closer to mum Yoyo, who spends more time with her in Hong Kong? 

No, I don’t think so, I think we’re pretty equal now.  

Would you say QQ is a daddy's girl? 

I think she is (laughs). This morning when I left home, I could really see from her eyes the true meaning of a “past-life lover”. My dog came to me at the lift ‘cos he misses me too, and [QQ’s] mum told her to grab the dog. So she grabbed the dog, looked at me [intently] and said “bye bye”.  

Initially I just needed to come to Singapore and fly back the day after, but I just got a new schedule and I have to go to China again. So last night she was like: “Sigh, you gotta go to China again?” and I said: “Yeah sorry, it’s a good opportunity.” And she understands, so I’m grateful that she does, but at the same time, I don’t wanna leave her. 

You share some of your father-daughter moments on social media; what do you guys like to do when you hang out? 

Sports. Recently, I’ve been teaching her badminton ‘cos I love badminton and I’ve been trained before, so I asked my friend to train her and I also train her myself. In the past three years, people didn’t have space to do sports so her physique is not as good as before. So I want her to pick up more physical stuff.  

We’re having fun doing homework too (laughs). Like her projects or when she’s practising her violin, I’ll practise my guitar. When she does choir, I do my vocal [trainings]. She’s more similar to me [in these areas] I think. 

Now that she’s a teenager, do you think she’s entering the rebellious phase already?  

Not yet, she still lets me hug her and kiss her forehead so I think she’s not there yet. (chuckles) 

Are you worried about that day arriving? 

Well, I’ve been there so I’m not scared but I don’t know if I can take it or not (laughs). 

Does she feel like she’s too cool to be seen with her parents now?  

I don’t think so, ‘cos I pick her up from school and she seems fine (laughs). She doesn’t seem to be trying to hide something from her classmates.  

Is she okay with her peers knowing that her parents are celebrities? 

I think she’s used to it already. Actually a lot of artistes send their kids to this school so I think the school knows how to deal with all this mentally and physically. 

Do you guys share secrets with each other? 

Yes I do, I initiate that (laughs), I talk to her about my childhood secrets and she starts telling me hers. I don’t want to be a very distant father, I want to be a friend to my daughter. When I was growing up, my parents were pretty distant from me. They needed to work and they didn’t spend much time with me, most of my time was spent with my helper. So I’d love to be my daughter’s friend if she lets me. 

Photos: Vincent Wong/Instagram, Jaynestars

Catch Vincent on Let's Talk About Health Fair 2023 on meWATCH below: