"Cost Of Living Is A Bit High": Taiwanese Actor Li Liren Lived In S'pore For A Year With Wife Matilda Tao & Son Who's Studying Here

The rising cost of living affects everyone, even celebrities from abroad, like Matilda Tao's husband, Li Liren. 

The 51-year-old actor was in town recently on a promotional tour for Taiwanese action thriller 96 Minutes, where his son, Lee Xiaolong (no, not Bruce Lee) also made an appearance at a screening in GV Bugis+ and a media interview the next day. 

Xiaolong, who is Liren's son with Matilda, is no stranger to Singapore. The 16-year-old is currently studying at an international school here.

Matilda, 55, had moved to Singapore last year to be with Xiaolong. The 55-year-old Taiwanese host also mentioned last March that Liren was alone in Taiwan with their two dogs while she split her time between Taiwan and Singapore.

As it turns out, in the middle of all this, Liren divulged that he actually did live here for a year too.

We now know he and Matilda both moved back to Taiwan last year, while their son lives in a school dormitory here. The couple also has an older daughter, 19-year-old Dou Dou, who's studying in the U.S.

When asked by Chinese media Zaobao.sg if he would be extending his stay in Singapore after his promo duties to be a "stay-at-home dad", Liren's answer was totally unexpected.

“Singapore is great, very convenient to live in, though the cost of living is a bit high. Having him stay in the dorm helps him face academic life on his own,” he said.

This comes as a surprise given that Matilda had praised Singapore for having reasonable school fees just last year. 

"With the money you need for a one-year course in a US university, you can study in Singapore for six years," she asserted back then, adding that private universities in the States now cost around US$90K (S$120K) a year.

"The truth is, the quality of education in Singapore is better than that of the US," she added.