Tan Kheng Hua On Life On The Kung Fu Set, And Her Dynamics With Daughter Lim Shi-An
The mother-daughter duo show their strong bond
It’s been over 24 years since Tan Kheng Hua and Lim Shi-An, her daughter with her ex-husband Lim Yu-Beng, appeared together in the pages of Her World. The duo makes a comeback on the cover of the May 2022 issue of Her World, coming full circle.
“We shot these beautiful photographs of me and Shi-An as a little baby. I also remember that as I was writing that article, I cried, because you know how you get involved with your emotions,” she says.
To this day, the veteran actress and producer, known for her roles in Crazy Rich Asians and Singapore’s longest-running hit sitcom Phua Chu Kang, bares her feelings with poignant prose on her Instagram account (@khenghua), with posts that celebrate the special memories she shares with Shi-An, who is 24 this year.
Kheng Hua chuckles affectionately and expresses a slight hint of disbelief as she relates an anecdote about Shi-An, whom she says enjoys the company of her parents. “The other day, Yu-Beng and I said, ‘Goodbye Shi-An, we are going for a walk.’ [She asked] ‘can I come? I’ll rollerblade very fast in front of you so you can have your chit-chat.’ When she was rollerblading, we were like, at least she likes us there. And she makes it a point to travel [overseas] to see me.”
Kheng Hua is currently filming in Vancouver as part of the main cast of American TV series Kung Fu. In this remake of the 1972 action production – which has recently been renewed for a third season – she plays Mei-Li Shen, the estranged mother of lead character Nicky Shen, a college drop-out who uses her martial arts skills to protect her community in San Francisco.
Although she portrays a strict disciplinarian in the show, Kheng Hua often has impromptu get-togethers with the younger cast members off-set, who call her Mama Kheng.
“I love hanging out with young people. When you look at my Kung-Fu cast in Vancouver, we are like a tiny little bubble family. We are away from our own families for eight months in a year; we only have each other. It’s no holds barred… They love to come to my house. I feel that it’s very much like me and Shi-An, but of course, we are extraordinarily close,” she shares.
Still, there is a decorum that both she and her co-star Hong Kong-American actor, Tzi Ma, expect from the younger actors on set.
“The older people, myself and Tzi Ma, we kind of set the tone: Don’t be late; know your lines. If we didn’t have the ‘older guards’ there, then maybe they would be a bit more lax,” says Kheng Hua.
She describes the dynamics between both older and younger cast members as “an intense exploration of young people and older people”, where there is a very “natural” exchange of information.
“One of the most important things that I’ve read comes from an old-fashioned baby book, and so much of my life philosophy comes from parenting: The first thing you need to teach your child is how to comfort themselves, by themselves,” she says.
Kheng Hua jokes about being a “delinquent parent” to Shi-An, but what she really does is give her daughter plenty of room and space to grow into her own person.
Shi-An inspires her with her goodness, shares Kheng Hua, her eyes welling up with tears. “I get emotional because she’s a good girl. Don’t underestimate that simple sentence. She makes her decisions towards the light. My parenting has a light touch. It’s a different sort of light – it has a long leash. I cannot express the sort of intimate feeling you have when you watch a grown-up child, and she’s a good person. She would never hurt anyone.”
She now looks forward to seeing the new adventures that Shi-An, who has recently graduated from university, will uncover as a young adult who is just embarking on her very own journey.
“At this point in our lives, now that she’s moving into adulthood with real adult considerations, I am enjoying and claiming a little bit of my own time. All the way until she graduated, I think there was a large part of me that felt like a mum. This entire year, she’s made her own decisions of what she wants to do. I am enjoying taking myself out of the equation.
“And it’s a little bit funny about claiming a bit of my own life. It’s not as easy as you think it is. And when your child is really on her own, you can see that with or without you, she’s going to be okay. It’s a different phase,” she says.
CREDITS:
WORDS Chelsia Tan
PHOTOGRAPHY Brendan Zhang, assisted by Ryan Loh
CREATIVE DIRECTION Windy Aulia & Elizabeth Lee
HAIR Colin Yeo & Doreen Low / Tress & Curvy, using Wella
MAKEUP Red Ngoh
Text: Chelsia Tan/HerWorld