Michelle Ye's Story

Michelle Ye - Picture from Ming Pao Weekly

I am putting up this article not because I fancy Michelle Ye. I just found her story intriguing. Something women these days can learn from - courage, independence, motivation...drive to succeed.

-Source: http://rm-daily.blogdrive.com/, http://asianfanatics.net/forum, Ming Pao Weekly-

"Born in HangZhou, grew up in America, Michelle Ye is different than the other flowers (actresses) of TVB, she knows how to keep her back to her country and face to international. By her side, there's always some powerful people, the country's Vice President's brother watches a premiere with her, the king of medical industries goes shopping with her, the Vice President of company eats dinner with her.

She buys a mansion at the age of 25, the short 6 years with TVB, lets her already have the guts to leave, because she knows where to find chances. "Having to survive to this day, I've depended on myself." She grew up in a broken up family, at the age of 9, her parents left her, started living alone at the age of 13, came into the entertainment circle at the age of 18, her story of growing up is special, HK girls are hard to catch up to.

Last year's Athens Olympics, we see where she's really powerful, stealing spots, mouth wars, even HK's athlete Alex Fong was put down by her. The Olympics finish, the one coming back with her is Diving Athlete, Hung Ngai, acting like a boyfriend and going to a concert with her. Michelle has the courage and the plans, starting in June, she doesn't need TVB to back her up, because her heart has one song playing, "Chi Lai, Chi Lai, Chi Lai......" (Come Up, Come Up, Come Up.......)

Last year, Michelle bought a house of 1200 square metres, and set up a family for herself, actually her idea of a family is quite vague. Her father's in America, her mother's Mainland, she hasn't lived with them since she was nine. "When I was little, my dad doesn't come home very often, I see him 2 -3 times a year, even when he comes home, he doesn't speak with me, my memories of him are very blurry."

Ever since she was old enough to understand things, the love of her parents was already broken, she was an only child, living with her mother, until she was nine, her parents officially divorced. "When they divorced, they both abandoned me, I wasn't even ten, being home alone, no one looked after me for two weeks, I brush myself up, I go to school by myself, I eat at my neighbour's house. I didn't think it was anything when I was young, but now that I've grown up and speak of it to others, they all say that my experience is very weird, then I've realized that my experiences were very different than others, my ability to get used to something is very high." Then, the duty to take care of her was given to her father by court, actually he wasn't in Mainland anymore, he was already in America planning for immigration, so she just went to live with her grandparents, until she was eleven, her father brought her and her grandparents all to America. Then her grandparents went back to HangZhou because they weren't used to the living, leaving her all alone again. "Dad asked me, if I want to live with him, or live alone, I said I wanted to live alone, he was almost like a stranger to me, I didn't want to live with a stranger."

Michelle started living alone at the age of 13, she rented a place herself, her father gave her allowance every month to take care of the expenses, she cooked and washed herself, figuring out her own survival skills. Back then, she had to move away frequently, something it's because it's forced by the housekeeper, other times is because she was robbed by the housekeeper's son, it was impossible to live there, everytime moving, she was on her own. "Every month, I go to my dad's company and ask him for money, I leave after I got it, even my friend who went with me felt it was strange, we didn't speak even one word. There's no other way, I asked if he wants to know where I'm living at, he said no." Even though Michelle's very apart from her father, but she feels that he puts a great effect on her. "It's like he has an invisible claw on me, growing up and thinking about it, he wants me to get good marks in school, I was quite good in school, so every time I give him my report card, he would give me a compliment or two, the reason for my personality to be so strong, is because of his invisible claw, I wanted to be noticed by him." Afterwards, she got into Wellesley College, after getting in a college, her relationship with her father started getting better. "I'm friends with his girlfriend, she's also my stepmother right now, she's older than me by 10 years, but looks quite young, coming from ShangHai, she's really smart, a student from Columbia College, a lawyer as well, she became a bridge between my dad and I."

Last year, Michelle was a host for Olympics, but her luggage was stolen right after she got off the plane, her airline tickets, identification and money was all gone, her stepmother came from America to help her right away, the colleagues from TVB all thought she was Michelle's sister. "If she was my sister, I would already be touched, but she's my stepmother, I'm even more touched." Michelle's stepmother is very independent, quite similar to Michelle herself, her stepmother understands her far more than her father. "She also came from a beauty pagent, she participated in "Miss Plum Flower" in America, the winner was Pang Dan, she got 2nd runner up, went to Taiwan to attend the Finals and got 1st. I attended the Miss Chinese International because I was a little influenced by her, she's very supportive of me, because I like travelling, that time we went to Gwai Lam, I wanted to go on a travel, she helped me persuade dad to let me go." She came to HK for the pagent, her mother came to visit her from HangZhou.

At that time she hasn't seen her mother for eight years from when she was ten, only through letters, when seeing her mother, her mother has already married again, and had other children, she only felt distant to her at the time. "TVB doesn't let visitors go into rooms, I could only see her in the main hall. It was strange at the time, even family relations could be washed away, even a relationship between a mother and daughter needs to be built up, people say blood is more thick than water, I suppose they mean families who always spend time together everyday, long time no see, it'd be just a stranger, though she's my closest family member, but I just can't find the close feeling in her."

Michelle Ye Xuan's "Xuan" was given by her mother, she likes Zhou Xuan, so she gave this name to Michelle. "Mom has never worked in her whole life, she actually wanted to be an actress, she tried to get in the Beijing Drama Classes, but even acting needs to speak of proportions, backgrounds, there's people who take the easy way in, taking her place, if not, she would've been an actress, right now, I never thought that I would be making her dream come true." Next month, Michelle will be cooperating with the HK Dancing Crew, she'll be portraying Zhou Xuan, it seems like it was all arranged by fate. She believes, that the feelings of blood connection, can only be built up if you have the heart to, right now, she would phone her mom once in a while, and to ask of how to portray Zhou Xuan. "We're like friends, gentle with each other, I don't feel that she should do anything for me, and she really hasn't done anything for me before, I don't have any standards for her, neither does she for me. When two people don't have standards with each other, everything will come much easier."

Michelle achieved winner for MCI, her father didn't allow her to go into the entertainment circle, so she returned to America to continue her studies, but TVB phoned her overseas to ask for her joining, she didn't know what to do, in conclusion, her stepmother persuaded her father to let her come to HK for development in a career. Being with TVB for six years, she's done quite a few series, but ones that make people have a deep memory, you can just count them. Until last year's Olympics, the audience see her language abilites, see how she knows how to do interviews, also seeing her little fight with Alex Fong, we see how powerful she is. Even better, coming back from Athens, there's Diving Athlete, Hung Ngai, bringing out rumours. From the years of rumours, the Vice President of Sun Dat, Chan Yeurk Boon, the king of medical industries, Hung Jung, to action director Ching Siu Dung, they are all 20 - 30 years older than her. "It's not that I like mature men, I'm quite independent, I don't need to be taken care of. An ideal boyfriend would be? Probably about two years older than me, a wise person, understand my career, have a similar background with me, if not it'll be bad if we can't understand each other."

Asking her if there's a guy in circle who fits the criteria? She firsted answered, "No, haven't seen one." Then suddenly she thought out, "Oh yes! Wallace Huo!" She met this rumoured boyfriend of Rosemund Kwan when filming "Tian Xia Di Yi" in Mainland, she has a picture with him inside her room as well. "He's like a dream lover of many girls, handsome, young, smart. We're pretty compatible, a lot of chemistry, but then it won't work out for us because he's too depressing, goes towards negativity, I like to be positive, he likes to talk to me, every time we're done, he'll turn very happy, but I'm the one being depressed. Oh well, we have no fate." Michelle had a boyfriend in Harvard when she was in America, then she came to HK, they broke up because they were in too much of a distance. "It was a beautiful memory, we're still good friends, he's great, he has a successful career. I didn't regret though, chances of a career only come once, you can't just give up a career for love." You don't see this in an HK girl very often.

Ever since coming into the showbiz, she's only admitted to one romance, is a boyfriend who she broke up with 3 years ago, though she's never said of the name, we think it's Benny Chan who she's co-starred with in Gods Of Honour. "The reason for splitting up, is because our values were different, we didn't fight, it's just that I slowly realized differences." Michelle doesn't know what family is, and also doesn't believe that love won't change, so only friendship, will she believe in. "I surely won't betray my friends." In the entertainment circle, she feels that she's forever friends with Raymond Lam, Ron Ng and Rain Lau, especially Myolie Wu. "We've been through a lot, our friendship won't be broken.

Last year when we were filming "Lost In The Chamber Of Love", I twisted my ankle, Myolie took me home on her back. Our backgrounds are similar, we're very compatible, she's independent, has ideas, very sincere in acting, and cherishes me, a guy who I'd love to find, ha! It'd be good if she was a guy!" This is Michelle's "Words Of Love" to Myolie, the 3 million men in HK, Michelle can't find an ideal boyfriend, she can only find it in her own gender, no wonder she's like many other HK girls, having go north."