This article is ostensibly about TVB starlet Fala Chen possibly being already married to her boyfriend (the unpardonable sin for HK entertainers in their money-making prime). More relevant for us is that the article mentions the couple was spotted at a church service where TVB star Sheren Tang was preaching/speaking. The article goes on to imply that Chen is a believer.
That’s the first time I’ve heard that about Chen, but it’s a development worth noting/tracking.
Born in the PRC (Chengdu? She does get a serious case of panda eyes when she’s without makeup and enough rest…), Fala Chen spent part of her youth in the US, specifically Georgia, where she went on to graduate from Emory University. She entered HK showbiz in 2005 after competing in the Miss Chinese International pageant as the representative from New York. Tapped as the favorite because of her beauty, charisma, and star potential, Chen came in second to fellow TVB artiste Leanne Li of Vancouver (formerly a member of Campus Crusade for Christ at the University of British Columbia) in something of an upset. Since then, however, Chen’s career (in the eyes of the world) has definitely eclipsed Li’s.
At the 2005 Miss Chinese International Pageant, Fala Chen v. Leanne Li seemed one of those epic choices of good-versus-evil in which everyone had to pick a side. The chat forums were inflamed with hot-headed debate. On the one hand you had the pretty, shy, introverted, innocent Vancouverite, who came up with the perfect quip at the right time (basically what won Li the crown), pitted against the beautiful vixen-y man-eating New Yorker, who seemed a little too smooth, too polished, and a little too rehearsed at the pageant game.
At the time, I picked the side of “good,” Leanne Li. Maybe God picked them both?