11 THINGS YOU (PROBABLY) DON’T KNOW ABOUT WALLACE CHUNG

Fans who started to like Wallace after watching My Sunshine might still be not very familiar with him. Thus here are the 11 things you (probably) don’t know about Wallace Chung translated from this article. Thanks a lot to Peanuts for editing my post, as well as advising me to translate this article. 🙂

1. Why is he called Xiao Wa (Little Wa)

Wallace’s nickname in mainland China is Xiao Wa because of the pronunciation of the first two letters of his English name. However some fans interpret it as a visceral reaction because when one sees Wallace for the first time, one will cry out “Wa.”

I’m a rational fan, so I think the second explanation is a bit exaggerated. 😛

2. He entered the entertainment industry due to his family’s poor financial condition

When he was 16 years old, his family’s business faced difficulties. Thus he started to work part-time as a newspaper delivery boy. Once reaching 19 years old, he did not want to be a burden to his parents so he gave up on going to college and applied to be trained as a dancer at TVB. Because of his talent, he was accepted with 29 others, out of hundreds of applicants. He also survived 1 year of hellish training to become one of the six finalists.

Another source reported it was out of thousands of applicants so I don’t know which one is true. Either way, It means he’s very talented and TVB has an eye for talent lol.

Haha: Wallace said later that he did not give up on going to college due to poor family financial situation but because he really loved dancing. He chose dancing against his parents’ objection.

When Wallace reminiscenced about the past, he said ‘Since my childhood, my dream has been simple, which is to be a successful artist: To dance and sing to the best of my ability to satisfy the audience as well as my own interest. This dream has been with me all along and has become my only pursuit in life.”

Wallace was born and debuted in Hong Kong, but became popular in Taiwan. At that time, he was still a dancer but was arranged to film dramas by TVB. His very first drama with TVB was Chord of Victory which is about a famous band in HK called Wynners. He portrayed Kenny Bee who is the most handsome one in the drama. Producer Samuel Tai noticed his performance and asked him to develop his career in Taiwan where he could sing and dance on stage. This was a big inducement for Wallace. Hence he just packed up and went there courageously.

Wallace’s OREA album cover

As it turned out, his first album was a hit. He continued to make 6 more albums in a row. He also received the Best New Artist award and the nickname “Little Sun.” Since then he started to earn money for his family, such as changing to a bigger house and financing his sisters to complete their education abroad.

4. Wallace was ‘frozen’ twice

When he was 20 years old, Wallace acted in two TVB dramas. His acting talent was noticed and he was asked to sign a five-year contract but he refused due to the length of the contract. Thus he was frozen for 6 months and can only host a weekly TV program.

At the age of 25, his career was flourishing in Taiwan. He was thinking whether to go back to Hong Kong or enter the Mainland China market. However due to contractual issues, he disappeared for 5 years, without any song to record. New faces kept turning up, slowly eroding his popularity …

From age 25 to 30, such a golden period in one’s life.

All these information was disclosed by his friend. Although he had some hard times before, he has never talked or complained about them.

Wallace: ‘When I fall, I’ll feel pain but I won’t speak of it.’

5. He likes to read books in the studio, because it can help to improve acting skills

Wallace doesn’t like to use smartphones in the studio. He always feels it would ruin the atmosphere on the set. He has memorized many Tang dynasty poems and read a lot of Chinese classics in order to act well in costume dramas. He believes that reading is a useful way to improve one’s acting skill especially when you need to play a character that’s very far away from your life or from another era.

6. That’s more to his attractiveness besides good look and good fashion sense

Wallace doesn’t have his own stylist. Thus everything he wears for promotional events are arranged by him personally.

He can speak English fluently, but insists on speaking Mandarin in his daily conversation. Although his pronunciation is rather poor, he rarely uses English to express himself. It was such little things that make his attractive.

7. After playing many roles in costume dramas, he admires Nalan Xingde the most

Wallace: I admire Nalan Xingde because he never socialized with other nobles, he liked to discuss poetry with people of similar interests, he had high moral character and a noble upbringing, but he disregarded his fame and fortune. I admire that very much. I really hope that one day I can become that kind of person too.’

Wallace as Nalan Xingde in Secret History of Kangxi

8. He has a special relationship with his mother

On one of his birthdays, his mother drew a Minna No Tabo for him. Wallace would always draw some weird doll for his mother. They give verbal confessions to each other and he will send voice recordings to his mother. He likes to use this method to record everything he wants to say, to compose songs or lyrics.

Minna No Tabo, Wallace used to like to watch this anime.

9. He won’t talk much in his first meeting. Usually, he likes to stay at home and watch Doraemon

Wallace: Every time people met me for the first time, they would think I’m very different from what they saw on television. I might appear very boring at first, as it takes me a long time to warm up to others.’

When asked what he does at home, he said, “I’m very busy at home, jogging my memory to think about things that I haven’t figured out yet, reading, making phone calls, doing the laundry, daydreaming, tryinging to compose, reading Doraemon comics, Fumi Saimon’s or Haruki Murakami’s novels, and watching Doraemon.

If he looks like that at home, I would really want to stalk him.

10. He will give himself some special birthday gifts, such as this:

In white on blue sky: Gentle Breeze, Beautiful Sunshine. Fine Day. Wallace Chung In black on the bottom: Line 1: Wallace Chung’s “Gentle Breeze, Beautiful Sunshine. Fine Day” challenges him and pushes him to a new level. Line 2: All-new music, all-new vision, all-new attitude.

(Thanks to hoju for the translation of the picture)

On his 32th birthday, he set up his own production team, used his own money to make an album, and directed the MV himself. They went all the way to London to shoot the MV. He knew very well that this album was doomed to lose money. The album’s name is ‘Fine Day’, just like his state of mind, even though he went through a lot of ups and downs in life.

The sad thing is, this song wasn’t even popular with his fans except maybe some Taiwanese fans.

11. How he sees himself

‘I’m not very gentle, I’m forgetful. I’m not like a noble at all. I’m actually a little bad on the inside.’

‘I always say many righteous things. But I actually want to be bad, like those boys in ‘Trainspotting’. I think boys should be like that. Be cool, don’t always follow the rules, don’t be so clean and stay a little out of your comfort zone. Of course, I do not mean to be like them to smoke marijuana. It is to live in accordance with one’s wishes, so that life is not wasted. It would be very fun.’

Sound like YOLO to me.

‘Everyone seems to think that I’m very friendly, but in fact I am a bit stubborn.’

‘There are a lot of souls inside of me.’

This is our Wallace, so real, with no scandal and doesn’t regret being frozen before.

Wallace: ‘If I become a very successful artist because you like my acting and my music, not because I am highly exposed, then I’d think that’s amazing.’

Wallace has walked so far to reach where he is now which is the pinnacle of his career. However his success did not come easy. Someone commented that he was lucky to get a good role like He Yi Chen, but I disagree. It’s his own hard work in the past that brought him to this character. Not everyone can be He Yi Chen.

The more you know him, the more you will love him. He’s so cheerful yet shy, so generous yet naughty. If I start praising him, it’ll be hard to stop so I better end here. 😀

Initially I wanted to translate the main points only, but I ended up translating almost everything. I can’t help myself because I feel everything is important. I hope this helps you to get to know him better and fall deeper in love with him. 🙂