Joey Wong was once a beauty icon whose looks captivated audiences across Asia. However, as she entered middle age, her face changed so noticeably that some viewers began to suspect that the actress had undergone cosmetic procedures.
According to 163, after 22 years away from the entertainment industry, Joey Wong has accepted an invitation to appear on an entertainment program for the first time. She addressed several questions that have long intrigued the public, including why she retired at the height of her fame and why her appearance has changed so much over the years.
Joey Wong said that she has not undergone cosmetic surgery. The actress has accepted the natural aging process and insisted that she does not mind no longer looking the way she once did. However, because Wong has been away from the entertainment industry for so long, audiences continue to remember her youthful appearance and have difficulty accepting that she has grown older and naturally looks different.
“I’m almost 60 years old, yet people are still talking about my appearance,” Joey Wong said.
According to Joey Wong, her role as Nie Xiaoqian in A Chinese Ghost Story left such a deep impression on audiences that the image has remained firmly embedded in their memories. She then left the entertainment industry relatively early and stayed out of the public eye for decades, meaning the public’s perception of her has not kept pace with her actual age.
“People’s impression of me is still based on how I looked before I retired. So whenever I appear in public, people easily think, ‘She’s still young,’” she said candidly. The endless discussion surrounding Joey Wong’s appearance, in her view, comes from a disconnect and misunderstanding about the passage of time.
Joey Wong emphasized that any changes in her appearance are simply the result of natural aging and that she has not undergone plastic surgery. Previously, there were also reports claiming that her facial appearance had changed because of a traffic accident.
Wong stressed that her youthful image belongs to the past. The actress has no intention of forcing herself to preserve her youth forever, nor does she want to remain bound by the image audiences saw on screen decades ago.
Following Joey Wong’s explanation, many viewers admitted that they wanted to preserve the actress’s most beautiful image in their memories, making it difficult for them to accept that she is approaching 60 and that her appearance has inevitably changed with age.
“The image of her in my mind is still the one from when she retired,” “Being 19 is only a memory of youth. No one can stay 19 forever,” and “My idol has grown older. She accepts it, but I’m the one who still can’t let go because she retired too early,” viewers commented.
Born in 1967, Joey Wong is an actress and singer who rose to fame in Hong Kong during the 1980s and 1990s. She was regarded as one of Hong Kong cinema’s leading actresses alongside Maggie Cheung, Rosamund Kwan and Cherie Chung. She was also dubbed “Asia’s No. 1 Beauty” for her striking, seductive and ethereal looks tinged with a sense of melancholy.
Joey Wong is best known for playing Nie Xiaoqian in the 1987 film A Chinese Ghost Story, opposite the late Leslie Cheung. She later became closely associated with alluring and mystical roles in productions including Painted Skin, The East Is Red, Green Snake, An Eternal Combat and Picture of a Nymph.
Joey Wong’s final film was Shanghai Story, released in 2004. In 2005, she announced her retirement and moved to Canada. What began as a break has now lasted more than two decades. She currently runs a wellness center in Vancouver offering moxibustion therapy, with services reportedly costing around CAD 120 per hour.
Joey Wong has said that she owns multiple properties and has enough money to last her lifetime. As a result, she opened the business simply because she wanted to, rather than because she needed to earn a living.
Sources: k14