Jeanette Aw 'comfortable' if people still recognise her as Yueniang from The Little Nyonya, despite her many hats
The actress will also reprise the role after 16 years in the sequel series Emerald Hill.
Local actress Jeanette Aw is one of the few who have successfully carved out a life away from local showbiz. She has a pastry shop Once Upon a Time, which recently had pop-up booths in Japan to a massive turnout. And, she also wrote, produced, and directed a short film in 2017 - The Last Entry - which missed out on getting nominated at the 2019 Oscars.
Despite her significant milestones, Aw, 44, admitted that she is “comfortable” if people still only recognise her as Yueniang (from the 2008 hit local TV series The Little Nyonya).
She also acknowledged that it is her most prolific role on local television, after all.
“I’m comfortable. In fact, sometimes I really appreciate that,” she said without hesitation to Yahoo Southeast Asia in an interview last month.
Meeting a fan in Japan
One of the moments that made Aw experience some strong feelings was when she ran into a Singaporean girl in Japan. Aw was there for the Once Upon a Time pop-up, and the girl is studying in a university there.
The girl had watched The Little Nyonya then, and even went to a big fan meet that the cast did at a shopping mall.
Aw gushed, “She was there and she showed me her photo and she was wearing the sarong kebaya. She said, ‘My dad put me on his shoulders and I still couldn’t see you!’ And she could still remember that memory.”
There was also a woman from China, who is working in Japan, who had watched the series, shared Aw. Her Chinese fans constantly leave messages on Weibo, telling Aw that they’ve watched it “eight times, 10 times and they can keep rewatching it”.
The actress added, “And then there were a few other Japanese who actually came to my pop-up, and they also said that they watched The Little Nyonya. So it was at that moment that I realised like, wow, it’s very moving. That so many years later, there are so many people who still remember me because of The Little Nyonya.”
Though she has done so much in the 16 years since the debut of Yueniang, Aw maintains that the role is something that “I can be very proud of”.
“When they come to me, from different parts of the world, and they tell me they watched it (the show), actually it’s very touching,” she said.
Reprising the role after 16 years
Aw is reprising the role of Yueniang after 16 years with Emerald Hill, a sequel series that takes place in The Little Nyonya universe. The show will focus on a new set of characters, featuring veteran actors like Zoe Tay, Chen Liping, Jesseca Liu, and Romeo Tan.
There will also be young actors such as Ferlyn G, Tasha Low, Chantalle Ng, Nick Teo, Tyler Ten, and Zhang Zetong (who plays Yueniang’s son).
Emerald Hill is slated to premiere in 2025.
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