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(Photo: Tony Leung@Dot Workshop)

Tina Liu Talks Fate and Ex-Boyfriends

The legendary media figure has been a fashion stylist, model, actress, magazine editor and image consultant. She’s founded fashion boutiques, accessories stores and recently started selling tea eggs. She tells HK Magazine about multitasking, why she can’t watch disaster movies and shares her thoughts on love and luck.

I was born in Hong Kong. I grew up with a brother and a sister, with my mother single-handedly supporting our family.

I moved to Canada in 1974 for secondary education, and studied communications at university.

I already jumped into the entertainment field before graduating.

I was in production. I worked [at TVB] as an actress and backstage.

I became [actress] Josephine Siao’s PA after an uncle's referral.

I was a nobody at that time, but Josephine Siao looked at me and asked me to act [in her next film, “The Spooky Bunch”].

I played a ghost.

After that I got so into cinema that I ended my contract with TVB and went back to Canada to study film.

TVB was nice and they didn’t ask me for any compensation.

I tried many more different jobs after graduation. I was an executive editor at City Magazine, and later on I became Image Fashion Director at Esprit in 1983.

Over the past 30 years, I have shifted between different positions in the entertainment industry: actress, assistant director, producer, costume designer…

I was an artist manager at ATV in the late 80s, too, taking care of everything to do with the artists.

Around five years ago, I became a vice president of the Hong Kong Film Arts Association, helping promote the art of film in Hong Kong.

We promote the aesthetic of Hong Kong movies. I also give talks in universities to tell more students about the the art of movies.

In the 80s, there were many things I achieved—including getting married
and getting divorced.

It was a memorable, interesting decade.

I’m lucky. I can do whatever I’m interested in and I’m able to do it.

And the timing has been perfect to make things happen.

My daughter Yoyo Sham is a singer-songwriter in Taiwan. She’s doing quite well now.

It’s amazing to witness and accompany a child as they grow up.

I established the four-story Xia Qi Hall [image consultancy] on On Lan Street in Central, providing services for costumes, makeup, photography…

It was a building for girls to make dreams come true.

I’m addicted to fashion. I started [accessories store] Tina’s Choice a year ago. It’s a boutique in Lee Gardens. It’s selling all the cute, special stuff that I sourced in Europe.

I’ve rarely talked about love in recent years.

As people grow up, you’ll find that you have more different roles and responsibilities. Love is just a fraction of life.

I am still close to my ex-boyfriends. Even though we have broken up, I still want them to have a happy life.

We have risen to a higher level and become friends who talk about everything.

But I never ask about their love lives. I have no right to.

Life is like a building. Every day different people come in and out. The people and things that you encounter—it’s all fate.

When someone is on the third floor and you are on the fourth floor, it’s hard to meet each other, isn’t it?

I consider myself a lucky person. But my only regret is that my father left too early, that he wasn’t able to see me grow up.

An airplane accident took him away when I was just four.

I can never watch disaster films, especially those with plane accidents.

I can’t think of how my father felt when he was on the plane.

I do think a positive mind can solve lots of problems. While dealing with the same issue, different paths might cause different outcomes.

Nowadays people are materially rich. Children can have phones when they
are really young. And then they become indifferent.

Technology seems to bring people closer, but actually it’s doing the opposite.

I have had so many different roles and experiences in the past 30 years, many
of which overlapped.

It keeps my life busy and happy.

Recently I’ve been selling my tea eggs in Wah Kee Foods in Causeway Bay.

I used to give away my home-made tea eggs to family and friends during Chinese New Year.

Now I’m hoping to spread human warmth and wishes to others.

If anyone wants a life like mine, they need to be very efficient, and maintain good mental health.

Visit Tina’s Choice at Shop 309-310, Lee Gardens One, 33 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay, 2907-2688, tinaschoice.com.

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