Poetically, though, Chantalle Ng, who is Lin’s real-life daughter, gets to take on her first “baddie” role. “I really enjoyed myself,” she chortled. “It was refreshing for me, because all the time, I had to be a certain way, and this is the first time I felt like, ‘Wow, I can be bad, and that’s not bad.’” After the show airs, she mused, “I think I will be so misunderstood!”
Meanwhile, Romeo Tan plays, erm, her father. “The producer said that in those days, they got married and had children at a very young age, so that could be one of the explanations,” he said, with a laugh. The funny part is that just before starting on this drama, they had played girlfriend and boyfriend. “I suddenly went from boyfriend material to daddy material. So, showbiz is actually quite interesting,” he quipped.
With food and feasts being a big part of Peranakan culture, the cast were surrounded by delicious temptation at every dining scene, they shared. “The director kept telling us to stop eating the props!” Tay said, revealing that for the sake of not depleting the food on the table, they’d do things like “stuff the buah keluak back into its shells”.
If her character were a Peranakan dish, Low said, she’d be “udang pedas manis”: A “sour, spicy prawn dish with pineapple”, as she’s “bright and spicy”. Sounds like the perfect recipe for new, epic little Nyonya adventures.
Catch Emerald Hill – The Little Nyonya Story from Mar 10 on Netflix, on demand for free on mewatch from Mar 17 and on Channel 8 at 9pm from Mar 19.
