What’s Chinese About Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh
The beautiful Chinese actress and winner of “Best Actress” at the 2023 Academy Awards was born Yeoh Choo Kheng in Ipoh, provincial Malaysia. She spoke English with her father and Malaysian Cantonese with her mother and grandmother who lived with them.
Yeoh studied ballet in London at age 15, but injuries blocked that career.
Unbeknown to Yeoh, her mother entered her for Miss Malaysia and her victory led to making fight movies in 1980s Hong Kong. In a recent interview published in the Financial Times, Yeoh complains:
I was put in the box of women [who] were protected, and ‘damsels in distress,’ but I wanted to jump off motorbikes on to speeding trains and kick people in the face, like the men did.
She became a pioneering action/martial arts actress, racking up frightful injuries during Hong Kong stunt films. Then her career soared from Hong Kong fight movies with Jackie Chan through the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In Geisha she plays a graceful lovely mature ex-Geisha. Now, at age 60, Yeoh, the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for best actress for her role in the small-budget indie science-fiction fantasy film Everything Everywhere All at Once, is a downtrodden Chinese immigrant laundromat owner Evelyn Wang. Yeoh’s acting shows not only her superb talent but gives voice to the unseen, unrecognized ordinary woman and mother. Yeoh, accepting her Academy Award, called all such women “superheroes.”
What’s Chinese about Michelle Yeoh?
In the Financial Times interview and others, Yeoh has shared stories about filming Everything, Everywhere: We ended up as family. “Every day, the entire cast and crew gathered and we looked each other directly in the eyes, held hands and we knew that we were there for each other.” That quiet ritual set the stage assuring cooperation and confidence for highly coordinated fast action scenes. Tradition and Cohesiveness are at the heart of Chinese family.
While Michelle Yeoh was growing up, as China opened, her family visited her grandparents’ village, where they tended the ancestral graves.
While the reporter from the Times chatted with Michelle Yeoh at London’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge, the actress nibbled at her vegan meal and offered to share half with the reporter. Normally her diet is vegetables, grains, curry noodles, no red meat and, of course, Chinese tea. She first poured the tea for the reporter, which is standard Chinese good manners. Here are some of the teas loved by Sinophiles around the world:
Chinese Teas for Health and Beauty
Crisp or flowery green teas grown on misty hillsides in South China.
Fragrant, delicately scented jasmine teas brought to full splendor by pairing green tea numerous times with spring-picked jasmine flowers.
Eye-popping brisk, enchanting oolong teas, including Tie Kuan Yin.
And gently alluring flowery brews of oolong grown in high mountains.
A wide variety of Blossoming Teas that flower in glorious colors in your cup.
Monk Fruit is a cooling, nourishing sweetener that supports yin to help moisturize and protect lungs and skin. It tastes sweeter than sugar but, a zero glycemic index food, it is safe for people with diabetes. Crack open the delicate pod and simmer the lo han guo (monk fruit) for up to 15 min. in water. Use the cooking liquid to sweeten foods and keep it refrigerated.
Chinese Beauty Secrets
Asian women are often gifted with an unusually radiant beautiful complexion. However it is not always inherited but requires special care from a diet rich in collagen.
Bird’s Nest is not only an important ingredient in a celebration soup often enjoyed by the family during Lunar New Year, it also serves as an important source of collagen and nutrients essential for healthy skin, bones and joints. It can be simmered as a mild-tasting soup or, for convenience, served as an individual extract.
Yin Foods
Yin-enhancing foods and herbs in traditional Chinese medicine support body fluids, the health of internal organs, water balance, blood sugar balance and skin texture and beauty. Yin keeps us young and juicy. Yin support helps us to prevent burn-out and signs of aging.
Among yin foods are abalone, sea cucumber, shell fish, honey and royal jelly.
One of the best-known Yin-enhancing herbs is American ginseng which can be cooked in soup or enjoyed as a beverage.
We wish beautiful Michelle Yeoh continued health, happiness and success.
