Singapore is no stranger to regional celebs calling our island home — Cecilia Cheung previously enrolled her sons in school here and Jet Li famously gave up his US citizenship for a Singapore one, also citing his preference for our education system.
We may soon be adding Hong Kong actor Him Law and his wife, actress Tavia Yeung, to that list.
Him, 39, made an appearance on Quan Yi Fong’s talk show Hear U Out and shared: “My daughter is three years old, she’ll have to go to school soon. I was looking at the Singapore International School (in Hong Kong) but wow, it’s really tough.
“The entry requirements are very strict, and the school fees are very expensive.”
He added that it was very difficult to secure a spot for your kids in a Hong Kong school. Nevertheless, he reckoned it was “too early” to move to Singapore and was “thinking of letting them have their secondary school education here” instead.
Yi Fong, 49, countered that Him and Tavia, 44, should start their kids off from primary school here.
“My wife won’t be able to part with them,” Him countered, then clarifying that it didn’t mean that he would be sending his kids to school alone here.
“We’ll probably take turns to be with them.”
Him previously told AsiaOne Singapore was a consideration because of its relatively close distance to Hong Kong and the culture.
“It is more convenient. If I send her too far away, I will worry that she will be exposed to overly liberal culture. The culture here is safer for girls,” he explained.
Him and Tavia began dating back in 2011 while filming medical drama The Hippocratic Crush (2012). They got married in 2016 and have two children: Hera, 3, and one-year-old Eden.
It’s not just moving countries for the sake of their kids, Him and Tavia even changed their names for them.
Him changed his Chinese name from Law Chung-him to Law Chi-yat, while Tavia changed hers from Yeung Yi to Yeung Sin-yiu.
Previously, he said that it was not because the ‘Chi’ in his new name was a homonym for ‘son’ in Mandarin and could result in them having one — this was back when they only had Hera — but because they had met a fortune teller “by fate”.
“We chose the names solely because of the strokes and calculations of the five elements,” he clarified.
During Hear U Out, Him explained that both he and Tavia were “really decisive” about it, but Tavia now says that her name is harder to remember than his.
“Chi-yat sounds easier to pronounce. It sounds like a name for someone who’s highly educated,” he joked. “It sounds cultured.”
The downside of changing their names, however, is that they have to write both names on their social media profiles.
“Right now, the filming roster issued by the company (TVB) goes like this: Law Chi-yat (Law Chung-him),” he added.
Though the name Chung-him may be entrenched in viewers’ hearts, Him doesn’t want to be called “Him-him” as a nickname when he’s 50.
“Yat-yat wouldn’t be appropriate at the age of 50 either,” Yi Fong countered.
Him suggested “Yat-ge” (older brother) instead, and Yi Fong had to concede that it sounded nice.
This article was first published on AsiaOne and republished on theAsianparent with permission.