It appears that the floodgates have well and truly opened.
Following the allegations of Elvin Ng and then Danny Teo, local actress Sora Ma has, too, admitted to being bullied on set.
According to her, she was bullied during the production process of 2016 Channel 8 television series “118 II”.
Apparently, an unnamed veteran artiste would deliberately give her the cold shoulder and generally treat her poorly.
The acts allegedly caused her to break down frequently in her car after filming.
She also had to mentally prepare herself whenever she went to film.
“Every day when I went to film, I had to take a deep breath upon alighting from the car and mentally prepare myself,” she shared with Shin Min Daily News (SMDN).
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Veteran Artistes Responded to Sora Ma’s Alleged Bullying Incident That Caused Her to Cry Every Day
The revelation inevitably leads to an all-important dilemma:
“Who is the veteran artiste in question?”
To find out, SMDN contacted the core cast members of “118 II” for their opinions.
In total, nine artistes were approached.
Only six got back at the time of publication.
The contactable respondents are reportedly Chen Tianwen, Chen Hanwei, Liu Lingling, Li Feihui, Brandon Wong and Zhu Houren.
Here are their responses.
“Heard About It”
Several artistes have since admitted to having prior knowledge of the incident, but stated that they were unable to identify the reason.
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Chen Tianwen said: “I have indeed heard about the incident whereby Ma was bullied by a veteran artiste during the filming of ‘118 II’. I don’t know what the reason was either.”
Brandon Wong also confessed that he had heard about Ma’s bullying experience.
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Apparently, they did not encounter such instances (on a personal level) during filming for the show. But Chen and Wong professed that bullying does indeed exist on production sets, and that they have been victims themselves as well.
Meanwhile, Chen Han Wei stated that Ma had actually shared her ordeal with him. But in his perspective, it may not have been rough enough to really constitute as bullying.
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“It’s about affinity,” he said. “If you can get along with this person, you may chat a little more than usual. If not, there’s nothing to be said.”
He added that throughout his 33-year experience in the industry, he had not encountered any bullying incidents.
As for Li Feihui and Zhu Houren, they wondered about the exact definition of bullying, given that there are different interpretations of it.
“There was a lot of dialogue during filming “118 II” with Wong. If I asked Wong to say the lines instead, would it be bullying? I don’t think so because Wong feels that the performance outcome was better and the director also accepted it,” Zhu told SMDN.
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Chen Han Wei, Liu Ling Ling and Zhu Hou Ren have also since offered advice.
Chen Han Wei and Liu Ling Ling, in particular, are of the opinion that self-reflection may be key.
“In order for others to respect you, you have to respect others and make the first step. Bullying is related to mentality. Sometimes after something has happened, one should self-reflect first. If you have acted within reason, there is nothing to worry,” said Chen
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“If you are not at fault, take this opportunity to turn grief into strength,” she said. “If the other party bullies others, they would not have a good outcome.”
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Meanwhile, Zhu Hou Ren is of the opinion that artistes should not be too sensitive, in order to avoid sadness on a daily basis.
Sora Ma
As for questions pertaining to Ma’s personality, several contacted artistes have stated that she was respectful of her seniors.
Chen Tian Wen described her as “easygoing, respectful of seniors, and not arrogant”, while Chen Han Wei considered her a “quiet and genuine person”.
Liu is of the same opinion as Chen Tian Wen, stating that Ma was “a person who knows how to respect her seniors”.
No Response
As mentioned above, three other artistes had not replied at the time of publication.
They are Chew Chor Meng, Dennis Chew and Pan Ling Ling.
The first two were out of reach, while Pan was reportedly in the middle of a styling session when SMDN called.
Pan then sent a voice message to “politely inform them that she was unable to pick up the call”.
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Bullying Saga
Ma’s allegations come after bullying claims by Elvin Ng and Danny Teo, with both Ng and Teo having purportedly faced the same perpetrator.
In Ng’s case, he had allegedly been bullied by a “more experienced actor from Taiwan” while filming in Kuala Lumpur.
Apparently, the bully would place his chair over Ng’s bag, shoot menacing looks and make unpleasant remarks.
Ng speculated that his bully was irked because Ng had a bigger part in the film. So, the bully tried to “throw his weight around on set”.
Ng put up with this bullying throughout filming, but eventually lost his cool on the final day during a rooftop scene.
“The scene involved a lot of emotions and he said something disrespectful and I just shouted at him,” Ng said.
Ng at no point named the co-star who bullied him, only describing him as the “macho type who wanted to be the boss”.
However, netizens did some digging and concluded that the man Ng was referring to was Taiwanese actor Patrick Lee.
Soon after netizens pointed the finger at Lee, his management agency issued a brief statement, describing him as “polite” and “gentlemanly”.
The agency maintained that Lee was “very pleasant to work with”, adding that the allegations were “difficult to believe”.
“The truth will speak for itself. The other staff who were also on set can confirm what really happened. Our side does not wish to cause any more dispute, so we will not be responding further to this matter,” the statement said.
Lee himself took to social media to refute the allegations, but just like Ng, didn’t name any names.
“A Taiwanese who is all alone in a place that is full of Singaporeans… bullying a Singaporean? Where is the logic? If you were the Taiwanese, would you do that?” he said.
He ended the post with a jibe: “Congratulations, you have become a little more famous.”
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Subsequently, in an interview with Shin Min Daily News, Singaporean TV presenter Danny Yeo claimed that Lee had shouted at him during the movie premiere of Imperfect (2012), a Singapore action film.
Yeo said that in all his years of hosting with major celebrities, Lee was the only artiste who yelled at him.
Victim Or Perpetrator?
Again, he did not give details, but only said that the actress’ emotions were affected by Ng’s behaviour during filming.
Later, when 8Days contacted Koh and asked for specifics of the incident, Koh said he did not want to point fingers yet, as he has only heard one side of the story.
“It could also have been Angel’s issue and not exactly Elvin’s,” Koh said. “Since we are all on this topic, I thought we might as well clear the air. If they want to, they should just talk amongst themselves to solve whatever miscommunication that might’ve happened.”
In response, Ng posted a rather ambiguous Instagram post depicting… fishes.
In his post, Ng said: “You never truly know if you’re just swimming, learning to swim or mastering swimming; guess you’re probably swimming, learning and mastering at the same time.”
“Well, they probably wouldn’t ask themselves such a question, cos they just keep swimming anyway. The best way you know how, the best you can be, keep getting better”, he added.
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Netizens Over In Taiwan Are Nicer
Amidst his ongoing spat with Ng, alleged bully Lee has also posted an Instagram post with the caption:
“I feel that in comparison to the media and people over there, the media and people over here are much kinder and much more rational.”
He also emphasised the “much” in the sentence.
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Though he did not explicitly state who is who, Netizens have derived that the Taiwanese-born Lee was ‘most likely’ comparing Singapore with Taiwan.
No points for guessing the complimented country here, though.
Featured Instagram (soramayx/chenhanwei1969/liulingling600)
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