Pan Lingling Meets Up With Ex Mediacorp Star Xie Shaoguang, Who Turned 60 Recently

Former Mediacorp actor Xie Shaoguang retired from the limelight in 2005, but it’s clear that the 60-year-old is very much missed by everyone who watched him on TV.

Shaoguang made his acting debut in 1989 and is one of the most decorated local actors, having won Best Actor five times and Best Supporting Actor twice at the Star Awards.

After leaving showbiz, Shaoguang all but disappeared from the spotlight.

In 2005, he moved to Johor Bahru where he opened an animal shelter. He was ordained as a monk in 2013 before returning to secular life two and a half years later, taking on a stint as the head chef of a vegetarian restaurant in Malaysia.

The last we saw of the low-profile star was in 2017, when he returned to conduct an acting workshop for Mediacorp artistes.

On September 20, however, Pan Lingling, 51, shared this post on her Instagram, revealing that she’d met up with Shaoguang at a vegetarian restaurant in Novena Square recently.

Perhaps it was a belated birthday celebration for Shaoguang, who turned 60 on September 15?

Sadly, Lingling shared that she was unable to reveal more about their catch-up sesh when contacted by 8days.sg.

We don’t meet often but we will chat for hours when we meet! He is one of my VERY FAVORITE screen partner (sic),” Lingling wrote on IG.

Before anyone wonders — this is not a throwback photo. Shaoguang is indeed back in Singapore, with Lingling confirming it in a comment.

Lingling and Shaoguang starred alongside each other in a number of dramas, including 2002’s Lucky Numbers as well as 2004’s The Crime Hunters and I Love My Home.

One thing’s for sure: netizens really want to see Shaoguang work his magic on-screen.

“Hope to be able to see your work on television again,” one netizen wrote, while other netizens celebrated the fact that they were able to set eyes on their favourite actor again.

Others also mused that Shaoguang doesn’t seem to have aged at all.

Fellow celebs also expressed their delight in seeing Shaoguang again, including the actor's former screen partner Huang Biren, who shared in a Hear U Out episode that Shaoguang was actually the first person to find out that she was pregnant with her first child.

Photos: Pan Lingling/Instagram, meWATCH, 8DAYS