It only makes sense to assume that if you have parents who make a living acting in Mandarin shows, you’d be really proficient in that language too, right?

But it seems our second-gen stars have proved this point wrong, with their tales of how their command of the language when they were younger left much to be desired.

Like Eleanor Lee, 22, who once shared that she did so badly for her Chinese exams that her mum, host Quan Yifeng, 47, tore up her exam script and threw it out the window.

Now, in a recent Instagram post, Xiang Yun, 60, revealed that her two kids, Chen Xi, 31, and Chen Yixin, 21, used to be “really resistant” when it came to learning the language.

A younger Chen Xi with Edmund and Xiang Yun

As Xiang Yun shared in her caption, the turning point for her two kids only came when they were overseas.

For Chen Xi, he only embraced the language after following his dad, Edmund Chen, 60, to Shanghai to visit Xiang Yun, who was filming period drama The Royal Monk.

At that time, Chen Xi was eight and a Primary Two student in Taonan School.

On-set, he met and became friends with Chinese actor Cao Jun, who played Xiang Yun’s onscreen son. Of course, Cao Jun spoke fluent Mandarin.



Cao Jun in The Royal Monk

“My son, who very rarely spoke Mandarin, suddenly started speaking Mandarin. After returning to Singapore, he began actively learning Mandarin, and with the help of a very good Chinese tutor, [the language] was no longer a problem for him,” Xiang Yun recalled.

Wonder what Cao Jun and Chen Xi spoke about on-set that made such a huge impact on the latter.



Yixin and Xiang Yun

As for Yixin, Xiang Yun shared that she was often busy with work when her daughter was younger. Therefore, Yixin interacted more with their helper in English, and rarely spoke Mandarin.

“After she entered school, learning Chinese became a challenge for her. Her turning point came when she was in Primary Two,” Xiang Yun wrote.

"At that time, the whole family went to Taiwan and chartered a vehicle for a tour. The driver-cum-tour-guide spent all 10 days enthusiastically introducing all the good food and fun tourist spots. When Yixin returned to Singapore, her fluent Mandarin stunned me. From then on, she was no longer resistant to learning Chinese.”

So there you have it, the secret to spurring your kids on to learn their mother tongue, for Xiang Yun at least, is to have them interact with people who speak that language fluently. And of course, loads of hard work.

Photos: Xiang Yun/Instagram, meWATCH