Gigi Lai getting married

[sehseh]

Flash Marriage for Lai Chi after Fresh Retirement?

Media reports say Hong Kong actress Gigi Lai Chi will marry a 52-year-old millionaire next month, following her abrupt retreat from showbiz in late October.

A report published on Sina.com Thursday said Lai Chi, 37, is planning a wedding to Ma Tingqiang, a disabled businessman, in Australia on February 22.

Lai Chi's father did not deny the information, but hinted people will soon hear details.

Is this another "flash marriage" common among people in the entertainment industry? Hong Kong's Next Magazine disclosed that the actress has been quietly dating Ma Tingqiang for about six years.

Lai Chi announced her retirement from show business shortly after the release of her latest work, 'The Gem of Life,' on October 20. Fans were told the actress had to look after the business of her brother, Lai Ying, who is in poor condition after a car accident.

Reportedly, Lai Chi felt stressed out with filming, looking after her brother, and running his business at the same time. It was Ma Tingqiang who lent Lai Chi a warm hand and helped her through the tough period.

Media reports say that, as Ma has difficulty moving, the wedding proceedings will be simplified and only relatives will be invited to the celebration. Sources say the actress is busy preparing her dowry.

Lai Chi has not yet confirmed the information.

Source: Crienglish.com
http://english.cri.cn/6666/2009/01/15/1321s444252.htm

Updated: Wedding pic posted in page 6

[Trinie]

WOW, another "out of the blue" marriage news. I wonder if any of it is true? I guess we will all know soon....

[kenixgoh]

It's considered as a 'rumour' since Gigi did not acknowledge to the news yet... However this marriage is expected since she is getting older & maybe being tired of the entertainment industry? Congratulations to her if it's true though Mr Ma is a disabled......

[expression]

Not a bad idea. Hope Gigi finds her happiness.

She is very prettty, but frankly speaking, her acting fluctuates from ok to bad over all these years. Leaving the industry would be good for her.

[jiang bao]

Haha. Disabled rich guy. Green hat anyone?

These HK actresses are so predictable. Either marry another celeb or marry some rich guy. I guess they are used to selling out anyway. Most of'em.

[Sugar]

Haha. Disabled rich guy. Green hat anyone?

These HK actresses are so predictable. Either marry another celeb or marry some rich guy. I guess they are used to selling out anyway. Most of'em.

But i think that is just the most asian actresses in gen. THey enter beauty pageants to sign with TVB, or in some places sign contract/modeling deals and hopefully get into movies, sing and try to find some rich tycoon.

[jiang bao]

Not very different than prostitutes, yet prostitutes get such a bad rep while these stars get put up on a pedestal.

THere are truly talented stars and good grounded people for sure, I am only referring to the eye candy types.

[expression]

Well my thinking is we as the public won't ever know the truth, so as long as the actor/actress showed some decency in their public talk/behaviour I'm fine.

It's true that Gigi dated an old rich guy when she was very young (teenage I think), but since then she has admitted she was too shallow and materialistic then. In recent years she hasn't shown to be an annoying flirt or gold-digger and has been pretty low-key. So I'd be happy for her if she finds her happiness.

Disabled rich guy... well Gigi is approaching is 40 now and many women at that age are looking for support and companionship in a husband, so I don't find it indecent.

I disapprove of prostitution but if a prostitute is sincere in changing her lifestyle, she deserves a chance. However, all that shameless liberal crap about prostitution being a proper occupation and deserves due respect blahblahblah is a different matter. Don't buy that, never will.

[Trinie]

Not very different than prostitutes, yet prostitutes get such a bad rep while these stars get put up on a pedestal.

THere are truly talented stars and good grounded people for sure, I am only referring to the eye candy types.

I kind of agree with you. My brother and I argued about this the other day. He said that they are trying to join the circle to live the "high" and rich life so of course, why would they marry someone that is not well off? I honestly see that a lot in normal citizens too. However, with the actresses, I see it a lot as you said, either they marry another actor OR some really rich dude. My mom says that was why actors and actresses were really looked down upon(almost on the prostitute level) back in the days when it came to picking a potential mate. Recently, I saw an article that said that the 2 most presitigious occupations to marry were people in the medical and educational field, while the people from the entertainment field were listed as one of the bad occupations to marry... I guess I am not too surprised.

[Trinie]

Well my thinking is we as the public won't ever know the truth, so as long as the actor/actress showed some decency in their public talk/behaviour I'm fine.

It's true that Gigi dated an old rich guy when she was very young (teenage I think), but since then she has admitted she was too shallow and materialistic then. In recent years she hasn't shown to be an annoying flirt or gold-digger and has been pretty low-key. So I'd be happy for her if she finds her happiness.

Disabled rich guy... well Gigi is approaching is 40 now and many women at that age are looking for support and companionship in a husband, so I don't find it indecent.

I disapprove of prostitution but if a prostitute is sincere in changing her lifestyle, she deserves a chance. However, all that shameless liberal crap about prostitution being a proper occupation and deserves due respect blahblahblah is a different matter. Don't buy that, never will.

I agree with you and although Gigi is pretty and all, she is getting older so she needs to find happiness. It seems harder for actresses to find happiness. Sadly, people don't always marry for love. Many people these days are not lucky to find love and happiness. When women get to a certain age, they realize that their biological clock is ticking so they can't be as picky anymore. Therefore, they have to marry someone, settle down and have kids whether they love the other person or not. Which is sad but true.

I have never approved of prostitution and never will. I heard that Leon Lai's dad did not approve of Shu Qi because she is a category 3 actress. Who can blame him? I don't think anyone would want to have a daughter in law who does that type of job. Just like back in the days, IF a girl was a brothel girl, who would want her as a wife anymore? Even though times are different now, there are still a lot of traditional people out there that will disapprove.

[999roses]

Lol I know this is stereotyping, but some secretaries and "personal assistants" are no better than prostitutes.

And what about "Er Nai"?

At least prostitutes aren't hypocrites. They claim to be doing what the hell they are doing, unlike those actresses ha.

[jiang bao]

Well, prostitutes sell a service for money. There wouldn't be any need for them if there wasn't demand. Most of them wouldn't be hookers if they could help it. It's a pretty safe bet when they were young being a hooker wasn't their dream. They are people too. At least they aren't hurting people like drug dealers, robbers, unscrupulous investors, doctors, and lawyers, etc. Does someone like Madoff really deserve more respect than some random hooker off the streets?

Compare this to starlets. What do they do? They sell themselves too. It's just a different kind of selling. Look at all the promotional materials. They push themselves on customers harder than prostitutes.

I don't know what goes on behind the scenes of the HK entertainment industry, but it's not crazy to think that a certain percentage of them have their own "clients" as well. It's just that they have higher class clients and a small number of clients than their street walking counterparts.

Why would someone like Gigi Lai marry some disabled dude? For money of course. And for being taken care of the rest of her life (assuming he doesn't dump her when a younger, hotter chick comes along). Is that the kind of hard work we should admire? What really has she done in her life other than being pretty that makes her deserve the money she is going to get just by marriage?

I am not suggesting prostitutes should be honored or necessarily respected any more than any typical person, but to stigmatize them just because of what they do is just unfair. I don't know any personal hookers, but I certainly wouldn't just view a person like garbage just because of his/her profession.

[999roses]

This has been debated ad nauseam bu the point is that as a society, we shouldn't be encouraging prostitution. It's not about looking down upon, but trying to solve the problem. Because girls/women shouldn't feel/have the need to go to such extremes and lose the basis of their morality for money.

As for Gigi Lai, we don't know the WHOLE story, and I don't think she's COMPLETELY doing it for money. She has enough to last her for a while, she's one of the hottest tvb actresses. Love works in interesting ways, and maybe she's seen so much that she doesn't need any of that surface stuff anymore. Who really knows.

Same with Zhang Zi Yi. Shouldn't she have enough to support herself? She is also working and Gigi has worked her entire life.

AS for acting, yea she's not the greatest imo, but she's not complete garbage either.

[jiang bao]

I feel like we are on totally different pages. Since when is prostitution encouraged? Like I said, most hookers didn't get into the profession because they wanted to. It's the same thing with gays. Who WANTS to be gay and become a target for discrimination and stigmatization?

To "solve" the problem of prostitution is to eliminate poverty so no one would have to do it, but when in the history of the world has there ever been a society in which there was zero poverty? Maybe in a crappy society like Communist China, you didn't have relative poverty, but that's only because everybody is poor. I don't see how automatically looking down on someone just cuz of their profession is helping solve poverty. I'd understand it if it were people who hurt other people. Hell, I hate people who commit fraud, kill people, and other physically or psychologically abuse others. That's not what hookers do.

Of course women should not have to feel like they have to sell their "morality," but how does viewing prostitutes in a more neutral manner make them feel like they have to sell their morality for money?

[Trinie]

Well, prostitutes sell a service for money. There wouldn't be any need for them if there wasn't demand. Most of them wouldn't be hookers if they could help it. It's a pretty safe bet when they were young being a hooker wasn't their dream. They are people too. At least they aren't hurting people like drug dealers, robbers, unscrupulous investors, doctors, and lawyers, etc. Does someone like Madoff really deserve more respect than some random hooker off the streets?

Compare this to starlets. What do they do? They sell themselves too. It's just a different kind of selling. Look at all the promotional materials. They push themselves on customers harder than prostitutes.

I don't know what goes on behind the scenes of the HK entertainment industry, but it's not crazy to think that a certain percentage of them have their own "clients" as well. It's just that they have higher class clients and a small number of clients than their street walking counterparts.

Why would someone like Gigi Lai marry some disabled dude? For money of course. And for being taken care of the rest of her life (assuming he doesn't dump her when a younger, hotter chick comes along). Is that the kind of hard work we should admire? What really has she done in her life other than being pretty that makes her deserve the money she is going to get just by marriage?

I am not suggesting prostitutes should be honored or necessarily respected any more than any typical person, but to stigmatize them just because of what they do is just unfair. I don't know any personal hookers, but I certainly wouldn't just view a person like garbage just because of his/her profession.

Although what you are saying sounds blunt and all, I have to agree. That is why some really traditional families may still disapprove of their sons marrying an actress. THe really rich old dudes marry the actresses because they are usually young and beautiful. Of course if that guy was poor, why would Gigi want to marry him? But I do hope that she is doing it for more than money if it is true that she will marry him. Even though she will live a comfortable life materialistically, I think her emotional life will be very painful and sad if she doesn't love him at all. But then again, like you have said... We really don't know what goes on behind the scenes of the HK entertainment industry. All we hear are rumours of leading actresses sleeping with the director and everything else.. Who really knows if any of it is true or not? The entertainment world is really scary and unpredictable...

[Sugar]

DIdn't Gigi's family declared bankrupt from before? Sometime when she was 10 years old, but anyways, even if she IS one of the hottest TVB actresses, her money is gonjna run out. As an actress, you are hot and famous one day, but once that wrinkle comes in as other new young/fresh faces come in ,you are a thing of the pass. So it is smart to start looking for rich tycoon

[Trinie]

DIdn't Gigi's family declared bankrupt from before? Sometime when she was 10 years old, but anyways, even if she IS one of the hottest TVB actresses, her money is gonjna run out. As an actress, you are hot and famous one day, but once that wrinkle comes in as other new young/fresh faces come in ,you are a thing of the pass. So it is smart to start looking for rich tycoon

Really? I think I heard something like that but was that years and years ago?Shouldn't her family be fully recovered by now? Yea, who ever said that money is too much?? Also, she is only an Asian actress and even though she is hot and all, one day her fame will be gone. Fame and fortune will not last forever and yea, when you start to get old... No one will really care for you anymore. Asian actors and actresses don't make much compared to american actors and actresses. Therefore, of course they would want to look for rich old dudes so that their future is set. Hey, American actresses do that ALL the time...

[jiang bao]

What we do know is that the HK entertainment world is not a warm and fuzzy place. One second you're on top of the world, the next you piss off somebody big and you're donel. It happened even to Andy Lau who got "stored in the fridge" by TVB for a while. (I think it was TVB) Yammie Nam also got the same treatment for a while. That's why she was relegated to playing the mom in Looking Back in Anger.

Then there is triad involvement and casting couches and behind the scene "favors." We can never know how prevalent these shady things are, but it's no stretch to say that there is at least some of this stuff going on. When you see an actress, who other than a pretty face, really should not be a top star, nevertheless become pushed hard by management to top status, you gotta wonder how she got there. I mean even Gong Li was sleeping with the director Zhang Yi Mou - whether this was before or after he casted her in his movie is anyone's guess.

Anyway, call me cynical,but I believe love is very low on Gigi's list of reasons to marry that dude. So what she's doing is just selling the rest of her life out for $. Or maybe she expects him to drop dead or she thinks she can sneak around behind his back. I don't care for Gigi one way or another so it doesn't matter too much to me how long the marriage lasts. I just feel like the difference between her and a prostitute is luck. If the prostitute was born beautiful and had the right connections, she might be the one with the career and then marrying some millionaire.

Knowing and being in favor with the right people can get you very far in this world.

[Trinie]

What we do know is that the HK entertainment world is not a warm and fuzzy place. One second you're on top of the world, the next you piss off somebody big and you're donel. It happened even to Andy Lau who got "stored in the fridge" by TVB for a while. (I think it was TVB) Yammie Nam also got the same treatment for a while. That's why she was relegated to playing the mom in Looking Back in Anger.

Then there is triad involvement and casting couches and behind the scene "favors." We can never know how prevalent these shady things are, but it's no stretch to say that there is at least some of this stuff going on. When you see an actress, who other than a pretty face, really should not be a top star, nevertheless become pushed hard by management to top status, you gotta wonder how she got there. I mean even Gong Li was sleeping with the director Zhang Yi Mou - whether this was before or after he casted her in his movie is anyone's guess.

Anyway, call me cynical,but I believe love is very low on Gigi's list of reasons to marry that dude. So what she's doing is just selling the rest of her life out for $. Or maybe she expects him to drop dead or she thinks she can sneak around behind his back. I don't care for Gigi one way or another so it doesn't matter too much to me how long the marriage lasts. I just feel like the difference between her and a prostitute is luck. If the prostitute was born beautiful and had the right connections, she might be the one with the career and then marrying some millionaire.

Knowing and being in favor with the right people can get you very far in this world.

What you said about Andy Lau is true. He was frozen by TVB in the 80s. I heard that after his contract ended, he refused to renew it so they froze him. I heard that his series Tin Lang Kip was not even aired since he was frozen by TVB. Yammie also got the same treatment. I heard that she was supposed to play Zhao Min in HSDS 86, but since she in TVB's terms "misbehaved" so they gave the role to Kitty Lai instead...

Sadly, I actually think what you are saying is true. It seems that way for a lot of the Asian actresses. They just try to get into the circle, find someone rich and then leave the circle thinking that the rest of their life is set.. Some actresses do find that.My mom doesn't understand why it has to be actresses. There are a lot of nice and decent looking girls that aren't actresses. I wonder why these old men like marrying actresses so much?? Is it because normal citizens don't want to marry them or they feel they are too good for any normal citizen? But once again, it is based on luck and fate. A lot of actresses don't find that as well and have to work most of their lives just like anyone. However, it isn't just actresses doing that... A lot of normal citizens do that too, like those women that the guys in the US marry from China, Vietnam or some other country. Once the girl from the other country finds out that the guy doesn't make much, they even refuse to come to the US and marry that dude because he is poor or doesn't make much.

I do agree with you that love is probably not one of the reasons that Gigi is marrying this guy(if she will marry him). But we all don't really know all of the reasons why so I don't think we can really judge her either. SHe also has not confirmed the news, so it may not be true at all.

Yea, having the right connections and luck can get you very far in any field, not just the entertainment circle.

[DEGE999]

It is not surprising to hear that she is getting married. She has been with him for a long time. Being an actress is stressful, so it's time for her to deserve a stable and private life. She had a very successful career. Personally, I loved her acting, and she is one of very few good actress in TVB and in HK in general.

It is also not a surprise that he is a millionaire because the truth is that a majority of HK actresses hook up with millionaires and billionaires. Is it for money or love? I think a combination. It is not wrong to want a particular lifestyle. I guess actresses are lucky to find the right guy with the entire package. If she is getting married for real, I wish her the best of luck. And hopefully, in the future she could return to acting.