Li Yapeng and Faye Wong's daughter undergoes corrective surgery in August

Chinese businessman and former actor Li Yapeng disclosed that his daughter, Li Yan, who was born with a cleft palate, has gone for another corrective operation in August this year.

Li Yan, 12, is the daughter of Li and his ex-wife, Chinese pop queen Faye Wong.

In an interview with Instyle China magazine, Li, 47, disclosed that his daughter did not show any anxiety before the operation, which was conducted under general anaesthesia.

"I was the one who was especially nervous and worried before wheeling her into the operating theatre," he said.

He said Li Yan smiled at him and asked to take a selfie with him. He squatted near the head of the bed so that she could do so.

He went downstairs alone after she entered the operating theatre and wept quietly at the side of the road.

He and Wong had taken Li Yan to the United States for cleft-lip operations after she was born in 2006.

He said in the interview that he had considered raising Li Yan in the US to shield her from unwanted attention, but she has proven to be a strong and confident girl.

He cited an incident three years ago, when a netizen left a vicious comment on Li Yan's online account, saying that Wong has "abandoned her" after her divorce with him.

He was worried that she would be hurt by the comment, but instead she rebutted the netizen: "Surely you don't understand my mother as well as I do? Are you my mother's child?"

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.