Taiwanese TV host Jacky Wu has shed light on a misunderstanding with a Singaporean female artiste who felt bullied after appearing on his popular variety show, Jacky Go Go Go, many years ago.
Wu, 61, recently appeared as a guest on the Taiwanese talk show The Night Night Show With Hello, hosted by Taiwanese comedian Hello.
The episode was uploaded online on Jan 29, with the clip attracting more than 770,000 views in just one day.
Wu said that he had cried after watching in 2023 an interview with the Singaporean artiste.
Pointing out that the other party was a Singaporean star who became famous after debuting in Taiwan, he said: "She felt that she had been bullied by a male host and, unfortunately, that male host was me."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dtVmkKbHPc[/embed]
Wu believed it was due to a language barrier between them then, but they rarely worked together after the misunderstanding. The name of the Singaporean artiste was muted in the clip.
However, netizens speculated that she was singer Stefanie Sun.
Sun had previously written in Singapore's late founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's 2011 book, My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey, about what had prompted her to start learning Chinese again.
She had gone on Jacky Go Go Go and could not quite understand one of his questions in Mandarin. She was then more fluent in English.
Wu then said: "Why are young artistes these days so ignorant?"
Sun described Wu's statement as a slap to her face, as his jab made her realise she had to brush up on her mother tongue.
Wu wrote on Facebook later that he said those words only for entertainment value and it was not his intention to critique Sun's language proficiency.
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
