'Is she really your daughter?' Liu Lingling's father caned her so much that grandmother raised doubts

Even her grandmother couldn't believe how Liu Lingling was treated as a child.

In a recent episode of the meWATCH talk show Hear U Out, Lingling revealed that her father had so frequently caned her that her grandmother in Malaysia doubted whether she was his own flesh and blood.

Speaking about her childhood, the 59-year-old getai veteran and actress said she started singing at age four. 

"I had to practice singing every day... My father taught me one line at a time.

"Sometimes he tested me and stood behind me with a cane — each time I made a mistake, he would hit me with the cane. Can you imagine how often I was hit?"

She added: "My grandmother lived in Malaysia and she asked my father, 'Is she really your daughter?'"

But it wasn't as though Lingling's father was hitting her for no reason — he needed her to excel in performance to earn a living.

"The opera troupe [we were in] announced that they were going to put on an hour-long show at the getai," she explained. "So my father said he'd train me from that day onwards."

Lingling added to host Quan Yi Fong that her family was "extremely poor" at that time. 

In fact, her family was so impoverished that they ate and slept at the same place the troupe performed at.

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Lingling also recalled how she never had any dolls as a child — the only ones she had were from fans who would give them to her after her performances.

Said Lingling: "I asked my mother why there were no photos of me as a baby and she said, 'I couldn't even afford to buy milk powder, let alone take photos of you!'"

And while they were eventually chased out of the troupe following the end of her mother's contract with them, they found refuge in the home of an elderly lady in charge of cooking for the troupe. It's not known what her mother did at the troupe.

"She knew my mother had financial difficulties and invited us to stay with her," Lingling said.

"But her home was just a tiny one-room house and the floor wasn't made of concrete. Instead, it was made of clay-like soil that was uneven, and was simply covered with a tarpaulin sheet."

Lingling also remembered how she would sleep shoulder-to-shoulder with her parents in that house.

"I was bitten by mosquitoes till my arm swelled up," she said, adding that she didn't dare to complain about their circumstances.

"In the past, there was a Hokkien saying that children should be seen and not heard, so that was how it was for me."

'I only felt fear up on stage'

Part of the reason why Lingling kept pushing on and performing was because of her family.

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When she was on stage, if it wasn't the fear of her father, who was staring daggers at her from within the audience, it was the responsibilities at home that kept her going back.

"I only felt fear on stage," Lingling said.

When asked by host Yi Fong, 48, if she ever felt resentment towards her family for not letting her go out and play or study like other children, Lingling replied: "My family was so poor that we had no money even during the Lunar New Year.

"My mother fell sick around that time. She was rolling on the floor in pain and the doctor came to give her an injection and then took her to the hospital."

She also shared that her father, who worked as a hawker, nearly died in the toilet. 

"I was calling out to him but got no response, so I climbed up on a chair to look in. I saw him just sitting there, immobile — he was too exhausted. I shouted for help and the neighbours came in to save him."

Said Lingling: "I told myself that as the oldest child in the family, if I didn't shoulder the responsibility of taking care of my family, no one else would."

She has a younger sister Angie Lau who started performing at getai when she was nine. 

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khooyihang@asiaone.com

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