Xiang Yun and Edmund Chen were forced to reveal marriage when they saw media waiting for them at ROM

First comes love, then comes marriage — to get a built-to-order (BTO) flat, of course.

We may deem the phenomenon of registering our marriages to get an HDB flat as modern, but even back in 1989, that was the protocol for young couple Xiang Yun and Edmund Chen.

On the newest episode of actress Rebecca Lim’s show With Love, Becks, veteran actress Xiang Yun revealed: “We didn’t know that registering the marriage means we were married — it didn’t cross our mind.”

Initially only thinking of “registering the marriage and getting our home” before revealing the wedding date, Xiang Yun said that she and Edmund, both 61, “didn’t think the news would leak”.

She added: “After we got our date from the Registry of Marriages (ROM), the reporters were waiting for us outside.”

That was when the couple, who were reported to have been dating for less than two months, announced their marriage.

“You were the OG icon of whirlwind romances,” Rebecca, 36, noted.

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With Love, Becks sees Rebecca invite six married female celebrities to discuss marriage, relationships and life, following her own engagement. This episode featured Xiang Yun, whom Rebecca deems to be her “mum in showbiz”.

Rebecca recalled the first time she met Xiang Yun: “Our first real meeting was at the Mediacorp car park when you saw a young girl standing there like a sotong (squid) and asked me, ‘Are you lost?’”

A starstruck Rebecca was touched that a “superstar” like Xiang Yun would let a newbie actress like herself shadow her during Rebecca’s earliest days, even giving her a ride to the set. 

Just as Xiang Yun had taken care of her in the beginning, Rebecca promised to look after her daughter Chen Yixin in turn as she entered showbiz.

“As happy as seeing my own daughter get married”

As the women learnt about the different aspects of a dowry and the importance of the an chuang (bed-setting) ceremony in Chinese weddings, Xiang Yun stuck to her motherly role and gifted Rebecca a set of bedsheets.

“My mother told me that preparing bedsheets for your children is an important matter,” she said. “That’s why I have a set prepared for you, as a mother myself.”

Rebecca, driven to tears, revealed that it wasn’t the first time she had received such an intimate present from Xiang Yun. 

Back when they were filming You Can Be An Angel Too (2015), Rebecca had found some bedsheets on a one-for-one offer at a department store and asked Xiang Yun to help her buy them, but Xiang Yun wasn’t about to take payment from her showbiz ‘daughter’.

“This is the second set of bedsheets you’ve given me now,” Rebecca noted.

Getting invited to work on Rebecca’s dowry on the show together, Xiang Yun reckoned, “makes your wedding a lot more meaningful to me.”

ALSO READ: 'It's not taboo': Xiang Yun writes her will, signs lasting power of attorney

drimac@asiaone.com