Just out of school and into radio D.J business

A Star is Born Miss Vivian Chow Wai-Man was born in Hong Kong on 20th November, 1967. Not much is known about her childhood, except that she was a single child brought up single-handedly by her mother. Initially venturing into showbiz as a radio D.J., she was later groomed to become a singer. She also dabbled in some acting, and one of her most memorable roles was as the sweetie-pie daughter of George Lam in "Hearts to Hearts" (loosely translated as "World of Three" in Mandarin). Her fame started to soar when she became one of the first pin-up idols to appear on the trading cards promoted by YES! magazine.

Growth & Maturity After soaking for more than ten years in showbiz, Vivian has matured from an innocent and cute sweetie-pie to a beautiful and worldly-wise lady. Her private life has always been of great interst to the mass media with rumours and speculations aplenty, but she has learned to harden herself against the bad press and unwanted exposure. In fact, Vivian got so tired of the paparazzi squad hounding at her heels that in late 1996 she imposed a press blackout ban on herself and refused to give interviews. Alas, her 'disappearance' served only to stoke the fire of the public's curiosity, giving rise to more media reports on her private life, including her recent reunion with alleged former lover, Joe Ni. And she persevered.

One of her earlier images

The classic beauty

Beauty and Brains A multi-talented woman, Vivian is known to be very proficient in art, make-up, music and duplicating other people's signatures. She plays the piano regularly, composing songs for her own albums and sometimes even plans the music arrangement of her songs, too. She once said that this was the only way she could convey her bare feelings and emotions freely for her fans to experience.

Konnichi-wa! As Hong Kong people do not use Mandarin often, when Vivian first started singing her first Mandarin song "Rumours", she had to take courses to brush up her diction. Ever the hardworking girl, after gaining a foothold in the Taiwanese market, she took up Japanese for her foray into the Japan music industry. Her doll-like features and sweet smiles endeared herself to many fans over there and her popularity soared. In fact, her 1993 "NHK Most Popular Female Singer" title notwithstanding, a JPOP (JPOP as in Japanese Pop) magazine even featured her on its cover, with "Hong Kong's Most Attractive Female Singer" splashed brightly across.

Tour in the Tropics Vivian has been to Singapore quite a few times. She held a personal music concert in Singapore in 1994, and the response was generally well-received. She came to Singapore again as the "Courtesy Ambassador" for the Courtesy Campaign variety show on 2nd July, 1995, and in October 1996, she was invited as a guest star in the local Manhunt contest.

One young sweetie-pie

A New Ruan Mei Most of Vivian's fans won't forget her over-thrifty Ruan Mei character in "Greed of Man" (). She acted so convincingly in the serial, eating leftovers to fill her stomach and going to hospital to clean her stomach, that people often believed she was like that in real life. Which of course she cheerfully denied. And if you want more, you can feast your eyes again in TVB's television serial "A Stage of Turbulence" (). In this period drama set in the 1930s Shanghai, she played a rich man's daughter who lost her memory after an accident. Watch how she handled the two different personalities of her character before and after her memory loss.

Bookwork with serious myopia problems

Mr. Right for Ms. Ideal According to one of her interviews, Vivian's ideal hubby should not be younger than her. Nor does she fancy men 10 years her senior. She assured that she doesn't really go for looks, but her mate should be mature, caring and talented like her. In case any of you out there think you qualify, here's some bad news for you. Vivian is back with Joe Ni, an alleged previous lover, who is also the son of Hong Kong science-fiction writer Ni Kuang. It all started off with reporters catching her hand-in-hand with Joe at the Hong Kong airport after returning from a San Francisco trip. And this time they seem to be much closer than before and Vivian has even bought an apartment just below her present one so the lovebirds can live together, without Vivian living too far apart from her mummy dearest. Do we hear wedding bells ringing this time round? Cross your fingers!