How ‘Little Nyonya’ changed my life: Jeanette Aw
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What a difference a single show can make.
Since Jeanette Aw‘s star turn in the ‘The Little Nyonya’ in November 2008, life has never been the same for her and her career.
Her portrayal of both Huang Juxiang and Yamamoto Yueniang in the local period MediaCorp Channel 8 drama earned her a new legion of new fans who identified with her strong but silent, long-suffering roles, as well as the show’s uniquely Peranakan food and culture.
It earned her a Best Actress nomination in the 2009 Star Awards, a category which Joanne Peh eventually clinched the award for her performance in same drama.
Set in the 1930s, Jeanette played the role of Huang Juxiang, a woman who runs away from home after she is forced to marry a wealthy man.
Along the way, she falls in love with a young Japanese photographer with whom she has a baby daughter, Yueniang. Tragedy strikes when Juxiang and her husband are killed during World War II, leaving behind their 8 year-old daughter.
Jeanette then returns as Yueniang, a long-suffering orphan growing up in her grandparents’ Peranakan home and who finds herself suffering the same fate as her mother, who was cruelly discriminated against and tortured by her relatives.
The Little Nyonya averaged 934,000 viewers during its 34-episode run, and peaked at 1.67 million viewers on the two-hour series finale — the highest viewership rating ever since 1994. At one point, the show was so popular that every twist and turn became office banter fodder. Chinese and even Indian and Malay audiences were, one and all, captivated.
The show has since been screened and picked up by various broadcasters in Malaysia, Myanmar, France, U.S., China, Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
“I am very lucky with ‘The Little Nyonya’ because it helped open up opportunities for me. We received very good feedback on the show and it has travelled to many places, taking me to Cannes, China, Hong Kong and Thailand,” said Jeanette, who recently celebrated her 31st birthday.
Thank to the show, Aw has become a household name and gone on to clinch lead roles in Rhythm of Lives, Together and New Beginnings and will soon begin filming a new drama where she plays a woman with a multiple personality disorder. The show also catapulted Aw into the top bracket of MediaCorp’s A-Listers, and she’s also been rewarded with a stream of endorsements from New Moon Abalone, Osim and NETS.
Having been in the industry for over 10 years, Jeanette now tells Yahoo! Singapore her next big dream — to make it big abroad as well as her qualities she looks for in her dream guy.
Away from the cameras, Jeanette said she loves to travel. In fact, she recently packed her bags and went on a solo trip on a rejuvenation retreat to India.
Why India? So she could relax in a place where nobody knew who she was and she could indulge in a little self-reflection.
“When I was there, it was totally different. People were very simple and friendly, something you wouldn’t see in Singapore. It’s probably because we are so caught up with work and with luxury items, and such trips wake you up,” said Jeanette.
Being the youngest of three children and the “baby” of the family, she revealed it took some convincing for her parents to give her the green light for her trip.
“My parents were very worried for my safety after hearing different stories about the place I was visiting. My mum even offered to follow me,” she said.
Still single, Jeanette admits to having been “in and out of relationships” and laughingly joked that as she matured and grew older, the “ideal checklist” for a dream guy gets ever shorter.
“I would like someone who is romantic and preferably someone who doesn’t know who I am. He has to be humourous, faithful and someone I can rely on for the rest of my life.”
Jeanette also said she has no plans to act until she’s in her 60s.
“I want to end my career and leave on a high note when it’s time to move on,” she said.
And what would she do post-acting?
“I would like to be a child psychologist,” she said, before revealing she studied psychology in university and hoped to further her studies in future.
“Children are so fun to be with because they are so nice and innocent,” added Jeanette, who aims to settle down and have two kids of her own when the time comes.
Now that would be the perfect, fairy-tale ending for Singapore’s much-loved “Little Nyonya”.
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o yeah...she is my favourite local artiste