Charmaine Sheh: A Little Reward

Even though Charmaine Sheh didn’t win the TV Queen award at this year’s Anniversary Awards ceremony, she still maintains her “queen” status when it comes to earning power. Based on calculations for the entire 2009 year – including commercials, live performances, filming TV series – her total earnings exceeded $15 million HKD, putting her at the top of the earnings list among all of TVB’s “siu sangs” and “fa dans”. To reward herself, Charmaine is planning to purchase a new $800,000 HKD car. Laughing, she says: “Since I need to drive a car almost every day, I figured it was worth it to buy a more expensive one.” With all the money that she makes in a year, this “little reward” – it’s nothing! 

Charmaine had 2 series that aired in 2009 – "You’re Hired" and "Beyond the Realm of Conscience" and so her popularity has been “off the charts” all year – notably with <>, as the healthy image of the character she played, Lau Sam Ho, made the commercial sponsors especially delighted and happy. Even with her working everyday on her new series "Heaven and Earth", Charmaine has still found time to attend 7 or 8 shows, earning her another $1 million HKD. As the saying goes, ‘the purpose of working so hard to earn money is to be able to enjoy it’ – with regard to this, she expressed: “This past year, I’m pretty satisfied with the overall results, so I decided to buy a new car because the one I have currently, I’ve used for 5 years already…so loyal! Because I have to work every day, I’ve only had time to look through [car] catalogs so far…at first, there was an Audi that I liked in the catalog, however the cost was more than $2 million HKD – I really didn’t have the heart to buy it! With all the hard work involved in earning money, I felt like it would hurt too much to spend over a million dollars on a car; so now, I’ve set my sights on the new E-Class from Mercedes Benz that costs about $800,000 HKD. However, recently, my work schedule has been so tight that I don’t even have time to go buy cotton balls for makeup – maybe later when I have a little more time, then I’ll pursue it more.”

In addition to being “the queen of shows,” Charmaine also has a good eye when it comes to investing – last year, the real estate that she bought on HK island all yielded good results. When it comes to investing in real estate, Charmaine’s preference is in the HK island area because of its convenience and its potential for appreciation (rise in value)…of course, for the purposes of investing in prime property, she always does her homework thoroughly beforehand. “I would read the newspapers, research the different opinions of realtors and investment agents toward the particular property, and of course, I would go and view the property myself – after all, it’s not good to just listen to others without seeing for myself. Also, I’m a firm believer in [the Chinese saying] ‘without your own effort there is no reward’….that’s why I never buy stocks because no matter how stable they are, I don’t have time to manage them [the stocks]. With this said though, real estate prices have gotten quite high recently, so for now, it’s probably best to hold off…plus, the place where I live right now is not bad; I also believe in geomancy (fengshui), so even if the place I live in now is not that big and there isn’t enough room to put my stuff, for now, I still plan on living there.”

Choose a Boyfriend Who is “On the Same Page” With Her

Career-wise, Charmaine was very successful last year, however in terms of a love relationship there hasn’t seemed to be as much success; her ‘rumored’ relationship with Kevin Cheng was constantly rumored to be on and off, on and off: “After filming the series, we broke up of course! Actually, both of us have pretty ‘opinionated’ and ‘open’ personalities, so it’s more suitable and comfortable for us to be friends [rather than lovers].” (What are your requirements when it comes to choosing a boyfriend?) “Very simple, the most important thing is happiness…whether he has money or good looks, it doesn’t matter. Most important is the ability to communicate comfortably; if we can’t even get along, it’s hard to be together for a long time…I would die having to be together day after day in this type of situation.” (So your mom hasn’t ‘pressured’ you to get married?) “She’s actually very open-minded; in fact, she has even told me not to worry – just look at the example of Liza Wang: she also earns a lot of money and has a very successful career, and in the end, she was able to find her significant other to ‘grow old’ with. She even told me that since I like kids, I can always adopt one in the future – this way, I can help others as well. My mom has always been this way – allowing me to do what I like to do without giving me any pressure whatsoever.” Recently, there have been many examples of female celebrities falling in love with “foreign” (non-Asian) boyfriends; Charmaine immediately expressed: “I don’t know if I will encounter this or not in the future, however when I was studying in Switzerland, I did come into contact with non-Asian males, but never tried having a relationship with them – after all, the feelings aren’t as close [different cultures]; if I have a chance to choose, of course I would choose someone who is ‘on the same page’ with me.” It comes as no surprise then that the list of “rumored” males who have been “linked” to her romantically have been primarily TVB siu sangs…perhaps being from the same company helps to “be on the same page!”