Beatrice's All Asian Woman

Bold, vocal, and unabashedly sensual - adjectives that spring to mind when actress Beatrice Chia's name is uttered. And with good reason too, considering that her recent acting roles, from her dominatrix take in Stories About Love to her sexy trysts in 23:59 and The Blue Room, seem to collaborate in typecasting her as the stereotypical (overly-) Westernised and liberal-minded woman. Away from the bright lights though, Beatrice is just an earnest actress as proud of her roots as you and I. Our favourite modern girl speaks her mind on her real-life role as an Asian woman.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------  By Tanny Chia

[eastciti.com, November 4]
Thank heavens that the bra-burning and male-bashing hullabaloo of the early feminist movement is for the most part tucked safely away in history. Otherwise, we can be quite certain that Beatrice would be out there waving her placard at, not the men, but the female protestors themselves. For while the vocal actress whole-heartedly wishes equal rights and opportunities on every woman, she is absolutely incensed at how feminism has, especially in Asia, been too often reduced to mindless male bashing.

"A woman thinks that once she gets on the radio or some sort of platform, she proceeds to hit out at men and call them chauvinistic pigs. That is not feminism, they're misrepresenting feminism and giving it a bad name!" Beatrice exclaims early on during the interview. "The basis of feminism is just equal opportunities, that's all." True to her self-professed fearlessness, the actress was similarly opinionated when airing her perspective on the Asian woman, which made her, quite simply, an interviewer's dream.

The Modern Asian Woman

"Ideally, I'll like her to have as much of a formal education as possible. That is obviously dependent on what their personal circumstances are - if she were in Burma or Myanmar or Cambodia, whatever educational resources and opportunities available to them differ. (I'll also like her to be) as well-exposed as she possibly can, have a fixed idea of who she is, a sense of identity, know what she stands for and have a lot courage and kindness. These are, I think, very simple and straightforward, the qualities that almost every decent human being should have.

"She should not be suffering from too many neuroses (and should have) a sense of confidence. It all really stems from a sense of identity of who they are. I also find that there's a sense of eagerness to please, especially in Asian women. When a situation is wrong, they accept it. They don't feel that they have a right to be vocal, to stand up for themselves or even for somebody else. I hope in time to come, that will change."

"I definitely stand for equal rights and equal opportunities. I think I have a certain amount of courage and fortitude and think I have a certain amount of kindness, although I could work on them. But I definitely am vocal in my opinions and I have done exactly as I think is right. I have faced a tremendous amount of criticism for the things that I've done, but I've never backed down and it has never stopped me. And I've never lived my life bowing to unreasonable circumstances or situations. I require reason and logic to do what I do. I'll go ahead even though I'll probably have ten thousand people ringing me up and demanding an explanation. I'm very happy with who I am."

"I don't think that there's a huge difference between Eastern and Western thinking. An education is an education and to be very honest, what I was taught in Britain was exactly the same as what I would have been taught in Singapore. It's only a question of who introduced the books to me. A lot of people think I am the way I am or have the kind of attitude that I have because I've been away. I don't think so. I think that if I've lived here for all those years, I'd still do the same things. I don't think a Western education has necessarily liberated me. All it's given me is maybe a different perspective but it doesn't mean I adopt that perspective. There's a lot about the British education or way of life that I don't necessarily agree with, and there's a lot of Asian values I still cherish deep down inside.

"I try to look at myself as a person of the world. Yes, of course I'm Asian, but there're also a lot of Asian values, which obviously, I don't agree with. There're a lot of things that I'm very vocal about, for e.g. safe sex. A lot of Asian women may not dare to speak of it because it generally means they're promiscuous and bonking around. No, I'm not promiscuous, I don't sleep around but I'd talk about safe sex. What I'm trying to say is that my Western education has not made me a more liberal, daring or adventurous person. I think I have been like this."

"A lot of times, the major decisions that I've made, or my main motivation in my life has been mostly based on the people I love. Mostly, I do certain things because my parents will be proud of me and I hope to gain their love or respect or pride. My parents mean the world to me and they have been the reason for almost everything that I've done.

"Romantic love is incredibly important as well. My take is that you don't choose the man you love. If we could choose the person we love, life would be so much easier. Love is something that just happens. Falling in love is the easy part, but staying disciplined and loving and treating the person right is the hardest part - carrying that through and remaining faithful. Breaking up is the worst part - it kills me more than anything else. I'm very careful about the relationships that I have, I try to be as responsible as I absolutely can, and I never have relationships unless I absolutely am in love with them.

I've tonnes of painful experiences, but I'm a very forgiving person and I have a huge ability to live and just let live. I've loved all the men that I've went out with and I think that as long as you love them, no matter what they do to you, you'll always want the best for them at the end of the day. And although I hope I won't be put in that situation, yes, I'd give up everything for the man I love."

"Career is very important. I've always wanted to be an actress since I was 14. As a kid, I was always dancing ballet or playing the piano at some concert somewhere. In kindergarten, I'll always be the one to get hauled up to announce something. It was a very natural part of my childhood, I was always performing at some concert somewhere. By the time I was 14, I was acting in just about every school play and it seemed like a natural thing to do. There wasn't a day when I considered doing anything else.

"What I hope as an actress is very simple. What I want to have is a body of work at 50 or 60 and I can look back and feel that this is a body of work that I'm proud of. Fame and glamour can come if I do a certain king of work, but it'll be very fragile and I'll be foolish to make these things like fame or glamour a part of my needs and wants. It can be fun, but it can also be a pain in the…posterior. I'm not the sort of person who enjoys going to launches. I'm quite introverted and I like time for myself. I don't lead an extravagant lifestyle, I don't need heaps of money, but I do want satisfaction which lies in the work that I do."

Is Beatrice the epitome of the ideal modern Asian woman?
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