From her photos, one will be forgiven for mistaking Yang Mi
as an airhead who earned her fame and fortune by looks and luck.
Not so. Yang Mi is astonishingly
accomplished. Her glamourous image belies her professional skills and business
capabilities.
Starting out as a child actress, Yang Mi has starred in a
string of hit shows that she has become a household name in China. Some of her
acting roles include less popular but critically acclaimed shows.
Not only an outstanding actress, Yang Mi is also a successful
producer and talent manager. While in her
20s, she founded a talent agency, Jay Walk Studio 嘉行传媒 which has now become a multi-million
dollar entertainment company. Actors and
actresses under her agency have gone on to become huge, famous top-line stars
in their own right. Her company has produced several popular shows.
The 35-year-old is now very wealthy, not by windfall, but
earned by shrewd decisions, risks taken, untold sacrifice and personal costs.
Last month (May 2022), Yang Mi said something which sparked social
media reactions. At the Chinese variety
show, Mao Xue Wang 毛雪汪
(EP16), the host, probing her love-life, asked Yang Mi: Where does security in
love come from? She replied, from
oneself. She went on to add: "If
the guy is good to me because of my wealth, I will be delighted with that,
because I do have money." [1]
毛不易: 恋爱中的安全感来自于哪？
杨幂:自身。 甚至就想说，如果他是因为我有钱跟我好的话，我可太开心了，因为我有钱。
What does she mean by that? Is she bragging about her wealth?
Having accomplished much and become so fabulously rich by
her age, Yang Mi is a woman in a league of her own whom few (men) can match.
I'm not surprised she would say such things and think in
such a way.
If we put aside her seeming audacious tone, I think you will
see that her reasoning is grounded on logic and realism.
People can be disappointing, untrustworthy and also heart-breaking. People and feelings are unreliable.
Money on the other hand, is tangible, sure and dependable.
We know exactly what money can do and what money cannot do. Money can buy goods
and services, and also loyalty and servitude.
Money cannot buy love, but it can buy lovers.
Men have been saying for decades that diamonds are a girl’s best
friend. So why fault a woman for thinking to use her cash to make her man feel
king?
I think Yang Mi’s candid words show her personal view that
true love is a fairy tale: that one cannot reasonably expect a man to commit
and stay just because of love – the guy needs more concrete reasons to stick
around.
Rather than aiming to find a man who would love her for who
she is inside of her skin, she will be happy with (to settle for?) someone who
is willing to be with her (to put up with her?) in return for a slice of her
wealth and the good life that come with it.
In her worldview, the reachable and realistic aim is for a
transactional relationship. So, if the
guy loves her because of her money, she would be very glad, because she has
lots of it.
Is there even such a thing as true, unconditional love? Or
is true love a wished-for fantasy, non-existent in reality?
Well, I'd like to believe that true love exists - that one
can love and commit to another, not caring whether the other is a prince or a
pauper, in sickness and in health as the adage goes.
But perhaps true love is not so easy to find. Many have given up the search.
If there is any truth in the suspicion that true love, though
it exists, is elusive to most, even more so to extraordinarily
capable and exceptionally successful women like Yang Mi, then one cannot
fault such a woman for putting faith in her money, rather than in the heart of
her man.
