Irene Wan Bik-ha (born Wen Bik-ha on 30 July 1966)[3] is a Hong Kong actress, singer and producer. Her father was an officer of the Republic of China Army. In her early years, she was known as a "sexy beauty".[4] After her marriage, Wan faded out of the entertainment industry and occasionally participated in dramas and films. She is currently based in mainland China.[where?][citation needed]
Early life and career
She was born and lived in District 8 of Rennie's Mill squatter district in the New Territories of Hong Kong.[5] She is the youngest of four brothers and three sisters. Growing up her family was poor. Her father had been an officer of the Republic of China (Kuomintang) Army and settled in Hong Kong after fleeing Mainland of China. The artist Chen Yulian was her next door neighbor, and Wang Xiaofeng was also the neighbor below her residence. When Irene Wan was a child, she often played with boys in the same district, mainly playing table tennis and badminton with them. She once attended Mingyuan Primary School and enjoys music and fine arts. Later, in order to want her to enroll in a better secondary school, her mother arranged for her to continue her studies in a secondary school on Hong Kong Island [note 1].
After completing the first grade at Catholic Mingyuan Middle School, Irene Wan went to the former St. John's College for Co-Education in Tai Koo Shing. During the latter's schooling period, she was a member of the school's basketball team [note 1]. She moved to Shau Kei Wan to live with her sister in order to facilitate schooling when she was 12 years old.[6] She was sold by her mother because of her poverty. Because of his father's strict discipline, she developed a rebellious character. "When I was in middle school, I learned to smoke, go to the dance hall (P field) and make friends with problem teenagers". Later, when she was 15 years old (1983), she was discovered by scouts on the street to participate in the filming of the movie "Lonely Fifteen" and joined the entertainment circle.[7] She had not graduated from high school at the time [note 2].
However, in the 1990s, her film career sputtered when she agreed to star in All of a Sudden (1996), which would be her first and only time appearing fully nude in a film. Wan later went on to star in several TVB television series.
In 2019, at the age of 53, Wan drew controversy for her suggestive scenes with two younger actors in the thriller The Fallen (the male actor being 14-year-old younger than Wan and the female actress 27 younger). Her performance in the film would later eventually won her the Best Actress in a Leading Role award at the 8th Silk Road International Film Festival in 2020.
Personal life
Wan married Kenneth Ho (何祖光), a wealthy Hong Kong businessman, on 1 October 2000. Their wedding was held at Banyan Tree Hotel in Phuket, Thailand. Ho is the grandnephew of the Kuomintang veteran He Yingqin and worked at Solomon Brothers Hong Kong Asia Pacific Investment as the Vice President of the Banking Department. The two have never planned to have children until 2010 when Wan and her husband adopted an orphan who was abandoned in a train station in Mainland China. They also sought a doctor to cure his skin disease and cough, and renamed the child to Xavier Ho (何國倫).[9][10][11]
^ abThe information about Irene Wan's childhood and schooling comes from the interview of the Hong Kong Radio No. 2 radio program "Shou Xia Liu Qing" broadcast on 5 June 2018.
^The information about Irene Wan's family background and her middle school period comes from the 1008th issue "Single Interview·Forever Haichao Irene Wan" published on 21 November 2014.
