“EVERYONE'S DREAM IS TO HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH ROLE.” -TAY YING THE RISING STAR

As the daughter of local acting veterans Zheng Geping and Hong Huifang, Tay Ying has always fuelled public interest thanks to her famous parents. This time around, the newly minted actress is ready to take centre stage.

- Chelsia Tan

With her long hair pulled into a ponytail and a steely glint in her eyes, a tall and lithe young woman starts executing swift high kicks while her opponent moves swiftly to deflect her advances. In a split-second, she works a series of powerful punches into his abdomen, taking him by surprise as he stumbles to overcome her rapid-fire attack.

This dizzying scene is just one of the few action-packed sequences from The Good Fight, a high-octane martial arts drama that stars Tay Ying, alongside A-listers Rebecca Lim and Andie Chen. Released in 2020, the 20-episode production was led by executive producer (EP) Zheng Geping, who also happens to be Tay Ying’s father.

The 26-year-old, who has been acting since 2017, remembers what it was like working with her dad during the four-month production.

“It was strictly professional, so there was no discussion. He’s the kind where if you have any [questions] about your role, you go and talk to your director. Even when we went to work together, in the car we were silent, because he was thinking about his own EP stuff, and I was thinking about my character.

“On set, I called him jian zhi (executive producer), because he was my boss. He auditioned me as well. It went through different layers of management to make sure that there wasn’t a conflict of interest. While I’m pretty sure people would think there could have been, I actually auditioned for it,” she says matter-of-factly.