Pan Ling Ling: The Singaporean actress who overcame breast cancer

In the 1980s, Mediacorp was known as SBC or the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. And that was when Pan Ling Ling started her path down showbusiness after completing the 8th Drama Artiste Training Course in 1988.

In 1991, Pan Ling Ling took on the female lead for Women of Substance, which was the company's first location filming in China.

A year later, Pan Ling Ling got to score opposite Jackie Chan in the film Crime Story. The decision was momentous as she was the first Mediacorp (TCS) artiste to star in a regional movie and alongside such a big star too. In the show, she played a psychiatrist.

In a 2023 interview with Lianhe Zaobao, Pan Ling Ling recounted that Jackie Chan was really nice to everyone. "From his considerate actions, I really felt that he was like a big brother. He was very polite and had no airs about him. Everyone listened to him." He even prepared Singaporean food so that she wouldn't feel too homesick.

"There was a scene where he was already injured, something like a fish hook caught onto his eyelid. I asked if we could pause the shooting, but he said, 'Leave me alone and continue acting'. When the director called 'cut', I couldn't help but ask him, 'Do you want to die?' But he calmly replied that he knew his limits."

Through the span of her over three-decade-long career, Pan Ling Ling has since forged herself to be an adept actress. She starred in many notable productions such as The Little Nyonya (2008), Breakout (2010), 118 (2014) and Reach for the Skies (2018).

Pan Ling Ling's portrayal of Cai Siling scored her the Star Awards' Best Supporting Actress award a year later. Under her belt are also six Most Popular Female Artistes wins.

One of the few local celebrities who married a fellow actor colleague, Pan Ling Ling wedded Huang Shinan at the end of 1996. This came after a nine-year-long courtship. The couple also have two sons together - Beckham and Kynaston.

She is protective of her two sons

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Pan Ling Ling is one of the few actors who decided to protect their children’s privacy by keeping their faces out of public view.

But it was only in recent years that we began to see her sons pop up. One instance was in 2022 when she and her eldest son Beckham appeared in a Ministry of Defence (Mindef) interview to speak about his experience doing National Service where you can see her looking like a proud, loving mother to his son.

"I remember that, during the BMT tour, they asked us to write a letter (to our son). While writing the letter, I kept crying and crying, saying 'Oh my god, I miss him so much'."

Halfway through a charity golf game in 2013, Pan Ling Ling received news that she has stage 1 breast cancer. The diagnosis came after an annual health check a couple of days prior. There were six cysts in her left breast and one of them, measuring 2.8cm, turned out to be cancerous.

Pan Ling Ling swiftly sought medical treatment, beginning with a partial mastectomy and breast reconstruction followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Thankfully, she was able to beat back cancer and go into remission.

As one of the top Ah Ges in Singapore, it shouldn't be surprising that Li Nanxing has received a lot of love from female fans. Well, Pan Ling Ling is one of them.

In a 2021 interview on the chat show The Inner Circle, Pan Ling Ling professed that she has adored Li Nanxing since her secondary school days and even wondered "How can there be such a handsome man?"  She even went to watch him film and was one of the reasons why she decided to become an actress.

In A Million Treasures (2006), Pan Ling Ling confessed that she really wanted to act out the kissing scene with him in the first drama they've done together. It was ultimately shot down by Li Nanxing himself.

Pan Ling Ling is perhaps one of the celebs who is the most well-connected with her peers. In a 2023 interview on The Zoe and Liang Show, she named Zoe Tay, Aileen Tan, Chew Chor Meng, Huang Biren, former actress Liang Ya Yu, Xiang Yun and Chen Liping as good friends she has found in the industry.

Pan Ling Ling also remains connected with former actors too. She has shared photos of her with Madeline Chu, Cherie Lim and even the elusive Xie Shaoguang.

The high-profile break-up of the friendship between Pan Ling Ling and Hong Huifang came to light after the latter sent a lengthy message to over 50 mutual friends to declare that she was no longer friends with the former.

In the text, Hong Huifang detailed three instances that led to her unhappiness with Pan Ling Ling, stemming back over a decade ago. The first was when Zheng Geping, Hong Huifang's husband, was dragged into the couple's relationship problems and Pan Ling Ling didn't apologise after the problem with Huang Shinan had been settled.

The second involved Tay Ying, Hong Huifang's daughter, and her past relationship. Pan Ling Ling had allegedly said hurtful things to Tay Ying that left her (and her family) upset.

The last incident happened at a gathering when Pan Ling Ling told Hong Huifang's son, Calvert Tay, to go for an STD inoculation jab as he was rumoured to be dating Julie Tan then, who had multiple past relationships.

At the end of the day, Pan Ling Ling said that she was "not picking on anybody" and to "let everything be washed away with time".

Some of us might have a special routine we do when we stay at a hotel. Knocking on the door before entering, for example.

But according to Zoe Tay, Pan Ling Ling would "keep a chair propped against the door handle" even though the door was locked. To make it even more secure, she would even do the same to window handles to "block everything so no one could come in." Pan Ling Ling would also position her shoes at the door in such a way that if someone entered, she would be able to tell.