Tong Bing Yu

Tong Bing Yu (born Chinese: 童冰玉; pinyin: Tóng Bīngyù; 14 June 1983) is a Malaysian actress. She first established her career in Singapore from 2008 as a Mediacorp artiste and is now in China from 2018. While Singapore, she was known as Chris Tong in the English media. After leaving Singapore to act in China in 2018, she is currently known as 童缤毓 (Tóng Bīnyù), however retaining the former spelling for communications in English.

Early life

Tong was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 14 June 1983. Tong graduated from University College Sedaya International with a Diploma in Contemporary Music.

Career

Early exposure - pageants (2006 - 2007)

Tong won Miss Malaysia Chinese Cosmos International 2006, in which she won along with two other subsidiary titles, Miss Personality and Miss Perfect Skin. In 2007, she represented Malaysia in Miss Chinese Cosmos International held in Hong Kong and was awarded the Miss Culture Personality title.

Career in Singapore (2008 - 2018)

Initially known as Chris Tong in the English media and in credits of the dramas she acted in, Tong started her acting career in 2008 in Singapore, signing with Mediacorp. She landed on her first leading role in 2009 with the television series, The Adjusters [zh], playing an insurance investigator. In 2014, she gotten her first Best Actress award nomination in Star Awards 20 for her role in The Journey: A Voyage. At the same time, she won her first award — Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes in Singapore's Star Awards and also Most Popular Actress in Malaysia’s Golden Awards, proving her popularity among audiences in both countries. These awards have also made her the first female artiste who achieved both Malaysian and Singaporean awards.

While acting in television dramas in Singapore and Malaysia, Tong started acting in movies with a role in Petaling Street Warriors, a 2011 Malaysian production. Tong went on to act in movies filmed and produced in Hong Kong and Mainland China, landing in various roles in movies such as Kick Ass Girls and Special Female Force.

Tong has been contributing to charity in low-profile since her pageant period. In recognition, Tong won her first non-acting award in November 2014, chosen as one of Ten Outstanding Young Malaysians of 2014 head by Junior Chamber International Malaysia for "Contribution to Children, World Peace or Human Right". In 2015, Tong won her first global awards, being the Outstanding Female Artiste in the McMillan Woods Global Awards.

In 2016, Tong decided to dropped her English name, Chris after consulting a fortune teller who had told her that the masculine name would cause her more stress in the future even though she would earn more.

Tong decided not to renew her contract with Mediacorp in 2018, even after Mediacorp had extended her contract until the end of February 2018, from the initial end of contract in December 2017. Tong was quoted saying that "the current developments in the industry run counter to the original directions of her contract", and that she was unable to see a clear direction forward with many familiar people she worked with leaving Mediacorp as well. Tong also felt more wanted as an actress in China, with directors requesting her to be based in China to take on more roles in productions there. Despite not renewing her contract, Tong was open to act in future Mediacorp productions if Mediacorp approached her.

Career in China (2018 - present)

She changed the characters of her Chinese name in 2018 after consulting a master who advised her to change it to 童缤毓. As the pronunciation of the characters are close to her previous name, she only updated her Chinese name on her social media profiles while retaining the previous name's pinyin.

In December 2019, it was revealed that Tong's Moths Studio, based in Malaysia, would partner China’s Golden Shield Television Centre and Changsha LeFeng Culture Communication Co Ltd (LeFeng) to produce a series of multiple cultural entertainment projects including movies, dramas, programmes, events and many others over 5 years with a budget of RM3 billion. Their first project would be a RM273 million China-Malaysia co-production movie, titled “Beyond Life and Death” where filming would take place 2020 in Johor.

Personal life

Tong and Aaron Kee Kai Loon married in March 2007, after dated for six months. On her 35th birthday in 2018, Kee re-proposed to her with a large diamond ring after she quipped that if his proposal was like her friends', extravagant and with a large diamond ring, instead of with a ring with a small diamond set in. They currently have no children.

Accolades