Peggy Lee: Superstar in the Making
Written by Editor Tuesday, 18 August 2009 01:49
Voting for Peggy Lee to host Fun Taiwan will be the best thing you did today
The Taiwan fame machine has a way of turning even the most compelling people into mundane drones that have little to off society as a whole. But now that the New Media is gradually being integrated into the daily lives of ordinary people, those people who are different or intriguing don't have to water themselves down for mass public consumption. Instead, they can just distribute themselves the way they want to be.
Enter Peggy Lee. The Twitterverse was abuzz last week when @jezelda wrote a note asking people to vote for her friend @followpeggylee for host of Fun Taiwan. Here's the video:
Needless to say, anyone who watched the video was immediately blown away by the production quality and superstar quality of the hostess, Lee. Digging a little further, Lee had been teaching Mandarin on Youtube for quite a while and also had her own website. Not bad for a 20-year old from Chungli. Waakao caught up with Lee over the weekend to learn more about her background, understand her goals, and her thoughts on being a co-host for Fun Taiwan.
*note* To vote for Peggy Lee (and you should) join the Fun Taiwan group and click on Lee's video on the right side. You can vote more than once and commenting and rating it also helps.
1. Tell me a
little bit about your background.
My name is Peggy Lee I was born and raised in Taiwan. I just
turned 20 last summer. I was raised in a family where everything came in but
you had to work for it. My parents were and still are always busy working and
living their lives separately, so are my three older sisters, who had to begin
working at the young age of 12. I was rather lucky to be sent to a cram school
to learn English for two years. Afterwards, I still didn’t know how to speak
English that well, so I tried to improve my English by myself through whatever
resource I could get, such as going to church to practice my English with
foreigners or watching HBO and CNN. After investing a lot of time and effort, I
am now able to speak English fluently without having studied in an English
speaking country. This is something I’ve accomplished in my life that I am
proud of.
I like to read in my free time, I read mostly fiction. My
favorites are literature and sociology. My dream is to study sociology in New
York City, which has become the main drive that pushes me forward in life. I
hope my duel ability to speak both English and Chinese will help me accomplish
and learn more things and eventually I hope to live life without regrets.
2. When/Why did you decide to become a Mandarin teacher?
Two years
ago, I could already speak English so I decided to tutor foreigners Mandarin to
make myself some a bit of spending money and at the same time, I could practice
my English. So I started to advertise my lessons around Chungli and got my
first tutoring job after only a few weeks. Since then, my private Mandarin
lessons with foreigners have become my part-time job.
3. How did you start doing videos online for YouTube?
I’ve always enjoyed teaching Mandarin. For one thing, I like
meeting new people. Also, I love discussing cultural comparison especially when
I teach Mandarin as a second language in terms of word usage and expressions
due to culture difference. One day, my friend came up with this suggestion that
I should put this resource, Mandarin lessons, on YouTube. Once I thought about
it, I figured I could probably make some money from it if things went well in
the future. I thought that was a good idea so I signed up for a YouTube
account, bought a digital camera and began to shoot my first video.
4. Which video has been the most fun? The worst one?
Why?
The most fun experience I’ve had by far is when we shot our
latest videos with a situational and dramatic clip in which I played a special
role, such as a weird nasty man (How to ask someone out), a hotel receptionist
and an angry tenant (How to check in a hotel), a cab victim (Taking a cab in
Mandarin), a bitchy landlord (Can you speak English/Chinese?). I never thought
I had even a little talent in acting. I’ve had so much fun doing it.
The worst one would be my
very first video (Introduction). I wasn’t ready to speak in front of a camera
at all, I was being very self conscious and nervous. I even had my lines ready
but I kept stammering and giggling. It took me the whole afternoon to overcome,
plus a lot of editing in order to pull the clips together into a complete
one.
5. How has your life changed since you started doing the
YouTube videos?
It has officially combined with social networking. I have to
check my gmail every day and I try to reply all the comments and questions I
receive from my viewers, which is an enjoyable thing to do to bring a community
together. It hasn’t affected my daily life too much since I am on the Internet
all the time, but it did bring a change as my weekends are mostly spent on
videos production and editing.
6. Where do you see the teaching Mandarin on YouTube
going for you?
The numbers of this community for learning Mandarin is
gradually growing every single day as our video production gets better. I
believe the more time and effort we put in making videos, the quicker we are
going to become a YouTube partner. Then we will be able to provide even better
video production with better equipment.
7. What are some of your goals in the future?
I hope to be a YouTube
partner before I graduate from University. If I do, I would be focusing on the
video production business after I graduate and hopefully I would go back to
school again to complete my Master's degree on sociology after a few years of
working.
8. Why did you decide to make a video for a tryout of
Fun Taiwan?
It’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to work and travel at
the same time. It’s also a great chance to go around Taiwan and learn new
things, I am sure it would be an eye-opening experience!
9. Why do you think you are a better candidate than
anyone else?
I love travelling, meeting new
people and learning new things. I am very outgoing, energetic and adventurous.
I’m down to earth and open for anything as it says on Fun Taiwan Group page on
YouTube “可以冒險也可以很氣質， 吃昆蟲、攀岩、上山下海都難不倒你，十八般武藝樣樣具備， 還有一張別有特色的Face” which means to be adventurous and elegant at the same time,
even bugs eating, rock climbing, going up on the hills and down in the ocean
would not be a problem; and finally, someone with a photogenic face. I believe
I have all the required qualities above and I will surely gulp a bug if I have
to.
