Not many young Singaporeans can speak fluent Mandarin, but 18-year-old Amy Ang managed to make a name for herself with her predominantly Mandarin clips on TikTok. 

With more than 117,000 followers on the app, the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Mass Communication student is best-known for acting as a stern Chinese language teacher in her point-of-view (POV) videos.

She shared that the characters she portrays are inspired by her secondary school teachers.

“I have so much love for my Chinese teachers; they made me feel at home and they would probably be the first ones I want to meet when I [visit] secondary school,” she said. 

One of Amy’s viral POV videos featured her playing the role of a Chinese teacher going through exam papers with her students. Video Credit: Amy Ang

She shared that her videos are relatable to the youth as they can recall having teachers with similar personalities when they were in primary and secondary school. 

Amy has also been recognised for imitating a typical Chinese tiger mum in her POV videos. Video Credit: Amy Ang

Amy grew up speaking Mandarin at home. She watched mainly Chinese dramas and English cartoons dubbed in Mandarin. 

She started learning English only when she attended primary school at seven years old. 

“Back when I first started primary school, the only English words I knew were apple and bubble,” she said, adding that she tried improving her English by reading more English fictions.

Although Amy looks like she’s in her element on screen, she said that she’s not as confident and expressive in real life.

“I never sang in front of my family, never danced, never acted. I don’t express a lot of myself to my family, so going into acting was very very difficult,” she said.

Amy discovered her passion for acting after watching a Chinese reality show on acting titled I am an actor (我是演员). She started attending online forums and acting in student films to hone her craft. 

In July last year, she chanced upon POV videos from Douyin, a Chinese short-form video platform that, like TikTok, belongs to Bytedance. These POV videos inspired her to create video content that is more localised. 

In this POV duet video, Amy (left) acts as a teacher’s pet who dislikes the new student played by another TikToker (right). Video Credit: Amy Ang

Some netizens thought she’s a real teacher and called her ‘rude’. There are others who said she’s just showing off her Mandarin. 

In spite of such discouraging comments, Amy will continue making her POV videos. 

“You can’t make every person like you or what you make. [If] Dilireba (one of China’s top actresses) has haters, it’s reasonable that a normal person like me will get hate comments as well,” she said. 

On a brighter note, Amy has many supportive fans too.

“I feel like I have been lucky in [the] sense that every time I feel like quitting, I will get a message [on] Instagram from someone telling me they like my content and want to see me improve and do greater things in the future, or they will give constructive feedback. 

[People] are seeing what I am doing, so I can’t let [them] down,” she said. 

Proofread By: Rytasha Passion Raj