‘I should spend more time creating my own stories’: Tanya Chua, Ariel Lin, Tiffany Hsu on times they got envious of others’ online lives

In this day and age where social media platforms have integrated into a part of our daily routines, it is sometimes hard not to get a little too focused on other people’s lives.

Singaporean singer-songwriter Tanya Chua became aware of this when she saw how the lines were blurred between the actual world and the digital world.

Speaking to AsiaOne in an interview recently, the 49-year old said: “When the internet world becomes the actual world that we live in, many of us fall into circumstances where we get jealous of people easily.

“Everyone is sharing and showing off their lives, such as what they wore today, how they looked today, where they went, what they ate and what they did, and this has formed an environment of mutual comparison.”

Tanya was promoting the new Taiwanese drama Imperfect Us, which centres around two women, Jian Qingfen (Ariel Lin) and Rebecca Zhang (Tiffany Hsu), whose birthdays fall on the same day. Besides having the same taste in clothes, they also become love rivals when they fall in love with the same man He Ruizhi (Mike He).

Stalking each other’s Facebook posts for a decade, Qingfen and Rebecca become jealous of each other’s life, fantasising how the other party is leading a better life than themselves. In the process, Rebecca also forms a friendship with an engineer Yu Xiangli (Kai Ko).

This drama marks Tanya’s debut as the official music director for a drama. Besides writing a song for each of the four protagonists, she also composed the opening and ending songs in the series.

When asked if there were times when Tanya was envious of other people’s lives on social media, she shared that while it was hard to prevent, she came to a realisation when she saw how people around her were feeling the effects of social media.

She added: “People tend to spend more time on other people rather than on themselves. Maybe it’s because I realised this, so I learnt to set my limits.

“I will think that these are their stories and not mine, I should spend more time finding and creating my own stories and not comparing myself with others.”

Taiwanese actress Ariel, who welcomed a baby girl with her businessman husband Charles Lin in 2021, said that she used to be jealous of people who spent 11 months a year overseas for work.

The 41-year-old added: “I felt that this is not something that I could do or choose with my personality, so it’s best to just look at it… it’s not something that I prefer in this stage of my life any more.”

Tiffany, 39, said that she had once thought about living the life she was envious of, such as travelling whenever she wants to, but she is now more focused on herself and reality.

“I thought about the life I was envious of and ended up thinking that maybe someone out there is also envious of my life. I frequently thought to myself, if I get to exchange my life with someone, would I really be happy? And is this the life I want? I still treasure the things that I have now,” she explained.

Kai told us that while he envies people who are “financially independent”, he also believes they have their own worries.

The 32-year-old added: “Maybe they are also envious of our lives… I feel that to be able to live like how I am now is already very comfortable and free.”

Mike, 40, shared: “I used to look at the late Kobe Bryant’s Instagram account and was quite envious of his life, so I would try to learn his basketball moves.”

Imperfect Us premieres on Viu on April 6 with new episodes every Saturday and Sunday.