It’s no secret that Sharon Au’s time in university in Japan has made a great impact on her life.
The 49-year-old ex-Mediacorp host often fondly reminisces on Instagram her time Japan, where she had lived for a few years after leaving Singapore and showbiz at her peak to study there.
In 2005, the five-time Star Awards Best Variety Show Host dropped everything and moved to Tokyo to pursue her undergraduate studies at Waseda University on a Mediacorp scholarship.
But did you know that the former Singapore Airlines air stewardess almost didn’t go to further her studies?
Sharon, who’s now based in Paris, discussed in depth her time in Japan, her showbiz past and even her childhood on a recent episode of Joanne Peh’s Youtube podcast What Do I Know?.
She admitted that her need to become influential and indispensable may have stemmed from childhood, when her parents got divorced and she was living with different relatives at different times when she was growing up.
She admitted that she became “very fake and insecure” even as a kid, and her difficult childhood caused her to crave for love and attention.
“Going to Tokyo wasn’t an attention-seeking move, right?” Joanne asked, referring to Sharon’s decision to take a sabbatical to go and study at the height of her showbiz career.
Back then, news of her departure hogged headlines, and even a few 8days magazine covers. Four covers, to be exact, as Sharon kept delaying her studies year after year.
“I already shot a magazine cover [about me leaving] and bid a goodbye, but I didn’t go,” she chuckled. “I didn’t want to leave, you know?”
However, she had already signed the scholarship agreement, which would be forfeited if she did not leave by a certain date.
She even remembers the 8days.sg editor telling her back then: “Sharon, my magazine is losing credibility, we’ve been saying that you’re leaving for four consecutive years.”
The star didn’t want to leave because she was at the height of her career then, and had bagged many awards.
“You become very comfortable, you’re earning your dues, I remember I could command my own assistant. You become very ya ya (proud) and egoistic, like you’re the ‘Zoe Tay’ of [hosting],” she recalled.
Even Fann Wong and Jack Neo asked why she couldn’t postpone her studies, but Sharon didn’t want to forfeit “such a good deal” which she saw as the “biggest reward” of her career.
When she finally did move to Japan to begin her studies, things got off to a difficult start for Sharon, especially due to the language barrier.
“I felt very lonely, and a lot of discomfort,” she said, adding that she was constantly afraid that audiences here would forget her after her six years in Japan.
According to Sharon, she went to Japan with a self-imposed responsibility of being a good role model to her fans.
“I self-imagined that my fans who had watched me on TV now watch me go to school, I hope that they would be inspired by me to pursue academic intelligence,” she said.
The Hwa Chong Junior College alum looked back at her decision and admitted on the podcast: “Who are you to think that you’re inspiring to your fans?”
Desperate for a reason to return to Singapore, Sharon then called her manager for help.
“I told my manager, ‘You help me to plan this press release and say that the audience misses and loves Sharon Au so much that they need her to come back. Can you release this so I can fly back righteously, and [not have to admit that it’s] because I cannot make it’,” she divulged.
Her manager’s answer was obviously a big fat no.
“You siao? Hello? I already told you not to go, now you’ve gone already and you want to come back with a stupid excuse,” her manager had told her then.
“By the way, nobody asked for you. We didn’t receive a single fan letter saying they miss you and you’re the best,” her manager added.
Ouch.
Sharon said that her manager’s words were a huge hit to her ego and self-worth, and she had no choice but to continue her studies.
Thankfully, she eventually learnt to embrace her time there, after seeing how “attractive” the new environment was.
Sharon was also determined to let her mother have the chance to boast that her daughter is a graduate.
“I must be one of the few rare ones in the family who wasn’t a graduate. I had very low self-esteem, I needed that paper qualification, I wanted to be a graduate at least,” she said.
She eventually grew to love her life in Japan. And since no one in Japan knew that she was a public figure, she had more freedom living there.
“I remember I could just squat by the street and laugh at my classmates who were drunk,” she beamed.
Guess it all turned out to be a blessing in disguise?