In 2025 summer, Ekin Cheng rejected a 7 million HK dollar pay offer for a 3-minute cameo as Chan Ho Nam, refusing to cash in on his classic role for quick easy money.
A HK$7 million paycheck to have Ekin Cheng appear on screen for three minutes and deliver seven lines—he didn’t hesitate for long and turned it down outright.
This caused quite a stir in Hong Kong’s film and television industry in the summer of 2025. People came knocking on his door, repeatedly trying to persuade him to make a three-minute cameo as Chen Haonan. Although it involved only seven lines of dialogue—and merely a brief appearance would be enough to put the “nostalgia” stamp on the project—the one-day fee, converted to RMB, amounted to nearly 10 million.Most people would have given it a moment’s thought, but no one expected him to accept without a moment’s hesitation.
In his early years, he rose to fame across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan thanks to his role as Chen Haonan,Back then, his posters could be seen everywhere on the streets and in alleys, and pirated DVD vendors stacked his films higher than the cash registers. This character became a cherished memory of youth for an entire generation, and he capitalized on that nostalgia to establish himself in the industry for many years.But this time, he refused to take the easy way out by capitalizing on that nostalgia.
Speculation about Ekin Cheng’s net worth has been circulating for nearly a decade. Until now, he was known only for keeping a low profile—never seeking to generate buzz on trending topics,rarely attends commercial events, and has very few public news stories about him—until news broke that he had turned down a hefty film fee, and people finally realized that over the years, he had long been living a lifestyle rarely seen by others.
When the public first learned about Mong Ka-wai, the woman in his life, most were skeptical about the relationship.Mong Ka-wai had never met her biological father since childhood; at the age of fourteen, she witnessed her younger sister fall to her death; early in her career, she was tricked into nearly filming inappropriate content; and her boyfriend of four years ultimately married her best friend. Such a series of setbacks would have been overwhelming for most people,yet she gritted her teeth and persevered step by step. It wasn’t until she was discovered by Johnnie To that she gradually rose to become a top leading lady at TVB.The two met on a badminton court in 2005. At the time, he was a wildly popular male actor, while she was a female actress who had just begun to establish herself. The public generally assumed this was nothing more than a typical industry fling,but unexpectedly, the two have remained together to this day. After marriage, Meng Jiahui stepped back from the entertainment industry to try her hand at entrepreneurship; even when her business suffered losses, she rarely voiced any resentment. These days, she spends her time at home tending to flowers and plants and walking her pets—her life flows as leisurely as an afternoon tea on the streets of old Hong Kong.
Over the years, scripts have been lining up to be handed to Ekin Cheng, almost all of them drawn by his fame as Chen Haonan. He has turned them all down and even made a pact with old friends like Aaron Chan and Sammo Hung to no longer take on gangster-themed projects that exploit nostalgia.Some say he lacks tact, turning down easy money that’s practically within his grasp, while others say he knows where to draw the line—understanding which money he should take and which he should avoid.
The Hong Kong film and television industry has been touting the slogan of “nostalgia” for several years, but it wasn’t until he turned down this role that some in the industry finally came to their senses: simply relying on past successes will ultimately fail to meet the needs of today’s audiences.
No one can say for sure exactly how much Ekin Cheng is worth these days. All we know is that he no longer has to rush to early-morning shoots or deal with pointless drinking parties; instead, he enjoys a bowl of hot noodle soup with his wife every day,and in his free time, he plays badminton for a couple of hours. His life is as stable as a tree rooted in the ground, unshaken by wind or rain. From now on, avoiding meaningless social gatherings and refusing to make a quick buck that goes against his true nature—holding tight to the solid stability he has—is more important than anything else.
