COVERSTORY
The Wee
Pleasures of Life
By Farhan Shah
Unabashed, genuine and
passionate, Wee Wei
Ling, the Chief Operating
Officer of St. Gregory and
the Executive Director
of Si Chuan Dou Hua
Restaurants and Pan
Pacific Hotels Group, is
a vivacious personality.
Take a peek into her life
and her simple passions.
She found it in a nondescript store
offering various knick-knacks, one
of the many that lined the streets of
Taiwan – a small replica flamingo,
hewn by a craftsman out of a block of
resin, in the hopes that it would bring
joy to the new owner. And indeed,
it did bring about such emotion for
Wee Wei Ling, the current keeper
of the flamingo, who checked in
all her luggage at the airport, save
for the pink decorative item lest it
unfortunately be damaged during the
baggage handling. Unremarkable as it
may be, the flamingo now takes pride
of place in Wei Ling’s home, amongst
other replica birds she has collected
from all over the world. Simple
pleasures like these make her day.
Wei Ling is sharing with me the
journey of the flamingo from the
balmy climes of Taiwan to the heat
of Singapore to illustrate two of the
principles she fiercely adheres to in
life – that of being contented with our
choices and subsequently, of living as
genuine a life as possible.
“Everyone has a choice
to decide what is
important in their lives,”
she says, “and what
makes them happy. I
do what I do in my life
because I like it and
not because I want to
impress the people
around me.”
For Wei Ling, the simple
life is the one she
covets. Happiness, to the
grandmother of four, is
filling her existence with
spiritual fullness.
A SILVER-SPOONED
CHILDHOOD
Wee Wei Ling is the
eldest child of Wee Cho
Yaw, the man that grew
UOB from its humble
beginnings in the
banking industry back in
the 60s into its current
position as a financial
juggernaut in the region
and arguably around
the world. With success
comes the trappings of
14
Family & Life • Jun 2014
wealth and, if one is not careful, the
pitfalls of excess. The Wee household
understood the hidden risks and
taught the children to respect not just
the money but the status that came
with it.
Wei Ling remembers a happy and
economical childhood filled with
homemade sandwiches that she
brought to school daily. As for Wei
Ling’s children, they too were brought
up to be mindful of money. She would
give her brood weekly and monthly
allowances s