In variety shows, there are always some celebrity couples who attract attention.
But recently, the way Julian Cheung and Anita Yuen interact has sparked discussions.
Their interaction style is unique, not like the usual celebrity couples who show affection publicly. Instead, they are more like high school sweethearts, sometimes sweetly interacting and sometimes teasing each other.
This kind of affection and liveliness is enviable.
So when I saw the recent trending topic “50-year-old Julian Cheung admits to being sexless,” I didn’t find it strange at all.
Julian Cheung and Anita Yuen, this exemplary couple in the entertainment industry, once again proved that love should be boldly displayed!
Recently, the two went to watch a concert by Terry Lin Zhi Xuan. When the camera caught them, the couple openly kissed each other, which can only be described as genuine affection between spouses!
Watching variety shows, I feel that Julian Cheung and Anita Yuen are in a really good state.
It’s not the typical public display of affection that many celebrity couples do. Instead, it’s like they’re teasing each other, just like high school sweethearts.
Public displays of affection are easy to perform; the script is fixed, and everyone knows what to say and do. But the unique way they interact, teasing each other, is hard to fake.
Anita Yuen joked that if a future daughter-in-law treats her son well, she’ll give her a handbag; if not, she’ll give her five handbags and ask her to leave her son. Julian Cheung immediately retorted, “Then who would want to treat your son well?”
Furthermore, Julian Cheung mentioned participating in the show “Brothers Who Brave the Winds and Waves” as middle-aged men wanting to lie low but being forced by their wives to re-enter the workforce.
What kind of real-life scenario is this? Haha!
On New Year’s Day in 2022, Anita Yuen posted on Weibo: “10,950 days, what does that mean?”
Smart netizens calculated and found out that 10,950 days equals exactly 30 years. Anita Yuen and Julian Cheung have been together for a full 30 years. When they’re out with their family and are photographed from behind, they look like high school students leaving school. People even say that college students consider them old!
In a New Year’s Eve talk show, Zhu, a scriptwriter who helped Anita Yuen and Julian Cheung write jokes, said Julian Cheung would already be half asleep by 10 p.m., and Anita Yuen would come back from drinking outside, and the two would start teasing each other, instantly livening up the atmosphere.
“Teasing each other is their way of getting along,” and this way of getting along is just like roommates.
So when I saw the recent trending topic “50-year-old Julian Cheung admits to being sexless,” I didn’t find it strange at all.
Although the article probably used screenshots of when they were dating and didn’t want to admit to living together, intentionally saying there was no sex life. But in the sweet daily life of this loving couple, there aren’t many hormonal sparks. Sometimes I even feel like they’re male and female versions of the same person.
After many years of marriage, becoming roommates is more important than intimacy. Their sweetness is a kind of harmony.
Julian Cheung, a middle-aged man, needs beauty sleep to maintain his energy.
Anita Yuen buys bags, skincare products, and drinks with friends. With their lives fully arranged, this middle-aged couple has everything they need except worries. They don’t need to worry about trivial matters like what happens in bed.
Thirty years, love is still there, but romance may truly be gone.
I don’t know if it’s a trend among middle-aged couples or just a coincidence, but another celebrity playing the sexless card is Dee Hsu.
In one episode of her show “Xi Di Wants to Chat” featuring Alyssa Chia, the two went to a foot spa together—a spa, foot massage parlor, and beauty salon, the three major hangout spots for middle-aged girlfriends.
In the show, Dee Hsu mentioned that she hadn’t had sex for three years, not because her husband wasn’t good, but because they were like family, with not much desire for intimacy.
Alyssa Chia, feeling embarrassed, responded that they still… Dee Hsu looked at her like she was seeing a monster, and Alyssa Chia’s expression was like that of a high school student sneaking a forbidden fruit. Then some marketing accounts posted on Weibo, all praising her husband Chieh-Kai Hsiu’s good health.
Dee Hsu not having sex for three years didn’t even warrant trending, which is quite infuriating.
I don’t know if you remember, but the biggest trending topic about a sexless marriage was about the incredibly handsome Daniel Wu when he was young.
In April 2020, 46-year-old Daniel Wu joked on social media that after being married for 10 years, a certain organ in his body was the cleanest part.
Netizens were puzzled and asked why that organ would be clean after marriage? Being the internet-savvy person he is, Daniel Wu replied down-to-earth: lack of use.
After this news came out, Daniel Wu’s fans were distressed, questioning who could resist not using Daniel Wu for ten years.
There’s no way around it; life can be cruel. Even idols like Daniel Wu and others, after being married for a long time, become just ordinary men and women.
Whenever people discuss sexless marriages, there’s always someone commenting that the person must be sexless with you but probably not outside. I find this perspective quite cutting.
In the entertainment industry, there are a few examples. It’s hard to say about Daniel Wu’s wife, but Anita Yuen and Daniel Wu seem to be decent men with low desires. They have had zero scandals throughout their careers, and if a female celebrity gets a little close to them, they worry about being taken advantage of.
Regarding marriage, they have a firm belief. It’s not necessarily about how much love there is; it’s about knowing when they got married that they wanted to spend their lives together, willing to put in effort and patience to maintain the relationship.
We used to think that love makes things last forever, but through marriage, you realize that belief is more important than love.
In the midst of life’s ups and downs, it’s the belief that holds the two together, making it sweeter as they endure. Gradually, they become indifferent to everything, forgiving everything. It’s not for you but to cherish their own choices.
Among the middle-aged couples around me, many have good relationships but sleep in separate beds; even not just middle-aged couples, the importance of sex in human life is declining year by year.
When Feng Tang went to the University of Rome to lecture on literature, he asked the class who had engaged in skin-to-skin contact with another person occupying an area larger than 20cm×20cm in the past two weeks. Less than a third of the class raised their hands.
Mr. Feng lamented: “In a society relatively open, in cities with a long history, more than two-thirds of people have not had intimate contact with another human being in the past two weeks.” This aspect suggests that we as humans may be wasting our bodies on a large scale.
In the article titled “No Sex Means No Love,” Mr. Feng reflects that love equals love plus sex. I wholeheartedly agree with this point.
Whether between same-sex or opposite-sex partners, once love is present, there’s a desire and eventually a need for physical contact. Platonic relationships don’t constitute love; they are either illusions or emotional abuse. However, between middle-aged couples, often there isn’t love, and without love, there naturally isn’t a strong physical need.
What sustains the relationship between middle-aged couples is something more practical than love. A stable life, steadfast habits, and solid responsibilities are all more important than love.
For human society, sex and love have supported the development of literature and art for thousands of years. But for individual humans, only by detaching from art and immersing in life can one find true wisdom.
A few years ago, while reading my idol Maugham’s “Writer’s Notebook,” a particular sentence struck me like lightning: “Love is a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species.”
Every writer has a scalpel to dissect human nature, and Maugham’s blade is sharper. Throughout his life, he wore the hats of a bisexual and a scoundrel, focusing on precisely shattering the rosy bubbles in young people’s hearts.
In real life, we label men who sleep with women but ask if they want to bear their children as “scoundrels”; and women who sleep with men and insist on bearing their children as “romantics.”
Actually, these so-called scoundrels and romantics aren’t necessarily worse or stupider than others; they just have bigger mouths.
Raising love to such a height, and consequently sex as well, that era might truly be gone forever.
I wonder if you’ve felt the same way. Our emotions are gradually becoming standardized and rationalized.
Nowadays, when I chat with those born after 2000, I dare not say I’ve written emotional columns. They’re all emotional experts, particularly knowledgeable about pros and cons, understanding cooperation. Love without reason is all labeled as PUA by them.
Their hormones are consumed by chasing stars, chasing fanfiction, and shipping CPs. When they return to reality, they seek partners who are on par with them, mutually beneficial. If they can’t find one, they’d rather be single.
A girl born in the 1990s once told me, “Marriage is like starting a company. Not everyone is qualified to start a company. It’s probably better for a person to carry bricks all their life than to choose an unreliable partner and ruin the company, ending up in debt.”
With this mindset, I believe the divorce rate would drop significantly.
The screenwriter and director of the film “Love Myth” are also born in the 1990s. In their script and visuals, sex between middle-aged people is simple, but life is complex. However, no matter how complicated life gets, it can all be resolved with a meal and a drink.
Civilization, morality, rules, and marriage are all against human nature. If you let people do as they please completely, it becomes “Jin Ping Mei.” Why does “Jin Ping Mei” leave people despairing in the end? Because you see how ugly human nature, obsessed with freedom and being uncontrolled, truly is.
Love is instinctive; gratitude is cultivated. Sex is a complement; harmony is the ultimate.
And the foundation of harmony is having the same beliefs, similar attitudes towards money, and the ability to eat, laugh, and play together.
I suggest married people strive in this direction, letting go of their minor sentimental grievances; for the unmarried, use this standard to choose future partners. May everyone find happiness…