Cover Story: Taiwan stars Sunny Wang and Dizzy Dizzo

Sunny Wang and Dizzy Dizzo’s tale of love is an amazing one indeed. Respectively an actor and a musician based in Taiwan, their journey has been an emotional rollercoaster filled with uncanny coincidences. From meeting in the same classroom to constantly bumping into each other around town, and to eventually moving into the same building without realising it, you’d think this was all straight out of a romantic comedy. In fact, the story of how they met and eventually married is so spectacular that there’s a movie script in the works.

Every couple has their own fairy tale. What’s yours?

Sunny: Our story involves a series of coincidences, but some would call it fate. It’s a long story, but I’ll try to make it short. We first met in around 2004 when I came back to Taiwan after graduating from university in New York. This was the same time that Dom [Dizzy Dizzo, whose real name is Dominique Choy] also moved back to Taiwan to pursue her music career. We were both taking a Chinese course at the same school and one day she was late to one of the classes. The moment she walked in, I was like, “Who is that?!” We didn’t become friends through that class, but the memory of her definitely stuck with me.

Dizzy: A couple of weeks later, I was getting a cup of tea downstairs from my office and Sunny came out of nowhere and said hi to me. If I remember correctly, it was his uncle that coaxed him into talking to me.

Sunny: My uncle and I worked in the building right next door to where she did, and it turned out we went to the same coffee shop. When my uncle saw her, he was like “Yo! Yo! Go get that chick’s number!” I think it had something to do with the short skirt she was wearing. I guess that was the  first time I really talked to her.

Dizzy: But we still didn’t really hang out, though we would see each other around town through mutual friends. It was only when he moved back to New York that we started making small talk on Facebook. It became a daily routine and it became an online relationship, but it wasn’t anything serious.

Sunny: When I came back to Taiwan, we finally solidified this Facebook relationship and started to date. We were quite crazy about each other. But we were just too young, immature and reckless for it to become anything serious, so eventually it fell apart and I moved back to New York. She kept a close relationship with a lot of my friends in Taiwan, so technically we were still mutual friends, but nothing more. It was just one of those things that didn’t work out.

Dizzy: When he came back for holidays, we would bump into each other and it would be super-awkward.

Sunny: Many years later, I think fate brought us back together. This is where our story gets interesting – actually there is a script being written about us. After years of moving back and forth, I finally came home to Taiwan and moved into the same building as her. It was a total coincidence! I hadn’t realised she was living there until I had already set my heart on this place and the real estate agent told me that there was a singer living downstairs. I had my suspicions that it might be Dizzy, but at the time I didn’t think much of it. One day, I went downstairs to grab some food and guess who I see? Lo and behold, she’s there too. But of course I played it cool and pretended that I didn’t have the faintest clue that she lived there. She eventually found out that I lived in the same building, much to her dismay.

Dizzy, did you for any moment stop to think that this was too much of a coincidence and that he might have been stalking you?

Dizzy: I didn’t take him for the stalker type, so I believed that this was purely by chance. But it’s still weird to have an ex live in the same building. Then of course there are those awkward elevator ride moments.

Sunny: At that point, I had a management and production company, as well as a fashion label with my best friend Ryan, who I grew up with. We were looking for a girl to be face of the brand – someone who was the female version of me. This was around the same time that Dominique Choy transformed herself into the Dizzy Dizzo you know now. So Ryan reached out to her, they shot the campaign, and then she started attending a lot of our company’s dinners and gatherings. I guess Ryan kind of brought us back together.

Dizzy: I had already moved out of the building by then, so who knew that six months later I would be moving back in? But this time it was with him.

So a string of coincidences brought you two back into each other’s lives and this was the second time you dated?

Sunny: There were more even coincidences than that. Even before she shot the campaign for us, I remember somewhere in Taipei there was a billboard of me and then directly underneath that was another billboard of Dizzy. Her mom took a photo of it and asked her, “Isn’t that the guy you used to date a long time ago?” To this date, she still has that photo. We really clicked though our mutual love for whale sharks and five months after a trip to the Philippines to see these amazing creatures, I proposed; less than a year later, we got married. A lot of fateful things happened within those 13 years.

The dynamics for each relationship are so different. How do you manage to keep things fresh?

Dizzy: Both Sunny and I are always working, and he travels a lot, so we’ve become quite independent. We give each other the space to pursue our dreams and do what we want. That’s probably the secret to happiness for our marriage. I know a lot of people probably think that when we’re apart, we FaceTime or Skype every single day, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. We might have a phone conversation once every few weeks where we will talk for several hours at a time and update each other on what’s been going on with in our lives.

Sunny: Since we don’t have a lot of time together, when we do, we try to take some small vacations.

Dizzy: We love to travel and we share a lot of the same interests. We’re both adventurous, athletic, outdoorsy and we love the ocean. Anytime we’re not travelling for work, we’re making plans to have adventures and explore the world.

What’s one thing that married life has taught you?

Sunny: When I was single, I was only accountable for myself and would do everything and anything if it helped my career. But since being married, I’ve had to learn how to think for two people. Learning where the balance is between doing something for yourself while respecting the other person has been the hardest.

Do you guys have pet names for each other?

Dizzy: Fluffy! He got that name because when after he sleeps his hair goes a bit insane. Even my mom calls him that now.

Sunny: I call her Bubs or Bubsy. I think in Australian people call each other Bubba, but I like my version more.

Some people say the longer a couple has been together, the more similar they start to look. What do you think about that? Sunny, you did just mention that Dizzy was the female version of yourself…

Sunny: There’s nothing wrong with that. She’s gorgeous!

As an entertainer, it’s inevitable that you have to be digitally active in this day and age. You seem to be sharing a lot of what seems to be intimate moments from your personal life. Does it ever scare you to be so open and exposed to the public?

Dizzy: Everyone has an opinion about everything, and you’re always going to get both the good and the bad. When faced with negativity, I just look into myself for the confidence to shake it off. I know who I am and I don’t need to prove myself to the cynics. But there is an element of social responsibility when sharing things online and I am aware that there may be young girls who look up to me. With that in mind, I do try to be the best role model that I can be, while being authentic. Authenticity is a big thing for us. I know everybody is always saying that, but what you see on our social media is really who we are. To answer your question: Negativity? I throw it out the window.

What’s one quirk that you enjoy about each other?

Sunny: I like how we can make fun of each other and take all the imperfections that would be embarrassing and turn them into something to laugh about. She sees everything about me and vice versa. I actually enjoy seeing the blemishes, the ugly and the funny moments – and that’s what makes me love her even more.

Dizzy: We’re both so playful; it’s the spark in our relationship. I know that in public, I might become very serious, but he always manages to see the goofy side of me and we can be completely immature when we want to be. I love that he can be this little five-year-old with me. I’m not much better though – I probably have the maturity of a seven-year-old.

Would you say that you’re in your own imaginary world at times?

Sunny: It’s completely random. Sometimes we’ll pretend to be robbing a bank with our imaginary guns. So yes, I would say so.

When you were younger, what did you want to be?

Dizzy: I wanted to be a lawyer. But that disappeared when I decided to be a musician.

Sunny: I wanted to be a basketball player in the NBA, but a knee injury halted those plans.

Speaking of growing up, you’re both Taiwanese but have grown up abroad.Do you think it’s important to grow up as international children and what has that upbringing taught you?

Dizzy: I was born and raised in Australia, I’ve lived in Hong Kong, Shanghai and obviously Taiwan. My mom is Shanghainese-Russian and my dad is Cantonese.

I studied at an American school in Shanghai during my high-school years and I think I picked up on a lot of Chinese traditions during that time. I’m actually a very traditional person in a lot of ways, but perhaps more Western in terms of my exterior. It’s great if you can grow up learning about and respecting multiple cultures, and that’s why we love travelling so much.

Sunny: I grew up in New York within so many different types of communities: a Jewish community, an Italian community, a black community, just to name a few. I grew up with kids from all over the world and I’m thankful that our families were able to take us travelling around the world. For me, upbringing is beyond geography; it’s the founding, the upbringing and the environments that a family can provide. That’s what has enabled us to grow up to be adaptable adults. I’m travelling all over the world for work and I’ve become quite used to that, but my team, who have lived their whole lives in Taiwan, always get culture shock whenever they go to a new place. It’s in these moments that I take a step back and am thankful that I’ve been fortunate enough to have the upbringing I did. This type of cosmopolitan upbringing is so important because in the new age, everything is about going global – it’s not just about localism anymore. I think we’re so lucky!

Credits
Photography / Ethan Zhong
Styling / Kieran Ho
Production / MSW Management
Sunny’s Hair / Jason Liu
Dizzy’s Hair / Chieh Shang
Make-Up / Shin Tsai from Im-ij
Styling Assistant / Ann Chen
Make-up Assistant / Chuan Shih

Outfits from Dior and Dior Homme, jewellery from Dior Joaillerie and make-up looks created using Dior Makeup

This feature originally appeared in the April 2018 print issue of #legend