Matthew Ho Opens Up About Hearing Impairment

Matthew Ho (何廣沛) has seen his career soar in recent years, winning the Best Supporting Actor award at the TVB Anniversary Awards. The actor recently opens up about struggling with a hearing impairment for more than 30 years, earning widespread admiration from netizens.

Putting in Extra Effort On Set and Beforehand

Earlier, he revealed a congenital defect in his auditory nerves, and he faced the risk that it could worsen into a permanent disability. With impaired hearing, he would commit himself to memorizing co-stars’ lines by rote in addition to his own to avoid affecting filming progress; and pushed through mainly by reading lips on set.

In the recently released confessional video, Matthew put on an ultra-mini hearing aid and spoke about the helplessness he experienced on a daily basis, admitting that without a hearing aid, he misses around 10% to 30% of what is said and can only rely on “guessing”, which makes it especially challenging on set. “There’s always a chance I’ll guess wrong. The director tells me to go left, and I end up guessing right,”

Earlier, when he worked with TV King Moses Chan (陳豪) on Narcotics Heroes <破毒強人>, Moses’s character had to speak in a hoarse voice, which meant Matthew could not hear him at all. He had to get through the entire performance by relying solely on lip-reading.

Getting Rid of Fear of Embarrassment

Because of the condition, Matthew took plenty of undeserved blame since entering the industry, such as failing to respond to those who greeted him, leading many to misunderstand him as being “snobbish”. Netizens also frequently criticized his shrill voice or “tongue-tied” way of talking, which he did not bother to clarify.

With the hearing aid commercial he filmed this time, Matthew spoke about embracing sound again through technology, and regaining fresh curiosity about the world. “No one is perfect. Everyone has their own flaws. As long as you’re not embarrassed, the embarrassment will always belong to other people”.

Sparking a huge response of respect, netizens left supportive comments expressing guilt about their thinking something was wrong with his voice or pronunciation, and praised Matthew for not being attention-seeking. Others affirmed his efforts, “He has a hearing problem, yet his diction and pronunciation are still better than some people with perfectly normal hearing! Amazing!”

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