“Universe’s Iron Lung” G.E.M. (Gloria Tang) shot to fame and saw her net worth soar after entering the Chinese market early on. She just wrapped up her world tour with a stop at the Taipei Dome. Always keen to interact with her fans, she still made time to livestream and chat even with her busy schedule, revealing that she just found out she has thalassemia. Despite her illness, she managed to complete more than a hundred performances, which even she finds impressive.
During her livestream, G.E.M. shared that she just learned she has thalassemia, saying: “My mom suddenly told me, turns out I have thalassemia, I didn’t even know!” She added: “Wow! I have thalassemia, and I did this tour for 153 shows, isn’t it completely normal for me to feel tired?” She laughed, saying: “I really admire myself!” She also said that when performing on stage, she’s often “relying on willpower to power through.” When a fan commented asking how long she can keep singing, she answered that sometimes it’s not that she doesn’t want to sing, but it depends on her physical state: “It’s about whether my body can handle it.” Besides thalassemia, she had already disclosed when she debuted that her left jawbone is atrophied, and the upper and lower rows of her teeth can’t close completely, which sometimes makes her speech unclear and her pronunciation “leaky,” ironically contributing to her unique singing style.
Source: On.cc