ROSE AMONG THORNS

While Chan is playing the female starring role, “in my mind, I’m really a main supporting actor because this is the story of Lee Kuan Yew and of his comrades in nation-building”. She explains, “There is a Chinese saying that the leaves should complement the flower. I’m not the flower here, but I want to be a good, supportive leaf, maybe a really nice fern, which means that my performance should be supporting Adrian’s. Of course, when I take the stage, I should have my own presence, but I should never be loud.”

Perhaps this reflects what Kwa was to Lee: a remarkable woman and close confidant who was always by his side. Like many Singaporeans, Chan read The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew and their national contributions aside, she has always been intrigued by Kwa. “A lot more is known about her in their later years, not so much in their early years, but she must be really special to be the woman behind this amazing man—and you sense her quiet strength,” says Chan.

Like Lee, Kwa was a Cambridge-trained lawyer. Together with her husband and his brother, she co-founded one of Singapore’s leading law firms, and was also her family’s main breadwinner as her husband pursued a political career. She was not only the wife of Singapore’s first prime minister, but also the mother of the current premier, Lee Hsien Loong.

“Whenever she appears, she’s not screaming for attention, just comfortable with who she is. There’s so much to admire about her. She was a real rebel and also a paradox. She broke all these barriers, whether in education or career. She was with a younger man at the time and they got married in secret, but then she also famously remarked walking two steps behind her husband like a good Asian wife, which seems so traditional,” says Chan. “At the same time, you don’t get the sense that she’s struggling or torn between these two worlds. She had the balance all worked out. She didn’t say much, but it’s all in her actions.”

This is Chan’s first English language musical since the most recent staging of The Forbidden City in 2017—and one she’s excited about, especially when it comes to working with a team, which is something she looked forward to even before the Covid-19 pandemic—and appreciates even more post-pandemic. “My main thing is a solo pop singer. What I’ve always enjoyed about musicals, or stage work, is that it makes me feel like I’m part of a team and I don’t feel so lonely on stage. I also enjoy the discipline as I’ve never had routine in my life since I became a working adult. But I don’t think I want it for the whole year, just three months is kind of nice for me.”

Read more: Playwright Ovidia Yu on Why Kwa Geok Choo’s Story Deserves to Be Told

TURNING 50 AND STILL FABULOUS

And Chan can’t think of a better way to spend her 50th birthday, which falls on September 15, than being on stage. “I’m not someone who likes big parties, so I’m kind of glad I’m working because there’s no better way to spend your birthday than doing such a show like this.” (Coincidently, it would have been Lee’s 99th birthday on September 16.)

In fact, Chan and some of her closest girlfriends—they have known each other since secondary school—did their “Fabulous Fifties” staycation in February, an annual tradition they started when they turned 40. “We would stay two nights at a hotel and just spend that time together, talking and taking stock [of where we are at]—so that’s quite nice. I think that reflection is very important.”

While Chan admits that she’s not big on celebrating milestones because “it sounds like a be all and end all”, she will be marking another big one next year—her 30th year in show business. One of Singapore’s most established and multifaceted artistes, Chan has plied her craft in Taiwan and the region over the years. In the past two years, she released a number of new singles (alongside performing new shows), covering themes such as self-empowerment.

“How the Chinese pop music scene is, there’s a lot of focus on these heart-breaking ballads. Before in my 20s and 30s, I was more focused on the melody, but now the lyrics are more important to me,” says Chan. “I think at this age, you can’t be singing like, ‘I love you, you love me. I miss you, you miss me’ because you have to rise above that. I still have the ballads if you want them, and I will still sing them. But you also feel a sense of responsibility towards your fans and saying something that’s worthwhile. I feel that I have to sing material that’s relevant to where I am now in life.”

Almost 30 years in the business, Chan remains adaptable in an ever-changing industry. “I’ve never released singles until recently, it’s always been a full album. But it’s interesting when you meet some of the younger singers who have never released an album as they’ve always released singles. I think it’s quite different,” she explains. “At first, I was quite resistant to releasing singles, but then you realise it’s how the streaming platforms are. Even so, at some point when I have released say maybe five singles, I still want to kind of put them together and release an EP because old habits die hard. But we are still learning and trying to see how to fit in the new way of doing things.”

Case in point: Chan joined Instagram last August. “I saw it as a platform to announce or share updates about work. But I’ve been lucky to get good advice from people who have been managing these things because at the beginning, I didn’t know what to do. Over time, it’s quite fun even though I’m in no way addicted to it. I’m really learning to share personal things. For me, there will always be a line, but much more personal than I had intended before.”

While plans for solo concerts next year are indefinite at this point, one thing’s for sure, retirement is not on the horizon for Chan. “When I was in my 20s, I remember thinking I was going to retire at 30—and my pop career would be done by then. When I got to my 30s, there was still so much I haven’t done yet so I thought I’d retire at 40. And when I got to my 40s, I realised that while I’ve pretty much done whatever that needs to be done, if I were to do them all over again, it’s going to be so much better—and it's true. As you enter a different phase, it’s about getting better at what you do, kind of like honing your craft.

“So now that I’m turning 50, I have a new plan—I’m not going to retire at all,” Chan enthuses. “I sense now that with age and experience, it’s really quite enjoyable. I think the difference is, if you pay your dues and you work hard enough, you can reach a point where you can choose what you want to do. I think that’s a pretty damn good place to be. I still love what I do and I’ve decided that as long as I can do what I do well, by my own standards, then I’m going to keep doing it.”

In case you missed it: Kit Chan On Playing The Last Chinese Empress

NATIONAL PRIDE

The pandemic years have been tough on the arts scene in Singapore, but many including actor and director Adrian Pang have powered through. And the co-artistic director of theatre company Pangdemonium is taking on “national duty” this year—twice over. He was appointed the creative director of the show segment of this year's National Day Parade (NDP) this August, as he reprises his award-winning titular role in The LKY Musical this month.

“The fact that I’m doing one thing and then straight into the other has a nice continuity to it, considering Lee Kuan Yew was obviously instrumental in the nation's independence in 1965—and this year, we are celebrating the 57th year of independence,” says Pang, who did the first run of the musical seven years ago. “The opportunity to reprise the role is intimidating all over again. I was terrified the first time, and this time around it’s not necessarily been there, done that, or a walk in the park—it’s not. I guess I’m trying to embrace it as a chance to do it better, to fix things that I personally felt I could do have done better.”

The LKY Musical traces the Lee Kuan Yew story, from his student days at Raffles College to Singapore’s independence in 1965, along with his relationships with his fellow comrades as well as his wife.

So what is it that Pang admires about the founder of modern Singapore? “His single-mindedness—and just how incredibly principled he was. The vision that he had for the nation was incredible. It boggles the mind how determined he was to make that vision come true. I don’t know if I have the guts to be as single-minded and as ambitious as that,” says Pang. “The dream he dreamed for Singapore was huge and by all accounts unattainable at the time, but look at what we have now.”

It was the realisation of this vision that inspired Pang for this year’s NDP. “One thing that I wanted to infuse in the occasion was a sense of gratitude for what we do have, because the Singapore that we live in now has just evolved at a rate that’s the envy of the rest of the world. We have developed so tremendously to realise this vision that LKY had,” he says.

“And yes, there are things to complain about, Singaporeans are really good at that, but I felt that this NDP was an occasion to look at the flip side and see what we have that we should be grateful for—things that are so easily taken for granted. Even more so if you look around the world right now. The fact that we are in many ways not immune, but have built ourselves to a point where we insulate ourselves as much as possible. It’s something to be thankful for, and not to be complacent about.”

While everybody who knows of Lee Kuan Yew the man, or his legacy, has probably painted some image of him, “the musical offers some clues as to how he might have been in his private moments and solitude, and the conflicts that he had to resolve in his head and in his heart”, shares Pang. “As depicted in the writing, he had a tenderness to him that was hardly ever seen. I suppose that vulnerability, or even fear, he was never allowed to show to the public because he was leading the nation. But he’s a man after all, with his own faults and his own feelings and frailties. And I think what’s good about the musical is that it doesn’t shy away from showing his weaknesses. It’s not a musical that’s meant to paint him as a saint, or anything like that, it really is about the birth of a nation through this man.”

Then, of course, there is his relationship with his wife, the one person who really grounded him—and she was this presence in his life who gave him a kind of strength to do what he did. “They were a dynamic duo. What went on between them in their private moments might never be fully known, but what we have portrayed in this musical is how she was there as not just his wife, but also his best friend—and his spiritual, emotional and mental support. Apart from the tenderness, there was a lot of humour and, obviously, a lot of love. It is a love story for the ages,” says Pang.

In case you missed it: 5 Moments the Internet Can’t Stop Talking About After National Day Parade 2022

RISING ABOVE

For Pang, the support of his loved ones and his peers have been invaluable to coming out of the pandemic. Late last year, he spoke about his battle with depression, surprising many. “I’m prone to depression, anxiety, all those things, which I thought maybe I’m just a grumpy person. Being forced to face up to it during the pandemic, it is what it is, you don’t have to be afraid to put a name to it, but at the same time, a lot of people have it a lot worse. So no self-pity, just acknowledging it and then finding a way to deal with it was a big breakthrough for me, just as acceptance and always embracing it,” he says.

“The whole thing of having the strength to change the things that you can and the courage to accept the things that you can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference, became a huge realisation for me.”

One bright spark for him was how the arts community had banded together, in particular Pangdemonium, SRT and Wild Rice, and reached out to one another “as a form of commiseration and mutual support, and kind of holding hands through the dark and trying to find solutions even if it was just kind of stop-gap measures in order to keep on going”.

“It became a new level of friendship between the individuals, between the companies that might not have happened in normal times—and it’s something that I personally am very grateful for,” he says. “The arts community is small, it’s made up of very passionate people who have dedicated their lives to doing what we do. Whether we’re essential to people’s lives or not, I do believe that anyone who opens their minds and their hearts to engage with the arts in a meaningful way, it will impact and enrich their lives in so many ways.”

While the first part of the pandemic for Pangdemonium has been about “trying to claw our way back to full capacity theatre, I don’t feel the hunger to do that anymore”, says Pang. “Being in the capacity of running a theatre company, let’s create opportunities for freelancers, who have had a really tough time. So the past couple of productions, they weren’t specifically chosen to exclude me from the cast, but that was part of the thought process to have somebody else take on the roles. So that’s going to be the case for the next few shows—and I’m kind of enjoying that.

“Maybe I’m going through another midlife crisis, I don’t know,” he quips in his self-deprecating nature. He lets on that he’s currently filming a few projects, which would be released next year.

The LKY Musical runs until October 2, at the Sands Theatre at Marina bay Sands.

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