8_Days__June_1_2017

STORY
YIP JIEYING MAIN PHOTO AIK CHEN
8 DAYS: Are you more active in China these days
after Sing! China?
NATHAN HARTONO: I’m setting up another base in
Beijing, but I’m not moving there. My plan is to release
music there and in Singapore. It’s been taking a while
mostly ’cos of boring things like contracts. The music
industry in China is several thousand times more
intense than in Singapore. I didn’t want to get into a
contract that could potentially destroy me, so I took
some time [to consider]. But it’s been settled, and I’m
planning to release an EP first and probably an album
next year. I’m also filming a movie called Warrior of
Love, and I’ll probably work until next February. After
that, I’m planning a nice long vacation (laughs).
How do you navigate the Great Firewall of China?
VPN [virtual private network]! But it's hard to use if you
have a slow wi-fi connection. The biggest inconvenience
is not having Google Maps. I rely so much on [maps]
when I’m travelling, so bopian (no choice in Hokkien)
lah, I had to use Apple Maps in China. It’s s***, but at
least it leads me in the right-ish direction. Half of my
phone is filled with Chinese apps now (laughs). I should
really get a phone just for use in China.
How often do you hit a wall, metaphorically?
Every couple of months. As a creative person, I’m
constantly evaluating myself and what I want to do.
It’s a very surreal time in my life right now ’cos so
much attention is on me and a lot of opportunities
are opening up. I’ve been hitting walls, asking myself
if I want to keep doing this ’cos I don’t know if I’m
enjoying it. With attention comes more attention,
and you can't really leave the house or have a life. I
wish I was the kind of person who enjoyed [being a]
celebrity a bit more. It boggles my mind when I see
people lap up attention. But the exciting part of this
journey is adapting [to my new life]. I do enjoy it when
people tell me they’ve connected with my songs, as
narcissistic as it sounds!
What can we find on your bedroom walls?
At the moment there’s nothing on the walls ’cos my
room is being renovated. But usually I have lots of
photos from school up there and shelves filled with
gifts, ’cos I don’t throw anything away but I don’t know
where to put them either. In my first year of JC, I had
a big photo of myself on a wall. My father decided to
blow up a high-resolution photo of me to the size of
my wall and put it there. When I saw it, I had so many
conflicting thoughts. It was really sweet of my dad.
But why did he do that?! He thought I’d like it (laughs).
[Because of that] I let very few people into my room for
the next four years. Eventually I took the photo down
myself ’cos it’d been hanging there long enough. I
appreciate my dad’s gesture, but it was weird!
What’s one thing you’ve learnt in your career that
they didn’t teach you in school?
I started my career when I was in school, so the line’s
kind of blurred. I learnt that attention comes and goes
Chinese test
How well did Nathan fare
in our quiz on Chinese
culture and history?
1
Which film role got Brad Pitt banned from China?
“Okay, it has something to do with Tibet. I know
Coldplay is banned from China ’cos of their views on
Tibet. But I’ve no idea which movie! I’m going to feel like
an idiot when you tell me what it is. [It’s Seven
Years in Tibet]. Oh! I haven’t seen that one. I’m
not a Brad Pitt enthusiast though.”
True or false: the Chinese invented ice cream.
2 “Hmm… False? I haven’t had decent ice
cream in China yet! If they did invent ice
cream, they weren’t very good at it (laughs).”
Who’s the current president of China?
3 “Xi Jinping”.
True or false: the whole of China has only one
4 timezone.
“False. Xinjiang has a different timezone.” [Officially,
China has one timezone — the Beijing Standard Time.
Unofficially, though, Xinjiang operates on a
different timezone.]
What are the four great classical novels of
5 Chinese literature?
“Romance of the Three Kingdoms must be one. What
else could there be? Hao Gong Ming [Civic Studies]? No
wait, that’s our great Singapore tome. My knowledge
of Chinese history is almost completely political ’cos I
took China Studies back in JC and learnt about [people
like] Deng Xiaoping. I was in the pioneer batch for that
subject, and thought it’d be fun to try. The teachers
were probably more lenient with the grading ’cos they
were still figuring things out!” [The other three novels
are Water Margin, Dream of the Red Chamber and
Journey to the West.]
FINAL SCORE: 2.5/5
time
in this industry. When I started out at 14, people were
saying, “Oh, this guy’s like a young Michael Bublé.”
But after I did my ‘A’levels and army and didn’t appear
in public much, it was a struggle getting people to
show up at events or to even care about my singing. In
the beginning, I was affected. I wondered if I sucked,
and I thought, “People are s***. It’s their loss if they
don’t pay attention to me.” But it took me a while to
realise that I needed to prove my worth, especially in
Singapore where the audience is very critical. I’m not
a special snowflake! I can’t say I’m now at the point
where people can't deny me, but I work towards that
[recognition] every day.
The Great Wall: One Woman’s Journey is on Jul 14 to 30 at the Drama Centre Theatre. Tix from Sistic.
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