YT05 | Veteran TV Presenter Talks About The Two Sides Of Singapore

Meet Wayne. You might have seen him on TV or heard him on the radio. Wayne is a former Channel NewsAsia (CNA) and 93.8 Live presenter. He’s reported on 3 elections and has won numerous awards at MediaCorp. He’s also hosted Asia’s Got Talent Season 2 (broadcast globally on AXN) and was featured as an events industry panelist on How Do I Look Asia Season 2 (broadcast globally on the DIVA Channel).

Now Wayne is a veteran media personality known for his captivating speaking skills and his ability to enthuse any audience. But did you know that growing up he struggled to fit in with his peers? Wayne shares with us today his experiences growing up as a mixed-race child, the impact he notices of foreigners on the local economy, and his struggle to reconcile the two Singapores, one glitzy and global, the other struggling just to get by. Tune in now!

Discussion Topics: Veteran TV Presenter Talks About The Two Sides Of Singapore

• Growing Up As A Singaporean
• Studying In An All-Chinese School As An Outsider
• Embarking On His Career
• A Native’s Perception of Foreigners in Singapore
• Are Foreigners Taking Away Our Jobs?
• Soul Calling – Doing Something For The People

Transcript: Veteran TV Presenter Talks About The Two Sides Of Singapore

Yana Fry: Welcome to YanaTV, a talk show to amplify the voices of the impactful and conscious people of Singapore. And today our guest is Wayne Chan. You probably saw him on TV or heard his voice on the radio. So lucky us having him in the studio. So thank you Wayne for joining us today.

Wayne Chan: Thank you so much, Yana, for having me.

Growing Up As A Singaporean

Yana Fry: And from what I know about you, you are Singaporean. So you were born here, and you grew up here. Which part of Singapore did you grow up in?

Wayne Chan: I grew up in the East. I’m an Easterner.

They call us the East Siders and everybody always says we’re the best place to live. Is in the East. So, when I grew up, I was born in Bedok near the very classic 85 markets.

And, it’s a very, very nice classic neighbourhood. Bedok. The thing about Bedok that was very famous is that in the Bedok, in The Change, which is Bedok central, right? Back then in the eighties when I grew up, they had five cinemas.

They had Raja, they had Princess. They had the Wagyu, they had bado and they had Changi. All of that, of course, is all gone up in history. So I grew up in the East. You can call me a Katong boy as well if you want,

That’s where my grandmother used to stay. And the reason for that is because I’m half Eurasian. My mother is Eurasian. And my dad is Chinese. So a lot of Eurasian stay in the Katong area. So I used to grow up a lot in the Katong area, the east, going to places like Parkway Parade. Some of you may remember the Han and the De Ban Guan back in the Katong area.

Yana Fry: How was that growing up as half Eurasian and half Chinese?

Wayne Chan: I think it was very interesting. Of course, at times It can be confusing when you have a mixed heritage cause on the one hand right, I have my dad’s side, which is quite Chinese, right? And I also have my mom’s side, which is quite Eurasian. Right, but I always felt a little bit closer to it, I wouldn’t say the Eurasian side of things, but maybe the English side of things.

Back then, it was only after Singapore achieved independence in 1965 and the new government took over from the British that we started to push this thing called bilingualism and having everybody speak more Mandarin as opposed to dialect, right? So both my parents actually my mom obviously is Eurasian, doesn’t speak Mandarin.

And, my dad doesn’t speak Mandarin as well. He speaks Hoke, which is a dialect, right? from Fujian Province in China. My first encounter with the Chinese language or Mandarin as you would have. It was probably when I first entered primary school, right?

Yana Fry: Which school did you Go to?

Wayne Chan: I went to this school called ung, right? So this is an all-Chinese school. So in Singapore, for those of you who don’t know, there are schools that are all Chinese.

That means everyone there is Chinese or learning Mandarin, and there are schools that are mixed. Mixed means that you have all the races. On-site there. In Singapore, the three main races, back then they called it the CMIO, right? Chinese, Malay, and Indian. And then there are the others, which is everyone else. The Eurasians, and so on and so forth.

I was in an all-Chinese school.

So how was this experience too, like for you, if you now look back as a child to just growing up in a Chinese family?

Studying In An All-Chinese School As An Outsider

Wayne Chan: School.

Yana Fry: How was the experience?

Wayne Chan: It was a bit unusual at first for me. I would say, first of all, I didn’t know the language, right? So it’s a tough one. That is a tough one. So my first couple of years not understanding the language, but everyone inside the school, right?

Most of my other schoolmates and classmates were predominantly Chinese. They grew up in Chinese backgrounds, right? They spoke Mandarin at home, but I didn’t, so I didn’t know a single word. So often I found myself standing outside the classroom being punished for something that I didn’t know that I did, because I couldn’t understand the language.

But being life, being as it is, these are just little humps in the road. So I worked hard at it. And in the end, I aced my Mandarin.

Yana Fry: So when you graduated from school, and I know you went into the career, which you’re having right now. So my question is how did it start? So how did you go on the journey?

Embarking On His Career

Wayne Chan: Sure. I think this journey has to go all the way back to when I was very young.

For me, I’ve always been somebody who is more interested in language. The English language is something that I have been passionate about since I was young. So a lot of people always ask me, how did you manage to have such a strong command of English?

So it all goes back to when I was young. I was really, really very, very into reading. I did a lot of reading when I was a child. So what happened back then is that he would just use up totally utilise the library cards we had.

In Singapore, back in those days, each Singaporean could borrow about four books a month or something like that, right? So my dad would use my library card, my mom’s library card, and his library card to borrow 12 books. So I would read about 12 books a month. That’s about three books a week.

And that’s how I developed my love for the language of English. So I’ll be in my room reading, reading, reading. I would say that writing was my first passion.

I discovered speaking much, much later in life. But I was the guy that probably is, winning all those like writing competitions, essay competitions, acing the English. In secondary school, I was particularly naughty.

When I was 16, I didn’t do my homework at all. And my teacher sent me to the principal and said Wayne, you’re not completing any of your homework. Why?

But I told her that the homework that she was giving me was not going to improve my English in any way. And I was gonna ace it anyway into all levels, and I did. Of course. So that was the beginning of me, being passionate about this language, called English. And later on in life, I decided I wanted to be, a journalist and also in public relations because of that love for writing.

I love searching for the truth and that’s why I became a journalist and I joined channel News Asia later on. As time went by, I discovered that beyond writing and seeking out the truth, I love to speak as well.

And, that’s how I started the journey to become a host, later on. And what I’ve learned about life is that the more you know, the less you know. It’s a very strange thing. And I realise that there’s just so much more to be learned and found out in this journey.

Yana Fry: Now I’m really curious when you look at, let’s say, maybe what has been happening for the last 10, maybe 20, 30 years, let’s say, how far we can go and just how much the country has changed. And with all the foreign people like myself coming here and making a good home. How do you feel about it?

A Native’s Perception of Foreigners in Singapore

Wayne Chan: I feel that Singapore needs to be, of course, very open to people coming here to work, to live, to build their lives simply because unlike some of our neighbours like Malaysia, we don’t have a lot of natural resources, so we do need to be a hub.

For human beings, we do need to be a very attractive place for people to come here and live. Right? If we want to be successful and punch above our weight, that’s what, However, having said that, the population increase has been quite phenomenal.

And I think we can feel the strain. Of infrastructure like transportation, and healthcare hospitals right now, enough hospital beds are struggling to catch up with this very massive development in Singapore. And I would think back to the nineties when the m r t first started to operate, right?

And back then you could go on a train to Orchard Road. Or city hall and there will be no one on the train. But today you can’t find a seat and probably you’ll be squeezed like this on the train.

And it’s just very, very crowded. And the question becomes, after a while, how many people is enough For this country, right? The logic behind it was that we need more people to come here.

There are many, many reasons why. One of the reasons I remember when I was a journalist, I was doing this story about our low TFR, which is the low total fertility rate. The story is about Singapore, which is. Singaporeans are not yeah reproducing for whatever reason.

when foreigners would come here and repopulate Singapore by producing more. So I actually interviewed a professor. I’m not sure what exactly her expertise was.

I think it was called demography if I’m not wrong. she’s an NUS professor, right? And she said that actually, it doesn’t work. Why? Because apparently once foreigners come here to Singapore and they live this Singapore lifestyle. They become Singaporean. And when they become Singaporean, what happens? They also don’t want to reproduce.

Because everything here is so expensive. It’s not particularly conducive to having a child. Right, of course, I think our authorities, our government is, are doing everything they can, to study this and find ways to, every year introduce new initiatives to encourage couples to get married and have children, But, the effect of it, or should I say, the results have been slow.

It is also about children when foreigners and experts come here, particularly foreigners from my experience, who have two, or three children in their household, but then they leave. So it doesn’t have a population of Singapore because they spend some time here and then, and then they go back to their country and it’s still not young enough, maybe Singaporeans.

Yana Fry: Okay. So this is part of the younger generation. But then from your perspective also as a Singaporean, the more foreigners come in, the more expensive it gets. And I heard from some other Singaporeans that. There’s a feeling, well, they are taking our jobs. So how do you feel about it?

Are Foreigners Taking Away Our Jobs?

Wayne Chan: For me, I don’t feel it, but I can understand how other people might feel. Okay. So there is a saying in Singapore that there are two Singapore, right? There’s one in Singapore.

Whereby everybody is thriving and just rolling along with it. And there’s another Singapore where people are struggling, people are really, really struggling. I’ll give you an example. So recently I was in my neighbourhood and I went to Subway to have my food. And there’s this lady, right, who is, I think maybe in her late thirties.

And she is working behind the counter preparing the sandwiches and she happens to be very friendly, and she starts talking with me and my wife, right? And one fine day, she asked my wife this question. She says, where do you work?

So my wife says, oh, I work in an office, right? I’m in marketing, right? And she says, in this really innocent voice, Wow. must be earning at least $2,000 hall in the very Singaporean voice. And I was stunned. I was shocked. I was flawed because to her that $2,000 a month is a

And I spoke to her. I said, are you single? Are you married? Are you, with kids? She says, yeah, I have children. How many? Four. Wow. I couldn’t comprehend it, how was she raising these for children? And, on less than $2,000.

Right, because that’s obviously not what she’s earning. She’s probably earning much less. Yeah. So how is it possible? So there’s this other Singapore where people are suffering and I’ve done some volunteer work and I’ve seen. the unseen side of Singapore, people who are very poor people who live in a room flat, right?

A whole family of 10 living in a one-room flat and all of them are squeezing into the living room. And a whole living room is stacked with alarms. D alarms are a Singaporean term or an Asian term for the very flat mattress. that you just lay on the floor.

And the whole room smells of piss urine. There’s this strong stench and they’re all living like that. But on the other hand, you have people who are very, very filthy rich?

 Whereby spending a few hundred thousand or having lots of supercars and all that is no big deal, right? So there are these two sides of Singapore, which is very unusual. So I think the challenge really is how do you close this gap?

I think we can’t just leave it to the government to solve this problem. Everyone needs to get it in the action, right? It’s how to close that gap and how we find a way to get it. To help our economic success as a country, how do those benefits, trickle down or cascade down to the actual people who are here, who have sunk their roots here, who have been here for three generations, maybe those who have been around for a long time since before the war, right?

how do we make sure we take care of them and not just them, but their future generations right? Because there are generations that came from there, right? So how are all these people being taken care of and given a fighting chance while also still wanting to welcome people from overseas?

Because we do need people overseas. We don’t have all the expertise on this small island. We need expertise from everywhere to come here. And we definitely want more companies to build. The regional or even global HQ is here. But that has to be, this balance needs to be struck.

Yana Fry: Yes. And thank you for saying it. I think it’s such an important conversation, such an important topic. And I mean, we ask questions, we don’t know all the answers, but I also feel the first step would be awareness. And from what I know, when people think about Singapore, and definitely when foreigners probably think about Singapore, they always look only at the glossy, shiny, successful part of Singapore.

So if people wanna help, if they wanna do charity work or philanthropy work, they usually think about the rest of Southeast Asia. They would go to Indonesia or Malaysia or maybe Thailand or maybe the Philippines. Yeah. To volunteer or, or do some work or give some money there? Usually, they don’t think that Singapore also has groups of people who need help.

And just listening to you I find is also like a wonderful call to action to our audience. They just look around, look in your neighbourhoods, ask people, and ask local Singaporeans because they would know and others probably wouldn’t. So who needs help? What families need help with.

So if we all contribute and help a neighbour then this gap is gonna become much less and there will be a more equal redistribution of resources and opportunities. So thank you for, sharing that.

So now you are working, I know you are doing a lot of stage work, and then seeing you are a public speaker and figure, and you told me that the main intention is because you wanna build this capital. So that you can do really what your soul wants you to do. So what is it that your soul wants you to do?

Doing Something For The People

Wayne Chan: I’m really, really in love with, where we are in Asia, especially Southeast Asia, right?

And I think that there’s just huge potential in Southeast Asia. Some of these countries are still developing. They need a lot of help, right? They need a lot of help, but not much help is really being given to some of these people.

So, I mean, once I’m financially free I would love to do something that I can help them in some way. Right? So when it comes to helping people there, there’s education. There’s also just seeing to their needs, maybe starting a charity that helps to build homes, orphanages, right? 

First of all, you have to pick their basic needs, food, shelter, safety, food, shelter, right? And what they say, right? If you have a computer and mobile phone, right, you’re probably in the 1% most lucky people or most prosperous people in the world, really, because many people don’t even have that basic thing.

I think also to help the people that can’t help themselves or in my view, right? I mean, we have a lot of people that do stuff for recognition and glory, right?

Personal glory or some political agenda. But I would love to do something that does not have any of that if I could. Right? Because ultimately I believe that, When you do something on Earth you can’t get an earthly reward, then well if you believe what I believe, then there’s a heavenly reward up there.

Yana Fry: Thank you so much. And that was Wayne Chan on YanaTV. An incredibly deep and enlightening conversation. I definitely learned a lot about d. Parts of Singapore. So thank you for sharing that. And we would love to hear from you in the comments, especially from Singaporeans, about how do you feel about it. 

Every day, what is your experience including with foreigners and people like me arriving into this country and doing things here?

So what? What are your impressions? How does it change your life? So please let us know in the comments. Of course, remember to subscribe and share with your friends, and we are gonna see you soon with another guest.