After getting free Milo from the Milo van, Singaporeans can look forward to more free food, thanks to Nathan Hartono.
The singer may not have won the top prize in the China singing competition Sing! China, but Tung Lok is celebrating his achievement by giving away free servings of his favourite dishes this weekend, and a 25 per cent discount at its outlets on Monday.
The pride is understandable.
Tung Lok’s executive chairman, Mr Andrew Tjioe, just happens to be Hartono’s uncle.
The group posted a congratulatory message and details of the three-day promotion on Facebook right after the finals concluded on Friday night.
On Saturday, there will be free servings of Spinach Tofu (because it’s Hartono’s favourite) at TungLok Signatures, TungLok Teahouse, TungLok Seafood and Shin Yeh Taiwanese.
Another of his favourite dishes, Liu Sha Bao, will be offered for free at Tung Lok Xihe Peking Duck, Tung Lok Heen and Lao Beijing.
And on Monday, the group will be offering a 25 per cent dine-in discount on ala-carte orders at Lokkee, Dancing Crab, and Ling Zhi vegetarian, in addition to their other Tung Lok outlets.
Customers must flash the Facebook post to enjoy the promotion.
More Milo peng on the way
15,000 cups of iced Milo, otherwise known as Milo peng were given away on Friday, a Nestle company spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia.
The promotion was a show of support for the local crooner, after he joked in a The Straits Times interview that he would rent a fleet of Milo vans if he won the singing competition.
Not to worry if you missed it, as according to their Facebook post, the Milo vans will be deployed to locations in the North, South, East, and West, soon.
Executive Director of Zero Waste SG Eugene Tay went “On the Record” with Bharati Jagdish about getting Singaporeans on board when it comes to environmental issues
HO CHI MINH CITY – Trieu Thi Thoa of Ho Chi Minh City’s District Six says when her neighbours see a vehicle come to collect garbage, all of them close their doors immediately to avoid its stench.
“I am deeply concerned about the safety of the rubbish collectors, mostly poor people, as they never wear a mask or proper clothes when collecting rubbish.
“After they collect the garbage, they jump on top of it to look for something they can sell.
“They don’t care about their health. How can they care for the health of others?”
Since there are not enough public garbage trucks to collect all household rubbish, many private vehicles share in the task.
These are motorbikes modified by their owners by adding a sidecar to carry the garbage to the city’s dumps.
According to city authorities, there are more than 1,000 such vehicles.
Most fail to meet safety and hygiene standards, and leave a foul-smelling trail and pollution wherever they go.
On Cao Thng Street in District 10, dozens of the vehicles ply their routes, causing people to cover their noses against the stink.
It is a similar story in District Three between 6pm and nightfall.
When these vehicles stop to collect rubbish or wait for the traffic signal, people desperately hope the lights turn green quickly.
The situation is worsened when it rains since many of the vehicles are not properly covered and filthy water and garbage trickle out. – Viet Nam News/Asia News Network
PETALING JAYA – Though Penang songbird Lee Pei Ling (pic) did not clinch first place at the Sing! China finale, the terrific teen still impressed audiences worldwide with her vocal chops, and even earned an invite to share the spotlight with one of China’s top singers.
Lee was among six finalists of the reality talent show that was held at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing last night.
In a performance with her mentor Na Ying, the 15-year-old sang the top-selling artiste’s song, Loving You Equals To Loving Loneliness, in a long black dress, along with fellow contestant Wang Chenrui from Guangzhou, China.
After Lee garnered only 14,227 votes and lost her place in the top three, her mentor Na hugged her on stage and asked her to continue learning her craft in Malaysia.
“If there’s an opportunity in the future, I’d like to have a concert together with you in Beijing,” said the artiste to Lee.
The Form Three student of Chung Ling High School, who also calls herself Jeryl, sang the Disney hit Let It Go from the animated movie Frozen in a mix of English and Mandarin during the competition.
Nathan Hartono, Singapore’s first finalist in the singing competition, was another favourite to win.
However, the first prize went to Jiang Dunhao, a 21-year-old from Xinjiang, China who was mentored by singer-producer Wang Feng.
Singaporean Nathan Hartono, 25, finished second-place in the immensely popular Sing! China competition on Friday night in Beijing.
Hartono, who is the first Singaporean to enter the final, had competed against five other contestants in the final held at the National Stadium which was won by China’s Jiang Dunhao.
The television talent show – a rebranded version of The Voice of China after a legal dispute over copyright – had opened with each finalist performing a song with their respective mentors, followed by a solo performance.
Photo: Screengrab
The panel of four mentor-judges were Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou and singer-songwriter Harlem Yu, along with Chinese songbird Na Ying and rocker Wang Feng.
The other finalists were Guangzhou’s Wang Chenrui and Malaysian singer Jeryl Lee from Na Ying’s team, Xinjiang’s Jiang Dunhao and Shenyang’s Xu Geyang from Wang Feng’s team and Jilin’s Yang Meina from Harlem Yu’s team.
Hartono is the sole contestant from Jay Chou’s team. He picked two Jay Chou classics – singing the Nunchucks rap hit with his mentor and the Longest Movie ballad by himself.
After the two rounds, spectators at the stadium voted and the top two scorers – Hartono with 35,577 votes and Jiang Dunhao, who had the highest score of 39,962 votes – got to vie for the crown through another solo performance.
The Singaporean crooner then picked a medley of Moonlight in the City and Woman Flower – songs by Singaporean singer Mavis Hee and Hong Kong legend Anita Mui respectively.
A panel of professionals saw 47 supporting Jiang and 45 picking Hartono. The Singaporean received 45,613 of votes while Jiang garnered 59,852 votes from spectators.
Hartono, who goes by his Chinese name Xiang Yang in the show, was the hot favourite going into the final, based on his performance in the semi-finals on Sept 30.
His score of 93.65 was the highest among the 12 semi-finallists. He also received 47 out of 51 votes from industry professionals and 333 votes from a pool of 350 live audience.
In a Straits Times online poll on Monday (Oct 3) a 83 per cent of 3,681 readers picked Hartono to win the competition.
But many music professionals and even Hartono thought the odds were against him, given that no foreigners have won the show.
First place winner Jiang Dunhao. Photo: Screengrab
Past winners were all from China: Liang Bo (2012), Zhang Bichen (2014) and Zhang Lei (2015) – were coached by Na Ying while Li Qi, the winner in 2013,was from Taiwanese singer’s A-Mei’s camp.
The talent show is one of China’s best-watched variety programmes and is widely seen as a platform for budding singers in the music industry.
Its July 15 premiere on Zhejiang Television scored a nationwide viewership of 2.24 per cent, topping other programmes in the same time slot on a Friday night.
The show’s market share of more than 30 per cent across China is reportedly nearly five times the second-placed show. The show has also set a new record this season with more than 37 billion online viewership.
Hartono said he has received offers from music companies and that he is discussing with Jay Chou on developing a singing career.
Local singer Nathan Hartono wows Sing! China judges
Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source:
The Straits Times, The New Paper, YouTube screengrabs, HBO Asia, Music & Movement
This article was first published on Oct 7, 2016. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
Despite his loss, there has been an outpouring of support for Hartono from Singaporeans proud that he had gotten so far in the competition.
SINGAPORE – The estate of Mr Lee Kuan Yew has applied to the High Court for permission to appeal against certain orders made by the court in relation to a case involving transcripts of interviews Mr Lee did with the Government in the early 1980s.
The executors of the estate – Mr Lee’s children Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang – have sought leave from the court to appeal Justice Tay Yong Kwang’s decision to disallow the filing of an affidavit setting out how the transcripts came into the possession of the Cabinet Secretary after Mr Lee’s death.
The documents had been found at 38 Oxley Road, Mr Lee’s home, by a family member shortly after he died on March 23, 2015.
The estate is also looking to appeal against the court’s decision” to seal or expunge certain affidavits, portions of affidavits, and other Court documents, from the Court file”, lawyers for the estate said in a statement on Friday (Oct 7).
Justice Tay said in his judgment last week that he had disallowed the filing of the affidavit setting out how the transcripts had come into the Cabinet Secretary’s possession, as “those details were unnecessary and quite irrelevant to my decision”.
“The details would only serve to distract from the real issues. The real issues were the interpretation of the Interview Agreement and whether the Official Secrets Act had any bearing on its interpretation,” he said.
“Accordingly, I dismissed the Plaintiffs’ application and expunged those parts of any affidavits and other documents which set out or referred to the same details.”
Nonetheless, he noted the relevant background facts that while the transcripts were supposed to be with the Cabinet Secretary, they were instead found in Mr Lee’s possession at the time of his death in March last year, but there was no record of why they had been transferred to Mr Lee.
He also noted that sometime in the six weeks following Mr Lee’s death, a member of Mr Lee’s family had handed the transcripts to the Cabinet Secretary, “thinking that the transcripts were official government documents”. The family member was not named.
The court ruled that the transcripts are protected by the Official Secrets Act given the politically sensitive nature of their contents.
As such, the estate has the copyright to the transcripts, but not in the conventional sense that it is entitled to access, copy and use the transcripts.
Instead, it has copyright only for the purpose of ensuring the Government’s compliance with the terms of the agreement that Mr Lee had signed regarding the interviews, which were done when Mr Lee was prime minister.
This article was first published on Oct 7, 2016. Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
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