During his discussion with participants on the challenges and opportunities facing Singapore and the world, Mr Shanmugam urged youths not to rest on their laurels.
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Singaporean youths should not take things for granted: K Shanmugam
Nathan Hartono 'expected almost nothing' from entering Chinese singing competition
Singaporean singer Nathan Hartono expected only to have “a cool story to tell in the future” when he auditioned for Sing! China, a popular reality singing competition.
He ended up having a mentor in Mandopop king Jay Chou, who even raised the possibility of the two performing together in Singapore, during the show, which aired last Friday night on China’s Zhejiang Television.
“I am realistic. I know I can sing, but I expected almost nothing, maybe some exposure. After all, it’s China, with a gigantic amount of talent,” Hartono, 25, tells The Straits Times.
The jazz singer-songwriter, who has also done some acting, is the first Singaporean known to have made it past the televised auditions, where the celebrity judges do not come face to face with the performers until they hit a buzzer showing their approval.
Hartono’s modest aspirations partly stemmed from the fact that he has not always been comfortable speaking in Mandarin.
“My default sometimes for conversations (in Chinese) would be not knowing what to say,” he says.
He is of Indonesian-Chinese parentage and studied at Nanyang Primary School and Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road).
While he has been brushing up on his Chinese in recent years, he says he is still figuring out how to use his account on Sina Weibo, a popular social media platform in China, which he set up only last week.
In fact, the singer, who agreed to do Sing! China after its producers approached him for the second time, was fluent in his debut performance in China and impressed all four music megastar judges.
Chou and the other judges – Harlem Yu, Na Ying and Wang Feng – lauded his golden-boy appeal. Singer Na Ying asked him for a hug and praised his “warm and honest” performance and good looks.
Chou nodded his head in appreciation during Hartono’s R&B-inflected version of You Mei You (Have You Ever?) by Taiwanese singer Wei Li An. After Hartono chose Chou as his mentor, the two exchanged a fist bump and hug.
Local singer Nathan Hartono wows Sing! China judges
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The Straits Times, The New Paper, YouTube screengrabs, HBO Asia, Music & Movement
It was an enthusiastic reception echoed by fans of Hartono’s performance, who say he has done Singapore proud.
Mr Christiano Choo, 42, the co-founder and creative director of a wine and gift service firm, says: “We were very proud of the moment when all four judges picked him. He sang better than the original singer in his rendition, which is already looping in people’s playlists, including mine.
“He is everything in a package: looks, unique voice and charisma. He will possibly gain new fans in China. The rest depends on how Jay is going to help him against the other teams and if Nathan can withstand the pressure.”
Hartono says that having all four judges want to work with him was “a really nice surprise”.
He had already decided beforehand that, if Chou picked him, he would take up his mentorship.
“A lot of it had to do with songwriting, which I’ve also been doing,” he says, adding that he admired Chou’s “work ethic, drive and creativity”.
Hartono also has the drive to excel, says a friend and manager of many years. “I work with many artists and he’s very hardworking, serious and self-motivated about his music,” says Mr Lim Sek, chief executive of Music and Movement, an entertainment company.
He has known the singer since he was about 14, when he won the local Teenage Icon talent contest in 2005 and signed on with Mr Lim’s firm for a few years.
In 2006, Hartono released his debut album, Let Me Sing! Life, Love And All That Jazz. During his teen years, he also performed twice at the annual ChildAid charity concerts, organised by The Straits Times and The Business Times.
His latest concert was a solo gig at the Esplanade on July 9.
Mr Lim calls Hartono’s parents – resort consultant Thomas Hartono and Madam Jocelyn Tjioe, a senior vice-president of TungLok Group – “one of the best parents I’ve seen in entertainment”.
“They’re very encouraging, but they don’t get in his way. They’re not the type who say you go and be a lawyer,” he adds.
Hartono, who has an older brother and younger sister, studied music production and engineering at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
His demeanour is down-to-earth and grounded. “My musical dream is simple, to make music as best I can, to let things happen.”
This article was first published on July 18, 2016.
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Robot 'therapist' to improve productivity among TCM physicians
Local start-up AiTreat says the Singapore basketball team is one of the beneficiaries of its Expert Manipulative Massage Automation (EMMA) robot.
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Spike in phone scams impersonating OCBC, says bank
Watch out for phone calls purportedly from OCBC, the bank warns as it observed a spike in the number of phone scams over the past few weeks.
The bank said in a media release on Monday (July 18) that for the period of July 1 to 17, it received 1,081 calls from customers and the public reporting the issue, a sharp rise from 16 calls for the month of April.
According to OCBC, an individual typically receives an automated voice call prompting for a response.
The caller’s number is either a truncated six to seven digit number that looks like a foreign number, a private number with no caller ID, or may even appear as OCBC’s official contact number (+65 63633333) or some variation of it (e.g. 065 63633333).
If the individual follows the instruction to key in a number, the call would be transferred to a Mandarin-speaking person with a non-local accent who would ask for their personal or banking information.
These calls are not legitimate as the bank does not initiate automated voice calls that require an interactive response, OCBC said.
The bank also uses English to communicate with its customers and the public unless they express a preference for a different language.
OCBC added that it will not ask for security information such as PIN or account numbers when verifying the identities of its customers. Customers will also not be asked to make any funds transfer to another bank account, the bank said.
If you receive a similar phone call and have doubts about its authenticity, terminate the call and contact OCBC at 1800-363-3333 (+65 6363-3333 if overseas) for verification.
minlee@sph.com.sg
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Singapore and Sri Lanka launch Free Trade Agreement talks
Negotiations for a Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA) is being launched, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Monday (Jul 10).
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Record number sit Korean language test
Spurred by her grandfather’s encouragement to follow her heart, Singaporean Anges Ang moved to Seoul in 2013 to pursue Korean language studies.
She has since fallen in love with South Korea and is now preparing to take the state-administered Test of Proficiency in Korean (Topik).
The qualification will make job hunting easier in the largely monolingual country.
“I came here because I wanted to live abroad in a country that is totally different from Singapore in terms of language and culture, so it would be interesting and I could gain some life experience. Now I’m planning to look for a job so Topik is a must,” said the 29-year-old former business development manager.
Ms Ang is among a growing group of foreigners learning South Korea’s native language, which is spoken by some 77.3 million people around the world, with 50 million in South Korea.
More than 1.6 million foreigners have taken Topik since it was first introduced in 1997 to measure and evaluate one’s ability to read, listen and write in the Korean language.
Only 2,692 people sat the test when it was first introduced by the Education Ministry and the National Institute for International Education. The figure has shot up to 206,768 last year, marking a 70-fold increase.
The number of people sitting for Topik hit a record high of 72,295 in April this year when it was held concurrently in 45 countries – up from just four countries when it was first started.
Topik is held six times a year, twice in South Korea and the rest of the time, concurrently in other countries. This year, the test will be administered in a total of 71 countries, including China, Japan, Vietnam, Nepal and Singapore. Yesterday, over 25,000 foreigners took the 47th test in South Korea.
The Education Ministry attributed the soaring figures to the rising popularity of Korean pop music, dramas and culture around the world, as well as increased interest in South Korea as a destination for study and work.
To tap into the growing Topik market, education company English View launched the website Hangungmal.com (Hangungmal means Korean language) last year to offer video lectures by established Korean teachers to help international students prepare for the test.
The company’s chief executive Helen Kim told The Straits Times that it has released four sets of video lectures so far, each comprising 18 to 28 videos. It is also in talks to provide its content to Korean language schools overseas.
“Ours is an intensive course that students can take just before Topik, so they can pass the test to get into their desired university course or improve their chances to be employed by a good company,” said Ms Kim.
Topik is a prerequisite for foreigners who are seeking jobs in agriculture and manufacturing in South Korea under its Employment Permit System (EPS). They are mostly from developing countries like Cambodia and Nepal.
For Laotian Sithiphone Sithoumphalath, it was South Korea’s fast developing science and technology sector that drew him to apply for a Korean government scholarship.
He arrived in Seoul in 2012 and is now pursuing an engineering degree at the top-ranked Seoul National University.
The K-pop and drama fan spent his first year learning the Korean language and passed Topik Level 3, as required by his scholarship terms.
“I’m free to go anywhere I want after my graduation, but I plan to work in a large Korean company like Samsung, Hyundai or LG for a few years to gain more experience in the engineering field,” said the 23-year-old.
This article was first published on July 18, 2016.
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Win a pair of tickets to the NDP preview!
The National Day Parade theme song is one of the most anticipated and scrutinised pieces of music.
Marking Singapore’s 51st birthday, this year’s song is Tomorrow’s Here Today, written by Don Richmond and performed by local…
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Many in Hong Kong look for the exit door amid China tension
HONG KONG – When activists began setting fire to trash bins and hurling bricks at police during a February riot in Hong Kong, Chris Lee became more convinced his decision to leave his siblings and mother behind and move to Taiwan was the right one.
Hong Kong, long known as one of the safest and most law-abiding cities in Asia, has become increasingly polarised with occasional violent protests, fuelled in part by tensions with Communist Party leaders in Beijing over the Chinese-ruled city’s democratic future. “It’s not just the politics that are messed up,” said Lee, who moved to Taiwan in March and opened a restaurant. “It is also the people who have become irrational and fickle that drove me to leave.” Lee is not alone. Some 42 per cent of Hong Kong residents want to leave, a survey by independent think tank Civic Exchange showed in June. This compares with 20 per cent wanting to leave neighbouring Singapore.
Seventy per cent of 1,500 people surveyed said Hong Kong had become “worse” or “much worse” to live in, with the biggest concerns housing, the “quality of government” and education.
The number of Hong Kong people emigrating to Canada almost doubled in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, and the number moving permanently to Taiwan rose 36 per cent over a similar time frame, data shows.
The most recent data from the United States is from 2014 and flat. Emigration to the UK has declined, but the minimum amount for those seeking to qualify for residency as investors there has also doubled to 2 million pounds (S$3.6 million).
Australia doesn’t provide data for Hong Kong but aggregate figures for emigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and Mongolia rose slightly last year.
The diminishing confidence in Hong Kong’s future follows the”Occupy Central” protests in late 2014 demanding Beijing grant Hong Kong full democracy. “After Occupy, (Hong Kong people) started to be nervous about the future,” said Andrew Lo, a director of Anlex Services Limited, which handles Taiwan immigration cases.
Mary Chan, of immigration experts Rothe International Canada, said the immigration process typically takes one to two years. “Which is why the numbers are only increasing now,” she said.
The disappearances of five Hong Kong booksellers who specialised in gossipy political books about Chinese leaders, some of whom were believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents, has also eroded broader confidence in the “one country, two systems” formula under which the former British colony returned to China in 1997.
One of the booksellers who returned to Hong Kong told media he may emigrate to Taiwan because he no longer feels safe in the city. “Young people were more upset about the government two years ago but the sense of dissatisfaction actually cuts across ages now,” said Professor Michael DeGolyer, who co-led the study.
Hong Kong’s immigration department declined to comment. The Security Bureau declined to answer questions about whether the Hong Kong government was concerned about emigration or believed it was due to political concerns.
It provided its own emigration estimates based on the number of requests it had received for certificates of no criminal conviction. Those figures showed a slight increase last year but were below where they were a decade ago.
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OCBC raises alert over spike in reports of phone scams impersonating the bank
SINGAPORE – A sharp rise in reports related to phone scams impersonating OCBC Bank in recent weeks has led to the bank issuing an alert on Monday (July 18).
The number of calls from customers and the public over the scams jumped from 16 in April – when the…
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SGX to transfer regulatory functions to new subsidiary RegCo
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