{"id":9118,"date":"2021-10-01T15:00:23","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T07:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/?p=9118"},"modified":"2025-07-29T15:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T07:06:07","slug":"leaps-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2021\/10\/01\/leaps-of-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaps of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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An NUS economics and political science graduate may not be the first person that comes to mind when you\u2019re casting someone to play Genghis Khan in a Chinese drama. But that\u2019s precisely what happened to Mr Tay Ping Hui (Arts and Social Sciences \u201995) a few years ago, when he decided to venture into the lucrative Chinese entertainment scene. \u201cOn the first day of filming, I found myself wearing 20kg worth of armour, brandishing a golden sword in one hand, controlling my horse with the other and leading a cavalry charge of 100 horses,\u201d says the veteran actor.\u00a0

The role was quite a departure from those that won over local audiences in the 1990s and 2000s. But, as he tells The\u00a0Alum<\/em>NUS, it was important for him to take it on. \u201cI\u2019ve never been one to just be contented with whatever I have achieved,\u201d explains the 51-year-old. \u201cI\u2019m the sort of person who constantly questioned \u2018What\u2019s next?\u2019. So what if people said I was number one? It doesn\u2019t matter to me. I am more interested in challenging myself as an actor and as a person.\u201d

Taking up a challenge was what brought Mr Tay to Caldecott Hill in the first place. Shortly after graduating from NUS, he became the General Manager of a global American franchisee and was preparing to pursue an MBA when executives from then-TCS (now Mediacorp) came calling. \u201cThey had actually approached me right after graduation but I turned them down because I wasn\u2019t interested in acting,\u201d he shares. \u201cBut after I quit my job, I had a bit of time so I accepted a role.\u201d Before he knew it, he was getting the top billing on local television, winning the Best Supporting Actor award at the 1999 Star Awards for his portrayal of a gang leader in\u00a0Stepping Out<\/em>\u00a0(\u51fa\u8def).\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"\"THE ROAD\u00a0AHEAD\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\u201cThe pandemic has definitely changed so many things for the movie and television industry,\u201d says Mr Tay. \u201cEverything is more difficult and complicated in terms of logistics and casting.\u201d Still, he is soldiering on, with the following projects in the pipeline:<\/strong>
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  • Starring as the main antagonist in\u300a\u5357\u6d0b\u5973\u513f\u60c5\u300b(Sisterhood<\/em>) to be shot in China.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Filming\u300a\u72ee\u57ce\u5c71\u6d77\u300b(The Contenders<\/em>) at the end of the year and then the final part of the Nanyang Trilogy\u300a\u5357\u9633\u82f1\u96c4\u6cea\u300b(Nanyang Transport Volunteers<\/em>) next year.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Working on a script for a feature film he will be directing in collaboration with Clover Films and iQiyi which is slated to be filmed next year.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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    In the years since, he has become a regional star, appearing in over 60 dramas, theatre performances, stage musicals, concerts and live entertainment shows. He gave all that up four years ago when he was invited to sign with Chinese media company Perfect World Pictures to try his hand in China, despite being relatively unknown there. Still, he has no regrets. \u201cI was hoping to try something I had never done before, to have my passion reignited, to be pushed more than I had ever been,\u201d he says. Fortunately, his gamble paid off and Mr Tay is now a growing presence in China, with a slew of projects in the months ahead.

    22 years into the game, he says that he has learnt more from his failures than his successes, which is a lesson he wants to share with the NUS community. \u201cThe old and well-trodden paths of life might sound safer,\u201d he observes. \u201cBut if you are constantly wondering if there is more to life than what people are constantly telling you that you should do, I would strongly recommend that you try something that you want to do.

    \u201cAt least you will not be wondering 10 years later whether you would have, could have, or should have done something. If you fail, so be it, learn from it and move on. Maybe next time you will succeed.\u201d And in Mr Tay\u2019s case, he certainly did.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    One of Singapore\u2019s most familiar faces, actor Mr Tay Ping Hui (Arts & Social Sciences \u201995) has no interest in the tried-and-tested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":9113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9118"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9145,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9118\/revisions\/9145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}