March 30, 2009
the monday interview with Guo Liang
Presenting... Guo Liang
By adeline chia
When Guo Liang first came here from Shanghai, he remembers weeping for the first time in a long while.
The busy TV host-actor had relocated to Singapore to seek new opportunities. But job assignments were scarce.
Homesick and lonely, he sat on the floor of his rented room, hugged one of the legs of his bed and wept bitterly.
He jokes about those dark days now, saying: 'My face was very ugly. It was very drama.'
But in his 15 years here, the 41-year- old has become one of the most recognisable show hosts, and today, he is the go-to man for anything from serious current affairs programmes to fun gameshows.
He is best known as the urbane and serious anchor of glitzy live programmes such as the Star Awards and Star Search.
Last year, he shared the award for Best Entertainment Presenter at the Asian Television Awards - an award for which he has been nominated a few times - with fellow host Quan Yifeng.
It was a career milestone for someone who had stepped out of his comfort zone to make a name for himself in another country.
He was part of a group, including former newscaster Wang Yanqing, headhunted from China by former Television Corporation of Singapore vice-president Man Shu Sum.
He and Wang built the most successful careers in television, though she has since left to become the deputy editor of Citta Bella magazine.
Guo has stayed on in TV but is again stepping out of his comfort zone.
Breaking away from his usual composed image, he plays the role of a sissy husband who introduces new food places in an infotainment programme called My House Husband's Journal.
The show, which premiered last Friday on Channel 8, comes after his wellreceived turn in drag as the heartland auntie character Liang Ximei, made famous by Jack Neo, at MediaCorp's Anniversary Gala last year.
Are these comedic turns a way to break free of people's preconceptions of him?
Over black coffee at a Bishan Park cafe, he says: 'Partly. And partly because it's fun. People say I have a good life because I'm always in the studio. But I like to find out about new places, which I have no time to do regularly.'
Indeed, it is mind-boggling that this veteran compere who oozes dignity on screen is acting like a limp-wristed fop. During the interview, his re-enactment of how his character speaks - with a mincing, simpering baby voice - is a shock.
Even his friend, news anchor Zhang Haijie, 37, who has known him for 10 years, finds it hard to accept.
She says: 'Doesn't he look like a news caster? His sophisticated image is something he has cultivated for a long time. Acting like a 'niang niang qiang' (Chinese for sissy) - I still feel divided about it.'
But in person, the 1.73m-tall host is an animated and intelligent interviewee. A joke or playful quip is never far away.
His mainland-accented Mandarin is softened by Singaporean 'lahs' and 'lors' and snatches of English.
You suspect that under the composed image lurks some unseen facets.
His long-time collaborator Quan, 34, says he is capable of playing any character.
On his role as the sissy house husband, she says: 'It's a difficult role, acting like that in front of everyone on the street. But Guo Liang is a graduate of the Shanghai Drama Institute. He has many talents other than hosting.'
Indeed, he was quite the high achiever.
He is the elder of two boys. His parents worked in a firm distributing goods made by the Chinese government.
As they needed to travel for work, he was brought up by his paternal grandparents. His younger brother, who is 37, is an auditor in Shanghai.
When he was 19, Guo enrolled in the prestigious Shanghai Drama Institute and became one of the top students there.
After university, he led a busy life acting on TV and in movies, hosting live outdoor shows and doing voiceovers.
One afternoon in 1993 in a taxi, he heard an ad saying that a Singapore television company was scouting for talent.
He says the early 1990s were heady times for young mainlanders, who were leaving home by the droves to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
He says: 'So when I heard a TV station was hiring hosts, how could I ignore it? I told my mother it was a two-year contract. It didn't matter whether it was good or not. I was just going out to play for a while. I was getting a salary as a host. Didn't that sound glamorous?''
Out of about 1,000 applicants, he was among four chosen to come to Singapore to begin a hosting career with TCS. He signed the two-year contract, which promised a starting monthly salary of $1,501. He arrived here and rented a room in a Pasir Ris flat.
The first three months were hell, he says. It was a terrible, lonely period, with no work for him.
'I had no one to talk to. My colleagues weren't bad to me, but they couldn't be good either. We were strangers,' he says.
His only comfort: the long-distance calls to his girlfriend Jade Shen Jie, now his wife. Those calls cost $8 a minute, he recalls with a shudder.
He once ran up a bill of $1,600 and his landlord showed him the bill with trembling hands. He had to borrow money to pay it.
In 1996, he bought his first computer for $4,000 and turned to e-mailing his girlfriend. The sound of the modem dialling, he recalls, was the sweetest sound.
A hit at Star Search
His first job here was a fortnightly slot on the weekday programme, Afternoon Leisure Hour, where he introduced an old song in pre-recorded segments.
But he soon moved on to primetime TV, helming live shows such as the highly rated infotainment show Fun Discovery with Quan.
In 1995, the broadcaster held its first Star Search competition to unearth new talent and this proved a turning point in his career.
He and Quan were originally slotted to host only the semi-finals, but they did such a good job that TCS let them host the finals too.
As his star rose, viewers started grumbling about foreign talent crowding out the local comperes, but he pressed on.
With his 'the devil can't faze me' composure and impeccable Mandarin, he gradually became the obvious choice for anchoring major live programmes.
Bigger gigs followed: the Singapore Hit Awards, the National Kidney Foundation charity shows and the President's Star Charity shows.
He also made it to the Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes list in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
'I think people started to accept me,' he says simply.
In 2000, he moved over to the now-defunct TV channel MediaWorks, following hosts Kym Ng and Bryan Wong. There, he hosted variety shows and big live productions, and branched out into acting in period dramas, which were all co-productions with companies in China.
He returned to MediaCorp after the media merger at the end of 2004 and remains the 'ah ge' or big brother in the hosting world.
Why did he choose to stay on here?
He says: 'I told my mother when I left, 'If my two years in Singapore don't go smoothly, I will come home'. But no one wants to do a job badly, unless you are not up to standard. And I wanted to do my job well.'
It did not hurt that his contracts kept getting renewed, sometimes even eight months before they expired.
He married his girlfriend in 1994 shortly after he signed the deal with TCS. He flew back to Shanghai for eight days for the ceremony and his wife came to Singapore three months later.
In 2001, he became a Singapore citizen. His wife, 41, is a Singapore permanent resident who runs a beauty and spa business in Tiong Bahru called Hui Aesthetics. They have a son, Marcus, nine, who was born here.
They go back to Shanghai at least once a year but it is never during Chinese New Year, since Marcus has only two days of school holidays and Guo invariably has to host New Year's Eve programmes live.
On the decision to take up Singapore citizenship, he says it is because he got used to how things are done here and he wants his son to study under a less stressful education system.
Also, a Singapore passport gives him greater mobility.
Very Singaporean Chinaman
What does he feel about the large numbers of China nationals here now?
He answers by giving a larger picture of the different waves of immigrants to Singapore. The first wave of talent and professionals was followed by study mamas and their children, and the latest wave comprises workers in various industries and students.
He says: 'Of these different groups of people, there will be good and bad.
'My wife runs a business and she told me, 'I don't want to hire people from China'. It's for practical reasons. As a boss, you think it's irrelevant what accent someone has. But it's not whether you mind, but if the customer minds.'
He heaves a sigh and seems conflicted about the topic. 'China is too big. There are different kinds of people,' he says.
'But then again, Singaporeans go overseas and do all sorts of ugly things, like taking things from hotels and complaining. But are all Singaporeans like that?'
He has done some very Singaporean things too.
Recently, he upgraded to a condominium in Yio Chu Kang after living in a five-room Serangoon North HDB flat for seven years. His son goes to a top primary school, Rosyth School.
His friends say there is an intellectual side to him. They all agree he is a book lover who lives, breathes and devours books in between waiting times in the studio or filming.
Indeed, on his book shelves are collections of literary essays and philosophy by Chinese scholars.
His conversations with his friends are peppered with references to books he has read, prompting Zhang to say that 'some of our meetings are more like book club meetings' and Quan to say he is 'very cheem', which is Hokkien slang for deep thinker.
In fact, the words 'cultivated', 'intellectual' and 'gentlemanly' come up a few times.
Guo admits that in more impulsive moments, he has thought of writing a book but when he compares himself to any great writer, he realises that he 'shouldn't waste other people's money'.
But he says he would like to be a teacher or consultant in future, and maybe direct a movie.
He says: 'I really feel like directing. Some people do it for the love of film, others want to tell their life stories. I'm different. I feel that it's something you can do meaningfully with age, experience and thoughts.'
Will he return to China one day?
He grows thoughtful.
'If I'm going back, I'll wait till I'm older and it will be because I think I will be lonely here. My very best friends are from my childhood and they are in China. Not to mention my family,' he says.
My life so far
'As a graduate, I had many opportunities in China. I didn't want to go to Japan or America to sweep the roads or work in a restaurant. My cousin went to Japan to wash bathtubs in hotels. He cried and came back in half a year'
On why he was picky about where to leave China for
'I didn't take it seriously from beginning to end. But the registration fee was 30 yuan, which was a lot. The usual was 5 yuan. So I showed up since I had already paid up'
On why he went for the talent audition that brought him to Singapore
'I try my best not to use the same phrases and words in the same show, especially for charity shows. It's a pain. I used to keep a journal with phrases I culled from news articles about charity and even Buddhist websites'
On speaking well
