Former Mediacorp star Tay Ping Hui never wanted to be in showbiz, let alone an actor.
In a recent episode of Allan Wu’s YouTube series Call Me Daddy, the 54-year-old, a National University of Singapore Economics and Political Science double major, shared that he had set his sights on becoming a banker or economist, but fate had other plans.
At 18 years old, while preparing to enter the army, Ping Hui was scouted on the streets by top Singaporean model Seraphina Fong. He saw modelling as a way to earn money for university, so he gave it a shot.
His talent and striking looks eventually landed him on Mediacorp’s radar, and they offered him an acting contract.
Admitting that he didn’t even know who Ah Jie Zoe Tay and Li Nanxing were then, Ping Hui asked the company to make him an offer.
He immediately rejected it after seeing the number.
Instead, he pursued a corporate career, becoming a general manager at Subway for about five years while planning to pursue an MBA at Harvard University.
In 1998, Mediacorp came knocking again, this time offering Ping Hui a role in crime anthology series On the Edge.
Since it was a one-episode job, he thought it “could be fun” and agreed.
Ping Hui was offered another contract after On The Edge, and he told Mediacorp that he would “consult [his] lawyer”, which turned out to be himself.
“I just changed the contract, I had nothing to lose. When I got to the final number, I thought ‘why not?’ and changed it,” he recalled, adding that he insisted on a single one-year contract as he still “wasn’t sure” back then.
Surprised that Mediacorp readily agreed to his demands, the actor quipped that he “should have added one more zero”.
Ping Hui quickly rose to become one of Singapore’s most acclaimed stars of his generation — but success came at a price.
For over 10 years, Ping Hui survived on just four hours of sleep a day, churning out back-to-back productions.
“There was a time [when he felt] like a factory. After a while, you start wondering: Where’s my passion?” he reflected.
“Acting is not a pragmatic job, you have to do it because you enjoy it because it’s tough.”
In 2018, at the peak of his career in Mediacorp, he decided to leave for China in search of new challenges.
“[My friends] said, ‘If you stay, Mediacorp will never ask you to leave. You’ll continue to have roles and you’ll always be the ‘Ah Ge’… The money is good too. But it came to a phase where I was wondering: What’s next?,” recalled Ping Hui.
“I could be the top dog in a pond but I don’t want that. I want to go into the ocean and if I get eaten by sharks, so be it. No regrets because it was a super humbling experience.”
China proved to be an eye-opening experience. The scale of production is so much bigger and Ping Hui encourages young artistes to experience it for themselves.
“If you think you’re at the top of the game, you should check out what other people are doing. I think you’ll realise that however good you think you are, you’re not,” he averred.
There, Ping Hui also finally got to star in period dramas, something he wasn’t given the opportunity to do in Mediacorp.
Years ago, he mentioned that he would like to act in period productions but was told “[his] face is not suitable for period dramas.”
Yet in China, that was all he did.
Ping Hui has starred in several Chinese period dramas including The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017), Handsome Siblings (2020) and Brave Heart 2 (2021).