Our dearest Yanzi was awarded the Nanyang Outstanding Young Alumni Award last DEC in 2005 on the NTU 50^th anniversary homecoming. Alongside with her who won the award are Mr Leslie Kwok the national swimmer, and Ms Diana Ser the channel newsasia broadcaster.

This is a summary of the interview. The interviewer, Mr Ryandall Lim was Yanzi hall 6’s mate last time. N he was surprised tat Yanzi actually did remember him since it was like 5 years ago they last met. He said despite of hall activites and studies last time, Yanzi would “bother to attend singing lessons so diligently, almost everyday”. They all could not understand why. It was until during their hall 6 CNY dinner when Yanzi stunned them with her rendition of Mariah Carey’s Hero, and tat was the first time they heard the fruit of her investment.

During the interview, she said “ I’ve never felt that I worked so hard in my entire life..I felt I was doing my master’s.” The 2000 Nanyang Business School graduate also realized tat her much of her success was due to teamwork. However, the bright lights and glamour brought some personal conflicts. “A lot of people view me with envy but u have to give up a lot of stuff. U can’t have it all-fame and fortune comes with sacrifices, such as privacy.

Despite being 1 of the most widely recognized artistes in Asian music industry and having won numerous of awards, Yanzi remained low-key about her achievements. “People sometimes tell me, ‘Oh u have so many awards.’. But to me, awards are recognition of your past; they dun mean much to me. U can’t be contented with wat u have n not look forward.” 

Famous or not, Yanzi is glad she chose to pursue academia at NTU. “Singapore is very pragmatic. No one ever dreams to be a famous singer. I jus tot I will go to NTU, get a degree n start out a career.  I must have made the right decision. NTU has a long track of history n strong foundations.” With tat, she finished off the interview. 

Jus a little advertising, wan to get a degree? NTU is definitely not a bad choice since Yanzi was from there before. Haha. Cheers. 

Posted in: Yanzi News