The actor and new dad finally joins the All-Time Favourite Artistes hall of fame this year
When Qi Yuwu attended his very first Star Awards ceremony in the
early 2000s, the thought of even winning an accolade felt like a faraway
fantasy because of his status as a newcomer and a foreigner. “I was
even told by my fellow countrymen that it would be difficult for a
mainland Chinese to make it big in Singapore,” he shared with Toggle in a
phone interview from Beijing, where he is currently filming a new
sci-fi movie called Tian Huo Xing Dong.
Fast forward
fifteen years, and the Guangzhou native will be attending this year’s
show – if his packed schedule allows for it – as one of the latest
inductees (and the only Chinese national) into the coveted All-Time
Favourite Artistes hall of fame, a feat that was achieved by racking up
10 Top 10 Favourite Male Artistes trophies. Rui En, who has made the Top
10 Most Popular Female Artistes list every single year since 2005, is
also “graduating” this year.
“Of course I’m happy about
‘graduating’,” he said. “To me, it represents how Singapore has been
very accepting of me – even when I’m someone from a completely different
country and when I started out not knowing how to act, I was still
given many opportunities and I am very grateful for that.”
Becoming
one of the latest additions to the All-Time Favourites club also
brought back memories of his first Top 10 triumph all the way back at
the 2004 Star Awards, as well as the dark period before that. “Every
year I didn’t win, I felt a bit discouraged and thought, ‘Aiyah,
when is it my turn?’, and when I finally got it, it felt like a dream
come true and the first sign of my affirmation here in Singapore,” he
recalled.
But as the years went by and his collection of trophies
started growing, his attitude began to shift. “Everyone wants to win
awards, but after a while you get pulled in and winning becomes a means
to keep ‘face’,” he explained. “I began to realise that an actor’s
responsibility is to improve his craft – there’s no use in winning
awards when you have no substance! If your goal is to only win awards,
it yields a completely different feel in your acting compared to when
you think about what’s best for your character.”