Li Nanxing On Why His Prep For His Mediacorp Comeback Drama Was A Fail & How He Is As A Boss To Shane Pow

After a period of exploring other non-showbiz ventures — most of which have to do with the world of F&B — and developing his career overseas, Li Nanxing is finally returning to local TV with The Peculiar Pawnbroker. His last Mediacorp show was 2017’s My Teacher is a Thug.

As it turns out, he actually did get several drama offers from the company, but the timing didn’t work out as Ah Ge was busy with projects in Taiwan and China, such as last year’s iQiyi production Everyone Wants to Meet You.

The 57-year-old played the onscreen father of Zhang Zhehan (yes, that Zhang Zhehan) and received lots of positive feedback for his portrayal in the romcom, which was produced by his long-time friend Vicki Zhao (yes, that Vicki Zhao).

During a phone interview with 8days.sg after the virtual press con for The Peculiar Pawnbroker, Nanxing admitted that he hasn’t been in touch with either Vicki or Zhehan ever since their respective scandals broke out.

However, we could sense his (understandable) reluctance to share his thoughts about all that’s been happening to them, so we just left it at that and quickly changed the subject.

In The Peculiar Pawnbroker, which also stars Carrie Wong and Romeo Tan, Nanxing plays Cheng Huochang, the boss of a traditional pawn shop with a knack for authenticating not just valuable items, but people as well.

Wait, so how does one ‘authenticate’ a human being? “I’m able to judge someone’s character and tell whether they are being honest or if they just want to cheat me,” he explained.

To prepare for his role, Nanxing originally intended to check out traditional pawn shops just like the one he runs in the show, but things didn’t quite go according to plan as he was unable to find a single one.

“I even went to Balestier and walked one whole round, but those old pawn shops from the '60s and '70s no longer seem to exist,” he said. “Pawn shops these days are very different from last time. In the past, nobody wanted to be seen at pawn shops ‘cos it suggested that they needed money, but now, pawn shops have become very open and modern, and you no longer need to feel ashamed about visiting one.”

While Ah Ge enjoys checking out the interesting items at pawn shops now and then, he said it’s purely for fun and that he has never bought or sold anything (nope, not even when he was $2mil in debt).

He claims he isn’t keen on collecting antiques either.

“If you want to collect antiques, you need to know how to appreciate and take care of them, and find a suitable spot in the house to keep them and all that, and that’s just something that I won’t do, ” he explained.

Fans would be pleased to know that they won’t have to wait another four years for Nanxing’s next Mediacorp gig — he is currently filming an upcoming dialect drama, which is scheduled to wrap in January next year.

Then there are the dramas he was supposed to fly to China to film, although that’s been postponed (again) until the pandemic situation improves.

In the meantime, you’ll soon be able to hear him and his LNX Global artistes, including Shane Pow and Constance Song, team up to record a song about hawker food to mark the first anniversary of Singapore’s hawker culture being added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The track and its accompanying music video are set to be released early next month.

It was Nanxing’s first time stepping into a recording booth again since… actually, it was so long ago that he can’t even remember. “I sang a drama theme song many, many, many years ago,” he recalled.

Speaking of Shane, we asked Nanxing how it’s been like working with the newest addition to his agency. “Very good ah!” he chirped. “He’s been doing live streams [with Addy Lee’s Mdada] and we have more plans in store for him.”

Nanxing added that he’s never been a strict boss and won’t be doing anything to ‘control’ Shane to make sure he doesn’t repeat any of his past mistakes.

“The most important thing is for him to turn over a new leaf — everybody deserves a second chance,” more or less echoing what Addy told us earlier when explaining why he agreed to let Shane join Mdada.

The Peculiar Pawnbroker will be available on demand for free on meWATCH from November 22.
It will air weekdays, 9pm on Ch 8 from November 23.

Photos: Mediacorp, LNXGLOBAL ARTISTES/Instagram, Shane Pow/Instagram