Bai Yan: His Life In Pictures
The beloved veteran star was so much more than Singapore's favourite grandpa.
To most Singaporeans, Bai Yan, who passed away this morning, is loved for being that genial grandpa in Ch 8 dramas in the ’80s and ’90s. But he had a whole other life before becoming a TV actor at the ripe old age of 65.
In April this year, CNA ran a documentary series called Love In A Time of Change and one of the episodes illustrated the super sweet love story between Bai Yan and his wife, former actress Ye Qing. Titled Love is a Stage: Bai Yan & Ye Qing, the doc, which featured an interview done with the couple at their home in 2006, uncovered a treasure trove of never-before-seen pics of Bai Yan as a young man.
Having arrived in Singapore from China just before the outbreak of World War II, Bai Yan was first a gewutuan (song and dance troupe) performer — which was where he met and fell in love with Ye Qing — before adapting his craft to suit the ever-changing entertainment landscape in Singapore. And he continued to do so throughout his 60-year career.
Bai Yan-shu was a man who dedicated his whole life to entertaining Singaporeans and for that we are eternally grateful.
He was born in 1920 in Wuhan, China and his father worked on sets at a theatre.
Bai Yan arrived in Singapore with a dance troupe when he was 18. He told CNA that he did odd jobs and everything backstage, like hanging the props .
He met his wife Ye Qing when they were both members of a gewutuan (Chinese for song and dance troupe).
Together with their dance troupe, Bai Yan and Ye Qing fled to Penang during the Japanese Occupation. It was also in Penang that the couple got engaged.
They got married in 1944 and according to Bai Yan, he had signed two sets of wedding certificates; one for them to keep and the other to send back to their families in China to let them know that they were legally married. Ye Qing added that she and Bai Yan never met each other's parents.
After the war, Bai Yan and Ye Qing returned to Singapore, where they continued performing at their gewutuan. But with the demise in popularity of the gewutuan as a form of entertainment, they joined getai, which was a thriving industry. Though that didn’t last long.
Shows at nightclubs were rising in popularity and to keep up with the times, Bai Yan started to incorporate magic into his performances.
He also worked in Indonesia for a number of years, performing at the nightclubs there. It’s also how he became fluent in Bahasa.
I performed in Indonesia for a long time. I went to perform in every island, every nightclub, he told CNA in the interview.
He continued travelling around the region for work when he and Ye Qing had kids, though she stopped performing to care for their children.
In the 1980s, Bai Yan started working on TV.
Bai Yan with former Ch 8 actress Zheng Wanling in a period drama.
In the late '80s, he and Ye Qing began performing at nursing homes and community centres. He came up with the idea after visiting a friend at an old folks' home. I realised no one talks at the old folks' home... If I perform, the old folks would be active, he told CNA. The couple, together with some of their ex-colleagues, carried on with their performances, way into their twilight years.
Ye Qing passed away in 2016 at the age of 94. They were married for 72 years.
You will be missed, Bai Yan-shu.
Images taken from CNA's Love is a Stage: Bai Yan & Ye Qing. To watch the docu-series, click here.