'Their faces were all red from holding back laughter': Wang Yuqing on having to play the erhu in new drama musical

Even for an experienced and veteran actor like Wang Yuqing, his new drama series posed quite a few difficulties.

For one, it wasn't easy for the four main leads to match their comedic timing, the 62-year-old told AsiaOne revealed in a recent interview. But that wasn't the biggest challenge for him in The Landlady Singer where he plays Uncle Jian.

In the eight-episode drama musical produced by Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and mm2 Entertainment, Uncle Jian moves in to live with his aunt Ying Jie (Liu Lingling) when his home undergoes renovation.

Ying Jie also rents out the empty rooms in her home to Jie Xi (Xenia Tan) and Ah Wei (Wang Weiliang) to raise money to visit her son in the UK.

However, unaccustomed to the chaos of having new tenants, she tries to chase them out. Despite her best efforts, they grow on Ying Jie and their shared passion for music eventually leads them to form a four-person band for a singing competition.

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For that reason, Yuqing had to sing, dance and play the Chinese stringed musical instrument erhu in his scenes. He admitted that he was "most afraid" of dancing and was resistant to it, despite having a teacher teach him the choreography.

Singing by itself wasn't tough as he enjoys it, he added, and he also got himself a teacher to coach him in it.

"I thought I should be okay in singing. I was a bit hao lian (proud)", Yuqing told us jokingly. "That was until I met our music producer Bunz and I realised singing is tough."

He explained that he first recorded a demo of the song, which was played in the background while he filmed his scenes — complete with acting, singing and dancing — outdoors. With that done, he returned to the music studio to record the song again while viewing the recorded scenes.

The difficulty came in because Bunz required Yuqing to sing according to the emotions, actions and intonation used in the recorded scenes.

'Their faces were all red from holding back their laughter'

Playing the erhu in his scenes brought some amusement to the cast and crew, recounted Yuqing, who attended a few classes to pick up the basics.

While a body double was used for scenes that required actual playing of the musical instrument, there were also some scenes where he had to play it himself.

"When I play, the people on the set would laugh because it was really bad. It was all out of tune and very irritating. They were probably worried that I would feel paiseh so they didn't dare to laugh outright, and their faces were all red from holding back their laughter," Yuqing recalled.

"The other actors, on the other hand, laughed out loud. I found it funny as well."

Yuqing, who burst into showbiz in 1983 and instantly became a heartthrob idol with the Chinese dramas The Flying Fish and The Army Series, left the industry in 1995 to be an insurance agent. However, he returned to acting five years later and in 2022, signed a two-year contract with Mediacorp and has been acting in the long-form English drama Sunny Side Up.

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Some stars from the former era — such as Hugo Ng, Hong Guorui, Collin Chee and Tang Miaoling — are currently either acting in local dramas or movies. We asked Yuqing what he thought of the return of the old-timers.

"It's good. When we were young, people called us 'shuai ge' (handsome young man). Now they call us uncles… Many young people have entered showbiz and generally, people like to see good-looking faces and not wrinkles," Yuqing said.

"But it's a good thing that old actors are coming back. Maybe our acting is not as 'modern' as the younger actors' but there are some things that you still need veteran actors to bring out."

Yuqing will continue filming Sunny Side Up until mid-December and is in talks for an upcoming Channel 8 drama for next year. He will also lead a tour group to Japan next year. Apart from his career in insurance, he also occasionally helps out in his two F&B businesses, Golf Spot Cafe and Bistro at the Mandai Executive Public Golf Course and The Private Tables at City Gate.

kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com

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