Taiwanese singer Huang An is one proud grandpa

Taiwanese singer Huang An is one proud grandpa

At 51 years young, Taiwanese singer Huang An has become a grandfather. His 22-year-old daughter Emily gave birth to a girl last December.

Far from being perturbed by his daughter's shotgun marriage to a British man she met in university while studying in Britain, he is embracing his grandparenting duties and is far from shy about showing off his granddaughter to the world with almost daily postings of her on his Sina Weibo microblogging site.

"She's really adorable. I help to change her diapers and bathe her. Sometimes I entertain the thought that I should give up performing and take care of her full time," he says excitedly over the phone from Kuala Lumpur, where he was performing last week.

Huang An fans, do not fret. The veteran singer, whose breakthrough hit is 1993's New Dream Of Butterfly Lovers, is still very much in the business.

In fact, he is performing here on Monday, along with acts such as Taiwanese duo Walkie Talkie (Jin Xiu Er Chong Chang) and Taiwanese balladeer Lee E-jun.

But he is clearly less keen to talk about himself than about his seven-month-old granddaughter, whose nickname in Chinese is Cutie Huang.

Now based in Beijing, he reveals that he flies back to Taipei to visit her even when he has a short break of only two to three days.

"My granddaughter will be Taiwan's No. 1 beauty. When she grows up, she will be prettier than Jay Chou's girlfriend Hannah Quinlivan," he says, referring to the singer's Australian-Taiwanese model girlfriend.

Huang is a lot less chatty when reporters ask him about his Taiwanese compatriot, host Jacky Wu.

The duo have a long-standing feud that allegedly started when Huang shot his mouth off on a variety show more than 10 years ago.

The singer reportedly poked fun at Wu's publicly declared bachelor status, saying the host was actually married with kids, and a war of words broke out between them.

In a clearly colder tone, Huang says: "I can do without him in my life. We don't need to be linked together in the news all the time.

"What happened between us is in the past. We are both not young anymore and I'm now a granddad," adds the singer, who has been married to his childhood sweetheart for more than two decades. The couple also have a 20-year-old son. But it seems he has yet to settle this old score with Wu.

When talking about an unrelated topic about managing finances later in the interview, Huang could not resist taking a dig at the host's failed business ventures in environmentally-friendly LED lamps and a restaurant.

With a hint of glee in his voice, he says he has no financial worries at this stage in this life: "I live really simply. I don't invest in the LED business and I haven't opened a restaurant. I have enough money."

Book it SONGS THAT KEEP US TOGETHER 5 Where: Resorts World Theatre, Resorts World Sentosa When: Monday, 2pm

Admission: $38 to $148, excluding booking fee, from Sistic (go to sistic.com.sg or call 6348-5555)

Book it "She's really adorable... Sometimes I entertain the thought that I should give up performing and take care of her full time."

Taiwanese singer Huang An (left) on his seven-month-old granddaughter (above), whose nickname in Chinese is Cutie Huang


This article was first published on July 25, 2014.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.