Leng Yein's Samsung Galaxy S4

Leng Yein's Samsung Galaxy S4

DJ Leng Yein is famous for the sexy outfits that highlight her voluptuous figure at work - and as a subject of serial plastic surgery.

Her abilities and talents, however, are more than skin deep.

A classically trained pianist, she has played the piano since she was five and once worked as a pianist at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. "I know my minors and my majors, so I will never go out of tune," she said.

Miss Leng, now 29, was spotted by a beauty pageant scout in 2003. The Kuantan native entered the state pageant. She became Miss Pahang and went all the way to the finals of Miss Malaysia World that year. "That was when I hadn't had any plastic surgery," she admitted proudly.

She went on to participate in many pageants and win titles such as Miss World Cup Asia and Japan GT Queen. "I just kept winning and winning," she said, adding that she has won 22 titles to date.

She worked as a model, host and ambassador for beauty products. Despite reports that she has spent hundreds of thousands on plastic surgery, Miss Leng said she did not pay for most of her procedures.

"I was the ambassador for three plastic surgery clinics, so I did not need to pay a single cent," she said.

Since she was 21, she has had nose jobs, dimpleplasty and breast augmentation and been upfront about them. She proudly declares on her Facebook profile that she is a "plastic beauty".

"It is like permanent make-up. I just want to make my life easier and save a lot of time," she said.

You could say she has been a fan of surgery since she was a child, though her dreams were of wielding the scalpel herself, as a heart surgeon. "My hands are not shaky and I scored straight As," she said.

However, when she was 16, her father was diagnosed with cancer. Her parents had run a thriving hardware business and all the money they had went to his treatment. But within six months, he was dead.

Despite qualifying for university entry, Miss Leng, who has a younger sister, Leng Sean, 27, put aside her dreams and went to work.

"I told my mum that I was not going to university and she respected my choice," she said.

Aside from modelling and her pageant work, she started several businesses, including a tattoo parlour, boutique, nail salon and restaurant, and launched her own fashion label, Kumo by Leng Yein.

Briefly married, she got divorced in 2012 and left Malaysia for a fresh start. She sold or closed down her shops, she said. Only Kumo remains.

That year, she said, she signed on as the lead singer with a rock band in China. Her first DJ gig started there too. "I wanted to be a DJ then. But my bandmate, who was signed as a DJ, was unhappy. So I had to stop deejaying," she said.

She left the band when her one-year contract ended, wanting to see the world instead of shuttling between China and Taiwan.

Her big break came late last year when she was asked to DJ for a bikini party. Videos of her party gig went viral and have made her much sought after ever since.

"Now, I get to travel all over the world, working in places such as Indonesia and the US," she said.

WHO: Former Miss Malaysia finalist Leng Yein, 29, is a model, businesswoman, host and DJ. She gained fame through her well-documented plastic surgeries and is now a much sought-after DJ.

HER SMARTPHONE: I have long fingernails, so I cannot use a smartphone with a small screen. The Samsung Galaxy S4 is great for me because the screen size is just nice. It is not too small, but not too big either.

FACEBOOK

This is for my fans, as I have 1.9 million fans on my Facebook page. I post photos of things I do or what I eat. It is basically about my life.

WHATSAPP

It is for me to keep in touch with a lot of people, such as friends and family. It is easier to send pictures and it automatically downloads pictures that my friends send.

INSTAGRAM

I'm actually still quite new to Instagram, but I already have about 85,000 followers. I am a social media junkie, so I need to use everything that is popular to reach out to my fans.

PHOTOS

I have a lot of photos on my phone, as I download them from my e-mail when my fans or photographer send them to me. I use my smartphone instead of my laptop to select and post the photos.

This article was published on April 30 in Digital Life, The Straits Times.

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