When 8 DAYS Did A Shoot With Hot 50-Year-Old Photog Chuando And His Dad in 1993

His brooding good looks may have made Tan Chuando (or CD as he’s better known) Singapore’s undisputed top male model for the past decade, but it’s his father, Mr Tan Tee Chie, who commands a quiet, authoritative presence when they’re together. A senior lecturer of Chinese and Western art at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Mr Tan exhibits an old-world demeanour steeped in years of Confucianist breeding. CD, on the other hand, seems the very embodiment of laid-back, couldn’t-care-less cool. Outwardly, the odd couple seem like a personification of the oft-heard generation gap. But quite apart from the deep-seated affection between father and son, the truth is also to prove a little more surprising. Like a good Chinese son, CD behaves deferentially around his father, explaining patiently to him the finer points of portraiture-taking and quietly translating into Mandarin words like “glamourous” and “stylist”. Westernised though he may seem, CD is actually more at home conversing in Mandarin.

“We are a close-knit family," shares the elder Mr Tan. "We still live together in a Toa Payoh flat, except for Chuan Do, who rents a room in Bukit Timah as he needs a space for his darkroom. What do I think about Chuan Do’s work? Well, modelling is not something you can do for life. But since he’s already 27, he should be free to make his own decisions and should know what to do. His singing? I guess he does have some talent, although it’s not the type of music I’d listen to! My personal favourites are operas, art songs and traditional folk tunes. As a father, I hope Chuan Do can eventually carve a long-term career as a graphic designer or a photographer. Otherwise it’ll be a waste of his artistic talent and training. You can say ours is an artistic family. Our house has always been flooded with all kinds of literature: the collected works of Lu Xun, art books, magazines. That’s the kind of environment Chuan Do grew up in.”

CD looks like a model. He stands out in a crowd, literally. He is 1.85m tall and 78kg of gym-worked muscles (at least 16 hours a week). But the 26-year-old says, “I should be taller, by another 8cm at least, and bigger – I’m far too skinny and look too young for the European market. I’ve always seen modelling as a means of getting fast money – both my elder brother and sister are abroad so it has fallen on me to support my parents. Despite his self-proclaimed shortcomings, CD has been doing ready-to-wear shows (notably, for Verri Uomo) in Milan for the past few seasons. And despite being Chinese too, he might add. And also despite the fact that he never wanted to be a fulltime model. “When I started at 16, I had just completed my ‘O’ levels. Then I was in the army, then I joined Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. I’m trained in graphics and photography. I really want to be a photographer – a National Geographic photographer. I love animals and travelling.”

“I was still in school then so the modelling income was a good source of pocket money," recalls Chuando. "When I was 19, I had a chance to do some catalogue work in Italy and Paris. Then I came back for National Service. After that, I enrolled in a three-year graphic design course at NAFA, which teaches photography as well. I guess it must have been all those years of my father’s artistic influence!”

“During my last semester, I met Pino Innocenti in Singapore. He’s the boss of the Italian designer label, Verri Uomo. He asked if I’d like to do some work for him. I had some doubts as I was still in school, but my good friend Tina Tan-Leo [owner of the chain of Versace boutiques] screamed: ‘Just say yes!’ That’s how I ended up in Milan in ’92, working for Verri Uomo. It was a lonely time as I couldn’t speak any Italian except for some swear words!”

“After the Milan stint, I came back and signed with a local recording company. Why? To be perfectly honest, it was mainly for the money, although I do like singing. My mum’s health was really bad then and the hospitalisation fee was hefty. But her condition is more stable now. Despite my ‘westernised’ look, I’m actually very conventional at heart. One thing’s for sure: I don’t sleep around. Chinese values are important to me. For instance, I would never miss a Chinese New Year’s Eve reunion dinner. And I see my parents regularly. Models these days are much more down-to-earth. It used to be considered ‘low class’ to speak Mandarin. Not anymore. We are Chinese, after all.”

“Girls do come up to me on the street, giggling, asking for autographs. I get the strangest propositions. I’m usually wearing the ugliest T-shirt and oldest jeans so I can’t think how anyone can recognize me. I get anonymous phone calls. I’m just an ordinary guy. I don’t like it, this attention!” CD says, modestly, in Mandarin. Like it or not, he can’t run away from it.