What Does TalkingCock.Com Founder Colin Goh Say When He Orders Bubble Tea In Taiwan?

Fans of 8 DAYS should know that Colin Goh and us have a bit of history together. Remember The Last Page, before we went all digital? Colin did that. For more than 15 years.

These days, Colin, 50, who’s best known as the founder of satirical website talkingcock.com and the author of the indispensable Coxford Singlish Dictionary, is based in Taiwan with his wife Woo Yen Yen and their daughter Kai Yen.

What does life without a COVID-19 lockdown look like in Taiwan? “Like life in Singapore before the CB, lor!” Colin, 50, tells us tells 8days.sg in an e-mail interview.

“After 20 years in New York, we moved to Taiwan in 2018 when my wife and partner Woo Yen Yen was given a visiting professorship at National Central University, hot off the premiere of our Dim Sum Warriors musical in Shanghai,” the illustrator and former practicing lawyer tells 8days.sg in an e-mail interview. “We thought it'd be only for a year, but we ended up really, really liking Taiwan and decided to stay on. That Trump was in office also influenced our decision.”

Dim Sum Warriors is the crown jewel of Colin and Yen Yen’s multi-media company Yumcha Studios. It started as a series of graphic novels, before it was turned into a stage musical in 2017. It also spawned a spin-off bilingual storybook and app series, Little Dim Sum Warriors, targeted at pre-teens.

This month, Singapore Dreaming, the 2006 social drama directed by Colin and Yen Yen, is added to the ‘Lights. Camera. Singapore’ showcase. (It’s also streaming on Netflix.) The movie — the couple’s second after their 2002 debut Talking Cock The Movie — is about an old lawyer’s clerk (Richard Low) who wins the $2 million lottery but croaks before he can bask in the windfall. The fate of his fortune drives his children (Yeo Yann Yann and Dick Su) apart.

Here, Colin tells us what it was like to direct a future Golden Horse Award winner, buying lottery tickets, and the things he had to KIV during the COVID-19 period. “Nice to be back in 8 DAYS, after over 15 years doing The Last Page... back when 8 DAYS had actual physical pages, of course,” says Colin. We miss those days too.

Singapore Dreaming airs Aug 25, Channel 5, 10pm; it’s also streaming on meWATCH and Netflix.

Photos: Shigemi Iyota (Main); Colin Goh

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