Which would be harder to lose: Fame
or Fortune?
Neither means much to me but if i had to choose, it would be fame.
Fame is you. Fortune is just money in the bank. With fame, you
can be influential. You have a voice to do charity work. If i
ever lose fortune, that might just influence my personal life.
Are you more Asian or American?
I feel Asian-American. That's an identity in itself. I speak
English and grew up in a minority group. My family has Chinese
customs at home, we eat Chinese food and my parents are strict
with brothers and me. They tried to teach us Mandarin but our
chinese sucked. I didn't learn Mandarin till college. That's when
a lot of ABCs (American-Born Chinese) get together, study their
roots and bond.
Do you believe in horoscopes?
Yeah. Usually they're so vague anyway that when i read them, i go:
"Yeah, that's me! I'm looking for something to happen".
I believe in aliens and UFOs though. I'm a firm believer in the
fact that there's so much we don't know about the universe. There's
no way for us to ever know everything. So if someone tells me
that a supernatural world exists, i'll think it's possible.
Love at first sight: Is it possible?
Definitely not, with four billion people in the world! If there
was just one person for you, there's no chance that you'll meet.
A lot of it is up to yourself. You can't sit in your room and
wait to meet that special someone.
Are you a dog or cat person?
Dog. And it's not just because i'm allergic to cats. I get really
itchy and scratchy so i stay away from them. Even though i've had
fights with dogs, i still love them. I play with dogs i meet in
the street but i've never had a dog though--there are three boys
in my household so that's enough.
Ideal holiday: Trekking though Tibet
or partying in Tokyo?
Right now, Tibet. For the past few years, my life has been so
fast and loud. I heard it is really beautiful and quiet up in the
mountains. Maybe i'd get to hear Tibetan monks chant. I have CDs
of that and i even studied it in college.
If you had a time machine, would you
go back to the past or head for the future?
This would be the right time to tell you that i do have a time
machine! It's the way i look at things. It's a funny habit. Like
right now, I'm sitting in my hotel room but actually, I'm already
this 80-year-old man in an apartment in New York with a time
machine. And this old me is thinking how nice it would be to go
back to that Sunday afternoon when i was in Singapore, sitting on
a hotel bed doing this interview and here i am. It gives the
young me perspective. It tells me to slow down and take one thing
at a time and not to get freaked out and uptight. It has a lot to
do with my grandma in Taiwan. When i'd come home all tense after
work, she'd ask me how my day was. I'd tell her that i signed
autographs, did a performance, went to an opening and how
stressful it was. Then i'd ask her what she did, she'd think real
hard ans say, "Well, i arranged some flowers". That
really puts things in perspective.
Would you rather be trapped in an
elevator with Bill Gates or Bill Clinton?
I don't know how much i can absorb from either. We're so
different. Clinton will probably talk to me about mines and
Panama. For me, it's like, "I don't think about that stuff,
man!" Gates, i guess. I'm a big fan of what he has done. He's
a visionary.
Have you ever bought anything off an
infomercial?
Never! But i called a psychic hotline once. My older brother and
i tried it when my parents were out because we saw the commerical
on TV offering a free three-minute trial. I was in high school
then. We were on a speaker phone and i was doing the talking and
my brother stood in front of me with the stopwatch. After 2.59
minutes, we hung up on her! I was pretty impressed though. She
was vague but pretty on the money. I remember she told me that
there was a blue healing light around me and i told her, "Yeah,
yeah, my dad's a doctor!". She also said that i recently
ended a relationship in the last four months, which was also true
and she said that the girl was sad. That was kind of a giveaway.
Mobile phone, email, beepers: Boon or
Bane?
The funny thing is, the faster things become, the more efficient
you are but the less time you have. It's a boon in the sense that
you can get more done and productivity definitely increases but
you're so busy you don't have the time to sip cappuccino or
listen to old LPs. But it's still a boon. Progress and changes
are good.
Episode One: Phantom Menance--was it
all the hype?
It was over-produced. There were no surprises in it. When you
care about something too much, you can suffocate it. That's what
happened here. There was too much attention to detail, too many
subplots. I'm a huge Star Wars fan. That was all i fantasised
about as a kid. I've tried many times to move things with my mind.
I believe in the Force. I stil believe in it. I just haven't
picked it up yet.