Five Generation T 2018 listers tell Hong Xinyi how they are blazing new trails for the causes and the communities they champion

Coordination CHONG SEOW WEI Photography DARREN GABRIEL LEOW Fashion Direction DESMOND LIM FIGHTING SPIRIT Juste un Clou necklace in pink gold with diamonds, Love earrings and bracelet in Inspiring Female Athletes pink gold, Love bracelet in , MIXED MARTIAL ARTIST pink and white gold with diamonds, Juste un Clou ring in pink gold and Juste un Clou bracelet in white gold, all by Cartier; viscose-blend dress by Boss her sunny smile The family is obviously tight-knit. In mindset yet, I was still very emotional. and sun-kissed a video clip of her 2016 championship When I walked in and saw everyone, With tan, Angela Lee fight, both Christian and her father can I was trying to act like I was ok. That could be mistaken for any carefree be seen beaming proudly next to her as was kind of a tough moment. There was 21-year-old if you just glimpsed her she was announced the winner, while just a lot going on, I was still shaken up out and about in Singapore. Except, of her mother fixed her gaze on her from about the accident. I did the best I could course, this young woman already has just outside the cage. Everyone looked that night.” some formidable achievements under like they were on the verge of crying That title defence match, once again her belt—at age 19, she became the except Angela, who openly wiped against Yamaguchi, will finally take place world’s youngest mixed martial arts away tears even as she burst into an this month, and thanks to her family, (MMA) champion when she defeated elated smile. she is ready to re-enter the cage. “If it ’s to win the One “My mum and dad are my biggest was just me facing tough problems by Championship women’s heroes,” she tells us without hesitation. myself, I don’t know if I could do it. title, and subsequently defended that “They’re the ones who taught me how Because I can lean on my family and go title successfully twice. to them for support, love and advice, Born in Canada to a Singaporean they really helped me pull through. father and a Korean mother, she was “I want to give as much When that accident happened to me, it raised in and “I’ve been in affected my whole family as well and we the gym environment since I could support as I can to young all really banded together. It took some crawl”, she says matter-of-factly. time, and it was definitely something we Both her parents, who were high girls and women who are overcame together.” school sweethearts, are highly skilled Being the youngest and first female martial artists who used to compete aspiring to not just pursue champion in One Championship is professionally; when they decided to obviously very meaningful to her. “It’s start a family, they launched their own MMA, but anything something that will go down in the gym. “The majority of my childhood history books. I can add that to my was spent in the gym. I don’t remember really. Achieving your legacy.” Even without seeing her in when I started, honestly. I could have dreams takes so much action, this unabashed, even-keeled been tumbling and rolling around on pride in her hard-won achievements the mats at two years old.” Her parents sacrifice, and a strong makes it clear that she is no ordinary never forced her or her three younger twenty-something. As a female Asian siblings to compete, but “we had to support system” athlete competing in a sport that is still learn how to defend ourselves. That gaining mainstream acceptance, the wasn’t an option. Like if there was a life easy confidence with which she owns or death scenario, my parents wanted to to dream, how to take risks, how to her excellence is refreshing, and Angela be able to pass down their knowledge of work hard and achieve the ultimate knows that young girls are watching. how to protect ourselves”. success, which is finding my passion “I want to encourage them to dream Angela took to the sport of her own and my purpose.” big and have the resilience to see those accord, and by her own admission was Her mettle was put to the test last dreams become a reality,” she says a very competitive child. By age six, November in Hawaii, when she fell firmly. “I want to give as much support she was entering children’s martial asleep at the wheel while driving to a as I can to young girls and women who arts competitions, “and I loved it”. training session in the wee hours of the are aspiring to not just pursue MMA, but Sometimes she would face off against morning, and her car hit a guardrail on anything really. Achieving your dreams her brother Christian, because there the highway and flipped several times. takes so much sacrifice, and a strong was no gender separation for divisions Angela emerged from the accident support system around you, be it your below a certain age. Today, he is a fellow with a slight concussion and minor family, mentors or good friends. I think One Championship fighter and still burns, and a few weeks later attended it’s really important to surround yourself one of her training partners, while her the One Championship event at the with good people.” parents help to coach her. Singapore Indoor Stadium where her third title defence match would have taken place if not for the crash. She had her championship belt on her shoulder, and the crowd greeted her with a roar, but it wasn’t an easy night, she remembers. “I wasn’t fully in the right THE STORYTELLER Santos de Cartier watch in yellow gold by Cartier; cotton sweater, wool jacket Connecting Asia through Content and wool trousers, all by Boss HO JIA JIAN, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF VIDDSEE

“the only way to get your film seen was to get it into festivals”, he recalls. After stints at StarHub, where they worked in then-emerging fields such as digital advertising and internet art of the moving image TV, they decided to launch Viddsee has blossomed anew together in 2013. “We saw a lot of new The in this current age of opportunities for people like us, who disruption, with streaming platforms are engineers but are also creative. We now home to the kind of rich, diverse wanted to use our skills to empower content that blockbuster-saturated and help other film-makers get their cineplexes are declining to make room stories out there.” Specifically, they had for. In recent years, the likes of Netflix a hypothesis they wanted to test: if they have even been giving established could make more local content available studios a run for their money during film to people in Southeast Asia, would festivals and awards season, prompting viewers be interested? some grumbling from the industry’s In a region where neighbouring more traditional players. countries aren’t all that familiar with one Ho Jia Jian is no stranger to this another’s cultural output, this was by conversation, and as the co-founder of no means a fail-safe idea for a business. video entertainment platform Viddsee, But their leap of faith paid off. Today, along with Derek Tan, his convictions lie the Viddsee website and app hosts firmly in the merits of new, tech-enabled short films, mostly created by Asian possibilities. Jia Jian and Derek first met film-makers, which have generated over at the National University of Singapore, a billion views from a predominantly where they both were engineering Southeast Asian audience. students who shared a love of cinema. “Many start off by watching content announced its entry into producing They became film-makers at a time from their own country, but over original content, with the launch of when YouTube was in its infancy, and time, they actually start watching Viddsee Studios. stuff from other countries as well,” But while commissioned work will says the soft-spoken Jia Jian, whose become a significant part of Viddsee’s “More people will create favourite film-makers include the late offerings, Jia Jian also believes deeply Malaysian director Yasmin Ahmad. “We in the importance of continuing to content as film-making do see a lot of similarities between give new film-makers an avenue for these different markets, and it’s a pity submitting their works. “More people equipment becomes more that regional audiences don’t know will create content as film-making each other’s stories that well. But the equipment becomes more accessible, accessible, and I hope beauty of film when combined with and I hope they will be inspired not technology is that you don’t have to be just by Hollywood, but also by the local they will be inspired constrained by geographical boundaries content they watch. We already see and traditional distribution channels this new generation rising up, and that’s not just by Hollywood anymore. Anybody, anywhere, can really exciting for us.” but also by the local access these stories.” Audience development is also crucial. The content that thrives on Viddsee “We have people writing in to us to content they watch” tends to be authentic, relatable, and share how watching certain films on shareable, Jia Jian says. “Many of the our platform touched them, and often films on our platform are inspired by these are not your typical festival-going the film-makers’ personal experiences.” audience,” Jia Jian shares. “We always Giving creative talent a platform is a big have the audience in mind, and how part of their vision, and success stories their consumption habits are changing. to date include Singaporean directors Our community drives a lot of the Jason Lee and Daniel Yam, who have decisions we make, and we’ve built gone on to helm more high-profile everything to be digital first, because projects after their shorts did well on that’s where the next billion people are Viddsee. Most recently, the company going to be.” CREATIVE STREAK Love bracelets in pink gold and Juste un Clou ring in pink gold, all by Balancing Good Design with Practical Purpose Cartier; cotton-blend dress by Boss OLIVIA LEE, DESIGN DIRECTOR OF OLIVIA LEE

told her about a new industrial design “Technology is so programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS). As a student, she pervasive in our lives now, had always been passionate about both the arts and sciences, and wasn’t but tech devices tend to be sure if there was a career that would allow her to continue embracing all from that, she would be the goddess of shiny plastic alien objects. these interests. So it was a liberating technology today,” Olivia muses with a experience when she finally discovered smile. “Technology is so pervasive in our Instead of allowing the discipline of industrial design. lives now, but tech devices are not the “Suddenly, there was a name for what I nicest to touch and hold. They tend to technology to subtly shape loved to do. It’s a profession that really be shiny plastic alien objects. Instead of us, how do we respond to engages all my faculties.” allowing technology to subtly shape us, After getting a scholarship from how do we respond to it and shape it to it and shape it to reclaim the DesignSingapore Council, Olivia reclaim our human qualities?” transferred to London’s Central Saint It is a thoughtful question that is our human qualities?” Martins College of Art and Design deeply perceptive about the possibilities to finish her studies. She graduated of contemporary life, and that with first-class honours, then worked intellectual heft grounds her artistic for award-winning British industrial flights of fancy. Currently exploring the daughter of two designer Sebastian Bergne. In the production for The Athena Collection, commercial artists who Shoreditch neighbourhood where she Olivia says that reinventing the flagship As worked in the print industry, lived, “almost everyone around me was a retail store experience for a fashion or Olivia Lee grew up immersed in creative of some kind”, she says of those lifestyle brand would be a dream project. creativity. “We had a lot of materials and years abroad. “I was surrounded by In the meantime, she hopes her tools that maybe a more conventional people who were taking risks, and it was journey will help encourage others home wouldn’t have, like commercial no big deal, just a way of life.” contemplating a similar path. Besides paint and set squares,” she recalls fondly. She returned to Singapore just as running her design practice, she “Sometimes if my parents were rushing initiatives such as Art Stage Singapore guest-lectures at NUS. “I meet a lot of work, my sister and I would play with all and the Gillman Barracks were livening young people who are struggling with the scrap materials on the floor.” up the creative scene. After a stint at whether to choose the road less taken, Beyond exposing her to the joy of the Economic Development Board, or play it safe. Maybe just by existing being a maker, she is also inspired by where she handled the user insights and trying, that gives them some hope how her parents approached their work. and design sector portfolios, she set that a creative career is possible.” “They were designers at a time when it up her eponymous multidisciplinary And while she doesn’t believe wasn’t a glamorous or trendy thing, and studio. Today, the projects she takes on in pigeonholing herself as a female they had a very humble, resourceful and are remarkably diverse, from window designer, she does point out progressive approach to creativity. I saw installations for Hermès to an indoor that industrial design remains a them work very hard and they made a air purifier for German company male‑dominated field. To do her bit, living out of it so that my sister and I Mann+Hummel. Olivia tries to take on female interns could be in a position where we were In 2017, she was named one of whenever possible. “I see it as a form empowered to make our own choices.” the most promising designers at of mentorship. When you see people Olivia is quick to add that they never the emerging design section of the who look like you doing something pushed her to go into design, and might prestigious Salone del Mobile Milano that you want to do, you think, ‘I can have even hoped she would follow a furniture fair, thanks to a whimsically do it too’. Most importantly, focus on more conventional professional path. inventive 10-piece collection. The doing good work that speaks for itself. But when she was contemplating what pieces in the collection were inspired That will dismantle preconceptions degree to pursue, it was her father who by technology-driven user behaviour, about gender stereotypes.” and included items such as a carpet that uses changes in texture to inform a user immersed in a virtual reality game about his real spatial environment. She named the collection Athena, after the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategy and crafts. “If you extrapolate Creating a Digital Ecosystem CHUA U-ZYN, FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT OF ZYNESIS

cryptocurrencies attract has been intrigued by the concept of more mainstream decentralisation that is central to the “I’m trying to bring As curiosity, blockchain—the workings of cryptocurrencies. He started technology that underpins these virtual bitcoin exchange Dgtmkt in 2012, and these concepts of currencies—has become the buzzword has studied blockchain technology of the moment, with all manner of extensively, exploring and writing open decentralisation and industries eager to tap its game-changing source tools to help developers learn potential. Blockchain is a digital ledger more about it. an open economy comprising cryptographically linked As a Smart Nation Fellow, he data. Copies of this ledger are stored undertook more research on how it through blockchain to my across a peer-to-peer decentralised could be applied. Imagine, for instance, computer network, and new data can a system for conditional transactions clients. It can empower only be added when all the nodes in this (sometimes called smart contracts) that businesses and help spur network are in consensus that a set of is built on a blockchain, he suggests. pre-agreed criteria have been met. This “Vendors, offices and homes can have a lot of innovation” means data stored on a blockchain is their smart devices plugged into this very hard to tamper with. ecosystem. Say the milk in your fridge The decentralised and secure nature runs low. This system will be able to “That’s how the internet came about. of blockchain has piqued the interest check which vendor has the cheapest If the internet had been controlled by of individuals and businesses seeking price and most reliable track record for an authority, and anytime somebody more autonomy and transparency supplying milk; your fridge can make wanted to start an e-commerce business, in transactions, but the logic of the the decision to restock the milk, and it he had to apply for a license, then it technology can be hard to grasp for can pull cryptocurrency from a shared would not be as successful as it is today. the man in the street. Luckily for us, home wallet to pay for it. The milk will This is what I like about blockchain. blockchain engineer Chua U-Zyn has an then be delivered without you having to I’m trying to bring these concepts of exceedingly simple definition. “My way do anything.” decentralisation and an open economy of putting it takes away all the magic, Friction-free grocery shopping aside, through blockchain to my clients. It can it’s very down to earth,” he says with a the most exciting thing about blockchain empower businesses and help spur a laugh. “Blockchain is basically a database is how it can facilitate an open and lot of innovation. So if you’re trying to that’s distributed. That’s all. People think decentralised ecosystem where “anybody create that kind of open ecosystem, then it’s magical, but it’s not.” is free to enter and leave, and anybody is blockchain is for you. If you’re doing The founder of IT consulting firm free to innovate on it without having to it just because it’s a buzzword and it Zynesis sticks to the same hype-free ask anyone’s permission”, U-Zyn asserts. sounds cool, then no.” candour when potential clients ask him if blockchain can help their companies. “Usually my reply is, it doesn’t help at all. It’s just a database. It’s not going to change anything and in fact it’s going to increase your operation costs, because you’ll have to hire blockchain engineers, who are very rare in Singapore.” That honesty is valued by those who seek his views, U-Zyn believes. “The hype will pass, and eventually blockchain will not be perceived as sexy anymore.” CHAIN REACTION Santos de Cartier watch in yellow But that doesn’t mean that it gold by Cartier; cotton won’t have long-term impact. Since sweater, wool jacket and discovering bitcoin in 2011, U-Zyn wool trousers, all by Boss Leveraging Tech for Good ANNABELLE KWOK, FOUNDER AND CEO OF NEURALBAY

applying herself enough to ace the subject, but also into declaring math as her university major. “The other reason was, I didn’t know what I wanted do in life. So I thought, I’ll just do math since it’s easy. I knew I had to finish university because that was important to my parents. So I saw it as a form those who haven’t had of filial piety, but grades weren’t as the pleasure of meeting important to me. My emphasis was For this effervescent young more on living life to the fullest.” technopreneur, here is a tip: it is She did do well though—first probably best to make sure you are consulting for multimillion-dollar experience of the two months she caffeinated and ready to keep up. companies as part of the Innovation spent in West Africa working with Annabelle Kwok has the unflagging pep Immersion Program at NTU, then non-governmental organisations and of a Duracell Bunny, and seems ever- helping friends run a start-up and, university students on economic ready to share an amusing anecdote. most significantly, discovering her love empowerment projects. “Malaria was For example: in junior college, this for programming Internet of Things very rampant there, but when I took computer science student taught herself hardware. “When programming is out my mosquito repellent spray to use to bypass the school’s firewall so that linked to hardware, and you can see it, the people around me didn’t even she could install computer games on wheels moving and lights blinking, code know what it was. Because the people her laptop and play them during class. becomes very physical and you can there couldn’t afford to buy such sprays, Then, she learned how to run multiple really see its possibilities.” the shops didn’t sell them. And it really operating systems on a single computer A few hackathon wins and projects made me question why something so so she could toggle between her game later, she found herself with job offers affordable to us was not reaching the and a more innocuous-looking home people who need it the most.” screen when suspicious teachers came This desire to make useful things looking. She shares this story while accessible for the people who need them getting her make-up done for this shoot, “What we’re trying is exactly why she wants to develop provoking peals of laughter from the to do is make it so simple an online marketplace of more generic much-impressed Singapore Tatler glam AI software for small- and medium- squad. “It’s very easy, I can teach you,” that no coding is required sized enterprises. Highly customised Annabelle offers immediately. “If a kid solutions may be out of reach for such like me back then could do it, anyone for you to use AI” businesses, and “I want to make it easy can. You just need to be motivated to and affordable for smaller businesses play computer games.” to use AI, because if you just increase More laughter breaks out when she from major companies, and accepted one their profit by a bit, they can pay their explains how she ended up studying from e-commerce start-up Garena (now staff more and that will make a bigger applied mathematics at the Nanyang known as Sea). In 2016, she struck out difference to lower- and middle-income Technological University (NTU). on her own to launch SmartCow, which families who want to, for example, Essentially, a JC teacher who wasn’t builds hardware for artificial intelligence give their kids a better education. amused by her blatant gaming expressed (AI) processes. Then, last year, she left There’s a big impact to be made there”, doubts that she could do well in math, to found NeuralBay, an AI company that she believes. and this provoked her into not just specialises in vision analytics software. “What we’re trying to do is make it The company’s consultancy arm works so simple that no coding is required for with clients to customise software for you to use AI. That’s another belief that SPUNK & GRIT Annabelle their businesses, which could range from I have—good technology doesn’t require wears Juste un Clou earrings, bracelet and ring capturing analytics on how well window that much technicality for the end‑user,” in white gold, Santos de displays spur customer engagement, to Annabelle says with characteristic zeal. Cartier bracelet in white detecting suspicious body postures at “You don’t need to know software gold, Écrou de Cartier high-security facilities. coding to use a mobile app. You don’t bracelet in white gold and There is another important need to know hardware engineering to Panthère de Cartier watch in steel with diamonds, component to NeuralBay that will use a laptop. AI software can also be all by Cartier; cotton-blend be launching this year, and to explain very straightforward to use. That’s a sign

dress by Boss HAIR: GREGO/INDIGO ARTISANS, USING KEUNE HAIRCOSMETICS SINGAPORE; MAKE-UP: CHERYL OW/INDIGO PARFUMS CHRISTIAN DIOR AND DELANIE WONG/INDIGO ARTISANS, USING MAKE UP FOR EVER; PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT: ERIC TAN; STYLIST’S JOEY TAN it, Annabelle offers to first share her of good technology.”