SINGER, composer, lyricist, producer and vocal engineer all rolled into one, Tanya Chua may have broken into the music scene with her English song Bored, but she is Chinese to the core.
Little wonder that her switch to Chinese pop met with great success. Last year, she bagged 21 music awards.
Among her windfall were China's Global Music Award, Singapore's Compass Wings of Excellence Award and the coveted Taiwan Golden Melody Award for Best Album Producer and Best Female Singer trophy, which saw the home-grown musician beat contenders Karen Mok, Zhang Hui Mei and Liang Jing Ru.
"2007 was my 'hard work' year and 2008 was my harvest year," she says.
Currently based in Taiwan, she will be back for a week to spend Chinese New Year with her family in Singapore.
"I look forward to having a good holiday and having time off from my busy schedule. Almost every day I am flying from city to city for performances and promotions," she says.
"Chinese New Year is the most important time of the year for my family. It's when my mum will start telling me to buy a new dress, shoes and handbag. It means the old year is over and the new things will bring me good luck."
According to Ms Jennie Sudjana, her mom-turned-manager at Tangy Music Group, Tanya would dutifully wear red "inside out" on New Year's Day.
According to Chinese beliefs, dressing in black is forbidden during the new year, as it is the colour of mourning, whereas red is encouraged as the colour of good luck and prosperity.
If time permits, mother and daughter will go shopping for readyto- wear collections at Paragon.
"But nowadays, Tanya gets a lot of invitations to store openings or to be spokesperson in Taiwan for Fendi, Guess, Christian Dior, Gucci and so on, so she just picks from there. Sometimes, she even asks me if there's anything I want and she will get it for me," says Ms Sudjana, better known as Jennie.
Fusion chef
The family likes to have reunion dinner at home. "We will even take away yusheng to celebrate at home instead of eating out at the restaurant.
"Besides steamboat, I will make many Indonesian dishes like curry chicken and sambal chilli fish for the dinner," Ms Sudjana says.
"Tanya is also very good at cooking and she likes to make her ru yi mian (prosperity noodles), which uses western pasta but is creative and very delicious."
Ms Chua's other favourite new year traditions are making her own pineapple tarts and staying up late on New Year's Eve to ensure the longevity of the elders. If she can't make it back for the reunion, she will call home on Skype and chat into the wee hours, Ms Sudjana says.
The first day of the new year is spent visiting relatives with the family.
To receive an ang pow from her mom, she does it the traditional way - kneeling down and giving good wishes with mandarin oranges.
"I am still single, so most of my relatives will be giving me ang pows," says 33-year-old, who is born in the year of the tiger.
Ms Chua's sister, who is two years older, and her three children aged four, five and eight, also come to her home. Her friends will visit her on the second day of the Chinese New Year.
"It's a very joyous occasion. Even my brother-in-law, who is British, follows us in all our traditional Chinese practices," Ms Chua says.
On her wishes for 2009, she says: "I hope to accomplish a world tour concert that will include a stop in Singapore. I'm also looking forward to producing my new English album and new Mandarin album."
For her Asia Tour Concert last year, she performed in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. Riding on her increasing popularity in China, the Singapore Tourism Board recently appointed her as their Greater China Ambassador.
This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Jan 4, 2009.
