Interviews – Chai360

National University of Singapore College of Humanities and Science Open House (March 2023)

National University of Singapore College of Humanities and Science Open House 2023

NUS Faculty of Science and NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences jointly presented close to 30 majors under the banner theme of #BuildASharedTomorrow with National University of Singapore, College of Humanities and Sciences #CHS.

The specially curated programme introduced prospective students to the importance of #interdisciplinary #education in our increasingly complex world.

Read the story here: https://nus.edu/423NC6v

National University of Singapore, Faculty of Science Annual Report 2022 – Feature (2022)

NUS, Faculty of Science feature in the Annual Report 2022.

Read and watch here

NUS Master of Arts Programme Promo Video – Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship (14 November 2022)

Introducing NUS CNM Master of Arts (Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship)

Discover your future with the CNM MA (Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship) coursework programme at National University of Singapore. Find out more here: https://tinyurl.com/nus-masters-ace

Watch promo video here

NUS College of Humanities & Sciences and Faculty of Science – From sports to music, and arts entrepreneurship (22 November 2022)

“Life Sciences alumna Eileen CHAI…from #sports to #music – and arts #entrepreneurship.”

Read here: https://chs.nus.edu.sg/…/from-sports-to-music-and-arts…/

Thank you to National University of Singapore, College of Humanities and Sciences & National University of Singapore, Faculty of Science for the feature.

Eileen is now taking #MasterOfArts at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences / NUS, Department of Communications & New Media in Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship, so that she can continue to learn and grow in the arts and cultural fields, and to share the life lessons she learned through music to enrich the community.

SOCIAL LINKS
NUS, College of Humanities and Sciences
FB: https://www.facebook.com/nuschs/posts/pfbid0ktQw6hJMnageeEqimMSa9UXH834JYaSpk4hq5dre1uAWmf9QzNGoeBGhf3s7LvsRl

IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClPum0FMmwy/

NUS, Faculty of Science
FB: https://www.facebook.com/NUSFacultyofScience/posts/pfbid02NFhxKQVBMPFBdsf1CHuNwdBrrfbKcYJetWR8Jda95obH4ezeyQMUkBPXyZUmMwYql

IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClPuvDvsgZ1/

Website https://www.science.nus.edu.sg/…/from-sports-to-music…/

NUS Centre for Future-ready Graduates – In the Spotlight: Entrepreneurship Reflection (21 October 2022)

Knowing your #mission and #vision statements of your business help guide you in making key decisions.

Chai360 aims to #empower and #uplift the spirits of children, youth, adults, and seniors, so as to bring #joy, #happiness, and #love to people around the world.

Eileen is currently a Master of Arts (Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship) student in the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences / NUS, Department of Communications & New Media

Be part of the NUS Centre for Future-ready Graduates conNectUS community today and connect with myself, and other alumni and students: https://connectus.nus.edu.sg/

More info:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/centre-for-future-ready-graduates_nus-nuscfg-networking-activity-6988768135021547520-TOmP/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&fbclid=IwAR2IxY9ibCdeDR3Ykngkmc_JWHYj04PwXcM1Fr4JRsgUbuA6Y5hwM5U5AWohttps://www.linkedin.com/…/centre-for-future-ready…

ShinMin ZaoBao – Use the power of music to comfort our soul (8 August 2022)

“Give love & listen with empathy when our friends & loved ones are feeling down,” a response on mental wellness in the interview.

“Use the power of music to comfort our soul.” – An article on mental health and 3am Music Collective, published on the 8th August 2022.

Written by 劉慧祺 / #ShinMin #Zaobaosg. Thank you, Susanna for this write-up to shed light on how seeking professional help & listening to music can help improve the quality of our lives.

Let’s spread more love, joy and happiness to the people around us.

Pic in article taken by Ig’s productions.

The Straits Times – 3am Music Collective inducted into Singapore Kindness Movement Ground-Ups (20 May 2022)

Inducted at the #KindnessDaySG Appreciating Dinner @ 313 Somerset.

Guest-of-Honour: Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for Social & Family Development

View images here.

The AlumNUS: Alumni Happenings (February 2022)

Empowering the youth and promoting mental health with music.

The founder shared about her presentation & music performance at the Music Cities Convention @ Canada.

Read the article here.

Verve Arts Festival (9 December 2021)

This festival is organised by the Ngee Ann Poly students, specifically Year 2 Arts Business Management.

One of their programmes is called, Artbytes. ARTBYTES is Verve’s very own educational video series targetted towards primary and lower secondary school students!

The founder been interviewed (via Zoom) by the team – topic on how she has used sports to apply in music-making and teaching.

She also spoke about her music ecosystem of Giving through Music – from Music Sparkles SG to empower kids; Strings for Kindness to bring kindness to the community as a teen; 3am Music Collective to collaborate and create your own original works as a youth; and to The Violin Travels to explore new ideas, to uplift our spirits to bring joy, happiness and love to the people around the world.

Verve Arts Festival website here.

Interview here.

Silverfox Hustle Podcast (19 August 2021)

A discussion on sports, music and mental health with Shasi Kumar of Silverfox Hustle.

YouTube here.

Spotify here.

Buzzsprout here.

The Straits Times – Mind Your Business, Athletes (1 August 2021)

The Sunday Times speak to local athletes and experts on the importance of dealing with the weight of expectations on stars as they seek to reach the pinnacle of their sports.

Read here.

Bettery Hub Channel – “Enjoy The Ride” with Eileen Chai (10 June 2021)

Join us on LifeWorks! with Eileen Chai as she shares her journey, how she put her passion into action, and the importance to ‘Enjoy the Ride’, Live at 8pm SGT on ‘Bettery Hub Channel.’

Eileen is a former national athlete in gymnastics, athletics, and springboard diving, is a recipient of the Nanyang Outstanding Young Alumni Award, Singapore Olympic Academy Roll of Honour, Junior Chamber International Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Singapore Merit Award, and still holds the record of being the youngest competitor at the Southeast Asian Games at the age of 7. Drawing her experience in sports, music & performing arts, she continues to perform & teach the violin to inspire her students to love through music. Eileen has performed with Tayo Irvine Hendrix, daughter of the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix, in April 2018. She has also played the violin at the Opening Ceremony of the BNP Paribas Women’s Tennis Association Finals at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in October 2018.

Tune in and engage Eileen Chai with your questions on Bettery Hub Channel, powered by Bettery Lab.

Streamed live on LinkedIn, Podcast, YouTube.

#betterylab #betteryhubchannel #doingitbetter

Mediacorp Ch8 Morning Express《晨光第一线》(5 May 2021)

3am Music Collective in Tuesday featured stories, on the theme of “Jobs with a Heart”, series title “心鲜人”.

Listen to 3am Music Collective original music on Spotify, YouTube.

Watch – click on the links below for Part 1 and Part 2 of the programme.

PART ONE (3rd May, Monday)

https://www.facebook.com/8worldnews/videos/276688844165306/

Web

https://www.8world.com/vodcasts/episode/web_exclusive/morning-express-3am-collective-web-vodcast-1465501

PART TWO (5th May, Wednesday)

https://www.facebook.com/8worldnews/videos/3915399101830822/

Web

https://www.8world.com/vodcasts/episode/all/morning-express-3am-collective-vodcast-1467991

CNA938 Singapore Stories (2 May 2021)

An interview with Ivan Lim, guitarist of 3am Music Collective.

Read here.

The Tapestry Project SG (1 May 2021)

Healing through music – An interview with Eileen Chai.

Read here.

96.3FM Radio Interview (8th April 2021)

Live broadcast interview on 96.3好FM “早安，好人帮”, with 菁云, 德明, 杰奇.

Talked about Eileen Chai’s lessons learnt from her childhood sports journey, about mental wellness, & past, current & future music projects.

Also talked about the 9th song in the 3am Music Collective music 10song-cycle, written by 黎沸揮老师, sung by Jenix Ee, called 一个地方 / A Place.

Watch here.

Listen to 一个地方 / A Place here.

The Straits Times – Awareness Key To Tackling Abuse (28 March 2021)

Singapore National Olympic Council Women In Sport Committee Inaugural Webinar Series

Read here.

Imagine – A magazine on Mental Health (February – May 2021)

3am Music Collective – Depression might have interrupted his life, but Ivan Lim took the pause in positive stride to rebuild a better life.

Ivan is an author & plays the classical guitar. He played the guitar for one of the 3am Music Collective musics, Still Searching.

“Still Searching”, a classical-fusion written by Dr Kelly Tang. Violin was performed by Ng Yu-Ying of the T’ang Quartet & Viola by Eileen Chai.

Listen to Still Searching on Spotify, YouTube.

Read here.

Salt & Light (8 January 2021)

When a prodigy pushed herself to breaking point.

Read here.

L’Equipe Magazine (20 October 2020)

“At 42, Eileen Chai suffers from post-traumatic stress inherited from her childhood as a gymnast. She even tried to end her life.”

Read below.

COVER PAGE (of magazine)

In several Asian countries, young athletes are subjected to serious violence, the result of a culture of physical education where corporal punishment is considered legitimate.

CONTENT FEATURE (in magazine)

“I lived permanently in fear.”

At 42, Eileen Chai suffers from post-traumatic stress inherited from her childhood as a gymnast. She even tried to end her life.

She was a gymnastics child, selected at age 7 for Singapore’s team at the Southeast Asian Games. Then she tried her hand at athletics and diving. Eileen Chai now divides her time between teaching & writing music, and a career as a violinist. She tells us about her years of training in China, between the fear of corporal punishment and the terror of punishment, sometimes unable to hold back her tears.

Qn: “Under what conditions did you find yourself, as a young gymnast, training in China?

I started gymnastics at the age of 4. I was a real little monkey, I was jumping everywhere. My mom signed me up for a club in Singapore, where we lived, to learn agility. Very quickly, my training became daily. My idol then was Nadia Comaneci. In 1985, I was selected for the Singapore team for the Southeast Asian Games. I was 7 years old. I was the youngest in the competition. When I was 9, I realized that if I wanted to reach the top, I had to leave Singapore. At the time, China dominated gymnastics. My father went there often on business, he had connections. I asked my parents to send me there to live and train. I was there for four years.

Qn: Now, at 42, are you feeling the effects of this episode in your life? Are you marked, physically or psychologically?

Yes. Physically, it took me several years to recover from my years of training in China. I had been overtrained. I was hurt all the time. But the most lasting effects are psychological. I lost all confidence in myself. I suffered from social phobia: I lived with the constant fear of being judged, of doing wrong and of receiving punishment. I was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For the same reasons: fear of doing wrong, terror of being punished for failure. I even wanted to end my life. Fortunately, I had the chance to meet my husband. Long after my experience in China, I took the ACE test (Adverse Childhood Experiences, a questionnaire designed to measure psychological disorders related to childhood trauma). I come from a normal and balanced family. Still, I got a score of 5, the highest on the test for abused children. I’ve been seeing a psychiatrist. The fear hasn’t left me yet, but I now know how to contain it and live with it.”

Source here.