How well do you know Kit Chan, the multi-hyphenate who is more than just a singer?

First discovered at the age of 17 in 1989, Kit Chan's illustrious career started in 1993 with her debut EP Do Not Destroy The Harmony. In total, Kit Chan has racked up over 40 albums to her name, in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. This year, she released the album 平行线.

In 1997, Kit Chan was embroiled in a contractual disagreement between her production house Ocean Butterflies and Ponycanyon and couldn't release new Mandarin albums temporarily. Proving her savviness, Kit Chan sought new avenues to expand her career, moving into Cantopop by first performing in Jacky Cheung's musical Snow.Wolf.Lake in 1997. This eventually opened up the path into theatre for the singer, as she went on to star in productions such as Forbidden City – Portrait of an Empress and Matteo Ricci the Musical.

Speaking of theatre, in October Kit Chan played the role of Madam Kwa Geok Choo in the The LKY Musical alongside Adrian Pang who reprised his role as the late Prime Minister.

Speaking with The Straits Times on the role, Kit Chan shared "I look forward to being part of the musical as the easing of the pandemic restrictions means that 100 per cent of the seats can be sold. Musicals are physically taxing and I'm only getting older, so I need to brace myself for that. It's pretty crazy that we're doing nine shows a week, so I need to make sure I'm physically fit. Even then, I think it's going to be really fun standing on stage. Seeing a full theatre would be a great feeling."

She won hearts on a Chinese singing competition show

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In 2015, Kit Chan participated in the Chinese television singing contest I Am A Singer 3. Despite not winning the competition, the singer found many new fans who took to the Internet to profess their love and support for her. Kit Chan had celebrity endorsers too, including fellow contestant Han Hong and singer Tan Fei. The singer reflected on the journey and was thankful for her bountiful reapings.

Kit Chan delved into the fashion business when she opened up two boutiques Flowers in the Attic in The Heeren and Roses in the Loft in Plaza Singapura in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Both boutiques have since shuttered. Between 2004 and 2010, Kit Chan took a hiatus from her singing career. In this period, she became a public relations consultant for 19 months with Hill & Knowlton.

Kit Chan proves herself to be multi-hyphenate beyond singing and acting. In 2000, she released a collection of English poems titled Cork out of my Head: Poems by Kit Chan and I Write a Page, which were published in Taiwan and Singapore respectively. In 2006, she co-authored Cathy and Jodie: The Princess and the Flea, a children's book with her friend Yong Siew Fern.

In a 2021 interview, Kit Chan revealed that she had experienced burnout in her late twenties. "I was burning the candle at both ends as a 20-something, with a career that was going so well. But I sensed deep unhappiness and a lack of motivation, and the impulse to throw in the towel happened on a daily basis. That is always a red flag, I think." That later prompted her to take an extended hiatus between 2004 to 2020 when she "travelled, did nothing for a while, went back to school, and even worked in the corporate world for about two years for the first time in my life."

On mental health, she shared the need to be self-aware and honest with ourselves. "Once we can do these two things, it is not difficult to be mentally healthy and well. We need to know if we are happy or not. It sounds simple, but a lot of people have stopped thinking about what happiness means to them, and just sort of follow the path that society dictates as the path to happiness, success and more. But there is no such path. We must chart our own journey, and we have to decide what makes us happy."

Kit Chan discovered this fact as she cared for her mother who had a hip fracture and was diagnosed with osteoporosis after a fall in 2012. The weekly colouring sessions, organised by Kit Chan, became a new family tradition that they would do before having lunch together. "It's one of my mum's favourite ways to spend time with us. And when she is happy, my dad is happy. Which is killing two birds with one stone!"

Her mother's fall also prompted Kit Chan to re-examine her own lifestyle, which was largely sedentary. "I’m one of those people who hardly ever exercises, and after I realised that, I went from exercising less than 10 times a year to about three times a week."

She began by hitting the gym, which she realised she hated, before settling on pilates, swimming, cardio and home-based weight exercises. She recently fell for qigong, which she describes its benefits as "amazing". "What I do is very simple, but after practising it continuously for a month, I really feel a difference, especially from the waist down. I’m not really good with high heels, even though I might look that way on stage, and I really feel a difference now when I wear high heels ‘cos I’m more stable.”

Call her Farmer Kit. During the pandemic, Kit Chan went through a period of "existentialism" when she realised that food access is a problem even if we live in a first-world country. She wholeheartedly dived into growing food and found joy in growing foods including herbs, eggplants and lady's fingers as well as volunteering at a local farm.

"I felt that I wanted a life that was more natural and rooted in nature. It seems so many of our problems stem from our disconnect and alienation from nature – and farming seems like the perfect thing. Besides, I have always found peace and stability in manual work, even though I am, at the same time, a person who thrives on inspiration and creative impulses."