PICTURE-PERFECT ON AND OFF CARPET

SEA Games 2025

- David Lee Senior Sports Correspondent

National wushu athlete Tay Yu Xuan, 24, a final-year student at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, at a studio on Dec 3. He has a passion for filmmaking, and is the director of photography for the production of his own short film, Baba's Voice. On the carpet, he is aiming for a first gold in any event in six years. ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO

(BRIAN TEO)

The Sunday Times continues the countdown to the 33rd SEA Games, held in Thailand from Dec 9 to 20. Over seven days, we profile Singapore athletes competing in the Land of Smiles who keep themselves happy with unique pursuits outside sport. Today, we feature wushu exponent Tay Yu Xuan, who finds joy in cinematography.

As an inquisitive child, Tay Yu Xuan was especially captivated by movement and lighting.

When he was seven, he saw his primary school seniors perform a wushu routine and pestered his mother to enrol him for Chinese martial arts self-defence classes. He started with nanquan (southern fist), followed by changquan (long fist) before settling on taijiquan.

His curiosity continued into his teens when he used his older sister's camera and found photography fun. He then ventured into videography by “documenting my life experiences” and cinematography, which he describes as “learning how to recreate lighting from paintings and films”.