The Mad Chinaman is celebrating the “50th anniversary of (his) career” with, what else, a performance. If the concert poster is any indication, Dick Lee is younger and madder than ever

The Madder Chinaman: Dick Lee in 2024, on the 35th anniversary of The Mad Chinaman. Photo: dicklee/Instagram

If you want to go crazy, age is not a deterrent. At least not for 67-year-old Dick Lee Peng Boon (李炳文), “the powerhouse in Singapore culture scene”, as The Smart Local described him. He has not given up the perceived madness, first cultivated in 1989, when he released the seminal album, The Mad Chinaman. Mr Lee was 33 then. This year is the 35th anniversary of that album, so the island’s most recognisable son, is marking that milestone, as well as the 50th anniversary of his singing career. And from the looks of how he is styled for the promotional material of the latter, the baba has gone quite gila. But by “mad”, Mr Lee is not selling himself—even in the beginning—as a loony. As he pointed out later, “mad” explained the state of confusion when it came to his early identity: was he East or West? The disorientation, it seemed, was enough to “drive me mad”, he had said when regaling any willing audience about how the album came about.

Mr Lee has never really been rid of his madness. This—it should be said—points to his infectious liveliness, unbridled enthusiasm, massive love for the nation (so much so that he served, not once but twice, as the the creative director for Singapore’s National Day Parade), excessive fondness for whatever he is passionate about—such as mad about musicals, which he really is. Or, simply mad about music. And, mad about performing. And mad about anniversaries, including his birthday, often celebrated with his kawan-kawans (chums) in not-to-be-missed, madcap parties. As his friend and colleague at Music And Movement, Lim Sek (林适), wrote in the introduction to Mr Lee’s eponymously-titled 2011 autobiography, “If you think that his life is as colourful as the characters in his musicals and songs, you’re wrong! It is ten times more exciting and dramatic.” In a word, mad.

Dick Lee, flanked by Jacintha and Denise Tan at the 30th anniversary of The Mad Chinaman concert-celebration in 2019. File photo: Chin Boh Kay for SOTD

His last anniversary show was staged in September 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, to celebrate the 30th year since the release of The Mad Chinaman. With two anniversaries to commemorate now, making you part with money to attend his concert is in order. It is not yet known what the impending performance at the Capitol Theatre would be about or how he would present himself, but it would probably be not less mad than usual. From the publicity material alone, it is obvious that Mr Lee wanted to update the mad Chinaman. This time, it is not mad as much as it is far out—as if in a metaverse, a steampunk Chinese warrior, as he might have been depicted on, say, DeviantArt. Or in digital games such as 黑神话: 悟空(Black Myth: Wukong). Yet, a closer look suggests that the new, fiercer, mad Chinaman could be the work of fashion-designer-turned-conceptual-artist-turned-flâneur, Yang Derong (张德荣), whose Face of the Day Instagram-turned-webpage has garnered considerable media attention and critical acclaim at one time.

The mad Chinaman du jour could, therefore, have been dreamed up by Mr Yang in yet another exploration/fusion of historicism and fantasy. The mad Chinaman, this time, has not succumbed to the cruel ravages of time, even when he is no longer the genteel wayang newbie that he was when he emerged in the very late ’80s. With AI now in our artistic lives, this could be the result of machine learning than human initiation. Mr Lee, a fashionista-performer as much as a singer-songwriter, would not have objected to resuscitating the character he created that brought him immense fame—if not globally, definitely regionally. But it has to appeal, at least visually, to a new audience, one with no memory of mad or Chinaman, only Home. We did a random, admittedly unscientific, poll among Gen-Zers. All ten—when we asked who Dick Lee is—could only say that he wrote their favourite National Day song.

The original album cover of The Mad Chinaman, with Dick Lee in full Chinese opera makeup and costume

The Mad Chinaman was Dick Lee’s first successful album even when, at the time, it was not his first long-playing release. In December of 1989, just four months after it was put out for sale, The Mad Chinaman went platinum (more than 1 million copies sold), which was apparently the highest ever—and still is—for an English album by a local singer. Apart from the Singaporean pop songs on the LP, which would spawn a new genre that Mr Lee later called ‘Singapop’ (also the title of his 1996 album), The Mad Chinaman was noted for one other thing: the mad Chinaman on the cover. And not any mad Chinaman, but Dick Lee as the cina gila. When it came out, many people were surprised. This was not the fashion designer and impresario that Mr Lee had pitched himself to be. Would this new-found image help sell albums?

Mr Lee told Nikkei Asian Review in 2015 that “being a Singaporean has made me what I am.” Yet, he chose an operatic role of the 小生 (xiaosheng) or young men (usually students, often poor), wearing a 文生巾 (wen shen jing, a particular cloth hat), with a painted visage not immediately connected to our entertainment/pop culture. The choice, we suspect, had exotic appeal to Mr Lee. He has always been a proud baba who came from a wealthy family, who went to English/Christian schools (St. Michael’s School, now St Joseph Junior, and St Joseph Institution) and Harrow’s School of Art in London. Was the Chinese opera character, some people wondered at that time, not too cheena (or Chinese—a word used by the Peranakans that could occasionally be derogatory)? To lend authenticity, the makeup and costume were arranged by the Chinese Theatre Circle, but to lend some fashion cred, the image was lensed by the occasional fashion photographer Gary Sng. In the sleeve notes of The Mad Chinaman vinyl, Dick Lee wrote, “Going all out Oriental is too easy, too obvious, and frankly, it isn’t natural to me.” Accept on that history-making cover.

Dick Lee 50th Anniversary Concert is on 23 and 24 August at the Capitol Theatre. Tickets, from SGD78 and SGD$168, are available at Sistic