IAIN’S NOW A STAR IN CHINA
Welshman has primetime spot as bilingual TV presenter
MEET the Cardiff-raised 43-year-old who’s a celebrity in China after becoming a familiar face on the nation’s TV screens. Iain Inglis, whose feats are relatively unsung in the UK, shot to stardom by taking part in China’s talent competitions.
There, he captivated viewers and judges alike with his renditions of “red songs” – revolutionary songs which celebrate socialism – and made it to the semi-finals of China’s Got Talent in 2012 where he reached the top 16.
In between his stints on talent shows, Iain has worked in hotel management, as a freelance entertainer and as an English teacher, before he finally settled into his current job as a bilingual presenter on primetime Chinese television.
Having been born in Southampton and raised in Cardiff, Iain studied languages and translation, and moved to Japan before meeting his future wife following a visit to China in 2003.
Iain moved to China to be with his then girlfriend Yanling in September 2004. Not yet fluent in Chinese, he took up a job as an English teacher.
Despite landing a role in a management consultancy in Shanghai, he soon grew tired of the hustle and bustle of the big city.
“I just couldn’t take Shanghai and the big smoke any more,” he said. “So we decided to move to where we live now – the only tropical city in China.”
That city was Sanya, a city in Hainan, an island province.
“My wife still had about eight months left of her master’s course in Shanghai. So I came first and I found a job. And it was really when I was away from my wife, in a totally alien environment, that basically I had to learn Chinese,” he explains.
After working in hotels, he embraced showbusiness.
But the seeds of Iain’s red song career and stardom were sown well before his 2012 China’s Got Talent appearance.
“I’ve always been interested in I suppose socialism, you could say. I learned Russian, I learned German, I went to somewhere in the former East Germany on my year abroad – things like that. I remember while I was in Russia I had learned quite a few old Soviet classics over vodkas with friends,” says Iain.
“So then when I came to China in 2003, I made a beeline for a CD shop and decided to buy myself a couple of CDs of these old revolutionary songs – one or two of which stuck in my mind. I just taught myself basically.”
Explaining the history of red songs, Iain says the genre is difficult to define and not strictly political.
The significance of the colour red is twofold in China: it is not only the colour of the Communist Party, but it is also considered to be very auspicious, used abundantly for celebrations like Chinese New Year.
“So red songs are not only these ideological, socialist songs, but they also encompass a lot of folk elements,” he says. “Songs that are vaguely patriotic maybe could even be considered red songs.”
“Although initially some of these songs were made to rouse the masses into building socialism, they’re now I think regarded by lots of people as just the songs of their childhood – certainly in the 50 to 60 plus age group maybe,” he adds.
When he was still working in hospitality in Sanya, Iain stumbled upon an opportunity to put his niche hobby of
singing red songs to good use.
“In late September of 2009, the Sanya local government were putting on evening galas to celebrate what would have been then the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China,” Iain recalls.
“So there were these big celebrations up and down the country. Totally by chance, I happened to see an advert inviting people to apply to a singing competition to mark the anniversary.
“And I thought, well, why not? I can sing a couple of these old red songs. I thought I might as well put my name down, just to see whether I could get through one of the rounds.”
Modest Iain says he is an “absolutely appalling” singer. But he anticipated it would be a fun experience.
To his surprise he came fourth in the whole of Sanya.
Following on from this success, he was encouraged to apply for an annual national Red Song Gala in 2010.
He reached the top 10 in Hainanand and was then invited to a nationally televised regional heat in Jiangxi province, with more than 150 entrants.
“I ended up coming fifth in China,” he reveals. “The judges and everyone told me that I went really far in the competition because I would tend to sing revolutionary classics.
“I think they found that kind of almost like an anomaly. There’s this bloke who’s obviously foreign, but he’s singing these songs which most people have sort of forgotten about now, or maybe have heard them, but couldn’t sing them in their entirety.”
But his growing celebrity status and performances around the country meant that something had to give, and he had to quit his hotel job.
And so he worked as a freelance entertainer, “riding on the wave of this newfound fame” and singing red songs at various events across China.
“I remember on the day of the first audition for China’s Got Talent, which was here in Sanya, I didn’t have anything to do,” he added.
“I was just kicking around, I had nothing else on, and I thought well, it’s only down the road. So I got on a bus and I went down and I thought I might as well give it a go. Why not?”
He eventually made it to the semifinals in Shanghai, which included a performance in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
“I think they quite liked the fact that someone who was an obvious foreigner was trying to learn more about China’s culture and in a sense was trying to promote it. That’s perhaps how they saw it.
“I think the fact that I got that far was probably because I was popular with the audiences. In fact, I was even told by one of the blokes at China’s Got Talent that when I went on the stage their ratings went up. I’m not sure if he was speaking figuratively.”
During his time on the show his family were interviewed via Skype, and there were even Chinese documentaries made about his life.
As well as receiving the odd request for his autograph, it was thanks to his performance at the national Red Song Gala – which was really popular in the province of Jiangxi – that he had an uncomfortable celebrity moment.
“I went to the supermarket one afternoon with my wife and we were mobbed by people,” he said. “We couldn’t move – people were asking for my autograph, photos. It was bonkers. I’m not saying it happened all the time, but it happened enough for me to know that I didn’t really like that.”
Following his national success on the talent show, opportunities in the city emerged. But Iain realised he preferred a quieter way of life.
“I was asked by two companies – one in Shanghai, one in Beijing – if they could be my agent. But the problem was is that would involve moving from Sanya to Shanghai or Beijing. And I’d left Shanghai to come to Sanya and have the quiet life.
“Yes, I would have probably made quite a bit of money if I’d have gone on to do these things, but in the end I decided not to sign on.”
Iain then tried to branch into bilingual work, after he had requests to do so. The Hainan tourism department asked him to present events directed at foreigners, in the hope of attracting tourists to the area.
When the couple found out they were expecting a child, Iain and his wife decided he should “pack in that sort of stuff, and get a proper, local, nine-to-five job here in Sanya”.
And so Iain returned to teaching English in 2018, which he did right up until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
It was then in March 2020 that Iain got his first big break as a bilingual television presenter on Hainan satellite television, which is broadcast nationally. It is his current labour of love.
“It’s every Tuesday night at half past seven. It’s a prime-time slot, just after the seven o’clock evening news. And it’s sort of a tourism/culture show, trying to showcase Hainan’s culture heritage, but also some of the fun stuff you can do in Hainan like scuba diving,” he says.
As for any lingering remnants of his days as a performer of red songs, Iain says he is “occasionally recognised, maybe once a month”.
“In Hainan I’m recognised more for my television work than red songs. I do still sing my red songs, but not so much.
“For example, there might be a special television show that I’m invited on – I was invited on one just the other day, but I had to turn it down because of time constraints.”
But he anticipates that this year, the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, he will have more singing engagements than usual.
“Last week I did a little video on TikTok singing red songs for Hainan local government.
“I’ve been invited to do nine consecutive live streaming shows singing red songs to mark the party founding on Hainan web television,” he says.
Meanwhile, while he may have earned a name for himself abroad, Iain admits he isn’t afforded quite the same reception on this side of the globe.
“No one recognises me as a celebrity in the UK,” he laughs.
Ian says he still remembers Cardiff and “likes to come back as often as” he can to visit family and old friends.
His love of languages hasn’t quite died out yet and he’s currently teaching himself Welsh.
“This year has not been as productive as I would have liked due to my own work commitments. I have been busy and my television and media work is also unscheduled, sudden and quite random.
“In 2019, I won an award as Skype learner of the year with Coleg Gwent. Since then I have just been doing some intermittent self-study with multi-media resources.”