STANDIG THE TEST OF TIME
SPEAKING EXCLUSIVELY WITH AUGUST MAN MALAYSIA, AWARD-WINNING HONG KONG
ACTOR RUCO CHAN SHARES THE LONG WAY HE HAS COME AND REVEALS AN ENDURING SPIRIT WITH THE GOOD SENSE TO KEEP HIS FEET ON THE GROUND, AND A PASSION THAT WILL SEE HIM TAKE HIS ART FURTHER
Jacket, shi , belt, pants and shoes, Bo ega Veneta; Aikon Automatic in 42mm stainless steel with blue square guilloche dial and and matching blue calf leather strap with alligator pa ern, Maurice Lacroix
How has yoga helped with your current lifestyle, especially a er your herniated disc injury more than 10 years ago?
The herniated disc is something I have to live with for the rest of my life, and the thing that hurts the herniated disc more is instead the stagnant sitting and slouching, rather than the strenuous workouts. There’s no one distinctive bad posture; there are only the ones that you stay in too long that can become bad for you. It’s mostly about discomfort management for me these days, and over the years, I’ve developed a high awareness to try not to make the situation worse by compounding the effects of any bad posture. Besides that, the meditation that practising yoga provides has opened up a kind of new dimension in me, which I never understood or even knew of in the past. It has given me these gaps between being triggered by a particular emotion, say, anger or frustration, and there’s a buffer before a reaction towards the said emotion. Overtime, through practice, the gap grows bigger and bigger; I’ve grown more aware and conscious that although I could easily feel something, I don’t necessarily have to react to it. In fact, the buffer time gives me a chance to decide how to respond to these emotions rationally.
When would you say is the best time to practise yoga?
I like it in the mornings, actually. I’ve practised yoga as early as 4AM (laughs)! There are different energies throughout the day; when you practise early in the morning, most people are still asleep, and the general energy of the space and environment you’re in is very calm and very serene. The later it is in the day, the more chaotic the energy gets, as everyone is up and about, and rushing to work. Evening practice is also very nice, but it’s a different energy altogether. I would suggest that you do something that’s more calming rather than energising for evening yoga practices. You could end up practising late, and you wouldn’t want to go home so energised that you couldn’t sleep!
What would you say are some of the ethical practices one has to uphold when doing yoga with other people? Generally, I would prefer my students to minimise conversations when coming into class. We already do so much of that in the