How do you keep young people (especially girls) awake during a humdrum tour around a Chinese heritage museum? The answer- Derrick Hoh Wei Jian.

As ambassador for Wan Qing CultureFest 2012, last year’s winner of the title of Singapore Most Outstanding Singer at the Global Chinese Music Awards guided approximately 25 of his young fans on an hour-long tour around the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall on Aug 5.

Cultural Tour

Derrick’s International fan club donned their dark blue club shirt and assembled at the museum’s entrance hall to await the arrival of the local idol singer. When his pretty face appeared from behind the pillars, the fans broke into faint squeals, muting their enthusiasm only because they were in a museum.

To lighten up the atmosphere, the tour on Sun Yat Sen’s life commenced with Derrick making small jokes such as mistaking the old building of the memorial hall in the painting at the entrance for Marina Bay Sands.

Derrick, who has won seven local and international awards in as many years as he’s been in the music business, kept the fans engaged with questions to quiz their understanding and small tokens were given to those who answered them accurately.

Among the girls who attended the tour, Tay Aui Ping, 19, a student, said, “Before the tour I already knew Sun Yat Sen, but I did not understand the whole history fully.”

During the CultureFest last year, Derrick was only involved in the event’s closing ceremony, Flaunt It!. In order to take a step further and to attract the younger crowd to the museum, the pretty boy was given the role of a tour guide.

The 26-year-old admitted to UrbanWire that he was oblivious of the history of Sun Yet Sen before the tour. The first thing he did when he was appointed ambassador was to go on Wikipedia to research on him. Despite that, the enthusiastic singer thought that he should provide more than the information found online.

“Eventually I am the one who is going to convey these (heritage) messages to my fans [so] I’m not gonna just tell them things that I read from Wikipedia. I’ve got to give my own angle on things,” explained the heartthrob, who was part of Coca Cola’s Open Happiness campaign.

Upcoming English Extended Play (EP)

During an interview with UrbanWire, the Project Superstar second runner-up revealed that he’ll be releasing an English EP slated for release in September. It is Derrick’s first attempt at making English music and he’ll be veering away from his usual dance-pop music and going indie for it.

“I want to do this like any other English Indie singer in Singapore. We’re trying to do this as indie as possible,” announced Derrick.

As another departure from his usual Chinese offerings, he’ll be playing with a band. The passionate idol has also revealed that one of the band members was a schoolmate of his.

There will also be a collaboration track with a female singer and although Derrick wouldn’t reveal more about that person, he let slip that she is a non-Asian. Could there be a possible collaboration with a famous female singer from the US? From that, fans can eagerly anticipate for the disclosure of this mysterious figure.

The new English EP is also a chance for him to showcase his versatility as it has also allowed Derrick to be more involved in its production as he will be taking part in its packaging and song writing.

He will be performing with a live band for the first time at Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall on Aug 11 from 8 to 9pm.

Fans can look forward to acoustic versions of his songs and a medley of songs from his friends such as Wong Jing Lun and Kelly Poon. For fans who are interested to get up close with the rising superstar, he will be conducting a second tour around the museum on Aug 12 as well.