“I could not complete the requisite number of chin-ups, which made my life as a recruit and cadet quite miserable.” — Chen Show Mao

By Les Tan/Red Sports

Chen Show Mao, 50, is a Member of Parliament for Aljunied Group Representative Constituency (GRC). He was elected to parliament in May 2011.

Born in Taiwan, Show Mao came to Singapore at the age of 11 and studied at Catholic High (PSLE — ’75), Anglo-Chinese School (GCE O Levels — ’78), National Junior College (GCE A Levels — ’80), Harvard University (A.B — ’86), Oxford University (M.A — ’89) and Stanford University (J.D — ’92). Show Mao went to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship.

Show Mao was a lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell from 1992 to 2011 before entering the Singapore parliament. He is married with three children.

In an exclusive interview with Red Sports, he shares with us the role that sports and exercise has played in his life.

Red Sports: What part has sports and exercise played in your life?
Chen Show Mao: In school, I played football (badly) and swam (won medals in breaststroke, which came easiest to me), and later played tennis and squash (both indifferently).

In the army, I learnt that I was good at distance running (best in platoon) but way below average in upper-body strength (worst in platoon). I could not complete the requisite number of chin-ups, which made my life as a recruit and cadet quite miserable. It also drove me to a regimen of strengthening exercises that kept me on the field most days after training.

One day, after an especially arduous run with a full backpack I was surprised to find that all of a sudden I could complete twice the requisite number of chin-ups, while I couldn’t do even half as many the day before.  Just like that.

I had a similar experience at age 11 when the facility to read and comprehend my textbook in English came to me, out of the blue following months of learning letters and words.

I have since given back some of the English and most of the strength, but the exhilaration I felt at each dawning still stays with me. I guess these experiences taught me to keep going even when I don’t see any results.

Red Sports: What’s your perspective on how physically rugged Singaporeans are as a people?
Chen Show Mao: I have always felt that Singaporeans are more rugged than most other city-dwellers. I hope that we (not forgetting I, me and myself) will continue to keep fit through habit of exercise.

I remember an early public health study found that London bus conductors had lower chances of heart attack than drivers on the same buses (who came from the same social classes, went to the same schools, lived in the same neighborhoods, had the same diet and kept the same working hours), likely because the conductors moved about inside the buses all day while the drivers kept sedentary.

Perhaps for the first time in our history, most Singaporeans would need to take exercise deliberately in order to stay fit. I hope that we will manage to do so for ourselves. But I think exercise need not be a matter only of individual will. The government can help in many ways: PAL (Programme for Active Learning) and other initiatives to allocate more resources to physical education in schools and encourage a more sporty lifestyle for our youngsters; the development of more low-cost sports and recreational facilities easily accessible to the public, etc.

Red Sports: Sports in Singapore is growing in significance. What is your wish for Singapore’s sporting future?
Chen Show Mao: I see things that give me hope about the future of sports in Singapore. For example, the growth of sports publications such as Redsports, which increasingly give due coverage to ordinary athletes and promote values beyond winning (such as fair play and plain taking part); and efforts by sports bodies such as the FAS not only to identify and attract foreign talent but also to focus on the systematic development of local talent through the combined-schools, Young Lions and senior-squad levels. I hope one day to see our boys (and the Lionesses) in the World Cup finals.

Chen Show Mao Fitness Fact file
10km run: 60min
5km run: 30min
2.4km: 15min
Height: 175cm
Weight: 65kg