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SINGAPORE: MediaCorp actor Dai Yang Tian has revealed that he was once approached by top Korean talent agency SM Entertainment to join their stable of artistes.
At the time, Dai, a Shanghai native, decided to join SM Entertainment's talent search interviews on the recommendation of Korean actress Bae Seul Ki, with whom he co-starred in the 2007 Sino-Korean co-production "Groove Party".
If he was accepted, he would join the ranks of other popular Korean acts like Super Junior, SHINee and Girl's Generation that were all groomed by SM Entertainment.
Dai was unable to take part in the first round of interviews because he was in the midst of a talent competition and invited the agency's representatives to travel to Shanghai and interview him there instead.
He insisted that he was not trying to play hard to get and pointed out that the agency representatives went to Shanghai for other matters and simply "interviewed him on the way".
Dai also revealed that he was invited for the second round of interviews and was told that the company will send him for training in Korea for a year as well as to study Korean.
However, he turned down the offer as he was already in the midst of negotiations with MediaCorp after being talent-spotted by the company.
"It is not because the result of the second interview was unknown, because I treasure all opportunities. But at that time, I was already about to sign with MediaCorp. Perhaps it is because I take a traditional view on such things. I was already approached by MediaCorp so I decided to follow through with what I have started," said Dai.
But he has no regrets.
The 26-year-old actor said there was no guarantee he would make a name for himself even if he had illustrious agency colleagues like Super Junior, and was confident he made the right decision when he signed with MediaCorp.
Since joining MediaCorp in 2007, he has gone on to win the Best Newcomer Award an the Star Awards last year and has been nominated for Best Actor for his role as Xiaobei in blockbuster Channel 8 drama "Together" at the 2010 Star Awards.
The rising star is definitely not short on attention. He also recently graced the cover of Singaporean Korean-English lifestyle magazine Kozine's January issue.
Dai was actually taken aback by the lengths Kozine went to in order to interview him. The magazine sent him a list of interview questions to which he replied in Mandarin and got his manager to translate it into English before sending it back. The magazine then had to translate his answers to Korean before using them.
"Nowadays, it is Korea that is reaching out to the world. It is very seldom the other way around," Dai said, adding that he hopes his popularity will one day spread to Korea.
- CNA/ha
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