With JianHao, the cameras are always rolling, as if he were in a Singaporean version of The Truman Show. But unlike Truman Burbank, who—spoiler alert—is unaware that his life is being broadcast to the whole world as a television show, JianHao never loses sight of the fact that millions of eyes are trained on him with a laser-sharp focus.

Thus, regardless of how much he wants to be able to introduce himself as the dude “who makes fun YouTube videos”, he can’t—and won’t—shed the identity he is better known by: JianHao the YouTuber who has 3.86 million subscribers on YouTube and who, at only 26, is the CEO of Titan Digital Media, a media conglomerate.

He is intelligent, articulate, sensitive, and savvy, but what is he really like beneath that veneer of perfection? And what does he have to say about his successful (but 'formulaic' videos), the digital media industry, his now-withdrawn crowdfunding campaign to finance a movie production?

© 2020 by Rice Media. Published online in Singapore by Rice Media, recorded by Storyside 2020.