Girl ON fire

Actress, dancer, singer, content creator Chen Yixin is a woman who cannot be categorised. Here, the multi-hyphenate shares her love for the 7ttle red dot we all call home and her dreams of showing the world that not all Asians are alike.

- JASMINE ALIMIN

Chen Yixin didn’t have a typical Singaporean childhood. She is, after all, the daughter of veteran A‑list actors Edmund  Chen and Xiang Yun, whose faces have been seen on small screens across Singapore since the 1980s. While regular kids spent their days running riot at the neighbourhood playground, Yixin and her brother Chen  Xi mucked about on set, watching their parents confront commanding directors, bossy stylists, blinding lights, and a flurry of costume changes.

Her close relationship with film production aside, Yixin is very much a Singapore girl in all aspects—and she’s proud of it. Ask her what her favourite local dishes and top hangout spots are, and she immediately lights up, gamely listing affordable eats such as Sing Swee Kee chicken rice and Blanco Court Prawn Mee. “What I  love about Singapore is that it’s not impossible to find affordable things such as $1  coffee and $3  chicken rice,”  shares the 23‑year‑old actress, who made her debut in the local Mandarin drama While We Are Young (2017).