would have kept them at home – a
condominium in River Valley – but
Min isn’t a big fan of clutter. “We still
have constant battles about this,”
Peng says, guffawing, “when I’m
considering bringing a piece back,
she would go, ‘No! You can’t bring
that home!’”
It’s just one of the compromises
Peng has had to make in the
marriage. But lest you think Peng
is bossed around, he says Min does
make some concessions, “though
she probably doesn’t let me know
it’s a concession!”
Peng and Min really are the epitome
of two halves becoming one whole,
despite their battles. Connected by
a deep-seated passion for travel,
the award-winning hotelier and the
accomplished violinist realised how
similar they were in terms of values,
ideals and aspirations, and slowly,
fell in love.
“It definitely wasn’t a thunderbolt
kind of love!” Peng laughs.
Naturally, a few years later, Peng
went down on one bended knee.
Then, he turns contemplative,
rubbing his hands on his thighs as he
ponders how far he’s grown.
“[Marriage] has been a great
journey. Although it’s only been
three years, it’s been quite a settling
experience. Being married and
having a kid has made work that
much more meaningful. I have to be
honest; it’s been a real plus,” says
Peng quietly. “Being married, it gives
you that sense of grounding.”
In fact, if there was one regret he
had about his marriage so far, it was
not getting hitched earlier in life.
Hold on there. Getting married
earlier? Not many people feel that
way in this day and age!
Peng laughed.
“Well, I didn’t know how fun it would be!
If I knew it was going to be this incredible
and enjoyable, I would have definitely
taken the plunge when I was younger,”
says Peng with a grin.
Surprisingly, one of the aspects of
fatherhood Peng thoroughly enjoyed was
changing Conor’s diapers. While most
traditional Dads would delegate such
tasks, Peng made the decision to get
stuck in. He and his wife even dispensed
with the idea of a confinement nanny,
choosing to be as hands-on as possible
with their son’s upbringing.
For Peng, he jokes that it made him
“feel a bit useful” because otherwise, he
would feel a tad left out from his son’s
life. “Getting involved in his life, whether
it was replacing his diapers, bathing him
or waking up in the middle of the night to
feed him, was quite memorable. I grew a
lot, both as a father and as an individual,
through these experiences,” Peng says.
Of course, the journey hasn’t always
been smooth sailing. After all, marriage
is not always a bed of roses. There is a
lot of work involved to make the union
between two different personalities
work. For Peng and Min, this means
setting certain ground rules for their
marriage and sticking to it through thick
and thin.
Besides compromising on issues the
two of them have different opinions on,
Peng reveals the final two ingredients
to his successful marriage: open,
unfiltered communication and
teamwork. In the Loh household, there
is no dominant personality who has the
final say in all decisions. Instead, Peng
and Min make choices together, working
through any disagreements that might
come up along the way.
innovate and a mind that’s flexible and
can do different things. I feel these are
important, classic skill sets to have, even
as the world becomes more borderless
each day.”
They are the same tenets and qualities
Peng applies each and every day, not
just in the office but in the family home.
And as I watch Peng speed away
with his smartphone in his hand, I
was struck by the playful pep in his
step. As the cliché goes, choose a
job you love and you’ll never have to
work a day in your life, and it looks
like Peng has never worked a day in
his life ever since he bought his first
property in Chinatown.
It definitely is about finding
the balance between your daily
life and responsibilities, and the
people who rely on you. When you
get married, your family unit is an
important consideration, perhaps
even more than yourself.
“We make sure we agree on all the
major issues and we make life decisions
jointly. And once we reach these
decisions, we stick with it,” says Peng.
“At the end of the day, the both of us
have to be able to live with the choices
we make as a team.”
Peng admits that, at the moment, most
of their differences come from how
to raise Conor, especially where they
should send him to school. Peng hopes
to be able to send him to St. Columba’s
College in Ireland (where his father
studied at and where Peng too
made his mark) to continue
the proud family tradition
but Min, on the other hand,
prefers to entrust Conor’s
education to the Singapore
system. “I also hope he’ll take
over the family business, i.e. Unlisted
Collection, one day but naturally, Min is
praying Conor will follow in her footsteps
and pick up the violin,” says Peng, his
signature boyish grin spreading across
his face.
Ultimately, the two of them want Conor
to be well-adjusted and happy with
whatever he chooses to pursue, be it
business or music. Peng just wants
Conor to chart his own course in life, just
like he once did when he broke family
tradition by pursuing law instead of
medicine, and then when he exchanged
his robes for 1000-thread-count bed
sheets.
“The world we live in is so complex
now. Professions such as doctors and
lawyers will become less relevant 20
years from now and new trends will rise
to take their places,” says Peng. “It’s
more valuable to have a willingness to
Nov 2013 • Family & Life
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