This 25-year-old Singaporean is a contestant on a popular Chinese dating show

If you are a fan of dating shows like Single's Inferno and Love Island, you would probably have heard of China's Let's Fall in Love (我们恋爱吧), which sees a group of young singles getting to know each other in hopes of finding the One. 

Those watching the sixth season of the reality show, now known in English as Relationship, would have noticed a Singaporean in the mix when it first started airing on Sep 10.

Introducing himself as Chen Kang, the Singaporean participant, who goes by the handle @n_p_c_j on TikTok, shared a clip with the caption: “Pov: You’re the first true blue Singaporean on a Chinese variety show.” 

Accompanying the caption was a snippet of his self-introduction, in which he shared he’s had three relationships. He also described himself as a loyal person who “doesn’t know much about romance”. 

When 8days.sg reached out to Chen Kang, he told us his name is Jaryl but declined to give us his surname. (It's since been revealed as Tan.) He calls himself Jay on the show as it's easier for his non-English speaking friends to pronounce.

He is 25 and he graduated with a bachelor's in commerce, international business, and marketing from the University of Sydney earlier this year. He is now working as a management trainee in the supply chain industry.

He also started a travel community, @offthegrid.sg on Instagram, where he hopes to connect young travellers who are "looking to unplug from information overload in life" and wish to embark on unique experiences.

Jaryl has impressed many with his eloquent Mandarin on the show.

When we brought this up, he said: "I've always spoken Mandarin at home. I started hanging out with more Chinese people in uni so it just naturally went from there. If you watch the show, you can tell that my Mandarin gets better as [I got used to it]," he told us. 

Many netizens were also curious to know how he got on the show in the first place. 

Replying to one comment, Jaryl revealed that he received a message on Xiao Hong Shu, which we assume means he was scouted by the show's producers on the app.

However, he declined to reveal more details about the selection process or the show in general during our chat so no spoilers here. Another TikTok clip sees Jaryl chatting with a female Chinese participant, who expressed her interest in visiting Singapore. 

“I planned on going to Singapore to study,” she said, adding that she hopes to get into INSEAD, a graduate business school located at 1 Ayer Rajah Avenue. 

Jaryl then revealed that the INSEAD campus is “right next to his house”. 

“My primary and secondary are located right next to INSEAD,” he continued, before cheering her on. 

No need for guesses here. Jaryl told us he's an alum of Fairfield Methodist Primary School and Fairfield Methodist Secondary School. 

“This guy’s Mandarin standard is better than probably 80 per cent of SG younger generation,” read one popular comment on the video, while another cheered him on as “Singapore’s representative”. 

Of course, being Singapore's rep also comes with a fair bit of stress. He said: "For sure it was nerve-wracking. But maybe not because of my nationality. Mandarin is my second language so I was still worried I couldn’t express myself well enough especially in writing."

"The main reason for the stress was my lack of experience. I’ve never been in front of the camera before and when I walked out in the first episode there were countless cameras. Just knowing that people will be watching the show when it airs added to [the stress too]," Jaryl added.

Those impressed with how Jaryl has effortlessly fit in as a foreign participant will have to stay tuned to future episodes, which will be available on Youku and YouTube, to see if he really does find true love.

This story was originally published in 8Days.