Yau-Man

[Erika]

YAU-MAN
Age
54

Hometown
Martinez, CA

Occupation
Computer Engineer




Biography
Originally from Malaysian Borneo, Yau-Man Chan attended All Saints Secondary School in Kota Kinabalu. He moved to the United States where he received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to receive his Master of Science degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Chan is the Director of Information Systems for the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. In this position, he manages and runs the information systems infrastructure for administrative, research and teaching units of the college. This includes setting up networks, computers and managing business database systems. He previously worked designing electronic circuits for scientific instruments to collect data. He's also been a housepainter, cook and dishwasher.

Chan enjoys playing table tennis, bicycling, woodworking and reading. He is a member of the USA Table Tennis Association. He describes himself as intellectual and contemplative. He considers himself a natural leader, a good organizer, very skilled with his hands, very resourceful and feels he possesses a keen intellect.

Chan has been married to his wife, Jennifer, for 23 years. They have two children, Penelope and Ione. They also have a dog, Tucker and two rabbits, Ruby and Cupid. Chan's birth date is August 26, 1952.

Favorites
Colors: Sky blue
Scents: Rose, lavender
Flowers: Rose
Board Games: No favorite
Video Games: Atari classics, Ms. Pac-Man
Sports to Play: Table tennis
Sports Teams: No favorite
Outdoor Activities: Touring
TV Shows: News, 60 Minutes
Movies: Three Days of the Condor, Anne of the Thousand Days
Music: Classical
Magazines: The Economist
Books/Authors: The Reason Driven Life by Robert Price
Cereals: No favorite
Fruits: Apple
Snack Foods: Shrimp chips
Cookies: Chocolate chocolate chip
Candy Bars: M&M's
Alcoholic Drinks: White wine--Gewertzraminer
Non-Alcoholic: Café latte

Source: CBS.com

[Erika]

Survivor: Fiji Interview: Yau-man

by Staci Krause
May 15, 2007 - Survivor: Fiji finale aired Sunday night. Before getting down to the final three, there were two more eliminations that had to be taken care of, and unfortunately for fan favorite Yau-man, he was destined to go out in fourth place. He had a deal with Dreamz he felt confident would take him to the final three, but instead, Dreamz turned his back on the deal and Yau-man, sealing Yau-man's fate.

We talked to Yau-man about that fateful moment where Dreamz did not hand over the immunity idol. We also talked to him about his newfound fanbase, his other experiences on the island and the bonds he made.

IGN TV: How did you come to be on the show?

Yau-man: Well, I was one of those people that the producers tried to find different ethnic groups and different ages and a variety of people. I was found through the USA Table Tennis Association and my involvement with the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association. So I got a call from one of the casting companies and told me to apply and I did.

IGN TV: Were you a fan of Survivor?

Yau-man: No, not really. I did not even watch the series. I watched the very first one in Borneo. When I told the producers that and I watched it only because I grew up in Borneo, that's why I watched the first one. They got really interested and kept pursuing me.

IGN TV: How did you prepare for the physical and mental challenges?

Yau-man: I did not prepare that much. The only preparation for the physical challenges was that I took swimming lessons to get myself to be able to swim more efficiently. I can swim, but not very well and not very fast. So I decided I needed to take a swimming lesson and I took about five lessons to just hone up on my swimming skills. And it turned out that I didn't need it. That was quite fortunate because I don't think I'd do very well when intense swimming is required.

IGN TV: When you got to Fiji, was it what you expected?

Yau-man: It was a lot harder than it looks on TV. One of the other things that I did was to rent every Survivor series possible from Netflix and watch it to learn about it. And when I got to Fiji and the game started, it was a lot harder than it's portrayed on TV.

IGN TV: What were you thinking as all 19 of you were working together to build a shelter?

Yau-man: Well, I was helping to build the shelter as much as I can because I'm quite a handyman. I was thinking, 'well what's going to happen next, am I going to be the first to get booted out?' Since I thought I was the oldest guy there, I felt really, really worried. I thought, 'oh, I'm going to be the first to be booted out.' But then when I met Gary, who is a year older than me, I thought 'oh well, then I'll be the second one booted out.'

IGN TV: So you expected age to come into play?

Yau-man: Yes, I fully expected age, and one of the things that I had to keep myself from doing is telling the youngsters what to do. I mean, they were doing crazy things and I had to tell myself, 'those young guys don't want an old guy telling them what to do, so shut up!'

IGN TV: Were you surprised about the diversity of the casting?

Yau-man: Not really, because I heard that they did that in Cook Islands, so I was watching Cook Islands, just part of it because we left for filming right in the middle of it, and so I know that they are trying to go for diversity and when we got to Fiji and when I counted heads, I said 'oh there's four different ethnic groups and there's five from each group' and so I thought that they were going to do the same race division again.


IGN TV: Did you think that would help or hurt you?

Yau-man: I didn't think that would make a difference because being a minority race here, I realize that everybody thinks Asians are Asians, but no there are so many different variations and so that we are so different, I thought that would not make a difference.

IGN TV: How do you think the show represented you and your personality?

Yau-man: I think the show quite accurately reflects my personality and maybe amplified the more gentle and intellectual side of me. More than I thought I would be. I think it also highlights the fact that winning these challenges is not just brute strength, but if you think about it and analyze the situation, you can actually do quite well. And showed that I was thinking through all the challenges and was able to win some of them because I thought through them before just jumping ahead and going with just brute strength.

IGN TV: Did you surprise yourself with winning so many challenges?

Yau-man: Yes, I certainly surprised myself when I started winning. I guess the first one was the bow and arrow and the javelin throw and I did so well and I go 'wow, I finally got the respect from my fellow tribesmates. And then when I look back and I say 'well, look, in the pillow fight, I was the only one who pushed Cassandra off and in the beam, where we have to cross the beam, Michelle and I were the only two to cross.' So looking back, I thought 'I can actually do this', so when the next immunity where the team was on the boat trying to get the bags from the spring using the little hook and we were two hooks ahead of the other guys for my team to win, and following that was my first individual immunity challenge where I won it pretty much easily. I finally, by that time, convinced myself that I could really go against the other guys and that gave me a really good morale boost.

IGN TV: And that also put a target on your back?

Yau-man: And that certainly put a target on me. So from then on, I said 'well, if there's a target on my back, I need to really, really step it up and play this right.'

IGN TV: You were definitely the fan favorite. How did that make you feel when you realized how the public was responding to you?

Yau-man: I am still trying to process it. I just saw the CBS post and I'm at 55 ½ percent. I was just telling my children that if this was an election, it would be called a landslide. So I'm still trying to process it.

IGN TV: You seemed to stay out of most of the drama, with personality conflicts and whatnot. How did you manage that?

Yau-man: I tried very hard to do that, to not get involved. And that's by just keeping my mouth shut when there's a quarrel going on. Where there was a disagreement, I just stayed out of it and not only that, I did not speak ill of anybody. I did not badmouth anybody and I tried very hard not to stir up any situation that required any personality conflicts. It was a very conscious effort on my part to not end up with personality conflicts.

IGN TV: Did you bond with anyone?

Yau-man: Yes, I bonded very much with Earl from the very beginning and I was trying to bond with Michelle as she got booted off.

IGN TV: Why did you think Dreamz was trustworthy when he had betrayed other alliances before?

Yau-man: I think that he really doesn't quite get the social part of this game. He is thinking too hard and doesn't know how to process all his thoughts. And so he's all over the map. I think when he betrayed his so-called 'four horseman' alliance, I don't think he sees it that way. I don't think he sees that he has betrayed anybody. So he's from a background where the idea that you have to keep your word or you go back on your word because of some expediency doesn't make him feel that he has done something wrong. That's the way he is.

IGN TV: Did you have a feeling he was going to keep the idol?

Yau-man: I thought he would have given it to me. All through after the challenge and when we talked about it in camp and so on, he still was talking about 'yeah, I'll give it.' And when I asked Cassandra, 'have you talked to Dreamz?' and she said 'yeah, Dreamz told me he's going to give to Yau-man' and Earl 'yeah, Dreamz will give it to you', so from every indication, from every angle, I thought he was going to give it to me. And from himself, too, he kept assuring me. In fact, when we went into the challenge, he said 'I'm going to win this for you.' The odd part is I really wanted to win that challenge also, I didn't give up because I thought he was going to give it to me. I could have hung in there with him and maybe even beat him. I was switching my hands back and forth to not let one set of muscles get too tired and in one of the switches, my hand slipped, and that's when I fell.

IGN TV: There was a long pause before you used the idol to save yourself when Stacy was voted out. Was that editing or were you really debating about using the idol?

Yau-man: It wasn't that long. Because in the television, the way that they edit it, when they showed the faces of all the six people, they were shooting those six faces simultaneously with six cameras, so when they play it back, they sequentially play them. That's why it looks so long. I sort of hesitated and then I went for it.

IGN TV: Was it Stacy's comments during tribal council that tipped you off or was it something else that made you feel like you had to use the idol?

Yau-man: It was a combination. I went in there thinking that I don't have to use it, because I really didn't want to use it until the final five. And when I went into it, I felt comfortable, sort of, because I knew that Dreamz was the only one who was trying to get rid of me. So I was very attentive at that tribal council. I was listening between the lines, so to speak. And when Stacy mentioned it was a split vote, I go 'uh oh, I lost Stacy's vote.' And now I have lost two, there's six of us, and I figured if I lost one more, it's going to be a tie. And I did not want to deal with a tie vote. I would hate to lose it because of a tie vote and I didn't know what the tiebreaker is going to be. Survivor has had some really, really strange tiebreakers in the past, from drawing rocks to fire building or counting how many previous votes there were. None of which is what I want to deal with. I said, 'I don't want to deal with a tie situation, I'm going to play this idol.' And it turned out to be a good thing, because it would have been worse than a tie.

IGN TV: How surprised were you when it came down to a 3-1 elimination, rather than a 2-2 tie when you were voted off?

Yau-man: I thought it would be a 2-2 tie. I thought that Earl would hang in there with me one more time. I was sort of surprised. But then later on, when I thought about it, I thought, yeah, he would have done that because he wanted the million dollars.

IGN TV: Why did you vote for Earl to win?

Yau-man: Well because he has been very loyal to me, all the way. From the way I see it, I thought we were going to go to a final four and he was saying it was free for all at final four. So I thought that either way, we had met each other's expectations at that point, although I expected him to go one more step further, but he wanted the million dollars as much. Throughout the alliance with him, he had kept his word, during those horrendous days in Ravu, when we were all suffering, there were people who wanted to vote me out first, he kept everybody in line and said 'keep Yau-man around' and he kept to his word and I'm very grateful for that.

IGN TV: How much of a struggle was it on Ravu initially?

Yau-man: It was horrible. I have never suffered so much. It was real hunger. It was real thirst. We were so thirsty, then in some of the confessionals, I sound like Donald Duck. I didn't have enough saliva, my tongue was sticking to my upper palate, it was horrible.

IGN TV: Why do you think Cassandra and Dreamz didn't get a single vote?

Yau-man: Well, I pretty much told he Dreamz he won't get a single vote, I guess they edited that out. I said 'it's an empty victory for you, I don't think you'll get a single vote from the jury'. And Cassandra, I think Cassandra didn't get any vote because the jury thinks that she was just riding on Earl's coattails all the way. Not only did she not win any physical challenges, in many a physical challenge, it looked like she was not even trying very hard, so I think that the jury have very little respect for that.

IGN TV: If you could pick one thing you took away from Survivor as a positive, what would it be?

Yau-man: A positive would be it was an incredible experience for me. I went into the game with the sole purpose of winning a million dollars and nothing else. But, in spite of that, I did get a lot out of it and I did prove to myself that I can go up against the young, strong guys and come out ahead.

IGN TV: What are you up to now?

Yau-man: Well, since I didn't win the million dollars, I guess I cannot afford to take an early retirement, so I'm back to my job. I have been approached by some organizations to do some promotions for them and I will certainly give that some thought and certainly for many of the non-profits, I will try to help them out if their interests are in line with mine.

IGN TV: Any last words?

Yau-man: It was a great game and it was a great season and I'm sorry I didn't get a million dollars, but I'm glad I played it and I'm glad I turned it up a few notches and played to the best of my abilities.

Credit: http://tv.ign.com/articles/788/788663p4.html

[Erika]

Interview with YAU MAN from Joker's Updates


Yau-man: Hello everyone..
Yau-man: Let the fun begin... I just ate dinner.. cooked by my dear daughter. My wife is out of town visiting with her sisters. Yes.. My wife is out of town and all I do is play on the computer with you guys.. what a life huh..

Jokerette: How did you happen to apply for Survivor?
Yau-man: I did not apply. I was one of the recruits
Jokerette: oh really? How does that work?
Yau-man: "Recruit" means that one of the PA's (production assistant - read gopher) called me up and ask me to submit an app.
Jokerette: are you glad you did Survivor, then?
Yau-man: They were looking for older people and Asian - very few older people or Asian apply for the show. Yes. I'm glad I did

Jokerette: draconess asks: How did you manage to stay out of so many of the arguements between tribe members?
Yau-man: By nature, I'm an easy guy to get along - I don't let stuff get to me easily - so I stay out of everyone's arguments.
Strkaholic: Wasnt that difficult in that environment though?
Yau-man: It was very difficult environment - must more tougher than I every thought.

Jokerette: what was the hardest thing about survivor for you?
Yau-man: I think that know what I know now, I probably won't do it if the prize was not $1,000,000!!!
Jokerette: would you do All-stars?
Yau-man: The toughest thing was the hunger.. we were always hungry and thirsty.
Jokerette: (and neither would i.. i'd run out of cigs lol)
Yau-man: Speaking of cigs.. you know why Rocky was so volatile and obnoxious ? He's a chain smoker and he was going through nicotine withdrawal.

Jokerette: draconess asks: When did you first start using the phrase "Love all,trust few. Do wrong to none."?
Yau-man: I start using that phrase at one of the tribal council when it dawn on me that that's what it takes to get far. Actually, it was a missed quote from Shakespeare
Jokerette: which of his plays?
Yau-man: The right quote is "Love All, Trust Few , Do wrong to none" but it's been 40 years since I read All's Well that End's well (I think.)
Strkaholic: It set you apart when you did that though Yau..
Yau-man: Yes, it did.. but I hear from a lot of Shakespear scholars about my mis-quote...

Strkaholic: SuperLisa asks: if you need medication can you not be on survivor- whether it's blood pressure meds or anxiety meds, etc? Amber was given drugs on Big Brother.
Jokerette: xanax, yes.
Yau-man: No, I do not take any medications at all. I am lucky to be 55 years old and very healthy. I have blood pressure of 110/68 the last time I check and heart rate of 58!!

Strkaholic: Fiddlestickz asks: Don't you get a manuel about the show and the location you are going to so you can adapt to your environment ie. what you can eat like berries and fruit?
Yau-man: Thanks.
Yau-man: On the day before we were launched on the island, we were given a half day of safety training- where they told us what we can and cannot eat.

Jokerette: that's not much training is it did it help a lot?
Yau-man: Most people had no idea of where they were going.
Yau-man: The "training" was very basic - we were shown pictures of fish and shell fish that we cannot eat and what to do if we were bitten by the deadly sea snakes.
Strkaholic: It looked like there were an awful lot of those
Yau-man: Yes, they were everywhere and very real.. not kidding.

Jokerette: How hard was it to be on Ravu initially?
Yau-man: Ravu was horrible. We had not potable water so we only drank coconut water - I was an expert in opening greeen coconut and not lose any of the water - so I was considered valuable to keep around.
Jokerette: which is a good thing!

Jokerette: What made you decide to use the idol at that exact moment?
Strkaholic: You were valuable for much more than that!
Yau-man: On the Idol - I was very worried at that TC and when I heard Stacy mentioning break up of the alliance, I knew I had to use the idol. Ok the big question.. ta..da!! As soon as I saw the truck.. I knew I was going to do something with it to get further in the game. So, with the 6 of us left, I know that only Boo had beaten me in any challenges. None of the other 5 have -and we need to get rid of Boo. That leave Dreamz as the last potential threat - but so far he has not beaten me in any challenge - but I was just buying an "insurance" policy. If I use the truck as a deal, I have to offer it to someone who I am sure will not turn me down - I was not sure about Boo - I knew Dreamz will want it so I made the deal with him.

Jokerette: Did you & Dreamz talk after the show about him not keeping his end of the deal? What did he say?
Yau-man: No, I have not talked to Dreamz since the Reunion show in NYC. I really don't want to see his life ruined because of that bad decision and I want to help him. He said he's going to auction off the truck and donate the money to charity - I told him if he does that, I'll be happy to make a joint appearance with him - sort of help him rehabilitate his image in the public. So far, I have not heard back from him.
Jokerette: thats quite an offer, on your part.
Yau-man: Going back to Dreamz again.. could you imagine if he had lived up to his deal and as someone who runs a gym for inner city kids, when he goes to Cooperate America for donations, they will throw money at him.. he really blew it.

Strkaholic: sil asks: thanks so much for joining us tonight... How did your family handle the whole "fame" issue?
Yau-man: My family is ok with it so far. The show is not that popular in the San Francisco BAy area, so I don't get recognised that often - which is ok with me.

Strkaholic: Fiddlestickz asks: Since being on Survivor, how has the overall experience impacted on your life. Positives and Negatives, please
Yau-man: My overall experience has been very positive. (No stalkers or nasty email so far!!!)

Strkaholic: Yau..did you know that Dreamz tried to get you out before final 4?
Yau-man: Yes, I knew that he was trying to find a way out of the deal without having to go back on his words. But what he did not see past his nose is that if he goes back on his words, no jury member will give him a vote and he would have made an ass of himself in front of 20 million views world wide..

Jokerette: Loony asks: Yau, what were you hoping would happen when you created the fake idols?
Yau-man: I was hoping that someone will find it and use it. Since, other than me and Earl at that time have seen the real thing, none of the other people have any idea what the idol looks like!
Strkaholic: Did anyone ever find it that was not shown?
Yau-man: No. The cleaning crew who cleaned up Moto after the merge dug it up - I think it was sold on EBay. I wish I had thought of the ideal of making the fake idol at Ravu - I would have dug harder and probably Lisi will find it.. can you imagine...
Strkaholic: OMG..that would have been awesome!!!

Jokerette: <Loony> could you ask him what he did to occupy his time on exile? Were the cameramen there 24/7? Did he interact with them?
Yau-man: It's boring on Exile Island - except to try and keep away from the snakes. There is only one cameraman/producer there - they showed footage of me sitting under a tree in driving rain frozen still with a sea snake 2 inches from my foot!

Strkaholic: Did they talk to you guys much? Were they allowed to?
Yau-man: Misty- I don't know why they made both idols the same.. I guess Fiji was the first season that they have two idols.
Yau-man: The crew don't talk to us much - only during the formal "confessional" times. but by the end of the 6 weeks, they were getting homesick and goofy too and started to chat us up a bit.

Strkaholic: reality asks: Hi Yau-man! Give us some behind the scenes scoop on Survivor China- we know you have some!
Yau-man: I am still under contract with SEG/CBS - with a $5 million penalty clause.. so I have to be careful what I tell.
Yau-man: Ok.. here something -- Jeff Probst is really a very nice guy.. I'd love to sit down with him at a bar and have a beer.. he is very personable and charming and here's the scoop - he's not very tall - about my height.. they make him look tall on TV!!!

Strkaholic: Sapphire123 asks: what was the most challenging thing Yau-man had to face in his season of survivor?
Yau-man: The most challenging thing was to be mentally alert in spite of all the physical difficulties - the lack of food, the dirt, the plotting etc. It's a lot more mentally exhausting than I ever imagine.

Strkaholic: Fiddlestickz asks: What was a typical day and week like for playing Survivor?
Yau-man: The typical day is a lot of down time. We have no watches or calendars - we had no idea of time - so we don't know what coming up next.. until one of the producer tell us to get ready for challenge in 20 minutes! I get by quite well just sitting around and listening in on all my tribemates blabbling.. They like to talk about food all the time and exchange recipes off the top of their heads. I hated that - I want to forget food when I am hungry.

Jokerette: Mriver asks: Is there any type of first aid offered to the sick or injured?
Yau-man: Yes.. but.. we were basically told that if in ordinary life we don't go to the Emergency Room, we don't call the doctor on the island. The weather in Fiji was ok. It was suppose to be the rainy season, but we were lucky - they had a drought.. meaning that instead of raining every day for 2 or 3 hours, it rained every other day for and hours! It really never got cold.. we slept without blankets ..

Strkaholic: But couldn't you have used rain water as drinking water?
Yau-man: Yes, we try to catch rain water to drink but with only one cast iron pot it's tough - the water becomes rusty before you bring it to your mouth!! The cold is not the problem - the mosquitoes were.. they buzz around us all night like B-52 bombers .. I can still hear them..

Jokerette: Joyce asks: what did eliminated players do after their elimination? Were they taken on sightseeing tours? How were they kept busy?
Yau-man: First, if you are booted out BEFORE the jury, you are held up in the losers lodge (it's tent cabins - not 5 star resort in this part of Fiji.) and wait for the last of the Pre-Jury. So, if you want to get booted out, be the last prejury like Anthony. When all the pre-jury are assembled, they take them to a paid vacation. In the Fiji seasaon, they were sent to Syndey to hang out in a resort till the filming is over. Now, the jury has to come back to tribal council every 3 days so they have to just hang out at the loser lodge and then after the last TC, we all went home the next day. so, I was the lucky one since I only had to spend one night at the LL and flew out the next day. We cannot bring anything to the island that they didn't give us. We were asked to bring a lot of books to read - in LL since there is not TV or radio . No, not a bad deal for me. For Rocky, he was the first juror so he spent the most time in LL!!!

Strkaholic: cjj3 asks: Zhan Hu on this year's season premiere seems a bit dysfunctional. What can they to to right their boat before capsizing big time?
Yau-man: I am still trying to figure out this seasons cast.. I thought they were fans of the show and not recuits.. but didn't they learn anything from watching? Oh my gosh, as the season goes by, viewer all know more and more about the show and yet, these yahoos were caught with bad shoes and no bra going on the island!!!!
Jokerette: and they NEVER know how to start a fire!
Yau-man: Speaking of fire starting, here's an inside info (I hope I don't get in trouble!) I was the one who told everyone how to start fire with glasses but it was raining season but we tried whenever the sun was up and Michelle got lucky and got the credit for it!! No, you don't just hold your glasses over dry fiber - it would never work since your glasses are concave lenses and cannot focus the sun. the trick is to put a drop of water on the glass - it acts as a very powerful magnifying glass.

Strkaholic: Joyce asks: Does the jury discuss the remaining players much? And does the jury do a round-table discussion about the final 2 similar to Big Brother?
Yau-man: No. At the LL, we can talk about anything but are not allowed to talk about the show. So, the jurors can only listen in and questions the finalist but we cannot discuss among ourselves.

[Erika]

[toque]

Great video! That was a good cast, Yau, Boo, Lisi, Rocky, Dreamz...