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They call me Dr Love

DR WEI SIANG YU, alias 'Dr Love', is firing on all cylinders. Singapore's self-styled sex guru has intentions not only on your bedroom activities but the room's decor, your fridge, your TV set, your holiday - in brief, any part of your lifestyle that might put you in the mood.

With three television shows planned, a series of sex-strategy books and a new romance-themed travel package concept (Love Airways), Wei is aggressively marketing his 'bio-communication concept' (a term he coined to describe how the environment communicates with the body and vice versa). 'What we hear, feel, see, taste and smell can all affect our body internally,' he says. 'That includes our reproductive system.'

Based on this tenet, Wei, who describes himself as a medical inventor, first developed a series of products and services, from workshops to SMS, aimed at improving people's health and giving them so-called body empowerment. He's now moving into lifestyle.

Wearing a bright orange T-shirt and his trademark squarish glasses on the top of his forehead, Wei peppers his conversation with such jargon as 'knowledge economy', 'biopreneur' (a biological entrepreneur, should you ask), 'bio-rejuvenation' and 'hormonal mapper' (a software program that allows a woman to chart ovulation and menstruation). Unafraid to broach what's often considered a risque subject in the conservative city-state, Wei jokes about his experiences.

Although his erratic conversation is sometimes hard to follow, Wei comes across as friendly and ebullient - someone in whom you might confide your latest boyfriend or girlfriend problems. And while he cultivates a certain quirkiness - he says he uses his trendy glasses only at night - he's quick to deny that he does so to attract media attention. 'I've always been a bit of an original,' he says. 'I was born like this.'

The 35-year-old speaks enthusiastically about his latest venture, Love Airways, whose first destination is Phuket. Teaming up with Thai Airways, travel agents and luxury hotels, Love Airways offers couples an 'integrated content experience': there's a pre-departure experience (a discount voucher for a Dr Love Spa Rejuvenation), a travel experience (the Dr Love Sex Strategy Book, a comic that might keep you occupied on the plane - note that mile-high club membership isn't included) and a destination experience (romantically selected villas, with Dr Love's bio-rejuvenation range of organic delicacies on the menu).

Wei says that, with the cost of air travel in Asia being driven down by the emergence of budget airlines, value-added services are set to spring up. 'I think a war in the now highly price-competitive aviation industry is inevitable,' he says. 'Consumers want a travel experience that has integrated fun, entertainment, functionality, unique merchandise, lifestyle elements and so on - in addition to more affordable air tickets.' Love Airways couples also get a Dr Love pleasure card, which offers discounts and special deals at restaurants and lingerie boutiques in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Thailand and Singapore. Next week, Wei will announce a deal with real-estate developer SOHO China to market two of its properties, Commune by the Great Wall and Boao Canal Village on Hainan. 'We think these properties are great destinations,' he says. 'These are perfect opportunities for couples to spend time together.' Wei plans to aim at travellers from Singapore, South Korea, possibly Hong Kong and the mainland.

On September 15, Love Airways will start being promoted on a Chinese nationwide talk show by Beijing-based Enlight Media. Wei plans to launch a blind-date game show in January. He has his own now television studio on Singapore's East Coast, decorated with pop-art collectibles. Apart from the game show in China (and possibly Thailand later), Wei is signed to do a spot from October on a talk show on Singapore's Channel 5, focusing on such topics as using bathtub massages to rekindle passions. This will all be done tastefully, to avoid incurring the ire of the local censor. 'This isn't pornography,' he says. 'This is edu-tainment.'

More controversial will be Dr Love Super Baby Making Show, in which 10 couples from around the world will compete over eight weeks to be the first to conceive. The baby-making reality show, which Wei has been developing for more than a year, has already attracted potential participants. 'I keep on receiving photos of couples who'd like to participate even before we've started the casting,' Wei says.

He says couples will be selected by strict criteria. 'Obviously they'll need to be ready for it,' he says. 'They'll be assessed in three ways. Biologically, they'll need to be fit to participate in the show. Socially, they'll need a certain level of financial stability, so they're not participating just for the prize money [of more than US$100,000]. And they'll be assessed psychologically.' The show, which he hopes to sell around the world, will analyse aspects of the couples' lifestyle, from what they eat to their sleeping patterns, as well as test each couple's interactions when given challenges and put under stress.

Wei is an unlikely advocate for love and passion. He was celibate for more than a year before his latest relationship (now three months old), and says he still lives with his elderly, widowed mother - although he says his bedroom 'has a few interesting props'. Given his busy schedule - he's travelling nearly every week - he even decided to sell what could be considered the ultimate singleton prop: a vintage MG (along with three other cars).

The youngest of six children, Wei was partly educated in Australia, where he completed a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at Monash University in Melbourne. But after working as a doctor for a little over a year, Wei and four passive investors decided to set up Meggpower, a health-application provider to marry wireless information technology with life sciences.

He quickly hit the headlines in Singapore when he organised a wireless teenager sex-education campaign, Sex in the Air in 2002, replying to their sex questions via SMS, ahead of a radio programme.

Building on this success, he launched his Love Boat cruises last year: stressed-out couples and singles are ferried by yacht to luxury resort for a weekend of romance. Wei says about 1,200 people went on the Love Boat, but the business was quickly hit by the Sars outbreak. Wei says he's about to re-launch it, having signed a deal with Sunsail, a yacht-charter and watersports holidays business.

When it comes to new branding ideas, it seems Wei is full of it. He says, for instance, that he's also involved in a venture with DP Architect to develop a Love module interior-design concept, 'which will trigger your reproductive instinct when you go into your house'.

'This is no gimmick,' he says. 'This is bio-ergonomic design, biological fung shui. For example, there's a true co-relationship between the pelvis sizes of a couple and the bed height. The difference between the pelvis height of each partner and the bed height creates an actual co-relationship with the number of sex positions,' he says. 'Looking at this, I can almost predict the number of positions the couple will have.'

Wei says there's plenty of academic research behind his ideas and that he has support from doctors around the world, including Carl Wood, the father of in-vitro fertilisation.

And he says his company is still pursuing its initial business of trying to help women get pregnant - using wireless technology. Soon, Singapore Telecom will launch Dr Love Baby Smart Tips, an SMS service offering tips on diet and exercise six months before conception. And Yahoo Asia will launch Dr Love Hormonal Wellness Tips on how to design the perfect lifestyle around a woman's cycle.

He's also planning to launch his own brand of condoms, early next year. He says he'll donate part of the profits to various Aids groups to help them start wireless sex education for children.

With such an active business schedule, does Wei have much time for a sex life of his own? 'Yes,' he says, laughing. 'A quality one.' But he says he has no plans to have children. 'Right now,' he says, 'I'm engaged in some familiarisation programme for that multi-sensory touch.'

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