Malaysia is slowly starting to flex her muscles in the competitive sport of bodybuilding, thanks to the likes of Lilian Tan.

I’m telling you, that’s a man.”

“Trust me on this, I know a woman when I see one.”

“It’s a ‘he’. How can you not tell?”

“You know what – I think ‘she’ is a transvestite.”

The two passers-by debate for another minute.

I built this body: Lilian Tan at the South-East Asian, Asian & World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Championship finals in Singapore last October where she walked away with bronze medals at two levels of competition.

Lilian Tan grins to herself. As usual, strangers are gawking and whispering about her – and not very discreetly, too.

At 157cm with a body-load of well-defined muscles, Tan is a rare sight in the country.

At this moment, two ladies behind the reception counter are staring and whispering, clearly intrigued – and perhaps intimidated – by Tan’s brawny proportions.

“I have the humour for all the second-guessing about my gender. It’s usually women who are put off, but I don’t feel insulted. It just means that my hard work is paying off,” says the good-natured 38-year-old sports veteran, a broad smile lining her chiselled face.

When you meet a sportswoman of her calibre, perhaps you would half-expect a loud and brazen character – pardon the stereotyping – to match the robust physique. But surprisingly, Tan comes across as a soft-spoken athlete whose modesty and depth are rooted in an emotional journey that trails back to her childhood.

Looking at her current form, it is hard to imagine Tan as a frail kid who was constantly teased by her schoolmates because of her incompetency in sports.

Bend it like Lilian: Tan doing bench presses. She follows a carefully designed set of workouts that target different muscle groups each day.

“I was a sickly child, plagued by coughs and colds to the point where the doctor told my mother not to bring me in again!” Tan says. “At one point, there was something very wrong with my liver – I was too young to understand it then – and the doctor said there was little hope for me. Fortunately I pulled through but I was deemed a weakling in school, constantly taunted by the other kids. You know how it is at that age; unless you’re skilled at something, it can be hard to be accepted.”

Read More