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SCMP Reporter

IN recent years Hong Kong's pop music scene has been flooded with new singers, albeit many with doubtful musical talent. This flood has brought increasing competition, and there's every sign it will intensify still further, as more performers arrive from north of the border.

   Mao A-min, known to many as China's Singing Queen, is among the rising number of mainland artists seeking to establish themselves in the territory.

   The release a month ago of her latest Mandarin album, Mao A-min, by TVB's affiliate, Capital Artists marked her formal entry into the local market.

   Sales have gone well - reaching the 10,000 mark to date - according to Capital Artists, which maintains that despite her immense popularity in China, Mao is still a new name in the territory.

  'The sales figure is already considered good for a new name,' says an executive of the company. Meanwhile, the same album, also released on the mainland, has generated sales of 100,000 copies there.

   Dressed in a trendy grey sweater and black pants, Mao looks relaxed as she arrives for our interview. Success in the territory does not seem too much pressure for her. She remains loyal to her mainland fans.

   'The pace of development in China's music scene is not as fast as Hong Kong's. I hope I'll have more new things to offer to my mainland audience by working in Hong Kong. I always tell them the latest things about places outside of China. I'd like to be close to them.

   'I only want to sing good songs,' she says. 'Singing is a big interest of mine.'     Mao looks younger than on her album's cover. She is tight-lipped about her age, except for saying that she is not yet 30. The youthful singer says she has no particular expectations for her local career, nothing, for instance, like achieving the high level of success of Faye Wong, who is originally from Beijing.

   'I don't envy her success. I could have stayed in China and made lots of money there,' says Shanghai-born Mao.

   She does, however, hope that Hong Kong people will be exposed to more work by mainland musicians.

   The bulk of the songs on her latest album, including the local chart-topper I Don't Want To Be Hurt By Love Again, are the work of a Beijing composer, a good friend of hers.

   And she has already got what she hoped for through her local endeavours - modernity. Under the direction of a Hong Kong producer, there is a more up-to-date touch to her latest works that is a far cry from the songs she sang throughout most of the 80s - as a singer with performing troupes serving mainly the People's Liberation Army - and mostly expressing admiration for Party slogans or the country's enchanting landscapes. And they're different from her much-pirated recordings of favourite Mandarin oldies.

   Mao first came to Hong Kong in 1990, when she performed with the Beijing-based Zong Zheng Performing Troupe at the Cultural Centre. She was already a famous name in China then, and her local performance caught the attention of TVB.

  She has since been invited on many times to take part in the station's variety shows.

   'I was delighted the first time I came here. But now, I prefer Beijing more. There are more natural places there. People seem to be warmer there too.'    An obstacle in building up relationships here, she agrees, is her poor Cantonese.

   'I wanted to go back to China the first time I found myself in a Cantonese-speaking environment.'    She even found the local language repulsive at one stage. But having signed with her present record company two years ago, she has accepted the necessity for frequent trips between Hong Kong and Beijing, plus changes in both her looks and singing style.

   'I'm learning Cantonese now; it seems it's easier to sing in it than speak it.'    Her older mainland fans, she admits, are hardly impressed by the changes. They still prefer her previous, traditional way of singing, contrary to Mao's desire to stay up-to-date.

   'Pop music is about trends; as a pop singer, I can't possibly follow what the old people like. I very much want to have a personal style of my own,' she stresses.

  Mao did not begin her working life as a pop singer. She shot to fame during her days as a troupe singer based in a military district in Nanjing. She was later transferred to the Chinese capital.

   Her frequent appearances in variety shows carried by CCTV made her widely-known and popular across the nation, and consequently, a big recording star.

    Since her teens she has been attracted to emotional love songs, notably those by Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng, whose beautiful voice captivated millions of Chinese around the world. Political songs were never her favourite. Neither was opera, which she was forced to learn when she was in junior high school by her father.

    Yet, in the early 80s, when pop music was far from flourishing in China, Mao considered joining an army troupe a good enough career choice.

    Now, though, she has quit the Beijing troupe and is happy to bring diversity to the music scene here and on the mainland.

   'The music in the two places is different; I guess it's more commercial in Hong Kong. I would like to combine Western-style music with the best elements of traditional Chinese music,' she says, calling Chinese rock star Cui Jian's well-known hit With Absolutely Nothing a good fusion of Western and Chinese sounds.

   To appeal more to the local audience, she also plans to include at least one Cantonese song on her next album.

   Mao will not be the only mainland singer to sing in Cantonese. Wang Zhenyan, a popular male singer from Beijing, has already done so and been complimented on his talent by local radio disc jockeys.

   Music Director at Commercial Radio (Channel Two), Brian Leung Siu-fai, says more mainland artists are seeking to extend their careers in the territory.

  'There will be more of them coming to town. Some of them are expecting to make a name in Hong Kong first in order to achieve bigger success in China,' he predicts.

   It could be easier for them to achieve wider success by working with local record companies, he says, because the Hong Kong companies are better at promoting artists than their mainland counterparts.

   Mao, he adds, has had initial success despite worries that she might be too old-fashioned to be accepted by the local audience.

   'She has found a style for herself. She also manages to sing in a contemporary manner. Her latest album is very good work,' he notes.



From Mao to music star