What else is there to do when one has become a god? Does one plot and plan to dominate other heavens? Or does one just sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of one's past labour? While the nickname 'God of Song' always embarrasses Jacky Cheung Hok-yau - Hong Kong's biggest-selling artist - he is always searching for the answers to just these questions.
'I'm lost,' Cheung said last week after a rehearsal session at PolyGram Studios. 'I can't see my way ahead, and if you want me to describe the situation I'm in now, I would say I was walking sideways. I think I've reached a plateau.' It has been something that has weighed heavily on Cheung's mind in recent months and it is not difficult to figure out why.
Cheung has had a good five-year run as top of the pops but faced with a rapidly shrinking market and a hitlist that consists of mainly love ballads, the singer has seen the need to find a new way to express himself.
In some ways, it must seem life has come full circle for Cheung. A little more than a decade ago, he watched his first two albums go gold then multi-platinum and figured he had the world at his feet. There was nowhere to go but up. Or so the cocky young singer thought.
He crashed and burned - badly. There were rumours of a major depression and doubts surfaced as to whether, despite his early promise, he could haul himself out of the pit he had fallen into.
The only difference has been the altitude of the two plateaus. One was right at the bottom. Today it is at heady heights.
Cheung found a way out of his maze of depression and has no doubt about beating his present problems.