Popular Taiwanese singer and songwriter David Tao Zee hates labels - especially those attached to him. Talk of him being Asia's king of R&B makes him shudder.
'I'm not a king or godfather of R&B,' says Tao, 35, who was making a name for himself incorporating western R&B in Mando-pop long before today's Taiwan prince of R&B, Jay Chou Jie-lun, burst on to the scene.
'I'm flattered by the title,' Tao says, putting his right hand on his chest and taking a slight bow. 'But labelling is a false sense of identity. In Chinese society, a lot of people like to call others 'teacher' or 'master'. I don't like people calling me that. We shouldn't use labels.'
Minutes earlier, Tao had arrived for our interview at Hunghom's Harbour Plaza Metropolis Hotel, hands in his pockets, quietly crooning to himself. Dressed in black leather shoes, blue jeans and half buttoned-up oatmeal coloured shirt, he's the epitome of cool - another label he would undoubtedly reject.
Four days into a five-day promotion tour of Hong Kong for his latest album, The Great Leap Forward 2005, which hit stores in late January and has already sold 900,000 copies throughout Southeast Asia, Tao is showing no sign of tiredness as he talks enthusiastically about his music.
The album marks the end of a two-year hiatus for Tao after his Black Tangerine hit in 2002. The new album encompasses a wide variety of musical styles including rock, jazz and folk, which further explains why Tao doesn't want to be labelled as an R&B singer.