When I was about seven, I was exposed to classical music because my aunt was an opera singer who taught me how to play the piano. She was so keen that she even moved to Rome and stayed there, working as a singer. She didn't really teach me properly, and I was a terrible, lazy student. It was hard to keep it up.
I went to a Chinese secondary school in Hong Kong. It had a band, and I thought I should give music another try, given my long-time attraction.
Much to my surprise, this time I ended up with a private tutor, near to my school. She had a grand piano in her living room. But my lessons only lasted about five weeks: I realised that if I really wanted to play like a concert pianist, I would have to practise really hard.
At home, however, I still listened to Baroque music, composed by Bach and Mozart. Baroque was easy to pick up because the variations in the melody were easy to predict, and it was fun to listen to.
When I went to dental school at Northwestern University in Chicago, I became truly enlightened. It was a cultural experience, as many world-class musicians were in the city, and I was a regular at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's seasonal events. I spent four years as a student and taught there for five years while enrolled in a master's programme.
The school is in the city centre, so it was like going to Tsim Sha Tsui for the concerts. Usually, we knew which works would be staged weeks in advance. So I listened to the same piece at home beforehand. In this way, I was able to make out the subtle differences in a particular conductor's interpretation of the piece.
This was the highlight of my exposure to an artistic environment. Then I became more interested in music systems, and keen on judging the quality of recorded music. I had a music system that cost US$2,000 in 1967. At that time, many of these systems could be traded in without losing money; in fact, it proved to be a good investment.