Profile | How Kelly Chen, Cantopop star and beloved Hong Kong actress, has captured the hearts of music and movie fans for three decades
- It is no surprise that Kelly Chen, with more than 30 albums to her name and acting credits that put her alongside Donnie Yen, remains an ever popular celebrity
- Having first appeared in a Jacky Cheung music video in 1994, Chen has a loyal fan base that spans Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and mainland China
While the title of Asia’s pop diva may be more commonly associated with singers like Faye Wong and Anita Mui Yim-fong, Hong Kong artist Kelly Chen Wai-lam can lay claim to that mantle too.
The singer and actress – who has recorded more than 30 albums over the years – remains ever popular, with a loyal fan base that spans Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and mainland China.
Born in Hong Kong in 1972 to a jewellery merchant father and a housewife mother, Chen grew up in the city but spent several years studying abroad in Japan. Inspired by her father, she dreamed of becoming a graphic and interior designer and graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York in 1994.
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Shortly after graduating, she returned to Hong Kong – and the entertainment offers came in almost immediately.
She appeared in a music video for Jacky Cheung Hok-yau’s 1994 song “Stolen Heart”, and made her film debut in Whatever Will Be, Will Be. The 1995 film, which also starred Aaron Kwok Fu-shing, saw Chen play a junior-school teacher who dreams of becoming a dancer.
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Cantopop: a genre for Hong Kong that went global among music lovers
Indeed, Chen took every opportunity in her stride and soon saw her popularity skyrocket. She linked up with producer Mark Lui Chung-tak to make solo Cantonese album Intoxicated Lover (1995). The two would go on to become long-time collaborators.
Chen’s subsequent albums were hits in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and mainland China, and cemented her status as one of Asia’s pop divas.
She was especially popular in Japan. After shooting a cover for a Japanese magazine and releasing a Japanese single called “The Beginning is a Cunning Morning” in 1997, she acted in the 1999 television drama Don’t Be a Cry Baby.
“Acting in the Japanese TV drama must rank as my biggest moment because not many artists from Hong Kong are so lucky,” she told the Post in 1999. “If I hadn’t been invited to be a magazine cover girl, I wouldn’t have had the chance to act in a Japanese TV drama.”
Although it was hard for Chen to communicate with the director and other cast members because of the language barrier, she persevered. “At first, I lacked confidence as my Japanese was poor, but eventually I overcame my fears and now I can speak the language quite well,” she said.
Chen also starred in the 2001 Japanese movie Calmi Cuori Appassionati alongside Yutaka Takenouchi, and recorded Grace (2002), a full-length album in Japanese.
She continued to act in Hong Kong films during this time, including the romance drama Lost and Found (1996), the romantic fantasy comedy Anna Magdalena (1998), and the action film Tokyo Raiders (2000). She also released more Cantonese and Mandarin albums.
In 2008, Chen starred as an exiled princess in the action romance An Empress and the Warriors. For this role, which the actress called her “biggest challenge”, she trained for two months in martial arts and horse-riding.
“At first, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’,” she said in an interview with the Post in 2007. “But Donnie was actually very helpful.
“Since a lot of the fighting was added on set, I couldn’t remember all of the action. So when the camera was not facing Donnie, he would whisper to me, ‘Now kick your leg, move your arms’, while we were literally fighting against each other. It was funny.”
Aside from being known as a singer and actress, Chen has also made a name for her fashion sense, and for her philanthropy.
A year later, Chen gave birth to another son, Riley. While she did record two albums during this time – in 2010 and 2013 – it was far cry from the time when she used to release three albums a year.
In 2014, the singer-actress took on her first major screen role in six years as an entertainment television anchor in the action comedy Horseplay. By this time, Chen had become highly selective about the roles she took on.
“I’m choosy with my film projects because there’s very little acting to do if you’re an actress [in the less interesting roles]. I don’t want to waste time with those.
Although her part in Horseplay was her first major role in over six years, Chen remained a highly bankable star.
According to Chinese-language newspaper Oriental Daily News, she was the highest-earning female Hong Kong star of 2014, earning HK$83 million.
She has also released two more Cantonese albums, in 2016 and 2018.
More recently, Chen was featured in the Hong Kong government’s “Hello Hong Kong” campaign, and lent out 13 of her bags to the exhibition “Bags: Inside Out”, currently on show at Pacific Place in Admiralty.
At the sale, fans picked up everything from luxury goods to children’s clothes and toys, all in support of the Kelly Chen Children Education Fund, which supports children from low-income families.
After a five-year musical hiatus, Chen has released several new songs. But any new projects she works on are likely to be much more deliberate and considered.
“I don’t miss the old days, because it was a hard life,” she told the Post in 2014. “I didn’t have time to appreciate what was happening around me – all I knew was to work more and more and more.
“I won’t miss the very hectic life I had. I have to enjoy life a little more.”
