Founder of Ultralounge, DJ Kulu
The founder of local electro-jazz outfit Ultralounge, Kulu is Hong Kong’s oldest, hippest and dirtiest DJ. He talks to John Robertson about his early life as a photographer, his deep appreciation for the female form, and why all parents should do what he does.
I’ve always been a Wan Chai boy. I was born there in 1945 and grew up there.
Wan Chai was just as sleazy then as it is now. I lived right on Lockhart Road where the action was. It’s hardly changed.
My father died when I was 12. My mother raised me as an only child. She was a fine woman.
Antonioni’s “Blowup” hugely inspired me in secondary school. It changed my life. I began to see things differently. I became obsessed with visual forms and wanted to become a photographer.
I discovered jazz at the same time. I heard Stan Getz on Uncle Ray’s radio show and it instantly turned me on. I started collecting Blue Note records from Tom Lee.
I went to the UK when I was 20. I was trying to escape from the tight enclosure of the local social system and wake myself up.