Khalil Fong Won't Be Hong Kong's American-Born Chinese Icon
Ever since his 2005 debut, the singer-songwriter has brought a soulful, urban sound to the city’s music scene.
“Khalil” is a Persian name. It means “friend.” There’s also a poet named Kahlil Gibran, so there were two different reasons my dad chose that name. I think it’s half-half.
I was born in Hawaii and went to Shanghai when I was 5. My parents wanted me to learn more of Chinese culture and the language. They didn’t want me to be an ABC [American-born Chinese]—they wanted me to get a good taste of a different culture at a young age. I lived there for about five or six years. I was in Guangzhou for a very short time, and then I’ve been in Hong Kong ever since.
I’m a US citizen, a Hong Kong artist, but in my own reality, I’m a world citizen. That’s the Baha’i world view, and there’s a central quote in my faith: “The world is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”
When I was about 3 or 4, I saw the movie “La Bamba.” Ever since then, I’ve wanted to be involved in music. My dad is a drummer, and he [gave me] a preliminary introduction to music. I’d listen to the records that he’d listen to: jazz, funk, soul, R&B stuff. It’s a combination: I probably didn’t become a musician just because of my father. Rather I learned to love certain types of music, and then I went on to find my own interests.
I listened to very little Chinese music growing up. When I came to Hong Kong, it was only after I became an artist that I started to learn more about the Hong Kong music industry. Prior to that, the Cantonese music I know would be the stuff my grandma listened to, like [70s idol] Danny Chan Bak-keung. I started to write songs when I was about 13 or 14. It was just an opportunity and a natural process. I was just sort of going with the flow.
I was doing a type of music that was quite foreign to the market at the time—not only the Cantonese market, but the Chinese-speaking market in general. Trying to introduce soul music, or soul R&B, was not the easiest thing. One of the things I wanted to do was to introduce this type of music within the context of Chinese language. It’s still foreign, but it’s getting more accepted.