King of Cantopop Eason Chan sits on throne unchallenged

Eason Chan visits Beijing to promote his latest album. Photos by Zong Hong / China Daily

Twenty years after hitting the big time, Eason Chan reigns unchallenged. Chen Nan reports.

In the 1980s and 1990s Hong Kong held huge sway over the music markets of the mainland, Taiwan and other parts of Asia with its Cantopop, four of its best-known exponents being Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai and Andy Lau, who came to be known as the Four Heavenly Kings.

But these days the volume has well and truly been turned down on Cantopop as music tastes worldwide continue to diversify, and the four kings have given way to a sole sovereign, Eason Chan, dubbed the King of Cantopop. In fact, Chan is just about the only Cantopop singer these days who might be considered anything like a global phenomenon.

Every year, Chan, who has more than 15 million followers on his Sina Weibo account, releases one Cantonese album, one Mandarin album and begins a world tour.

His latest Cantonese album, Getting Ready, was released a fortnight ago, and Chan, 40, came to Beijing to promote it.

At a news conference, wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with the declaration "I give up wasting paper" and a pair of loose blue pants, he said that putting out a Cantonese album once a year has become a tradition for him, even as the Cantopop market continues to shrink, and many Hong Kong singers do a voice change, singing in Mandarin to add to their appeal in the mainland market.

"To the listener the sound of Cantonese lyrics is unique," Chan says. "You can easily identify a Coldplay song in the same way you can identify an Eason Chan Cantonese song."