Wong Hong Mok


Wong Hong Mok is a xinyao singer-songwriter, music producer and professional photographer from Singapore. He, along with Liang Wern Fook and others are seen as pioneers of the genre.
His singing style has been described as bold and unrestrained but, unlike other xinyao singer-songwriters, writes about nature, and self. He has said that this comes from the time in his life when he spent a lot of time near the sea.
Crediting his father for his love of music, he is a self-taught musician; his family was too poor for him to be able to take music lessons. As well as playing the guitar, he taught himself how to play the harmonica and the piano.
As he grew up, he found most of the music that was around in the Chinese music scene, meaningless; however, inspired by the music of Lo Ta-Yu from Taiwan, whose writings he found more meaningful, he started to write his own songs and, in 1982, wrote his first song, Discard. His songs were firs heard on the radio in 1984 on the Chinese radio programme New Voices, New Songs, which was seen as a gateway for young musicians.
He won the “Best Lyrics Award” at the 1999 New Ballad Festival. In June 2004, Wong Hong Mok was the first to represent Singapore in the 2nd Asia Music Concert. In 1990, his first album "Wild Man's Dream" was well received by music lovers. He remains the all-time favourite guest performer on MediaCorp Channel 8. His works include: