周华健 (Emil Chau)

Wakin Chau was born in a rice store owned by his family in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong. Growing up as the fourth son in a family of seven, Wakin Chau picked up a guitar and learned to play when he was about 13 years old. In 1979, he set off to major in mathematics at National Taiwan University in Taipei, where he became enthusiastically involved in the popular campus tradition among students, singing and playing original folk songs in local coffee shops. During this period Wakin learned to sing in Mandarin, and this would be key to his future as a music-maker in Taiwan.With his hopes high for a successful career as a recording artist, Wakin sought out contacts in the music industry, but he met discouragement at every turn. That finally led him to set his sights on a seemingly more practical alternative: becoming a record producer. So he gave up his dream of being a performer and joined Rock Records as an assistant producer, writing wonderful songs for other artists.

But finally, opportunity knocked at Rock. Wakin was encouraged by Chyi Yu to sing some jingles for commercial advertising spots. One of these tunes was for a car commercial, and it happened to catch the attention of Wakin's boss. Almost as an afterthought he remarked, "Is that your voice? Why don't you release an album?"