BEIJING - Hao Ge is perhaps China’s most unlikely pop star: he is Nigerian, and he sings in Mandarin.
His real name is Emmanuel Uwechue, though he is better known by his stage name, which sounds like “good song” in Chinese. Mr. Uwechue, 33, is particularly popular among the children and middle-aged women who watch “Xin Guang Da Dao,” the “American Idol” -inspired show, where he first gained notice here. He has performed with Chinese stars like Sun Nan, Na Ying and Han Hong - and has been embraced by the Chinese media. Many of his songs are soul-infused versions of classic Chinese love songs, with faster rhythms.
“He’s good - he’s not just another foreigner who got on TV because he could speak and sing in Chinese,” said Yu Na, 40, of Beijing.
Mr. Uwechue is not the first foreigner to make a name for himself in China, but he is the first African . Some credit part of his fame to the close economic and cultural ties that have long existed between China and some African countries, particularly Nigeria . China has invested more than $7 billion in energy, communications and infrastructure in the country, which exports some $4.7 billion in crude oil to China each year, according to Li Yizhung, China’s minister of industry and information technology.
“This is not just about Hao Ge,” said Long Hu, a music producer in Beijing. “It’s about China and Africa.”
Mr. Uwechue got his start in the church choir in Lagos, Nigeria. After receiving a degree in engineering, he decided to pursue music; his father “disowned me for a while,” he said.
When a Chinese friend in Lagos moved back to Henan Province in 2001 to open a hotel, he asked Mr. Uwechue to visit.
Mr. Uwechue accepted . He got his big break when Liu Huan - a top producer here who helped pioneer pop music in China - discovered him singing at a bar in Beijing. With Mr. Liu’s backing, Mr. Uwechue studied Mandarin and gained a following. It was his performance in 2007 at the wildly popular Lunar New Year Gala, seen by hundreds of millions on TV, that made him a star.
He is mindful of the government’s rigid cultural controls. His albums ? “Red and Black” (2006), “Hao Ge’s Latest Songs” (2008) and “Beloved Life” (2009) ? hew to themes of heartbreak, redemption and love, but he is frustrated . “I feel boxed in, always singing romance songs,” he said. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I would like to expand the horizons of my distributed work.”
His new band has played a dozen songs that he conceded had “no chance” of being taken up by China’s pop producers. Mr. Uwechue said he preferred singing upbeat songs to the slower fare that his producers insist Chinese will listen to.
Mr. Uwechue hopes his upcoming album will be a “radical departure” for him .
Being African obviously has its complications in China. But whatever racism he has felt, he said, has come from “other singers and competitors,” not from the public.
Mr. Uwechue is aware that many Nigerians harbor mixed feeling about his adopted country, with its increasing global financial power. He says some fear what could be “another form of colonization.”
Friends and family in Nigeria were “a little bit surprised, yet proud” to learn he had become a star . He recalled his mother’s response: “ ‘China? Wow! I never could have imagined.’ ”
By JIMMY WANG
