“I majored in science and engineering totally out of compliance withmy father’s wishes， I have had a deep love of music ever since I wasfive years old，” he said， recalling his student days. “During my collegeyears， I learned to play piano and electronic bass and formed a musicband with my buddies. We quickly became well-known and performedat many places. Later I went on a world tour with the band. We wentto perform in many countries like Holland， Australia， the UnitedStates， Thailand， Japan and so on and received much acclaim. Half ayear after I graduated from college， I was determined to leave my engineerjob to pursue my musical dreams.” Abandoning his career afterso many years at college deeply angered his father. His son’s choicewas completely unfathomable to the indignant father. “I have paid somuch for your college education， but you don’t even want to work. Doyou want to starve to death?” But the son had grown up and wasn’t sodocile anymore. “I have been working for half a year， I haven’t beenhappy even for a single day， and I feel like I’m suffering from penallabor. It is a waste of life if you only work for food and just goofingaround. If he continued with the engineering job， Uwechue could followa path as a respectable professional and would have had a well-offlife. However， afflicted with his dreams and getting antsy， Hao Ge wasdetermined to strike out on a new path， and this caused a disagreementbetween father and son so sharp that their opinions were as different as black and white. With such a wide generation gap， as so often happensin China， it is not easy for the old and the young to communicate withand understand each other. However， Chinese audiences should takedelight in his persistence. Because of that persistence there is one lessmelancholy engineer in Liberia， and one more passionate singer inChina. Given his gifted voice， many musicians would consider it areckless waste of talent if he hadn’t gone into singing.
Countless Fans in ChinaA Chinese person from Zhengzhou， who Uwechue met in school，was highly appreciative of his singing. “The kind of tone you have israre and you could be well received in China. I’d be happy to offeryou some help if you want to carve out a career in China.” This personleft with him his contact information and， more importantly， left himwith those words of encouragement， which remained in Uwechue’smind. Recalling it now， years later， Hao Ge still believes that he heardthe alluring call of faraway China.
Uwechue was born in England and grew up in Liberia. Hetraveled with his band to many countries in Europe， America andAustralia. Born with a natural sense of being a “citizen of the global58 village”， Hao Ge and his buddies traveled at will around the planetand took any place they liked as their home. When they stepped intoa country they loved， they stayed. The five-member band finally disbanded，with the members now living in five different countries andbuilding their respective careers there. Uwechue ended up in China，which， to his mind， is a country with a mysterious culture.
Hao Ge touched Chinese soil for the first time in 2002. Upon hisarrival， he understood nothing of the Chinese language and had no impressionof China to speak of. Besides the name “Mao Tse-tung”， heknew only that China was “a poor and revolutionary country”。 Seeingis believing. The country he saw with his own eyes was so differentfrom what he had imagined. “Not the third world，” he exclaimed withadmiration. “China is a developed country.” Obviously， he hadn’t takenthe UN Human Development Index into account for his judgment.
He felt a bit lonely after a year of hanging out in clubs in differenthotels in Zhengzhou. He found the musical atmosphere in the citywasn’t suitable for developing a singer’s career. Rather than a culturalcenter， Zhengzhou is a hub of overland transportation. Chinese friendstold him that musicians should go to Beijing， which is the real centerof culture. He came to Beijing in 2003 and happily discovered that itwas a city full of music， with many first-rate musicians. It was indeedthe Promised Land he had been looking for. He was struck with awewhen he saw the extent of the city’s modernization and internationalization.
He was even more excited by the numerous art festivals andthe appreciative audience in the city.
One day， when he was onstage in a bar， he spotted his idol LiuHuan， a top Chinese singer， in the audience. After being introducedto the big shot， he started chatting with Liu using his recently-learnedbroken Chinese. Considering Hao’s difficulty with Chinese， Liu immediatelyresponded in pure and fluent English. “I was surprised athis perfect English，” Hao said. “I would never have guessed he spokesuch good English.” He was told afterwards that Liu Huan had majoredin French at college and had picked up English as his secondforeign language. Hao Ge， whose mother tongue is English， was evenmore amazed.
Liu Huan fully affirmed his talentfor music and offered him somevaluable suggestions. “You are goodat English songs， but you have to singChinese songs if you want to advancein China， and have more Chinese appreciateyour music.” Liu also madehim a promise， “come to me whenyou have problems and I will try mybest to help you out.” Hao Ge didn’
t quite understand the significanceof the Chinese saying “One evening’
s conversation with a superior manis better than ten years of study”， but he somehow had the feeling thatLiu’s guidance would play a vital role in his future development. Evenmore unexpectedly， three years later Hao Ge became a regular singercontracted with High View Star Works — Liu Huan’s music studio.