But things not always go according to plan. His wife couldn’tget used to her new cultural and material life in China. She chose toleave him in the end. Hao Ge has to live alone with his five-year-oldson. The boy is clever and cute and all his friends like to take the boyoutside to play， and offer to take care of him. So Hao Ge doesn’t haveto worry too much. Though he is “successful in career but frustratedin love”， he feels no regret about his original choice. As usual， he stillperforms and goes all out in making music.
Maybe because he is a Christian， Hao Ge takes what comes witha peaceful mind and is contented. Whether faced with the frustrationsof daily life or great successes in his career， he takes it all with stoiccalmness. “The kind of attitude you have toward life is the kind of musicyou will make.” We expect Hao Ge to achieve greater success. Asfor the dissatisfactions of his daily life， he assumes an attitude of “Afterthe rain comes fair weather”。 If he had money， of course he would firstbuy music equipment， which he cannot do without， though an audiomixing console would cost him more than 100，000 yuan， and tens ofthousands more for a brand microphone.
When talking about music， Hao Ge becomes immediately excited. Not long after arriving in China， he told me， a record companyin southern China released his album Red and Black. The album hadsongs both in Chinese and English， including classic Chinese songssuch as “How Much Love Could Start Over”， “Cannot Leave You”，“Doesn’t Matter”。 Now he has been recording his albums at Liu Huan’
s music studio. “With Liu as my guide I am full of confidence.” HaoGe presented me a CD containing his songs and songs sung by othertwo singers， all the while crooning “Doesn’t Matter” in a differentstyle from the original singer.
Besides music， we also talked about his hobbies. He loves cars— the toy for men — but can’t afford one right now. “The traffic isterrible in Beijing. You cannot drive at a decent speed.” Sometimes heplays table tennis， and there’s no one who can match him in his company.
One day after he finished a show at CCTV， he played ping pongthere with a lady and was defeated. This reminded him that China isthe kingdom of table tennis. He also favors football and plays forwardin a Chinese Star Team. When penetrating， he has a little bit of Weah’sstyle. One time he fell and broke a finger during training. Two guysfrom the “Shui Mu Nian Hua” band sent him to the hospital. The nextday， he appeared on a Shanghai TV show to sing “Boat Tracker’sLove”。 But this time it was the “beloved brother’s broken finger，” insteadof his love， that “swung around the towing rope”。
When we were talking about his injury， Hao Ge’s assistant，praised him highly for his hard work. “Yes， sometimes we do see peopleperforming on stage while sick，” he said， “but this guy is simplyborn for the stage. He had a temperature of 39 degrees centigrade andwas listless backstage. But he was animated again as soon as he got onstage.” As for his performance， Mr. Yang said he is good at live singingon stage， and is not the kind of singer who relies on recording firstat the audio studio and then lip-synching on stage. “I believe Hao Geis the leading figure of live singing in China，” Mr. Yang concluded.
Hao Ge’s strong work ethic and his musical talents have wonhim high praise from his colleagues. “When he gets a new song withnew lyrics and new music scores， he puts phonetic letters next to the66 Chinese characters that are new to him. He can memorize them all injust half an hour. What a brain he has！” Upon hearing these remarksof praise， instead of being flattered， Hao Ge feels embarrassed at hisignorance of written Chinese. But I am sure it won’t be long before heis able to read and write Chinese， since he has already embarked on acourse to “eliminate his illiteracy in Chinese”。
Translated by Yang Yaohua