Wakin Chau

I always file Wakin Chau under the giants of Mandopop that Western charts somehow missed entirely. Hong Kong-born, Taiwan-based, with that National Taiwan University background, he built a career that ran straight through the 80s and 90s when his stage name Emil Chau was everywhere from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur. Forty-plus albums is not a number you fake. What strikes me is how thoroughly his fame is regional yet still enormous - popular across Taiwan, Hong Kong, the mainland and Southeast Asia, while staying nearly invisible to me growing up elsewhere. He's a reminder that the world has several pop universes running at once.

Wakin Chau (Chinese: 周华健; pinyin: Zhōu Huájiàn; Jyutping: Zau1 Waa4 Gin6; born 22 December 1960), better known by his stage name Emil Chau during the 1980s and 1990s, is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese singer and actor, popular throughout Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, and parts of Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam). As of 2007, he has released more than 40 albums.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Name (English)

Wakin Chau

Name (Japanese)

周華健

Reading

わーきん・ちょう

Born

December 22, 1959 (age 66)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Boar

Origin

Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Blood type

Private

Height

Private

Agency

Private

Occupation

singer-songwriter / actor / singer / screenwriter / songwriter

Elementary school

Private

Junior high

Private

High school

Private

University

National Taiwan University

Spouse

Private

Children

Private

Parents

Private

Siblings

Private

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%91%A8%E8%8F%AF%E5%81%A5

Tags

• singer-songwriter
• actor
• singer

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.