| Albert Leung | |||||||||||||
| Native Name Lang: | zh | ||||||||||||
| Other Names: | God of Lyrics (詞神) | ||||||||||||
| Birth Name: | Leung Wai Man (梁偉文) | ||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 1961 12, df=yes | ||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | British Hong Kong | ||||||||||||
| Alma Mater: | University of Hong Kong (BA) | ||||||||||||
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Albert Leung Wai Man (born 7 December 1961),[1] better known by his pen name Lin Xi,[2] is a Hong Kong lyricist and writer. Since 2017, he has been blacklisted in mainland China for his support for the democracy movement in Hong Kong.[3] [4]
Leung attended all-boy secondary schools in Kowloon at Chan Sui Ki (La Salle) College and La Salle College. He received a bachelor of arts with a major in translation studies from the University of Hong Kong in 1984.
He has been a lyricist since 1985. His pen name, 林夕, comes from the last name of lyricist Richard Lam and the simplified character (meaning "dream").
He has written over 4,000 song lyrics.[5] [6] [7] He is well known for composing lyrics very quickly. On TVB's show Be My Guest, he admitted that his fastest record for writing the complete lyrics to a song is 45 minutes.
He is most notable for writing lyrics for Leslie Cheung, Faye Wong, Eason Chan, and Miriam Yeung. He composed the lyrics for one of the theme songs of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, "Beijing Welcomes You", performed by a panoply of popular Chinese singers.[8] In 2014, he described the experience as a "blemish" of his life for serving as an official mouthpiece.[9]
He has also published over ten books, including his essays and poems.
After the 2014 Umbrella Movement, he relocated to Taiwan and became a citizen in 2021.[10] Since 2017, he has been blacklisted in mainland China and criticized by state media for his support for the Hong Kong democracy movement. In November 2019, over thousands of songs written by him were taken down from online music stores, some of which were restored later.[11]
Leung was raised a Christian but converted to Buddhism, while he also has an interest in Taoism, especially Tao Te Ching. He often incorporates Buddhist and Taoist ideas into his lyrics.
He came out as gay in 2006 in an interview with his friend Johnnie To. [12] [13]