Karen Mok's 20 years as Hong Kong's golden girl

At the end of a long day of interviews, Karen Mok Man-wai saunters through the Hong Kong offices of Universal Music wearing an army green jacket, grey high-top sneakers and a fuchsia Shiatzy Chen dress with qipao details. Somehow, she has ample energy for one final chat about her English and Mandarin jazz album, Somewhere I Belong, and her upcoming film, Man of Tai Chi.

This year marks her 20th anniversary in the entertainment industry. She launched her career in Hong Kong with the 1993 Canto-pop album, Karen.

“My first album was not even successful, but it opened other doors,” she says. “Then I got into movies, which was also a great experience.”

While some of the pop stars and actresses of that period have become the stuff of nostalgia,  Mok remains in the spotlight. Along the way she’s captivated  the Taiwan and mainland markets with her music, and gained an international following with roles in Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow Sing-chi films. She’s also garnered critical success, winning a slew of awards, including a Hong Kong Film award and a Golden Bauhinia award for her performance in Wong Kar-wai’s Fallen Angels (1995), along with three Golden Melody gongs.

“The whole world is different now,” she says when asked about how the industry had changed during the past two decades. “When I started, we were still recording on analogue. Just the process of music making is a lot different now. For me, it would be really boring if nothing changed and all you had to do was repeat yourself. I’d probably kill myself out of boredom. It’s fun to move with the times, take up new challenges and to be always a little bit ahead.”