He created many firsts in the Hong Kong music scene, but his identity is an "amateur" singer; he has sung a number of popular golden songs, but he is low-key and introverted, and regards honor as a floating name. He is Guan Zhengjie, who is known as "Righteous Qijie".
(i)
Guan Zhengjie, born in 1949, has a well-off family and is an only son, who is deeply spoiled by his parents, and he simply wants the wind and the rain. However, he was pure in nature, and he had always attended a good school with strict management, and he had not been infected with bad habits.
The family created conditions for Guan Zhengjie's development, but at the same time cultivated his introverted and shy personality, so he had fewer friends. Probably to get rid of loneliness, he loved to play harmonica, play the shepherd's flute, and showed a strong interest in music since he was a child. In middle school, his father bought him a guitar to make him more comfortable.
Guan Zhengjie played a classical guitar, no teacher to teach, all on their own groping, wait until they went to college, met several Filipino classmates from a musical family, and in the process of interacting with them and their families, they were able to "steal the teacher", and the guitar level was greatly improved.
However, the things he taught himself in middle school have ensured that Guan Zhengjie excels among his classmates - he can't exercise well in school, he can't speak well, he can't write well, and he always has a specialty that can be used, which is also the motivation for him to indulge in it.
Through guitar and music, Kwan and three classmates who are also enthusiastic about this way came together, they often gathered, exchanged ideas, exchanged ideas, and formed a folk song group called "The Swinging Minstrels".
"The Swinging Minstrels" folk song group, right one Isong Jesse
In 1967, "The Swinging Minstrels" participated in the "Amateur Music Genius Competition" and won the championship, and EMI Records later released the competition-winning band EP "Talent Time '67 Winners", which was the first song recorded by Kwan Cheng-jae.
Champion leaned over, Guan Zhengjie had a small popularity among the youth group, and was invited by Li's TV to appear on the "Youth Fraternity" program. At that time, the host of the program was Huang Xia, and I had the privilege of seeing Guan Zhengjie's example of the first time on TV: Guan Zhengjie rehearsed many times, still very nervous, there were 5 minutes before the start of the live broadcast, he proposed to go to the toilet, and was recognized by the scheming Huang Xia (actually only 8 years older than Guan), this boy wanted to borrow water to escape, hurriedly and coaxed and cheated, and finished the festival catalog.
Kwan Chung-kit took a group photo on The Huang Xia's program "Youth Fraternity"
Guan Zhengjie's stage fright has not improved, after becoming famous, it is still the case, participating in activities, usually can not be pushed to barely sing one or two songs on the stage, after that, "Ange" to the explosion stage, do not dare to sing more, he is worried that he will be "afraid to faint on the stage." In 1981, at the concert of "Folk Folk Songs With Folk", it happened that Guan Zhengjie allowed the fans "Ange" to live and die, causing the fans to change from expectation to cheering and scolding.
In this show, Guan Zhengjie's singing kung fu was praised by Huang Xia. Later, Huang Xi opened an advertising company and cooperated with Guan Zhengjie on many advertising songs. The first money Kwan Jeong-jae earned by singing was a Pan Am advertising song written by Huang Xia.
In addition to "Youth Fraternity", Guan Zhengjie also recorded programs such as "Star Star" hosted by female singer Zhan Xiaoping. It is said that in fact, this show is Guan Zhengjie's TV debut. Anyway, Guan Zhengjie is very close to "Star", the "Amateur Music Talent Competition" is organized by Sing Tao Newspaper; the cover of "Star" is extremely powerful; "Tianlai... Tales of the Galaxy" bears witness to his splendor; "Farewell to the Starry Night" implies the intention of going.
(ii)
The winner, "The Swinging Minstrels," sometimes comeso at a music café to hone his experience, but as the four progress to college, they go their separate ways.
Kwan is studying at the University of Hong Kong, majoring in architecture, which was the first time the University of Hong Kong opened. In fact, during middle school, Guan Zhengjie's math scores were not very good, so he had to hire a child who was two grades higher than him as a "tutor", and under the guidance, he went up against the current and was admitted to the architecture major that required precision calculation.
During college, Kwan was mainly academic, occasionally appearing on the TV screen, such as the TVB program "Fangfang's Melody" hosted by Xiao Fangfang, and sang "Little Green Apple" with Xiao Fangfang, which was included in Xiao Fangfang's 1970 album. Kwan's singing voice is very appreciated by Fang Yihua, and even intends to support his two-sided development in the music and film world. Shaw and TVB are both Fang Yihua taking care of Run Shaw, and it is not easy to hold a person, but Guan Zhengjie is not very active, the reason is to study well - probably so, it can not be said that it is inseparable from his girlfriend.
Guan Zhengjie (middle in the back row) and Deng Guangrong, Luo Wen, etc. participated in "Fangfang's Melody" hosted by Xiao Fangfang.
Yes, Guan Zhengjie fell in love in college, and his girlfriend Architect (Chinese unknown) is a classmate of the same department who is two years lower than him. As we all know, because there are more men and fewer women, it is too difficult to find an object for students to learn architecture, Guan Zhengjie is not easy to catch one, how can he easily let go, the so-called "singing is precious, and the price of acting is higher." If it is a girlfriend, both can be thrown away. However, Guan Zhengjie did not admit it when he was killed, saying that when he was in college, the two only had a good feeling for each other, and they happened to work in the same company after graduation to determine the relationship.
In any case, Kwan And Architect are indeed true feelings, the two were married in 1977, and after marriage, they had a pair of children, and they are still in love.
Guan Zhengjie has said many times that his wife is one hundred percent "Xian Neisuke", he has received a lot of encouragement and help along the way, even if the radio interview, it is answered by the wife first, and then Mu Ne's he opened the wheat and then answered again. The family is happy and satisfied, and the career is naturally smooth.
Guan Zhengjie's family
Five years of college passed in the blink of an eye, Guan Zhengjie left the school, and soon applied for a company, as a division teacher, that is, an architect.
Guan Zhengjie's current identity and singing eight rods can't be beaten, but Li Li has always been worried about his beautiful voice. No, the "Audiovisual Cai Peace" program came to him again to record. Guan Zhengjie was embarrassed to shirk it, and secondly, he really liked singing, so he not only performed, but also sang the theme song of the program, "A Song to Send Hearts". The song was included in the 1975 compilation album Audiovisual Tsai Heping.
In the same year, Hong Kong's third television station, Jiayi Television, opened its doors and filmed a number of TV dramas. The TV series must have a theme song, and the theme song must be sung, so Jiashi urgently needs a male singer, and it is best to be a newcomer, because the newcomer's remuneration is low.
Commercial Radio Hong Kong is the majority shareholder of Jiashi, and Zhou Cong of Commercial Radio happened to know Kwan Cheng-kit and recommended it, and the two sides hit it off. In this way, Guan Zhengjie sang the first TV series theme song of his life, "Condor Heroes" (a saying "Guangdong Good Man", both of which are 1976 TV, it is really difficult to distinguish), and thus began his TV theme song Golden Song years.
Guan Zhengjie sang at least 10 TV series theme songs to Jiashi, which was sung until it closed in 1978, and can be regarded as a witness to this TV station with only 3 years of life.
(iii)
After Jiashi graduated, Guan Zhengjie was not unemployed, and Li once again beckoned to him and entrusted him with a heavy responsibility.
In 1978, Lai's masterpiece "Chameleon" caused a sensation on Hong Kong Island, and Kwan Zheng-kit became very famous as the singer of the theme song of the play.
"Chameleon" is filled in by Lu Guozhan, thus opening the prelude to the cooperation between Lu and Guan. According to some statistics, Guan Zhengjie sang about 40 works by Lu Guochen, "Heavenly Silkworm Change", "Heavenly Dragon Recipe", "Relatively Wordless", "Snow In Love", "Tomorrow and Tomorrow", "Earth Grace" and so on are all excellent works. When Lu Guozhan wrote words for Guan Zhengjie, he was a hundred times more energetic, and even his wife said that he was "eccentric": the words written for Guan were particularly used by God. Lu Guozhan explained: "You are sure that he (Guan Zhengjie) will not waste your works, do not have the heart to write for him, is it a good conscience?" ”
But Lu Guochen admitted that in fact, he and Guan Zhengjie were "not very familiar friends", only because Guan Zhengjie was silent and did not like to communicate. Once Lu Guochen and Guan Zhengjie drank afternoon tea, and Guan Zhengjie did not say twenty words for a whole hour, so that Lu Guojian directly called it the most dull afternoon tea in his life.
Also "favored" for Guan Zhengjie is Li Xiaotian, the composer of "The Grace of the Earth". When this song was recorded, Guan Zhengjie sang twice that was not ideal, and Li Xiaotian pulled him to talk to his heart, talking about the hatred of the country and the family and the hometown, Guan Zhengjie was deeply touched, and sang it again to achieve perfection. Li Xiaotian sighed: "I would like to thank Mr. Kwan Cheng Kit, a singer, who can truly respect the composers and lyricists of the songs he sings, and try his best to express the meaning and feelings they want to describe in the songs. ”
The success of "Chameleon" immediately allowed the record company to see the business opportunity and start to produce records. At the end of 1978, the self-titled album was released, which is considered to be Kwan's debut album.
It has also been suggested that Kwan's first record should have been "The Legend of a Modern Hero", also released in late 1978. "The Legend of the Modern Hero" is the theme song of the TVB TV series of the same name sung by Kwan Jeong-jay in 1976, because there were not enough songs recorded for the album at that time, so the album was only recorded in 1978.
Who came first and who came after the two records became a public case.
Chameleon
"The Legend of the Modern Hero"
In 1979, Kwan signed a contract with PolyGram. Don't misunderstand, although he joined Baoji, his identity is still an architect, he goes to the construction company to clock in every day, only after work or on Saturdays and Sundays do he have time to record songs, meet on the show, do publicity, and have to take leave. This situation lasted until around 1984, when the property market was in turmoil, and Guan Zhengjie was unfortunately laid off, and perhaps the boss thought that he could support his family by singing. Just when everyone thought that Guan Zhengjie would "turn positive" and become a professional singer, he did not expect that Guan Zhengjie opened his own company, still engaged in construction, and even left Hong Kong.
Therefore, Guan Zhengjie has been an "amateur" singer from beginning to end. So why is he so obsessed with his "profession"? Guan Zhengjie's answer is very simple, it is very hard to achieve the division (architecture) division, how can you give up easily?
The Poly Gold Period (1979-1983) was the golden age of Kwan Cheng-jae's singing career, with frequent good songs, continuous awards, rising sales and strong popularity.
During this period, Kwan Cheng Kit created a number of firsts in the Hong Kong music scene:
In 1981, the album "Hero Out of Youth" was released two days after it was released, and it won the platinum record and sold it out of the market, and the record has not been broken so far;
In 1982, he was awarded the "Top Ten Outstanding Youth of Hong Kong" and was the first person in the music scene;
From September 3 to 6, 1982, the Kwan Cheng Kit concert held at the Elizabeth Stadium invited 157 people including the Hong Kong Orchestra to cooperate, and the orchestra was the first to perform a solo concert.
Kwan Jeong Kit's 1982 concert
During this period, Guan Zhengjie sang "Silkworm Change", "Residual Dream", "When People Shed Tears on the Journey", "A Little Candlelight", "Drunken Red Dust", "Two Forgotten Smoke and Water", "Thousands of Rivers and Thousands of Mountains", "Fishing Boat Singing At Night", "Always in My Heart", "Heavenly Sounds"... "Legend of the Galaxy" and others have won the "Top Ten Chinese Golden Melody Award" and the "Top Ten Golden Melody Award".
(iv)
After the peak, it must be a low valley, which is the law of nature, and people cannot remain brilliant forever, and Guan Zhengjie is no exception.
In the eighties, with the rise of Tan Yonglin, Chen Baiqiang, Zhang Guorong, Mui Yanfang and others, modern pop songs gradually replaced the status of folk song minor tunes and TV series theme songs, and the older generation of singers such as Guan Zhengjie slowly stopped being welcomed and disappeared from the center of the stage.
Tam Wing Lin and Kwan Cheng Kit
Chen Baiqiang and Guan Zhengjie
In 1984, Kwan Jeong Kit left PolyGram and joined Kang Yi Chengyin, trying to transform, but the effect was average, and after releasing two albums, he switched to EMI EMI in 1986, and it was still difficult to come back to life.
In 1988, Kwan said goodbye to the music scene completely after producing his last album "An Autumn".
Regarding Guan Zhengjie's withdrawal, the biggest factor is of course his own "amateur" identity, singing is only an interest, once the environment changes, it will disappear. However, there are other reasons mixed in.
One is the personality problem, as mentioned earlier, Guan Zhengjie is introverted, shy, not sociable, and stage fright, so many years of struggle in the need for competition, exposure of the music world is also difficult for him, now the career decline, to increase the opportunity to show his face to save, he certainly does not like, it is better to go away. In addition, he regarded fame and fortune very lightly, and knew how to retreat from the rapids.
Second, Guan Zhengjie is an old-school musician, who has great respect for singing and cannot tolerate blasphemy. However, the music scene later became smoky and very snobbish, which made him unhappy. In the 888 concert of the Commercial Platform in 1987, Guan Zhengjie was invited as a guest, and during the rehearsal, the staff ignored him, and he left the stage in anger after waiting for half a day. These things have strengthened his intentions.
In 1990, Kwan's family immigrated to Seattle. In Seattle, Guan Zhengjie is still an architect in the old bank, and even became a developer. Now, at the age of 71, he should retire and retire.
A few years ago, someone photographed Guan Zhengjie
Over the years, many people, as well as radio and television stations, have tried to lobby Guan Zhengjie for a comeback, but all of them have returned to no avail. Before Gu Jiahui held the "Hui Huang Concert" for the second time, he personally drove from Vancouver to Seattle to invite Guan Zhengjie as a guest, and Guan Zhengjie was unmoved. It was rumored that the Golden Needle Award was wanted to be awarded to him, and he also refused it on the grounds that he did not want to lose weight.
Oh well! The song is majestic, atmospheric, typhoon steady, dignified, decent, principled, Guan Zhengjie is worthy of the "righteous qi jie"!