林夕

He graduated from the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Arts, majoring in translation. His career has included university teaching support, newspaper editing, television creation and creative roles in music and radio organisations. His publisher notes that he began writing poetry in secondary school and later brought qualities of modern verse into lyrics.

Representative lyrics include Faye Wong’s “紅豆” and Eason Chan’s “富士山下” and “十年”, composed respectively by Jim Lau, Christopher Chak and Chen Hsiao-hsia. “富士山下” uses a mountain and a journey to consider possession and letting go; “十年” revisits a relationship across the distance of time.

His work also includes different-language lyrics for the same melody, such as Eason Chan’s Cantonese “明年今日” and Mandarin “十年”. Beyond songs, books including “原來你非不快樂” and “十方一念” extend his observations into essays and poetry. He received the Golden Needle Award for the 2008 Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Awards.

Karen and 糖兄 sang “富士山下” for the 2015 promotion of “勁金歌曲3”, retaining Lin Xi’s lyrics and Christopher Chak’s melody. Chiu Tsang Hei arranged and produced their recording. It is a cover of Eason Chan’s song; Lin Xi’s connection here is as the original lyricist, rather than the writer of new lyrics for this duet.