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BookTalk: Xinyao composer Liang Wern Fook thinks the medium people read in does not matter
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Singer-composer Liang Wern Fook is synonymous with the xinyao genre in Singapore.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF LIANG WERN FOOK
Who: Mandarin singer-composer Liang Wern Fook, 61, needs no introduction. Since hearing a neighbour playing the piano when he was 10, he has penned over 200 songs and is synonymous with the xinyao movement in the 1970s and 1980s, a genre of Mandarin tunes unique to Singapore.
He has two musicals to his name: December Rain, the first Chinese musical produced by a Singaporean in 1996, and If There’re Seasons in 2007. Most recently, his songs are also featured in a localised version of Chinese classic Journey To The West, titled Journey To Singapura and presented by cultural organisation Reverberance.
