‘Asian-reggae’ style in ‘China Wine’ used to secure popularity: Kong Hee

“When di body ready wine it up / In da club on di dance in China it up / Wyclef boss blame and grind it up / Cause di way she move she’s hard to touch” — lines that are not very religious or specifically Christian, but yet are from singer Sun Ho’s reggae single entitled “China Wine”.

The song, produced in collaboration with American hip hop artist and songwriter Wyclef Jean, adopted what Jean called a new “Asian-reggae” genre styled after his mega-hit single “Hips Don’t Lie” for Shakira, said Ho’s husband Kong Hee, testifying on the stand in court for the second day on Tuesday morning.

Kong, alongside four other City Harvest Church leaders and former member Chew Eng Han, are on trial for misappropriating some $24 million in church building funds to further Ho’s secular music career. He is the second of the accused to take the stand in the trial’s current tranche, to continue till next month.

Kong shared that “China Wine” was among a series of 12 or 13 songs that Jean recorded with Ho, in a bid to re-style a full English album targeted at breaking into the US market.

‘Too white’

Ho had worked on and recorded most of the songs on the album by end-2005, but music producer Justin Herz, whom Ho and Kong worked closely with on the album, stalled in releasing it, saying he felt it “wasn’t ready”. Herz then roped in Jean, who commented that the songs Ho had recorded were “too white” for her, and that it was “not authentic” for an Asian to be singing them.

Kong also said he recalls Jean saying she sounded like she was “trying to be white when she’s not”, and instead recommended re-recording the album with her, creating the unique “Asian-reggae” style.

Release of the album was delayed more than two years after initially being scheduled to drop in February 2006, Kong said. He said he and Ho were convinced by Herz to produce a full English album after three of her dance singles — “Where Did Love Go”, “One With You”, and “Without Love” — topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club play charts, which rank songs according to the number of times they are spun in clubs, in mid-2004 and 2005.

Jean joined the project, said Kong, in order to “polish” the album, but his high fee made Kong “uncomfortable” even as Herz said album sales would be able to compensate his asking price.

Yet, they took on Jean, who according to Herz in an email to Kong “definitely sees this as his opportunity to break a new international super star” — and he had Colombian singer Shakira’s success to show for it by that point, said Kong.

Getting a step in the right direction

“For Sun to succeed in the US will have great impact on the Crossover project,” said Kong, who explained that her dance hits raised her profile in a “very significant way”. If she did succeed in the US, it would give City Harvest Church a “greater open door for the gospel to be preached… in every territory around the globe”.  

By the middle of 2008, however, negotiations with Jean over his US$1.75 million producer fee broke down and he exited collaborations with Ho.

Ho had also expressed her discomfort with the image she projected in “China Wine”, said Kong. He who noted that even as it was “quite a privilege” for Ho to be working with Jean, she had said it was “not really her style” and that it was “not her natural fit to do reggae”.

“(We were) not sure that (China Wine) was in sync with the image that Sun wanted to have,” he added. Kong said he and Ho trusted the judgement of Herz and Jean, who were more familiar with the US market, however, saying that if to them, that was the way to go, Sun would “commit herself to learning the culture”, and that they would stay “open about it”.

Kong also stressed the need for him and Ho to get support from City Harvest Church’s members. So, in June 2006, they conducted a survey across almost 1,700 members of their cell group to seek their views on their proceeding with Ho’s full English album for the US market.

They received an “overwhelming response” in favour and support of them continuing, said Kong, who added that he found that church members were praying for Ho, and for the Crossover Project to “cross to the US and impact the whole world”.

“(Church members) were very very supportive, very happy, very positive, very grateful that God was able to use her and they kept praying for her, they kept praying for the Crossover Project,” he said.

The trial continues.