“I’ve always loved the stage,” she recalls smiling. “Since I was very young, I would perform for my parents, my relatives and even at school. I was always the one doing a speech, singing or dancing. I’ve never been stage shy.”

Jace describes herself as having a “big personality”, something that she had difficulties with while growing up. “Hong Kong culture kind of shamed me as a kid,” she says. “As early as 8, I remember wondering how to lower my voice, my personality, to match the people around me.”

One of Jace’s first core memories was also related to fashion—with her mother in Sham Shui Po. “As a kid, my mom would doll me up, make us wear matching outfits,” she says. “She’d always take me to a specific shop in Sham Shui Po, which doesn’t exist anymore, where I would do little fashion shows to showcase outfits to other customers.

“I love these memories, but looking back at some pictures, there’s a lot to cringe about. I remember being 7 or 8, trying to embrace Y2K fashion with this backless tank top—it was very cute, but it was very embarrassing to be wearing such revealing clothing in Hong Kong. I guess I was very much ‘out there’.”

This duality in Hong Kong’s society—where the mainstream culture and individualistic self-expression don’t always go hand in hand—is the very thing she wants to break away from to this day.

With Hatching, she sent a strong message of emancipation. A year later, she has proved that she can be successful on her own terms. Her concerts with Jay Fung, Collar’s Marf and Sammi Cheng, her collaborations with Mirror’s Edan Lui, Kiri T and her new release Pamper Ü, all signal that a new Jace has taken over.

“Pamper Ü is a declaration to self-love, taking good care of yourself, and loving yourself,” she says. “This song is a light-hearted track, meant to remind everyone to treat themselves well.”

Self-care is something that she also shared in her recently released documentary The Ultimate Move (2024), which shows the behind-the-scenes moments from the making of Hatching.

The documentary depicts the raw emotions that Jace, a newly independent artist at the time, felt throughout creating the EP. Watching it back, she mentions that she didn’t realise how much trauma and fatigue she ignored—it’s been a therapeutic process, she says, adding that she felt she needed to share with her fans and fellow artists.

“It’s difficult to be so open and naked about difficult emotions, but it’s important for me to show another part of myself, one that I don’t show on social media,” she says. “As an artist ‘who made it’, I owe it to the local creative community to show the whole truth, and the complexity of a creative life. I firmly believe that once we see the complexity of life, we know how to [better] appreciate it.”

Jace is also hopeful about the future of the city’s music scene. “Since the pandemic, the environment has changed. The attention has shifted towards local talents, and it’s really exciting to witness. And in response to this, the market has to offer something new,” she says.

Traditional Canto-pop is thriving and will continue to thrive. But the singer, who’s too often defined simply as a “Canto-pop artist,” wants to challenge this conception and add diversity to the scene to take it forward. 

“It’s hard to define Canto-pop when Hong Kong people have difficulties defining themselves,” she says. “So, I’m trying to play with this ambiguity.”

Jace has found another way to diversify the scene—and she does it through the queer community. 

During her series of concerts with Jay Fung in January 2024, Jace surprised everyone with a voguing dance break. Then in May 2024, she released Freaks Night Parade, a new song and music video choreographed by Hong Kong’s acclaimed voguing dancer KenKen. For those unfamiliar with this art form, voguing is a highly stylised dance created by black and Latino LGBTQ+ communities in Harlem. 

“I’ve actually been practising voguing for a while, but it took me some time to show it to the world,” she says. “I built and gained support from my voguing community over a long time, and I’ve been practising a lot to be ready to showcase this element to the public.”

“Adding voguing to my show was a bit of a gamble, but I’m surprised at how supportive Hong Kong has been of it. It makes me feel hopeful for the future.”

By embracing the voguing culture, Jace shed light on Hong Kong’s queer community—and this isn’t the first time she has shown her support. In 2023, she became an ambassador for the LGBTQ+ community event Pink Dot and mentioned there that “[she doesn’t] define herself as heterosexual”.

“Defining myself by the negative is easier for me. I don’t want to be perceived as A or B, because being queer is everything in between those two. Whether it’s about my music, my sexuality or my fashion style, I’m on an adventure. I’m here to explore.” And by doing just that, Jace has made a huge impact on Hong Kong’s music scene—and it’s only the beginning.

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