New shades of Eason Chan

Photo by Zou Hong / China Daily

"He wanted to experiment on this album that coincided with my aspirations. We've been singing and writing songs for years and took this opportunity to make some changes," Lin says.

Chan is set to kick off his tour of Asia this year on the back of the new album. He will perform in Beijing on Aug 16.

Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1975 and went to Britain to study at the age of 12. He won a big competition for new talents in Hong Kong in 1995 and returned home to become a singer.

Time magazine described him as a "front-runner in the next generation of Cantopop" in 2005, and he ranked No 6 on the Forbes China Celebrity list of top 100 in 2013.

Chan calls his wife, former actress Hilary Tsui, whom he married in 2006, his idol. "She is a mother, runs a fashion label and is a marathon competitor. She is a superwoman," he says. His wife perhaps follows Chan's music and celebrity status less keenly than most of his fans, he says.

Though Chan likes making jokes about himself, even in public, he cautions against superficial understanding of issues. "I don't want to release albums every year because I want to stop and breathe. Don't be deceived by my appearance. I am serious."