As a famous Hong Kong singer and actor, Wakin Chau’s popularity has spread throughout China’s Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Mainland and parts of Southeast Asia. He was known as Emil Chau through the 1980s and 1990s, and by 2000 he reverted to his given name Wakin. He released more than 40 albums and held many international concert tours.

Wakin was born in a rice store owned by his family in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong. Growing up as the fourth son in his seven-member family, Wakin learned to play the guitar when he was about 13 years old. In 1979, he left for Taipei to major in mathematics at Taiwan University. During his college years, he sang and played folk songs in local coffee shops. This activity was a tradition among NTU students, and it is how Wakin learned to sing in Mandarin, which would be key to his future as a music-maker in Taiwan.

Wakin had high hopes to establish a career as a recording artist, and he actively sought out contacts in the music industry. But a persistent lack of interest eventually led him to give up trying to become a performer — instead, he could sign on as an assistant producer at Rock Records, where he wrote marketable pop songs for other artists.

He was later encouraged by Chyi Yu to sing some jingles for commercial advertising spots. One of these tunes was for a car commercial, and it happened to catch the attention of Wakin's boss at Rock, who realized it was the voice of his own assistant producer.

He released his first Mandarin album under the Rock Records label in 1987. For a man who had dreamed of performing professionally but had settled on being a record producer, this was a period of particularly good fortune that launched a succession of chart-topping records.

Shortly before his music career took off, Wakin the record producer met an American girl named Constance Woods, whose father was in Taiwan as a Fulbright scholar. Seeming to have plenty in common (including birthdays only one day apart) Wakin and Constance began to date, got engaged and then on 16 November 1986, they married in Taipei. Four months later there was another ceremony with family and friends in the United States of America on 14 March 1987. They have a son named Andrew and a daughter named Anya.