MC Cheung interview: He calls himself 30% mature

MC Cheung interview: Hong Kong singer MC Cheung Tin-fu (張天賦) says he measures his own maturity at about 30 percent, and that he values keeping a playful side as he approaches his 30th birthday.

The phrase for a so called novice adult recently went viral on social platforms in Hong Kong, describing adults who have not checked all the boxes of conventional adulthood. For MC Cheung Tin-fu, the idea of being fully mature felt less like a milestone and more like an ongoing process.

Remembering the boy who used to busk into the early morning on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront (a busy waterfront area in Kowloon), he has stepped into the spotlight, learned to plan and set a rhythm for his work, and come to feel the weight of responsibility. He is still figuring out what maturity looks like for him.

Three tenths mature

People often assume there is an age when everyone suddenly knows how to do grownup things, from filling out forms to making steady decisions. In reality, many admit that experience does not always teach everyday skills: a person who has worked for years may still struggle to pick fruit, and sudden problems sometimes require a quick reference guide.

Sitting in front of the camera, MC Cheung did not dodge that uncertainty. He was blunt about his own estimate: he believes he is only about 30 percent mature.

That number sounds surprising coming from a singer who has played at the Hong Kong Coliseum and picked up multiple industry awards. At 29 years old, his career has direction and promise, and he once set a public goal to retire before turning 30. Yet he describes maturity in measured, careful terms.

“For me, ‘mature’ is not a value judgement,” he said. “It is a collection of traits, like planning and appropriate behavior, but right now I cannot fully define it with words.”

“I do not think I need to reach 100 percent mature to be happier,” he said. For him, maturity does not carry simple praise or blame. It is not an endpoint but an ongoing balancing of material, emotional, and creative aims.

He added, “You are always on the road to success. I am working along the same road, and I could not say how far away success is. Every time I finish one goal, I give myself another.”

On his current fitness goal, he laughed and counted days in his head. He said he only started in April and the interview fell about 20 days into that effort. For someone who loves to eat, it is tough, but he is getting used to it, and he sees it as the first stretch toward a longer target.

He laughed when asked about the flags he had once set. “I wanted to retire before turning 30, but now I have a few months left, so I delayed that plan. I now aim for financial freedom by 35.” He said this without regret and without panic. “I feel that financial freedom will let me take time to do the things I really want to do,” he added.

Growth, he suggested, is a continuous tug of war between reality and the self, between reason and feeling. “Who does not learn to be an adult this way?” he asked.

Between two names

“Honestly, I am not sure how much I have changed. People around me may notice more. Physically and mentally my shoulders feel broader because I carry more, but I still say a lot and I remain a little mischievous,” he said.

His music now shows more range than the public sees. Beyond his ongoing #Project1201 cover series, he has been releasing work under two names, “MC” and “Emz,” to present different sides of his music, including songs translated here as “Anonymous,” “168.5,” and “Makes Sense” featuring Novel Fergus.

He describes three directions a musician faces: works you like, works you should release, and works the public wants to hear. They rarely line up, he said, so he often follows his instinct between commercial demands and personal expression.

Asked about the origin of the name Emz, he explained that he has loved hip hop since childhood. A friend suggested he take a second name for his rapper persona. Emz sounds like the letters M and C with an extra z, and his company encouraged the idea to separate more mainstream work from projects that are stylistically bolder.

He said the creative process is largely the same regardless of which name a song ultimately wears: the song is made first, and then he decides which persona releases it. He prefers to let the work find its home.

On compromise in creation, he shook his head. “Creation is too subjective to call it compromise. A song gathers the craft and effort of many people, and there is no single absolute standard. Trust, adjustment, and give and take are part of collaboration. I do not like arguing, so if we can avoid fights, I will yield sometimes,” he said with a laugh.

He cited the Jim Carrey comedy Yes Man as a favorite. The movie, translated in Hong Kong as 乜都得先生, follows a man who opens new possibilities by saying yes. For him, the philosophy of saying yes has quietly shaped his path from a teenager busking by the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront to a performer on the Coliseum stage. The choices to step forward, he said, have been formative more than any precise calculation.

His calm confidence in music and collaboration is itself a form of maturity, he said, but it is not a rigid armor. It is an openness with softness folded inside.

Facing fear

Becoming an adult often teaches people to act strong and composed, but few admit what they are actually afraid of. Even the toughest people have cracks and tender places, and many find it hard to say the true “I am not okay” moments out loud.

When asked what he fears most in daily life he joked at first that he worries about acne or skin problems, a form of image care. Then his expression grew serious. “I am actually someone who is very afraid of death,” he said.

He connected that fear to his habits. “It is not that I do not value time, people, or relationships, but I do not know how to cherish them properly,” he said. He used a concrete metaphor: “It is like owning a beautiful pair of sneakers that you love but do not know how to wear so they sit on the shelf. I would be sad if I lost them.” Then he added softly, “like my mother s soup.”

Those six words landed gently but heavily, like a pause that marked the deepest place in the conversation. The soup is always there, familiar and precious, but people often assume there will be a tomorrow and miss the moment to savor it.

His fear of death is less about an end and more about running out of time to cherish people and ordinary days that deserve attention.

He quoted a line from a VLOG titled “Anonymous”: “The more you fear, the more you fear.” Since fear cannot be avoided, he said he tries to live with it and even referenced the law of attraction to reframe his worries. “The law of attraction says what you think becomes reality. So flip it. Fear can be fear, but it does not have to happen,” he said.

His practical method for handling anxiety is simple: breathe. “Action affects thought and thought affects action. They tug at each other, so the quickest adjustment is to steady the breath. Take two deep breaths, exhale slowly, repeat a few times and you will relax,” he advised.

He concluded that maturity is not learning to be fearless but learning to coexist with fear, even if the tool is a few steady breaths.

At the threshold of 30

“Rather than saying what changed, I would say what I kept. I still have a childlike core. The three year old inside me remains, and I keep my appetite, my height, my singing, and my love of play. I maintain my relationship with my mother and true friends. These are the parts I treasure and do not want to lose,” he said.

Standing at the threshold of 30, he did not claim to know what lies behind the door. He is certain of one thing, though: he does not want to force himself into the mold of a so called high level adult. True growth is not total capitulation to reality or checking off a list; it is seeing your own fragility and choosing to carry it forward with a smile.

He joked that he now frets less about life and more about what to eat or whether to take a cheat day. “What counts as real maturity? That is a hard question,” he said, pausing. “Maybe when someone can clearly say what maturity means, that person is mature. I cannot answer yet.”

Then he checked with himself and added, “For now, keeping this 30 percent of maturity is enough. Being happy matters.”

After the interview MC Cheung said he looked up definitions of “maturity” online and laughed that maybe he is a bit more than 30 percent mature. His remarks throughout the conversation suggest his answer is scattered across small truths: he carries more responsibilities, he keeps a mischievous heart, he trusts in collaboration, and he knows success is always on the way so there is no rush to arrive.

That 30 percent leaves space for joy and the curiosity of a three year old, and he intends to live fully, honestly, and sometimes clumsily. Perhaps that, he suggests, is his current answer to what it means to grow up.

^{Executive Producer: Angus Mok
Photographer: Olivia Tsang
Art Direction: Olivia Tsang, Mimi Kong
Styling: Mimi Kong assisted by Yoanah Chan
Videographer: Alvin Kong, Matt
Video Edit: Alvin Kong
Interview: Louyi Wong
Set Design: Athena
Makeup: Circle Chong
Hair: Cliff Chan @ myos
Wardrobes: Tod’s
Jewelry: MIKIMOTO}