Lin Xi

Education

Leung attended all-boy secondary schools in Kowloon at Chan Sui Ki (La Salle) College and La Salle College. He received a bachelor of arts with a major in translation studies from the University of Hong Kong in 1984.

Career Leung has been a lyricist since 1985. His pen name, 林夕, comes from the last name of lyricist Richard Lam and the simplified Chinese character (meaning "dream"). He has written over 4,000 song lyrics and is known for his ability to compose lyrics quickly. On TVB's show Be My Guest, he admitted that his fastest record for writing the complete lyrics to a song is 45 minutes. He has also published over ten books, including his essays and poems.

He composed the lyrics for one of the theme songs of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, "Beijing Welcomes You", performed by a panoply of popular Chinese singers. In 2014, he described the experience as a "blemish" of his life for serving as an official mouthpiece. After the 2014 Umbrella Movement, he relocated to Taiwan and became a citizen in 2021. Since 2017, he has been blacklisted in mainland China and criticized by state media for his support for the Hong Kong democracy movement. In November 2019, over thousands of songs written by him were taken down from online music stores, but were restored later.

Personal life Leung was raised a Christian but converted to Buddhism, while he also has an interest in Taoism, especially Tao Te Ching. He often incorporates Buddhist and Taoist ideas into his lyrics.

He came out as gay in 2006 in an interview with his friend Johnnie To.