Hong Kong Elvis Impersonator Dies at 68

“I cried a very long time,” he advised The Occasions, recalling the primary time he noticed the movie, “Elvis: That’s the Approach It Is.”

Mr. Kwok gained a pair of Elvis-impersonation contests within the early Eighties, The South China Morning Put up reported, however native Chinese language followers usually mistook him for as an imitator of different well-known musicians — a Beatle, say, or Michael Jackson.

By 1992, Mr. Kwok had give up his job and branded himself the “Cat King,” the Chinese language moniker for Elvis. He’d additionally set his sights on a better quarry: Western expatriates and vacationers.

His guitar was typically out of tune, his self-taught English a bit tough. (His enterprise card misspelled Presley’s first identify.)

Nonetheless, he earned a dwelling, and stated that being Elvis beat manufacturing facility work. Some revelers got here to know him as Melvis — no relation to Relvis, an impersonator in america — or the “Lan Kwai Fong Elvis,” a reference to a nightlife district the place he usually carried out.

Mr. Kwok died on the finish of yr through which coronavirus infections in dwell music venues led the federal government to shut them for months on finish, emptying the sidewalks of his potential clients. Ms. Ma stated that he spent a lot of his pandemic downtime watching Elvis movies and taking part in guitar in his condominium.

Mr. Kwok is survived by his spouse, Anna, and their two kids, a son and a daughter.

His spouse, who was additionally his supervisor, advised The Occasions in 2010 that she had not initially supported his marketing campaign to be Elvis. “However then I used to be moved by his persistence and devotion to the job,” she stated.

It’s arduous to discover a job one loves, she added. “Now that he’s discovered it, I’m pleased to assist him.”