Find Communities in Australia

Join activities, celebrations, study groups, spiritual empowerment and education programs for young people, and more.

Learn about the Baha’i Faith

Baha’i beliefs address essential spiritual themes for humanity’s collective and individual advancement. Learn more about these and more.

DISMISS MENU

Baha’i Blogcast with Rainn Wilson – Episode 18: Khalil Fong 方大同

July 17, 2017, in Audio > Podcasts, by

Hello and welcome to the Baha’i Blogcast with me your host, Rainn Wilson.

In this series of podcasts I interview members of the Baha’i Faith and friends from all over the world about their hearts, and minds, and souls, their spiritual journeys, what they’re interested in, and what makes them tick.

In this episode I speak with Hong Kong based Chinese soul-pop superstar Khalil Fong, otherwise known in Chinese as 方大同, which is “Fang Da Tong”. Khalil has been very instrumental in bringing an eclectic mix of international styles of music to Chinese audiences, but especially Soul music and R’n’B. Besides creating hit songs, Khalil has been recognized as a positive role model for his upright character. In this interview we talk about his musical influences and what inspired him to pursue a career in music. He tells me what his songs are about and how his faith inspires his music and everything he does. We discuss spirituality in China, being a vegetarian, having his own record label, what really draws him to the Faith, the exciting new project for children that he’s working on with his mother, and the advice he would give to other aspiring artists.

To find out more about Khalil Fong and some of the things we covered in the podcast, check out the following links:

* Here is Khalil Fong’s official website, his Facebook page, and his YouTube Channel.

* Fu Music is Khalil Fong’s record label.

* Khalil refers to a song about suicide called ‘Goodbye Melody Rose’ which can be found on the album ‘This Love‘.

* Excerpts from the following songs were used in the interview (with permission):

i. “Listen” found on the album JTW , and you can also watch the music video for ‘Listen’ here.)

ii. “Goodbye Melody Rose” found on the album ‘This Love‘.

iii. “夢蝴蝶” found on the album JTW.

* Khalil mentions the Baha’i Blogcast interview with Andy Grammer.

* Khalil refers to the following Baha’i quote from the Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah:

“O SON OF BEING! Bring thyself to account each day ere thou art summoned to a reckoning; for death, unheralded, shall come upon thee and thou shalt be called to give account for thy deeds.” -Baha’u’llah

Be sure to ‘subscribe’ to the Baha’i Blogcast for more weekly episodes on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud.

Thanks for listening!

-Rainn Wilson

Posted by

Naysan Naraqi

Naysan is passionate about using the arts and media to explore the teachings of the Baha’i Faith. Back in 2011, Naysan started up the Baha’i Blog project, channeling his experiences in both media and technology companies to help create a hub for Baha’i-inspired content online.
Naysan Naraqi

Discussion 2 Comments

Thank you both so much for your inspiring and uplifting words. What a beautiful example of “being and doing!” Love this blog.

Jocelyn

Jocelyn (November 11, 2017 at 3:21 AM)

Fang Da Tong, it’s been wonderful to be introduced to you via this blogcast and to learn of your highly popular musical-culture-spanning, clean-living career, in total harmony with Bahá’í principles. I feel somehow akin to you and your mix of rational and artistic temperament…and also taken by your practical health advice to your younger self in response to your host’s astute inquiry – advice I’m still giving myself, especially with regard to controlling my sleep hygiene in response to the at times crazy-busy, scramble & slog demands of a job as a first year “senior intern” bilingual HS English teacher – albeit at one of the most copacetic high schools in Hungary, praise the Lord! Anyway, they tell me it will be a lot easier next year. As a good neighbor of mine was wont to say, “We live in hope.”

Rainn, this interview resonates with me very strongly, as I served as an isolated Bahá’í university English teacher for two years in two different cities in PR China near the start of my long and tangled TEFL career. During an unscheduled visit to a hilltop monastery in China my second year there, I had a remarkable encounter with a Buddhist monk who pantomimed for me a personal message of my need for emotional detachment. Shortly after that, the “fire of self” overcame me, and enduring what in hindsight seems to have been a slow-healing nervous breakdown, I high-tailed it home to friends and family, professional development and personal therapy in the States, simultaneously stepping away from the Faith for some of the same reasons you did, Rainn – only to reboot my spiritual search and surface in the warm embrace of the Bahá’í community in Abu Dhabi three decades later.

Close to twenty years back, with my SE Asian Chinese wife (an instinctively generous, free-thinking, well-grounded & practical helpmate to me in my peripatetic life, for whom I give heaps of gratitude on a daily basis), I revisited visited Beijing & vicinity and saw some major changes even then. And more recently, Chinese students here in Hungary have shared with me how very much China has grown, materially and spiritually, since then. When I visited Chengdu back in the early 80s, the highlight for me was eating at the original Mapo Dofu restaurant, which I would imagine is probably still in the same location and looking much the same. Back then, except for the standard government-built concrete block apartments, Chengdu didn’t look all that different from how it had looked for centuries, to my mind. But your description of the futuristic eco towers of Chengdu now, Da Tong, is startling. That’s something I’ve gotta see with my own eyes, one day.

Rainn, as one deeply flawed yet worthwhile human being to another, hats off to you for putting this life-affirming material “out there”. And thanks, as always, Naysan & crew, for your behind-the-scenes work in helping make the magic happen!

Keith J. Taylor

Keith J. Taylor (March 3, 2019 at 11:40 AM)

Leave a Reply

YOUR EMAIL WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED
REQUIRED FIELDS ARE MARKED *

"*" indicates required fields

Receive our regular newsletter

Join activities, celebrations, study groups, spiritual empowerment and education programs for young people, and more.

Find Communities in Australia

or Internationally

The arts and media have a critical role in how we share our community experiences. We’ve got resources, projects and more to help you get involved.

Visit our Creator Hub

Baha’i beliefs address essential spiritual themes for humanity’s collective and individual advancement. Learn more about these and more.

What Baha’is Believe

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia.

We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their cultures; and to elders both past and present.

Baha’i Blog is a non-profit independent initiative

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the official views of the Baha’i Faith.