Hi, my name is Corbett Wall, but most people know me by my Chinese name, 高培桦 (Gao Pei Hua), and I'm into the second third of my life.
I'm an Okinawan/Denver hybrid named after an old heavyweight boxer, who started traveling internationally at the age of three. I play the saxophone, have two dogs, and a wonderful wife who loves me. We live next to a giant ferris wheel in Shanghai.
For the past 20 plus years, I've created a fantastic life here in Asia. Much more than most foreigners really ever get to see. I have the unusual distinction of being the first non-Chinese "pop star" in Taiwan. This took me all over the region and I got to travel and live a pretty happening rock and roll lifestyle. I sold a ton of records, got to wear some fancy suits, and met a lot of fascinating people; from presidents to princesses to gangsters to CEOs. (My buddies love it that most women over 35 in Taiwan know who I am and say stuff like "Oh, I was a big fan of yours when I was in junior high school!")
Then I got into producing, writing, and the business side of it, which took me to Europe and the US doing pop and classical music for famous Chinese artists and cool stuff like recording top UK orchestras, and producing the first Grammy nominated Chinese album. During this period I created a music label for artists to record on the world's largest piano, got involved in M&A work for the majors, and created and produced my own hit girl's group, Beauty4.
After many years in the music industry I realized that the "business of music" has very little to do with the joy of making music, and I started looking for something a bit more meaningful to do. I found this with my wife, when we became involved in a well known non-profit organization in New York, and supported the 7 Train Orchestra for Chinese and American kids in Queens, NY. We did all sorts of cool community based events, mainly to facilitate inter-cultural involvement through the arts. We took the concept back to Taiwan and for the next several years we were fully involved in children's arts education, writing books, and running Taipei's coolest indie music venue, the Living Room.
Sony heard that I was sloughing off and hadn't released an album for while, and we recorded a great album - my 10th and last one (probably) - for one of their jazz labels. This brought me back to Shibuya, and presented me with a major dilemma. Move to Japan, get back in the scene, play with the best musicians, and wear fancy suits again... or look for a more sustainable business model.
As I sat on the steps in front of Starbuck's smoking a cigar, watching the thousands of kogyaru girls pass through Hachiko, each carrying their trusty ketai around like a can of mace, I began thinking about the sake conversation I had a few weeks earlier with my friends at Docomo after touring their futuristic research center. We were discussing the future of technology, and I starting forming some ideas about what I thought that future would look like. I later turned these ideas into a portfolio of patents, and launched the region's first mobile entertainment network to over nine million users across four different networks.
That was all over a decade ago, and after a nice long sabbatical walking my dogs, pouring beers at my club, and getting healthy, I knew it was time to pour some of my creativity back into business. These days I'm focused on helping brands expand in China, and developing my intellectual property portfolio.
If you have time, please feel free to check out my blog, 3q2u.com which is my own quirky investigation into life in Asia, and +CW Associates, which takes me all over China.
Thanks! Corbett
3q2u.com