Jo Heng


Jo Heng, also known as Xing Zenghua, was a Singaporean lyricist. She died from lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, on 9 January 2020 at the age of 59.

Personal life

Heng studied in Bukit Panjang Government High School and Thomson Secondary School and was good at Chinese composition. She worked in factories before joining Xin He Magazine.
She liked to read novels by Chinese writer Lu Xun and the works of Taiwanese writer San Mao. She also listened to the songs of Taiwanese singers Fong Fei-fei and Lo Ta-yu.

Career

A pioneer in the Xinyao scene, Heng is widely known for penning songs for Jacky Cheung's "A Thousand Sad Reasons" and Eric Moo's "You Are My Only One" for which she won at the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore in 1997 and the Sing Music Awards in 1989, respectively. She also wrote the lyrics for Andy Lau's "The Path Winds Through High Peaks" which was released in 1994.
As one of the pioneers, she was also featured in the 2015 documentary The Songs We Sang about Xinyao for which she also wrote the theme song.