Seasonal Wind 36 years, six versions,
and the sample that made the world hear it again

Timeline: six times this melody was sung

1. 1990NOV unverified Zhang Qiongyao, "One Day I Will" — the melody is born

   Released by EMI on the album One Day I Will (有一天我会); lyrics by Yang Li-te, music by Chen Hsiao-hsia. The title is an unfinished sentence — "one day I will", and then nothing. It leaves the answer to the future. This is the melody's first name. (Some sources date it to 1991; both circulate. See "Sources & verification" below.)

2. 1993FEB 5 Wong Ching-man, "Seasonal Wind" — the Cantonese version becomes the classic

   Track four on her fifth Cantonese album, No Regrets (执迷不悔), and its second single. Calvin Poon wrote new Cantonese lyrics; Richard Yuen arranged it; Alvin Leong produced. She was still credited as 王靖雯 (Wong Ching-man) at the time. Key of D major, roughly 129 BPM. Same melody — but where the Mandarin version waits on a future, the Cantonese one is about a feeling that arrives fast and leaves faster. One song, a different fate.

3. 1993 JSG Best of the Season, first quarter

   The song won a first-quarter award at TVB's Jade Solid Gold Best of the Season and Faye Wong performed it at the ceremony. All year it was outshone by the album's title track, No Regrets — which is probably where three decades of being underrated began.

4. 1994–95LIVE unverified Faye Wong, "Seasonal Wind / One Day I Will" — a Cantonese–Mandarin medley

   On her "Most Wanted" concert run she alternated between the Cantonese version and the Mandarin original, stitching the two choruses together without a seam. It was the first time both names met in the same room.

5. 2005approx. Joi Chua covers the Mandarin original, "One Day I Will"

   A cover of the Mandarin version, not of "Seasonal Wind". Recorded only in a few review pieces and never properly sourced; flagged as unverified.

6. 2026OCT 24 The Weeknd, "Hong Kong" — a sample, not a cover

   Kai Tak Stadium, opening night of the tour. He sings a verse in English, then the chorus opens and Faye Wong's original vocal comes in — a call-and-response across two languages and 33 years. The track is city-exclusive, played only in Hong Kong; the screens behind him ran Wong Kar-wai-style step-printed neon streets.

7. 2026OCT 26 No. 1 on both streaming trending charts

   "Seasonal Wind" topped the trending charts on QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music at the same time; Faye Wong at one point held five of the top seven search entries. NetEase saves reportedly climbed from 190,000 to over 240,000.

8. 2026OCT 28 Wu Qing-feng sings it a cappella on Instagram

   Only the chorus, posted to an Instagram Story, with Cantonese pronunciation that fans called surprisingly accurate. The comments were one long request for a full version. This was the second ignition — one sample brought the attention, one cover turned it into feeling.

9. 2026NOV 1 unverified "Hong Kong" released as a single

   Per one music-review account, the single went to No. 1 on release with about 146,000 Spotify streams in a day. That figure currently has a single source and has not been cross-checked.

Every version, side by side

Three things almost every write-up gets wrong

1. This isn't a comeback. It's the third generation of one.

The version that got sampled is the 1993 Cantonese one, but the melody belongs to a 1990 Mandarin song. "Seasonal Wind" is not an original — it is a re-lyricised adaptation: music from Zhang Qiongyao's "One Day I Will", Cantonese words newly written by Calvin Poon. So this is not an old song being rediscovered. It is the third name of one melody, sung into the world for the fourth time.

2. A sample is not a cover

Plenty of English-language posts say The Weeknd "covered" Faye Wong. He didn't. He sampled her: the audio of the original recording was taken and embedded in a new song. The difference matters — a cover is a new performance and a new arrangement; a sample uses the master itself. It also explains the reaction in the stadium when the vocal enters: that is the 1993 tape, not an impression of it.

3. It was the second single, buried by its own album

"Seasonal Wind" sits on No Regrets as the second single; the first was the title track, a Mandarin song — the only Mandarin track on a Cantonese album. So it was never a lost gem. It was the runner-up on its own record, and it took 33 years to be promoted.

Why this song, and not another oldie

Plenty of golden-age Cantopop has been sampled, but the path this one took is unusual. It wasn't driven by short-video repetition, and it isn't pure nostalgia consumption: it is one foreign superstar's sample and one Chinese singer's a cappella, four days apart. The first brought attention from outside the language; the second gave the fans somewhere to put their feelings.

There is also a detail that gets overlooked — the 1993 arrangement is remarkably bare. No stacked strings, no big reverb, the vocal almost dry and pressed against your ear. That sparseness happens to be the ideal shape for a sample: drop it onto a dark R&B low end and the voice still floats. A lot of Cantopop from the same era is arranged so densely that a sample would turn to mud.

FAQ

What song does The Weeknd's "Hong Kong" sample?

Faye Wong's 1993 Cantonese recording "Seasonal Wind" (季候风), from the album No Regrets. He uses the original vocal, not a re-recording — that is what makes it a sample. The melody itself goes back further, to a 1990 Mandarin song, "One Day I Will" (有一天我会), by Zhang Qiongyao.

Who sang it first?

Zhang Qiongyao, in Mandarin, in 1990 (EMI). Faye Wong's Cantonese version came out on 5 February 1993, credited to 王靖雯 (Wong Ching-man) — the stage name she recorded under until around 1994. Both versions share the same melody by Chen Hsiao-hsia and Yang Li-te.

What key is it in?

D major, about 129 BPM. Published chord charts (Polygon, Chord4) both list Key: D, and analysis puts D, A, G and Bm at the core with roughly 88% of the song in key. Open D shapes cover about four-fifths of the time; beginners can capo 7 and use G shapes instead.

Did Wu Qing-feng sing the whole song?

No. The 28 October 2026 Instagram Story is a chorus fragment, sung a cappella. Fans have been asking for a full version ever since; as of now there is no studio recording.

I can't reach the high notes. What do I do?

Don't force the original key. The song is in D major with the chorus peaking at D5, which most male voices cannot hit in that key. Two routes: transpose down 2–3 semitones to B or B-flat, which brings the peak down while keeping the timbre; or use a capo — fret 5–7 with G shapes for men, fret 2–3 with C shapes for women — so the fingering stays easy and the accompaniment doesn't collapse. If it feels dull after transposing, move closer to the mic and keep more breath in the tone rather than climbing back up.

Sources & verification

Every date and version here comes from public reporting and record releases. Where a claim rests on a single source, or where sources disagree, it is marked "unverified" in the text rather than stated as fact. Specifically:

• Release details (5 Feb 1993, No Regrets, second single, writing and arrangement credits): Baidu Baike and multiple outlets agree.
• The original's release year circulates as both 1990 and 1991 (EMI album One Day I Will); recorded here as November 1990, flagged unverified.
• Key of D major, 129 BPM, chord structure: published chord charts (Polygon, Chord4) and chord analysis (mojim) agree three ways.
• The concert medley's year (late 1994 / 1995) comes from live recording listings, not checked against an official tour programme.
• The 24 October 2026 sample, the 26 October chart positions and the 28 October a cappella clip: consistent across multiple outlets.
• The 1 November single release and 146,000 Spotify streams: one review account only, not cross-checked.

This site hosts no audio, no full lyrics and no sheet music. Lyric copyright remains with the writers and labels.