Ronald Cheng was born in Hong Kong.1 Originally intending to work behind the scenes as a songwriter and a producer, Cheng did odd jobs at his father (Director of EMI Asia)'s company EMI— which included doing backing vocalist for the likes of Alan Tam and Priscilla Chan — during summers as a youth. The lessons were apparently effective, as producers started taking notice of Cheng's voice and he was signed to a recording contract soon thereafter. Cheng first shot to popularity in Taiwan before returning home and enjoying some success in Hong Kong. However, his singing career went into a lull from 2000 to 2003 due to the infamous "air rage incident", when, on a flight from Los Angeles to Taipei, he became drunk and had an altercation with the flight attendant and co-pilot.2 However, Cheng's career rebounded later.
Cheng returned to the Cantopop market in 2003, however success for him did not arrive until 2005, where his signature song "無賴" (Rascal) was voted one of the Top 10 songs at various music award shows, notably TVB's Jade Solid Gold, where it was voted the most popular song of 2005.3
Cheng won his first Best Supporting Actor award for his performance in Vulgaria at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Award.4
Cheng's song 《MY ONLY ONE》was awarded one of the Top 10 golden songs organized by VivTV, 《Chill Club》, presented on 18 April 2021 5
On 23 April 2021, Cheng held Hong Kong's first outdoor drive-in concert, entitled《Drive in Ultra – WEE are Ronald Cheng》. Many celebrities showed up to help out, including Josie Ho Chiu-yi, Ekin Cheng, Candy Lo and Kelly Chen etc.6
His father, Norman Cheng (鄭東漢), is the chairperson and CEO of EMI, and formerly of the Asia Pacific division of PolyGram and then Universal Music.
Ronald Cheng started his relationship with Charlene Choi, a Hong Kong singer and actress, in 2004, after starring as lovers in the film Hidden Heroes. Their marriage was kept secret from the public, and they avoided going out together except for family gatherings.7 In 2010, while Choi announced ending the relationship with Cheng, the press revealed that they had registered their marriage in Los Angeles, United States in 2006.89 Both Cheng and Choi admitted to the marriage, but decided to divorce.10 Later, he dated Sammie Yu Sze-man, then a hostess in Cable TV Hong Kong, and Yu gave birth to a daughter in July 2011. They married in the same year11 and later had a son in 2015.
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Ronald-Charlene: It's actually a divorce https://web.archive.org/web/20100331002505/http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Showbiz/Story/A1Story20100327-207165.html ↩
關穎賢 (3 December 2018). "重提飛機醉酒黑歷史 鄭中基:第一次攬住爸爸喊!". 香港01 (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). Retrieved 29 July 2022. https://www.hk01.com/即時娛樂/266126/重提飛機醉酒黑歷史-鄭中基-第一次攬住爸爸喊 ↩
"Jade Solid Gold 2005 Awards: Most Popular Song". TVB. Retrieved 1 June 2007. http://tvcity.tvb.com/jsg/awards/awards_5048485316822816576188250182181.html ↩
"32nd Hong Kong Film Awards 2013". HK Neo Reviews. Retrieved 14 April 2013. http://thehkneo.com/blog/?p=3995 ↩
"【ViuTV頒獎禮】完整得獎名單 柳應廷大熱奪新人獎". Singtao. 18 April 2021 https://std.stheadline.com/realtime/article/1550044/%E5%8D%B3%E6%99%82-%E5%A8%9B%E6%A8%82-ViuTV%E9%A0%92%E7%8D%8E%E7%A6%AE-%E5%AE%8C%E6%95%B4%E5%BE%97%E7%8D%8E%E5%90%8D%E5%96%AE-%E6%9F%B3%E6%87%89%E5%BB%B7%E5%A4%A7%E7%86%B1%E5%A5%AA%E6%96%B0%E4%BA%BA%E7%8D%8E ↩
"Ronald Cheng's concert is half of the Hong Kong entertainment venue, three generations of grandparents help out, Kelly Chen and the daughter of the king of gambling appear". inf.news. 25 April 2021 https://inf.news/en/entertainment/d9b2f1baac341935916448c8e2c58cb8.html ↩
"Ronald Cheng and ex-wife hid for years". 4 November 2013. http://www.asiaone.com/news/diva/ronald-cheng-and-ex-wife-hid-years ↩
Charlene-Ronald romance over https://web.archive.org/web/20100325030503/http://news.asiaone.com/News/the%2BStraits%2BTimes/Story/A1Story20100319-205471.html ↩
Splitsville for Charlene Choi and Ronald Cheng http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/1044396/1/.html ↩
"Ronald Cheng quietly marries girlfriend Sammie Yu in 'homemade' wedding - Channel NewsAsia". www.channelnewsasia.com. Archived from the original on 3 November 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111103121427/http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/1151803/1/.html ↩
正宗K (Jing Jung K) is a pun of the Cantonese pronunciation of Cheng's name — Cheng Chung-Kei. It literally means "Genuine Karaoke" in Cantonese. /wiki/Pun ↩
Kevin Ma (16 July 2014). "Bona launches Secret Treasure". Film Business Asia. Retrieved 16 July 2014. http://www.filmbiz.asia/news/bona-launches-secret-treasure ↩
Ronald Cheng at lovehkfilm.com http://www.lovehkfilm.com/people/cheng_ronald.htm ↩
Ronald Cheng at chinesemov.com http://chinesemov.com/actors/Ronald.html ↩