{"id":95807,"date":"2026-10-27T07:23:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T23:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=95807"},"modified":"2026-10-27T07:23:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T23:23:59","slug":"profile-hong-kong-pakistani-rapper-zain-syed-on-growing-up-an-outsider-and-embracing-his-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=95807","title":{"rendered":"Profile | Hong Kong-Pakistani rapper Zain Syed on growing up \u2018an outsider\u2019 and embracing his roots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/10\/26\/eba3fe5c-f72a-44b9-98b1-3b85a1abf2bb_f206be4a.jpg?itok=Ngq3Kxp6&amp;v=1793004427\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Zain Syed considers Hong Kong his only home. A native Cantonese speaker born and raised in Fo Tan in the city\u2019s New Territories, he did not set foot in his ancestral homeland \u2013 Pakistan \u2013 until he was 31.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Yet, at home, he is too often viewed as a foreigner.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI\u2019m actually immune now,\u201d he says with a shrug. \u201cEven now, it\u2019s 2026, people would still be like, \u2018Are you black?\u2019 It\u2019s crazy. I\u2019m writing in Chinese, and they ask me, \u2018Can you read it?\u2019 If I can write it, can I read it? Is that the question?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/entertainment\/article\/3372135\/hong-kong-pakistani-rapper-zain-syed-growing-outsider-and-embracing-his-roots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zain Syed considers Hong Kong his only home. A native Cantonese speaker born and raised in Fo Tan in the city\u2019s New Territories, he did&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1446,3538,3569,32165,19226,4944,1918,5372,29413,22584],"class_list":["post-95807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-embracing","tag-growing","tag-hong","tag-kongpakistani","tag-outsider","tag-profile","tag-rapper","tag-roots","tag-syed","tag-zain","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}