New music film ‘Lotus’ captures Gia Fu’s Canton Mambo in motion

Video platform NOWNESS ASIA has released a new original music film directed by Rose Ng, following Hong Kong-born DJ, producer, and vinyl collector Gia Fu.

Shot across Chinatown delis, street corners, and dancefloors in New York City, the film documents the release of her latest single, ‘Lotus’, and highlights the cultural connections that shape her multidisciplinary project, Canton Mambo.

Canton Mambo is Fu’s ongoing exploration of how salsa and Afro-Latin rhythms connect with Asian sounds and histories.

Based in New York but rooted in Hong Kong, through the project, she organises parties, listening sessions, and research-based events that bring together diverse communities.

She describes it as “a celebration of sound and sensation combining music production, music and culture research, and listening sessions”, and wanting to “reconnect golden-era cha-chas and mambos with today’s Afro-Latin beats within Hong Kong’s vibrant dance scene”.

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“My journey into Canton Mambo didn’t begin at a fancy music school. I started in the random spaces of dance halls, street corners, and pavements throughout our dynamic city. I first fell in love with the wondrous tumbao rhythm at a breakdance battle in Chai Wan,” she writes in the film’s accompanying essay, When the Montuno Hits in Hong Kong: My Journey into Canton Mambo.

‘Lotus’, single from her forthcoming album, combines salsa’s structure with traditional Chinese instruments and melodies, alongside a hip hop interlude.

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“If I were a Chinese immigrant growing up in Cuba or Colombia, what music should I listen to? Or is there a middle ground between ‘their’ music and ‘our’ music, for such people?” she reflects.

Through both film and essay, Fu reveals how Canton Mambo reactivates forgotten histories and connects diasporic stories across continents, bringing hybrid rhythms back to life on today’s dancefloors.

Watch ‘Lotus’ in its entirety below.

Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.

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