"I don’t know what you’re singing, but I really like it."

When Hong Kong-based entertainer Suzan Guterres hears that from people who don’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin, she knows she’s reached them.

"Music is universal," Guterres said in a telephone interview from Hong Kong. "It doesn’t matter what language (you sing in), it’s actually about the melody. … There is no language barrier."

Satellite television broadcasts and the Internet have made Asian entertainers much more visible in the United States than when Kyu Sakamoto topped the Hot 100 with "Sukiyaki" — a Japanese-language pop hit — in 1963, but there is still nothing comparable to seeing them in concert.

Guterres comes to town Thursday for a show presented by the Hong Kong Business Association of Hawaii at the Hawaii Theatre. She’ll be sharing the stage with Li Hung Kay, Black Girl and Peter Chan Ho Tak in what the promoters are describing as an "oldies" show featuring songs from the "golden 70s, 80s, and 90s."

The term "oldies" can certainly apply to songs from the previous century, but Guterres’ repertoire includes more than the international pop hits and Broadway standards she sings in English, Cantonese or Mandarin. Another side of it is represented by "Angel Wishing Star," which she recorded in 2010 for the Society for the Promotion of Hospice Care in Hong Kong.

"The tune is very nice, the lyrics are great and the meaning of the song is so good because it was written to promote hospice (care)," she said.

She says the song is intended "to promote a sharing and a more positive look at life — to live life at the fullest."

The DVD-single shows Guterres and other supporters of the society’s Perfect Wish Angel Program visiting a hospice and helping residents.

That Hong Kong is a show business hot spot in East Asia is an accident of history. The former British colony became a center for the Chinese film and music industry in the aftermath of the communist revolution in China in 1949. Filmmakers, recording artists and rec­ord label executives fled to Hong Kong along with thousands of other people. In the decades that followed, a distinct subgenre of contemporary Chinese pop music — known variously as Cantopop and HK-pop — that blended older forms of Chinese music with foreign rock, pop, jazz and other styles, gradually emerged. It was performed almost entirely in Cantonese and developed an international fan base among Cantonese speakers in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

When Hong Kong reverted to Chinese control in 1997, there were concerns about the loss of personal freedom and the possible deterioration of the business conditions, but Guterres says the changes she has seen have been more about technology and language than politics.

"Now that people are so advanced (technologically), it doesn’t matter whether (Hong Kong is) under British law or the Chinese law or the American law. (But) now that China has come back, we, being Chinese, should know how to speak proper Mandarin — not even half the population can speak fluent Mandarin."

While on the subject of language, she says it’s easier to translate English lyrics into Chinese than vice versa.

"English is an alphabet made of 26 letters, but in Cantonese one character can mean a lot of different things."

On the technological side of things, Guterres is well represented on YouTube. The video version of "Angel Wishing Star" can be seen there along with authorized DVD releases of other performances and an assortment of fan posts. She says the ubiquitous website would be an important part of her marketing campaign if she were a young unknown trying to get recognized and break into the entertainment business.

"The trend now is to either go into a competition which can get them a lot of exposure or re­cord themselves and post it on YouTube. … I would record myself and put it on YouTube and let people hear it."