“I hope everything will be better than last year,” MC Cheung Tinfu tells Apple Music. That’s a tall order for the Hong Kong artist, whose star continues to rise since his breakout turn as a runner-up on Hong Kong TV show King Maker II in 2019. To usher in the Year of the Dragon, Cheung has curated his Lunar New Year playlist with an eye on good vibes: “The focus is on the atmosphere, bringing positive energy to listeners, and making them happy,” he says. His picks round up ecstatic funk and soul grooves—like Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music,” Crowd Lu’s “C’MON,” and Lizzo’s “Special”—while nodding to the traditions of the season with “⽼派約會之必要” (“A Gentleman’s Guide to Old-Fashioned Dating”) from his 2023 debut album This is MC: “It’s in a Chinese style,” he says. “And getting together for the new year is old-fashioned as well as a date—and it’s essential, too.”