100 Songs of Chinese Music
22. I Want Us to Be Together (我要我们在一起) – Mavis Fan (范曉萱)
After being an idol for children in Taiwan, Mavis Fan shot to critical fame with works such as this jazzy tune from her 1999 album of the same name. Now, she’s more comfortable doing alternative rock and acting.
23. Waiting for You (等待) – Cheer Chen (陳綺貞)
Similar to Mavis, Cheer was the epitome of the folksy Taiwanese girl. Her music was sometimes too happy, sometimes a little bit sad. She’s also now more comfortable doing melancholic rock. But we’ll always have her saying “she doesn’t want coffee.” xD
24. A Love Before Time (月光愛人) – Coco Lee (李玟)
When Ang Lee went on a won a bunch of Academy Awards for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it was a big deal that Coco Lee was present to perform the nominated song- she remains, to this day, the only Asian (or Asian American) to ever perform at the show.
Too bad it was the English version, huh~ but I miss when they did full songs at the show.
25. Good Days (好日子) – Song Zuying (宋祖英)
Imagine late noughties Lady Gaga, known for her outfits, had thousands of people at her disposition for her show. Dancing, waving the dragon to do the dragon dance, beating on those drums. That’s a Song Zuying show. Classically trained, she can do arias as she can do the folk songs of the Miao people [she’s a minority in China]. Song obviously can be very patriotic — her song Love my China (爱我中华) [clip] is my favorite — so she rubs certain people the wrong way.
But come on! The sound of her voice gives me goosebumps, and she wears some of the most outrageous dresses and headpieces like it’s some serious business. In a word- flawless.
She also did (among her many presentations) a concert titled East Meets West which featured Chinese pianist Lang Lang and Andrea Bocelli.
Such a great feature! “Mama Get Me a Guitar” is cute. The Chin Tsai song is so good- what is the title? Either characters or pinyin romanization. Wow at Ding Wei. Laure Shang has such a cool voice. And I’ve probably said before that I really like the clarity of the voices of the Tibetan/-influenced? singers.
The Chin Tsai song is The Forgotten Times (被遺忘的時光) :) – and yes, they all have such quality to their voice. I love it.
/correction I was looking up DaiQing Tana & Haya Band and apparently they’re Mongolian. -headdesks-
Mongolian-Tibetan. Daiqing Tana’s song is called Migration (迁徙), same as the album. The 30min show on YouTube has different songs, including a version of Faye Wong’s Red Bean… if not mistaken.
and I forgot that the song was in Infernal Affairs!
My favorite new one is #4, Chinese Cabbage. Every time it comes on, I have to sing lol and my mom was listening to it, and translated saying it’s a super sad song! Something about not having your mom and your dad re-marrying, and being poor with your brother having something to wear and something to eat, while you are left with just broth and asking for something to wear.
You have to be grateful of the excess many live in now, the biggest complain has to be that iPhones and Galaxy phones are getting bigger. Seriously. Grateful for the food that I enjoy every single day.