Perfection in Motion: How I Fell in Love with China’s Super Girl

Pop Princess

The rest, as they say, is history. A tour of the top three Super Girl finalists, including Bibi, followed by record company contracts, and years of album releases and concert tours – plus roles in feature films.

One of those films, The 601st Phone Call (第601个电话), made in 2006, is a heart-breaking love story in which she is cast in a supporting role. The main character is a widely idolized pop singer played by the Hong Kong-born actress Cecilia Cheung, but it is Bibi’s role as an adorable but simple, baggy jeans-wearing office girl, and her contribution to the main song of the film titled Phone Number (号码), that is the compelling part of the film.

In the years since 2006, she has released seven best-selling albums, numerous music videos, and has made what seems like an endless string of public appearances. What seems even more endless is the number of awards she receives from different associations of recording artists, media conglomerates, etc.

Just one week after the release of her latest CD, Black.Choice.White (黑・擇・明), she appeared at the Hit King Global Chinese Music Festival and was the winner in three categories: Best Song for Time Machine (时光机与流浪者), Best MV and Best Female Vocalist.

If there has been a breakthrough moment in her career it would probably be the 2010 makeover of her image that took place one month before the release of i.fish.light.mirror (i,魚,光,鏡) ten months after the release of her previous recording Time (時間).

She spent a month in Taiwan putting together a new concert show for her Sing Along The Travel tour that included a retinue of dancers that she also performs in step with, 11 costume changes, wigs and hair extensions, and a multi-level stage that she disappears beneath and then rises again on a series of elevating platforms.

This kind of a revamping of a mainland artist’s show in Taiwan is not unusual. “The Republic of China has become kind of a cultural hub for a number of mainland artists,” one Beijing-based colleague explained to me one day. “The Taiwanese are just better at this kind of creative concept development because they have this funny aspect to life on that island that people on the mainland do not enjoy called ‘freedom of expression’ which is perhaps the biggest reason.

It was this change in her image, some brilliantly produced recordings from the previous two and her most recent album that have vaulted her up to an entirely new level in her performance. She seems, at times, to literally be perfection in motion. The first time I saw her live in Beijing in July 2010, I could not believe what I was seeing – and what a performance she gave in the hall that was originally built for the famous US-PRC ping-pong diplomacy under US President Richard Nixon and China’s Mao Zedong.

A few months later – this past March – I was in Shanghai for the most recent and only concert performance she has given this year. Because much of her stage crew, dancers and musicians have to come from Taiwan, the logistics of organising her concert performances and pulling all of these people into one place are more complicated, so her shows are fewer and more far between than any of us would like.

But, the months between this show and those that had been held the previous summer had not caused her performance to deteriorate one iota. Her concerts are also not some pre-packaged list of songs. They are all different and they always contain something new that was not part of the previous performance.

This night one of those surprises was her singing her own rendition of an old song from a classic Chinese film called Shanghai Blues (上海之夜) while wearing one of her favourite stage outfits, a red satin pants suit with matching red shoes. The little soft-shoe dance number she performed while singing brought the house down.

One of the highlights of the show is the song I Miss U Missing Me [MV] by American songwriter Diane Warren [1], which Bibi performs in English.

15 Responses

  1. ghost says:

    One learns something new everyday. That was a very moving letter – video clip too, thank you for sharing that.

  2. Mia says:

    I just bought her album Black. Choice White from yesasia.com ! Great Voice~! Thank you for sharing videos, Mr. Johnson~!

  3. sarahxu says:

    BiBi is so charming ,i love her beautiful voice and natural.
    New album is so good, sharing with you

  4. Julyssa says:

    Reuben! What a lovely article! Such a pleasure of having you post it via us. Really touching!

  5. xiao says:

    I have some problems to read English,but I know you are one of our family Biqin. BiBi is worthy loved forever!!!her new record 【黑择明】which means Selecting light in the dark has been published.

  6. xiao says:

    bibi Chou is an angel ! I love her

  7. Flora says:

    Bibi is really great, thank you for sharing your story with us and wish you all the best~

  8. Mandy Jean says:

    If there is one thing I must do before my time on this earth ends, it is to see Bibi perform. She never fails to move me to tears, and it is only the work of a true artist that can stir such emotions within a person, especially when they do not speak a mutual language. Only a small handful of artists have done this to me, and Bibi is the number-one “perpetrator.”

    I am honored to be a part of this family of Biqin.

    • amy says:

      @Mandy Jean, how do you find the non-Chinese speaking Bibi community?

      • Mandy Jean says:

        @amy, I believe I found the English-speaking community – or at least some members of it – by doing some research on Zero Chou’s films ‘Spider Lilies’ and ‘Drifting Flowers.’ I had seen both films and was reading an article that described the two as being part of a series in which, sometime in the near-future, Zero Chou said she would like to add a third installment.

        Upon further research, I came across a thread in the AfterEllen community discussing Asian entertainment in general, and among the list of artists whose names I recognized, I found Bibi’s name. It took all of two seconds to look up her music videos on YouTube.

        Since then, I really haven’t found other fans. In fact, I think this is the first time I’ve ever found any of Bibi’s English-speaking fans. I’ve just been recommending her music to people I know would appreciate it.

        • Julyssa says:

          @Mandy Jean, Yay! Another English-speaking fan! Welcome to our small yet passionate group!

        • amy says:

          @Mandy Jean, Zero Chou? We got the three of her films in the database xD Splendid Float (I think it was called, the first one in her 7 color series), Spider Lilies and Drifting Flowers. xD Flowers is actually her third installment (Float is yellow, Spider is green and Flowers is red), but I heard the idea is to make that a series and complete the color of the rainbow.

          Though… I read she’s making another film with some idols, I can’t remember haha – something to do with pirates or something?

          Anyway, stick around to talk about Bibi and other LGBT-related things. LOL

  9. Mandy Jean says:

    @Julyssa, Thanks for the warm welcome!

    @amy, As you can see, it’s been a long time since I did that kind of research, but now that you mention it, I think I DID hear something to that effect. But pirates? Wow, haha.

    And oh, if you haven’t noticed, I’m very splendiferously gay. ;)

    • amy says:

      @Mandy Jean, I found the post:
      “Hua Yang’s time of story is set on ancient, which is rare in TW movies in the recent years.

      After 8 years, Jerry Yan Cheng Xu will once again film a movie, playing a chivalrous pirate. In the movie, there will be a lot of action scenes.”
      Source.

      And… I don’t know if you can tell by some of our writers posts, but our writers are not fully 100% straight either LOL, and if they are- the YAM Magazine family is super gay-friendly. And we cover a lot of Asian media too.

      Anyway, these comments have gotten out of control.

      we all just love Bibi.

  10. Angel says:

    Wow! Nice to see this post… A very touching story! the most fabulous story in English I have ever seen.
    I used to think that I could use English to write a story about Bibi.
    But it is still a problem for me as English as Second Language.
    I can read and understand it. But I think I will never write like this.
    There are many more little stories between Biqin and Bi.
    I hope I can learn much more English writing skills to write about it.

    Thank you for everyone who loves Bibi and her music!

    Happy Chinese New Year! Year of Dragon! Woo…

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