Anson Hu a month ago became an exception to Taiwan's rule that no mainlanders could give solo concerts in Taiwan...now he'll be one of the many.
The company that brought Na Ying and Faye Wong to fame is ready to present it’s newest mainland superstar – Huang Yali, an energetic 19-year-old. Taiwanese companies have recently been increasingly signing on mainlanders, from rock bands such as Fusion and AOK to pop stars like Jade Liu. This is probably in light of the fact that after Taiwan’s changed presidents this past year, things have begun changing with respect to Mainland-Taiwan relations, including a suggested lifting of restrictions on mainland artists activities in Taiwan.
This finally became reality recently:
Taiwanese Informational Department head announced on the 24th that mainland artists will be allowed to come to to Taiwan to record music, to perform commercially, and to hold concerts. The control of popular music will also be switched from the educational department to the informational department. Mainland artists will also be allowed to apply for permanent residency in Taiwan. In the future, mainland artists will not have to be checked in at the police upon arrival. Furthermore, the number of mainlanders allowed in Taiwanese-funded movies have been increased from two to five.
source: Sohu
So what does this mean? Well, Taiwan has the most established Chinese music scene, having been around the longest, and due to this has more experienced companies, with the best knowledge of promotion amongst the many Chinese-language regions. Taiwan’s launch pad has allowed many Chinese-speaking non-Taiwanese get known internationally including Singaporeans such as JJ Lin, and Malaysians like Gary Cao. However, due to political reasons Taiwan has not allowed mainlanders to promote in Taiwan except for a select few because of fear of closer cross-straight relations.
While the popular mainland artists can make a lot of money just within China they are limited in their impact beyond mainland borders. So now that the laws in Taiwan have changed mainland singers should get known more globally. The Chinese language is unique in that it has spread to so many parts of Asia, allowing a wonderful diversity of influences. Hopefully Chinese music can grow stronger with this greater flow of ideas and understanding between two of the most powerful Chinese-speaking regions, one with the firm and solid foundations, and one with the huge consumer-market with untold potential.
Let’s take a look at some of the mainlanders who are already making waves across the strait.
Preview of the next post on the newcomer awards
Wang Yuexin
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3iRMpAgeyk]
Jade Liu
Jade Liu’s album is the only album whose every song has made it onto my mp3. With the collaboration of some of the best composers and lyricists in Taiwan, and the support of the popular HIM artists, it’s a mystery to me how she flopped. Even Wang Yuexin sold better than her, and her album was 100x higher-qualitied (Cfensi: I don’t agree with this! 
). Cfensi thinks that it’s due to her ugly clothes and cover (and they were quite bad) (Cfensi: and the lack of variety show appearances which hopefully the new laws will change). Hopefully by her next album, they’ll find better clothes and more people will recognize her great voice.
This is the Way I Am ft Tank and Power Station
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ljnmg2iEg]
Despite having a relatively boring company and no one to help him, Anson Hu captured the audiences’ heart with his irresistible voice, undeniable talent and passion for music, and sharp Shanghainese humor. By the end of his second trip there, he gained enough popularity to get the Taiwanese informational department to make an exception for him by allowing him to be the first mainlander to hold a concert in Taiwan. Anson Hu already has plans for a trip to Taiwan next summer.
Goodbye Poem:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDfq8h-pk2o]
Jane Zhang
Although Jane has yet to officially enter Taiwan, her duet with Wang Leehom in his new album has already stirred up discussion. Many say that now, with the popularity of Painted Heart and the new duet, is the perfect time for her to break into Taiwan. And Jane’s voice alone is enough for anyone to fall in love with her. (Cfensi: She needs to go to America, and I would never say that lightly about an Asian singer)(idarklight: plus,she already has enough English songs of her own to fill an album, as seen below)
To Be Loved at a cross-strait friendship concert in Taiwan
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30HzmpWo0mA]
Huang Yali
Finally, we return to Huang Yali, the latest mainlander in Taiwan. Huang Yali has enough energy to run from Mars to the Moon and is sure to make any show lively . Her two singles, “I can still fly” and “Mars loves the moon.” have also been great. She’ll have a good support group (Fan Weiqi, Angela Zhang and Claire Kuo). Will that be enough for her to break into Taiwan? Hope it’ll be enough for her to fly.
Mars loves the moon, Huang Yali’s newest single under her new company
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKE2rvdjF-0]
this should really give the commercial music scene in China a nice boost. BTY, do you anywhere I can find Fusion’s songs? Have they come out with an album? their songs seem really hard to find. any ideas?
lol, I’m pretty excited about this xD
@billy go to sohu.com’s music section
yay finally (about time)!!!! i hope they all are successful
i personally think that the mainland singers are waaay more talented that jay chou/fahrenheit…etc….
Billy: There’s only the debut album thus far. They are still recording the second album. The debut album is called “Ru Guo Wei Lai,” and YesAsia has multiple versions in stock. I have the full album (streaming) here:
http://www.imeem.com/people/8pjzX_d/pla … _playlist/
Enjoy!
@julie Jay Chou is a music genius. I’m not fond of his voice, but he’s way talented. His music have had the most variety out of all the composing artists, and he’s had success in acting and directing. No one in the Chinese music industry can yet compare to him.
However, there are definitely people better than Fahrenheit anywhere. I feel like their popularity is already dwindling. They’ll need another Hana Kimi to boost their popularity again.
also i hope that in the future, the chinese entertainment companies will get better too
@idarklight: LOL! I agree, about Jay Chou and Fahrenheit. (I was distracted by Fusion for the last post…) Variety is the spice of life, and Jay composes a variety and does a good job of it. I’m a huge fan, despite the last album, which wasn’t his best work IMO. He’s very talented, though I think he’s had a case of writer’s block recently. Using his name and Fahrenheit’s name in the same sentence, though, isn’t quite right, since Jay is a singer-songwriter, and Fahrenheit can only carry a tune every now and then, after someone else writes it for them.
When it comes to the Taiwanese music industry, I think you have to get past Fahrenheit, etc. and find the good that’s there. There are good Taiwanese artists. Honestly, it depends on your preferences. I tend to go for the singer-songwriters. I’m glad that Mainland artists will also be getting more exposure, though, since I do like quite a few.
As a side note, Jade Liu’s scepter thingy reminds me of when I used to watch “Sailor Moon.”
jay chou is a really good composer and stuff, but not a good artist
Julie: It really depends on tastes. To me, Jay’s voice is beautiful. It isn’t perfect, but it’s nice, and if he composes the right song, he can make it sound really good. Ballads tend to bring out all his flaws. I think “花海” is the worst example of that, but other types of songs work better for him, and they also give him more room for creativity.
sometimes, I do wish Jay Chou was a composer and not a singer. I tend to like his songs better when other people sings them.
I tend to go for the composer-singers, too, which is why Lu Hu has been constantly rising in my Super Boy rankings…
Sidenote, though neither of them are big composers,
here’s a song that Wang Yuexin composed and wrote lyrics for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFJthL6X1_Q
And here’s a song that Jane composed for UNICEF:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfPbKW3t19k
I heard Fahrenheit is pretty popular in Japan? They really arent that talented but they have plenty of fans due to their looks. I was just thinking that we are mostly talking about China’s pop music industry. How about the rock, hiphop, or other music scenes?
Billy: Fahrenheit did record a song in Japanese, I’ve heard, but I’ve also heard their pronunciation was horrible, amongst the usual other problems. I’m guessing, though, that if they are trying that, then they either have lots of Japanese fans or want lots of Japanese fans. It’s scary to those who don’t like them.
I don’t think this really improves hope for hip-hop in Mainland China, unless either it’s as clean as Jay Chou or the artist actually does get permanent residency in Taiwan. They’d never be able to be the same lyrically as some of the Taiwanese hip-hop artists, or at least I don’t think so. I’m hoping, though, that some of the rock artists will get a little more exposure. I really like Peng Tan and Fusion, and there are other good ones, I’d like to get to know about them, too.
Wow, this is such excellent news. I already love Anson, and thanks to the Leehom introduction, I’m totally gonna check out Jane Zhang as well.
Anyways, I know nothing about Sino politics, but are regular Mainlanders allowed to go to Taiwan? I thought there were government restrictions on that.
I think mainland China is developed enough to the point where they can already produce great pop music, and it’s readily availiable to people there. However, if they want greater international recognition (Asia and beyond), promoting in Taiwan opens a lot of doors for them. I discovered the majority of my favoriate Chinese singers through watching shows they appear on, and China doesn’t really have that.
I mean, I can’t read Chinese, and everything that gets filtered into English is is pretty much Taiwanese (‘cept for this blog~). It would make it a lot easier on me, as an illiterate international fan, to love mainland artists if I could watch them in action, so to speak.
@Billy – I’ll send you a zip of Fusion’s first album when I have a little more time on my hands, in a couple of days. Right now I’m kind of swamped by RL and the new years stuff that’ll be going on will keep me busy.
@Julie – If you are talking about China being better at having pretty boys who can also sing well, and sing live, and provide tons of fanservice then yes, I would agree, but that really can’t be the yardstick people measure a country’s music scene by.
@Hobielover – I don’t think Jay has hit a writer’s block…I think he’s just reaching for more now. He wrote songs for and basically created Jessie Chiang, and furthermore is trying to expand to movies, another passion of his, that may rival his music love. He used about the same amount of time to release Capricorn as his earlier works, but had so much else going on that it’d be odd if his music quality didn’t go down. I just wish he would have taken more time with releasing an album if he was going to dabble in his other interests.
I like diversity in music too, but I don’t think it should be provided by one artists necessarily, because usually artists have a style that they are good at and should cultivate. I think the diversity in music needs to be provided by different musicians.
@windowwatcher – There are some really fun variety shows in China, but like China’s artists, they aren’t as well know as Taiwan’s shows. I actually myself didn’t know about a lot of them until recently…I love Kuai Le or whatever that one is called.
And yes, there are restrictions on mainlanders going to Taiwan as well.
Bottom line: I have a hard time figuring out how this is actually going to change the music scene in China, which is plowing ahead with commercialization like everything else in China, and I’m not sure that it will affect it that much. However, it will make Chinese artists more known to non-mainlanders and people living outside of China, so that’ll be fun. Finally there will be English discussions of BoBo, etc…it’s really sad if this blog is the only place you can read about them.
@cfensi – oh great!thanks alot. I’ll be looking forward to that.
@hobielover and cfensi- regarding the Hip Hop and Rock scenes, I didnt mean to say that Taiwan lifting its restrictions would improve the hip hop and rock scenes there. What I meant was I would like to see more coverage of the hip hop, rock, and other alternative genres in China opposed to mainly commercial pop. more out-of-the-ordinary genres like metal or reggae or ska…just something different. im getting so tired of cookie cutter boybands singing similar sounding ballads. Thats why I was so interested in Fusion. They have a real alternative rock feel to them. alot of Mandarin speaking pop artists sometimes will try to make a hip hop song or a rock song but to me it just doesnt sound all that great. It often just feels that they are trying too hard to diversify their songs but not really being a hip hop or rock artist, their attempted song feels more like a wannabe hip hop or rock song. I would much prefer a band that does rock 24/7 or a rapper that does nothing but rap. not ballads, then a sort of rock song, and then a “hip pop” song. If your interested, this isnt China(its a Taiwan artists) but heres some actual Mandarin Hip Hop. Definitely not the commercial and clean “Hip Pop” you hear from Jay Chou and co.. nothing against Jay Chou’s rap songs but being a fan of hip hop, some of them kinda make me go blehh. Jnco is Taiwanese indy hip hop at its best.
heres the link
http://tw.streetvoice.com/profile/home.asp?sd=390675
@cfensi: Yes, Jay is splitting his time between so many things! I don’t like that. I really wish he would go back to concentrating on his music like he did in his earlier years of stardom, but it won’t happen. He really shouldn’t have made that “an album each year” promise. Otherwise, he’d be able to narrow the songs down to the best. This was also a tour year, so I’m hoping that that has something to do with how long he was actually composing songs, as well, which would hopefully mean that next year’s album won’t be quite as bad. Then again, the man is involved in at least two movies and that means movie promotions are coming up next year. I wish he wouldn’t “reach out for more” as you called it and stick with what he has.
Of course, no one should just listen to a variety from just one artist! It drives me crazy when people say that A is the only good artist in the world and B, C, and D are just garbage because they can’t do what A does! I do listen to much more than just Jay, but I also think that unless an artist does extremely well with one genre (e.g. Khalil Fong with R&B, or perhaps Hou Xian with Zhongguo Feng), it can get kind of boring while listening to the CD.
@idarklight: I actually tend to like Jay’s songs more when Jay is singing them, but it depends on the artist who sings the song he composed. I really like some songs he composed, such as the songs he wrote for Angela Chang, Power Station, and LeeHom Wang, but there are other songs I would have liked better had Jay sung them himself. There are also some that I’m not sure if I could ever be forced to like no matter what. I think my preference for singer-songwriters singing their own songs goes for several other artists, but all ones that I really like.
regarding my last post…. heres a link directly to the songs section for those that cant read Chinese.
http://tw.streetvoice.com/music/user-so … ?sd=390675
The songs I liked the most were probably sunshine, never too late, you dont need to, get it, 十年, 純正好貨, How I feel, 未曾改變, and My world.
@hobielover – Im glad you mentioned Khalil. IMHO, Khalil Fong is one of the only Chinese artists that can sing proper RnB the way it was supposed to be sung. He is hands down the best Chinese RnB singer I know of. Actually, I like artists that sing extremely well in one genre and just do those kinds of songs compared to artists that try to overextend their range and try to sing too many different types of songs. I talked about in my last post. The thing with artists like Jay and Wang Leehom whose always are very versatile and try out many different things, I always end up liking some of their songs and disliking some other ones because sometimes I feel that some songs just arent true to their genre. They are pop artists afterall. for example, some of Wang Leehoms hip hop feel songs I liked quite a bit while other I thought were a bit wack. same with Jay’s rock and hip hop songs. One song I absolutely loved though was Jay’s attempt at a bossanova track. Mi Die Xiang was great! He really should experiment more with bossanova
Billy: I think Jay also used to sing good R&B, also, but now he doesn’t compose that anymore. Khalil has an absolutely amazing voice, though, and can most certainly sing Jay’s R&B songs live better than Jay himself. I heard a clip of him singing “安静” with a bit of “黑色幽默.” It was beautiful! My only wish was that he had been singing solo instead of with Fiona Sit. Oh, and it would have nice if he’d sung it longer! I think too many people pay attention to looks and ignore him, though, with his geeky image. Despite his talent, he gets way too little attention compared to Fahrenheit. If you like Fusion, though, you should definitely try Peng Tan (彭坦). He used to be the vocalist for the Da Da, which was a Mainland indie rock band, but now he is a solo artist.
No, Jay and LeeHom aren’t real hip-hop, but I’m not into that hard-core stuff at all, so I like Jay’s hip-hop more lyrically. I think I like Jay’s Zhongguo Feng the most, though, the mix of East and West. The more cutesy things recently have kind of ticked me off. Of course, some people like that kind of thing but don’t like the kinds of Jay songs I like. Jay and LeeHom do appeal to a wider audience, but their songs are hit-or-miss on an individual level because of it. While “龙卷风” may be my favorite Jay song, someone else will like “魔术先生” heaps more.
thanks for the recommendation. I’ll definitely check out Peng Tan. I agree that Khalil has a great voice. Have you heard his English parts. They sound great as well. one little pet peeve is when Asian artists try to sprinkle little English parts in their songs when they obviously cant speak English. Khalil does it right. As for real hip hop, people of course have their own opinions. Im a fan of it so I dont really like the Hip Pop that Jay and Leehom sing. Some of its not bad but alot of it I dont really like. Actually, I like Jay’s zhong guo feng songs more than any of his other songs. I dont really like his rock songs that much. As mentioned earlier, I thought his experimentation with bossanova with mi die xiang was great. What I want now is a true Mandarin speaking Reggae band to emerge. that would be so awesome
Billy: Khalil has an advantage with English, since he’s from Hawaii. I showed my mom “Singalongsong” and she liked that. I didn’t tell her who was singing because I knew she wouldn’t understand if I said that before I had her listen. I hate bad English, since it’s my native language and I’m kind of particular about how it’s used, so I have that same pet peeve. I am definitely ordering Khalil’s new album, and I have “Wonderland” and “This Love” already.
The Mandarin-language music industry still has a lot of ways to expand, yes, but it seems like lots of things have been happening. A Mandarin-speaking (-singing?) Reggae band might happen.
I’ve heard Soulboy,Wonderland, and This Love. All three are great albums. I dont have a favorite. He is coming out with another album? Im excited. whats it called and when does it come out?
Billy: It came out last year, depending on where you live. (It’s still December 2008 on my side of the world.) It’s called “Orange Moon.” The first song on it is in English and the final song is a Mandarin version of it, but with the chorus still in English. I’m not sure what my favorite song from it is yet, but it’s quite good. I’ve also heard Khalil’s first album, “Soulboy,” but since YesAsia doesn’t carry it, I can’t buy the album. It’s a pity, since I really like quite a few of the songs from that album.
aw thanks, I found it and listened to some of the tracks. Its still 2008 over here. It seems like this album has alot more ballads and less soul/pure RnB tracks but it is still very nice. I prefer his more soul/RnB style tracks but from what I’ve heard, this album still sounds great. Dont know if you’ve heard 如果爱 but it has this kind of funk/jazz feel that I love. My favorite track on this album so far. Whats your favorite track off this Love? I absolutely love 手拖手. It has a similar jazzy feel to 如果爱 though its really quite different. The melody and rhythm is so unusual in the fact that you dont usually hear songs like this anymore. It has more of a 50′s big band feel. Khalil’s voice fits so well with this melody its gotta be the best song on the album for its uniqueness.
woahhh~ so many comments
@everyone: happy new year!!!! and i agree with all of you
@cfensi: yes chinese pb’s are much better lol
@hobielover: doesn’t amazon.cn ship overseas?
@julie: when I read pb, my first thoughts were playboy…
I think Jay really is most credited for beginning the “zhong guo feng” wave, and they are the songs that I enjoy the most from him. His songs really are so diverse, though…so I can’t just say, oh, it’s from Jay, it must be good.
And I know hobielover doesn’t like Bibi (Zhou Bichang) that much, but I really like her voice. I miss her…she should come back soon…
honestly, I dont like Bibi at all either. too masculine for my tastes
and her “masculinity” makes her voice less amazing how?
it doesnt… I just said her masculinity is not to my taste. As far as women singers, I prefer Teresa Teng.
@Billy: “手拖手” is my favorite off of “This Love,” too!
@idarklight: I know Amazon.cn has more of a selection, but I’m kind of reluctant to use it for quite a few reasons:
1. I ordered a CD through just Amazon once, and it never came. I waited for half a year before canceling the order, which I used my dad’s credit card for and he never paid back the money I gave him. Besides that, my tastes had changed drastically by then and I wasn’t all that crazy about getting a Jackie Chan CD anymore.
2. I’m not sure how good my Chinese is when it comes to filling out order forms, so whether I succeed or not is kind of iffy.
3. My mom keeps a strict watch on how often I order CDs, but she tends to judge by when they come in. If it doesn’t come in for three months, which seems to be the norm when ordering via a Chinese site from the US, then she might say, “Well, that last thing you ordered hasn’t come in yet. You can’t order anything now!”
4. Does it convert RMB to USD? That’d mean a lot.
5. US Amazon is over-priced when it comes to Asian CDs. It costs $40 for some Jay Chou CDs and doesn’t even tell me what comes with them. I’m reluctant to try Chinese Amazon just because it is related to Amazon.
When I do order from a different source, though, I have a list of things I want to buy.
As I said, though, one day I might try Bibi again, and I might like her. After all, I didn’t like sodagreen at first, but I tried them again later on, and now I like them. My tastes can change.
Great post and great comments! Thanks everyone! I learned about a lot of new artists today!
[...] Huang Yali’s first MV under Taiwanese company Linfair is out. The former Super Girl is one of the latest to benefit from the lifted restrictions on mainland artists in Taiwan. [...]