Faye Wong, Singapore Indoor Stadium, 2 June 2004
For the sake of the ang mohs reading this who are even more clueless about Faye Wong than I am, the quick overview is that she’s a hugely famous Chinese singer whose success and popularity is surprising given the relatively adventurous nature of her music (relative to the world of Chinese pop music, that is), but perhaps less surprising given that she is very beautiful and has the voice of an angel. Musically, I’d describe her sound as Dolores O’Riordan meeting Sarah McLachlan at a Teresa Teng concert attended briefly by Bebel Gilberto, but in a good way, apart from when she does the awful Dolores-stylie banshee-keening. I’m sensing disbelief. I’ll move on.
I’ve never heard a fast Chinese pop song that didn’t suck, and unfortunately that trend mostly continued for me during this concert. Her ballads are generally enjoyable because they showcase her exceptional singing ability, but the fast songs sound like I could throw them together in ten minutes with a shitty synthesizer and some bog-standard trance samples. The only exception was a song which is either called Kai Dao Tu Mi or Tian Dao Tu Mi or Kai Dao Tu Ling (look, when you don’t understand what something means, it’s hard to remember exact wordings, okay?) which is very much like Tori Amos when she started experimenting with beats on From The Choirgirl Hotel. Feisty tune, snazzily performed, fun touches like singing through a megaphone so her voice sounds like a raspy vocoder, and interesting, thank God.
But let’s move on to the ballads, because they’re really what get those multi-coloured lightsticks in the audience swaying arrhythmically in the air, and inspire those screams of “WANG FEI! WANG FEI!”
[Why do Chinese audiences shout out the artist’s full name? This is so odd, it’s like going to an English gig and yelling “JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!” or “WEIRD AL YANKOVIC!” I mean, in other concerts I’ve attended, I certainly never bothered with “Jackson” when I was screaming “I LOVE YOU MICHAEL!”, and my secondary three form teacher didn’t bother to add a “Bon Jovi” when she yelled “FUCK ME JON!” either.]
So anyway, she sang Tian Kong and Dan Yuan Ren Chang Jiu and Wo Yuan Yi and Hong Dou and Xiao Wang Shu and Ren Jian, which was very nice, because they are among the 17 songs of hers that I actually know. She also sang some cover versions with varying success – The Cranberries’ Dreams (fine until the banshee-keening bit, which is dreadful no matter who sings it), The Look Of Love (unexpected, but actually quite nice and Bebel Gilberto-y) and Tori’s Silent All These Years, which seems to be the most successful crossover English song ever in the Chinese pop world, given the number of Chinese pop chicks who keep covering it.
[I asked Terry if they retained the meaning of the Silent All These Years lyrics when they translated it to Chinese. “Of course not,” said Terry, “in Chinese music nothing is about domestic abuse; everything is about breakups.”]
The thing about Faye Wong is that you don’t have to know her songs or understand the lyrics to enjoy her concert, because most of the time, her amazing voice is enough. Depending on the song, she can showcase the rich vibrato of a traditional Chinese chanteuse, she can do the playful delicacy of a funny Broadway number, and she can do the sort of modern balladeering that Sarah McLachlan used to do well and Dido still wishes she could do well. At the end of the day, that voice bridges the gap of my ignorance and my cultural condescension, and is all I ultimately need as explanation of her richly-deserved fame.
maybe because chinese names have less syllables than the average english name? :P
Maybe it’s because if you were actually talking to Faye Wong, you *would* called her ‘Wang Fei’, like how if you were talking to Michael Jackson you would call him Michael.
Also, there’s this Zhou Jie Lun songs which has a rap. If you think Chinese songs are incomprehensible, you ought to listen to them being rapped. Because all the tones disappear in the relative monotony of rap it’s almost impossible to understand what the hell the guy is saying.
Anyway, my point was that the main chorus of the song goes, ‘wei she me ni da wo mama’ (why you hit my mother). So *there’s* one song about domestic abuse! (The song is called ‘ba wo hui lai le’ – dad i come back liao)
“…and my secondary three form teacher didn’t bother to add a “Bon Jovi” when she yelled “FUCK ME JON!” either…”
Hoohoo. Was that eye-opening for you?
Oh yes, forgot to say – must go get a Faye Wong album upon next return to Singapore. Currently the only Chinese (ok, Taiwanese) singer I like is A-Mei – how does Faye Wong compare to her, then?
Jon Bon Jovi’s brand of bland rock ballads does suggest that this man is most comfortable fucking
secondary three form teachers.
mich! wow! how did you even end up at a faye wong concert? oh, and yes, that bon jovi concert was way fun, where we almost got killed in that “stampede”.
i think the song is kai dao tu ling. umm it might be about an operation? “kai dao”
and puking? “tu”
i might be back in singapore next week! will call you then.
shoop
But Dom, why would I call her Wang Fei if I was talking to her? Isn’t her name Fei? If I was talking to Tan Ah Kow I would just call him Ah Kow, right? And if Fei is too familiar, wouldn’t I then call her Wang xiao jie?
Nat: it wasn’t so much eye-opening as much as inspiring me to yell the same. ;P And can’t help you on the A-mei question, I’m afraid. Ask someone who isn’t an almost total Chinese music ignoramus. (Can anyone reading this comment thread step in?)
Alec: Meow, baby. Very meow.
Shoop: I got tickets from Esther, who wasn’t using them for some reason! And, er, I think your “translation” is probably wrong. Just a hunch. Please do call me if you’re back here, would love to see you!
Have you never had friends with two syllables Chinese names? You use both syllables. If you choose only to use one you must prepend an “Ah-” e.g. Ah-Gu, Ah-Kow, Ah-Meow.
Dom, they always had an English name as well so we just called them that, running-dogs of the West that we are. :)
Yeah, she has a marvellous voice. Went for her concert years back when I was still a teen, and coincidently, it was the only chinese gig I actually ever forked out money for..
somehow i think faye is quite comparable to a-mei yes, but i also think their genre of music quite different, although you can’t really tell what with all the different dabblings they’re all going into in the hopes of trying to be original. :) you’re right about the voice though, mich. and i usually try to avoid the chinese names, or turn them into vaguely english-like names. -grin-
you should definitely give yenzi sun a try. if i’m not mistaken, she’s originally from singapore. she has a really unique voice and does a good job of not blending in with the rest of the asian pop scene. another would be tanya choi. let me know if you can’t find them. oh and also, i was wondering if you liked pete yorn. cause he should be on your playlist. rock on. happy listening.