Terasa Teng and Ai Jing

Terasa Teng is a very popular and influential Chinese singer from Taiwan, whose voice and songs are instantly recognized throughout East Asia and in areas with large Asian populations. Due to her sweetness voice, Teng is known for her folk songs and romantic ballads. Even though she held hundreds of concerts in Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand, Terasa Teng is never welcome by CCP in China.

“When will you return” is one of the songs that are not permitted to display in China mainland in 1970s. On the surface, it describes that a couple of lovers have to separate because of war. The girl sings this song and asks the boy when he will come back. This song is filled with a sadness to apart and missing each other emotion. However, it is banned in mainland because the word “Jun” (translate to “You”) sounds the same way as the word “army” in Chinese which may remind people of Kuomintang. Therefore this romantic song was explained as that people expect Kuomintang to return mainland and take over the political power by many “extreme” patriots.

After Terasa Teng was banned for several years, she sang “My home is on the other side of the mountain” at the "Democratic songs dedicated to China" concert in Hong Kong on May 27, 1989 in order to support of the student demonstrators at Tian'anmen Square. As we can tell from the first part of lyrics, the society was stable in the control of Kuomintang. However, when communists became the only dominant party in China and Kuomintang resided in Taiwan, Chinese were deprived of freedom of speech, thoughts. Students fought back for democracy but unfortunately Tian’anmen Square incident occurred. Communist party’s repressions like a mountain press on the backbones of student demonstrators in order to let them know what the CCP allows not to do. Hence, this society is not the home where you can gain freedom and democracy any more. Terasa Teng used her voice to encourage people not to be fear and let them to struggle for democracy.

Ai Jing is a singer from Shenyang, China and her most popular song is "My 1997". At first part of this song, Ai Jing tells audiences her growth background and careers on singing. From the title, we can notice that this song focuses on a big day to China, when Hong Kong will return to mainland in 1997. "He can come to Shenyang. I cannot go to Hong Kong" explains that it is hard to travel to Hong Kong before 1997. Hong Kong is the most developed city in 1990s where Chinese want to "check it out". Ai Jing expresses that she is waiting for 1997 hurriedly. As long as Hong Kong returns, she will easily visit her boyfriend, go to shopping and pursue her dream on singing in "that brilliant world".

Chinese Pop Music (Teresa Teng, Ai Jing)

Teresa Teng was one of the famous pop singers in China. She was famous in China and also widely known as romantic ballad and folk song singer. She was also widely recognized as famous singer in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan and other East Asia countries. Teresa Teng was able to interact with audiences easily because of her soft, and attractive voice touched emotions and memories of people – folk songs made people to remind memories of youth and romantic ballad touched people’s heart to recall the memories of their past lover, friends, and so on.

Even though she was very famous internationally, her song was banned in China by Chinese government (communist) because of her supports towards democracy. In her song ‘When will you return’, the lyric tells that she is badly wanting someone to come back to her again. The lyric seems to express emotions of a brokenhearted woman but somehow it can be related to the Chinese people wishing nationalist party to come back. Chinese government prohibited her songs because her song was considered as betrayal of nation.

After her song was prohibited from Chinese government, she performed in Paris for Tiananmen student uprising, also in Hong Kong for student gathering for anti-communism movement. There, she sang a song called ‘my home is on the other side of the mountain’ in order to support democratic of China. From the title of the song, I assumed that home refers democracy where people can relax and express their freedom of thoughts and speech. But it's hard to reach because of a huge barrier which is mountain symbolic figure that represent communist party. She wanted to perform in China again after banned by governments but she could not sing a song in the stage in China because of the sudden death. Her songs were very western influences that had impacts on the society. Her voice made people to move forward and actively participate to attempt to transform Chinese society.

Ai jing, chinese pop singer, songwriter, and painter from Shenyang. Her most famous song is "My 1997". This is an western style acoustic music. Unlike Cui Jian, her song does not contain a lot of symbolic meaning but very straightforward. She uses lyrics like "My boyfriend is in Hong Kong, He can come to Shenyang, I cannot go to Hong Kong, Hurry and get here 1997, then i can go to Hong Kong". There is no hidden political meanings or symbols like Cui Jian's or Teresa Teng's song. It's simple way of expressing her willingness about Hong Kong's return to China. After several years, she released a new song "My 1997 and 2007". In the new song, she used the same lyrics and similar melodies of previous song "My 1997" but rewrote the song by transforming it to more like western styles. The song "My 1997 and 2007" described the changes of Chinese society during ten years.

Primary Texts Covered in this Course

Farewell My Concubine (bawang bieji 霸王别姬), a 1993 film directed by Chen Kaige 陈凯歌
To Live (huozhe 活着), a 1994 film directed by Zhang Yimou 张艺谋
Yellow Earth (huang ditu 黃土地), a 1984 film directed by Chen Kaige陈凯歌
Platform (zhantai 站台), a 2000 film directed by Jia Zhangke 贾樟柯
Music from Cui Jian 崔健
Post-Tian’anmen T-shirt Culture
Music from Teresa Teng 邓丽君
Music from Ai Jing 艾敬
Music from Jay Chou 周杰伦
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wu hu cang long 臥虎藏龍), a 2000 film directed by Ang Lee 李安
Beijing Bicycle (shiqisui de danche 十七岁的单车), a 2001 film directed by Wang Xiaoshuai 王小帅
Selections from Playing for Thrills (Wanr de jiushi xintiao 玩儿的就是心跳), a 1989 novel written by Wang Shuo 王朔
Candy (tang 糖), a 2000 novel written by Mian Mian 棉棉
Hero (yingxiong 英雄), a 2002 film directed by Zhang Yimou 张艺谋
Kung Fu Hustle (gongfu 功夫), a 2004 film directed by Stephen Chow 周星馳