A Southeast Asian Singing Star Shines in Taiwan--Sun Yan Zi

"When I threw temper tantrums/ As a young girl/ On summer afternoons/ My grandmother would soothe me/ By gently singing an old song/ It went like this/ The sky is dark/ It's going to rain/ The sky is dark... Are there always hidden flaws in the grown-up world?/ Every day I come to forks in the road... How lonely I've become!/ When skies are dark/ I recall that song/ And hope to hear the peaceful sound of the falling rain/ It turns out that Grandma sang this song long ago/ The rain is falling/ but I've got to boldly push ahead."

"Dark Skies," Sun's first hit last June, caused an immediate sensation. The critic G Moon praised it as a marvelous blend of seemingly familiar melody and lyrics, with solo piano accompaniment from start to finish. People found Sun's singing voice fresh, clean and infectiously charming, and it quickly earned her a place in Taiwan's music world.

Fresh and clean

Sun clearly occupies an enviable position in the singing world. Yet it is hard to pin down exactly where that position is. Although she has written a few songs herself, these are not among her better works, so she cannot be properly placed among the "singer-songwriters." And while her voice sets her apart, she has not perfected her live performance skills, so she cannot be included among the true divas. Moreover, her short hair, buck teeth and aversion to wearing skirts and dresses would seem to exclude her from the teeny-bopper "idols." Finally, she can't be considered an innovator. Half her songs are slow and half are fast, and she hasn't revealed much desire to experiment.

Indeed, Internet bulletin boards are full of posts wondering why exactly Sun Yan Zi is so popular.

"How did she get so popular overnight? Her looks and voice are pretty average." "She's not beautiful, but her smile and singing voice are pleasing. She makes people feel comfortable." "She doesn't really have any special quality to speak of, which seems to be the case with most of the Southeast Asian singers."

Peter Li, the Singaporean who produced both Sun Yan Zi and My Desire Happiness for Sun, admits that she wasn't an outstanding student at his music academy, and that her rapid success has surprised many people. But he conjectures that the freshness and intimacy that she projects may be responsible for her success.

Citing "freshness," The China Times entertainment weekly awarded their prize for "best newcomer" to Sun, "the girl with the boyish haircut." Their panel of judges remarked, "She has good range without the frenzied style that characterizes so many. Her fast songs have a fresh style, and her slow songs convey a soft melancholy."

Wang Tzu-shou, a senior reporter at Min Sheng Pao, describes her as the new generation's Feng Fei-fei.

"When the market gets tired of soft and pretty idols, it swings back toward androgynous tomboy types like Feng Fei-fei," Wang notes. "Sun Yan Zi fills this need perfectly." Moreover, she has had the right material, with producer Peter Li providing songs that have individual character but stop short of being avant garde. This has allowed her to stand apart from the pop singers who just blindly follow the marketplace.

Hence, though she is neither a singer-songwriter, nor an outstanding vocalist, nor a conventional teen idol, she has nevertheless been able to attain brilliant success in an era where premiums are placed on both "changing constantly" and "returning to the basics."

Talent exchange

In a weak market for recorded music, Sun's two albums have sold very well. Members of the media have quipped that those who work at Taiwan's Warner Music can thank two Singaporeans, Sun and her producer Li, for any bonuses they made last year. Now people have started wondering if overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia-and in particular from Singapore and Malaysia-are taking over the mainstream of the Taiwanese music industry.

In earlier decades Southeast Asian singers were unusual here. In the 1970s and 1980s there was Teng Miao-hua and Wen Chang. Then Eric Moo appeared on the scene in the 1990s. Although these were all successful singers, they comprised a small group. But in the last five years or so, there has been a steady stream of Southeast Asian singers making their mark in Taiwan: Mavis Hee, Mindy, Kit Chan, Tanya Chua, Michael and Victor, Angelica Lee, Penny, Fish Leong, and Tae Kheng Seong. Interestingly, almost all of them have been described as being "fresh and clean." Moreover, even those who write their own material, such as Tanya Chua, Michael and Victor, and Tae Kheng Seong, write simple folk songs. Although the Southeast Asians haven't had quite the impact of the returning overseas Chinese from North America, they have staked out their piece of the pop music field.

Music critic Tsai Yun-pu notes that the Southeast Asian singers are not as recognizable as their counterparts from North America, who have a hard-rocking, R&B style. The simple and catchy melodies and rhythms of the Southeast Asians sound a lot like those of the locals. Taiwanese listeners quickly identify with these singers and may even forget where they come from.

"Taiwan is now the capital of Mandarin pop music worldwide," says Tsai. "If there's a 'capital,' then there are 'provinces.'" The market is too small in Southeast Asia, so it has become de rigueur for Southeast Asian Chinese singers to come to Taiwan to advance their careers. Those with talent are quickly adopted by local audiences."

Wang Tzu-hsien argues that the growing dominance of multi-national companies in the Taiwanese music field has fostered uniformity here, and the Southeast Asians have been able to step in and fill the need for greater creativity. Yet though their music may be "fresher," on close inspection it doesn't really differ that much from what is produced by the locals. It is, after all, produced for the same market.

Although there may not be much that sets the Southeast Asians apart, the growing exchange of musical talent between Taiwan and Southeast Asia has at least provided ample content for the gossip pages.

When Sun wore a long jacket while shooting a music video, people could tell how excited she was at wearing a winter coat for the first time. At that moment, Taiwan didn't seem to be that far from Singapore, despite the latter's endless summer weather. We all could sense a young woman's joy at being accepted in foreign land that seemed at once familiar and exotic.

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Sun Yan Zi's androgynous style and clean and fresh image have quickly made her famous in Taiwan. (photo by Chen Tsai-fu)

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From Wen Chang in the 1980s (center photo by Chen Tsai-fu), to Michael and Victor in the 1990s (right photo by Lin Ching-yang), to Mindy Kit (bottom photo courtesy of Warner Music) of the current decade, Southeast Asian singers have a long history of coming to Taiwan to advance their careers. For the most part, they have "clean and fresh" images and either sing folk songs or adopt a modern version of the traditional Japanese enka singing style.