Chyi Chin causes a stir

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-17 10:08

My friend David and I were at a party in Lido last week, where rumors began circulating that there was going to be a celebrity guest appearance. Long before the lobster platters arrived, David got an answer- Chyi Chin- the 49 year-old Taiwanese crooner famous for the pop song "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin."

Now you may not think that you know this song, but you do. You can also sk any Chinese person if they know 'Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin' and there is a zero percent chance they will say no. Zero. I'm pretty certain that even if they had been living under a rock in northern Gansu for the last 30 years, they could at least manage to sing that insanely catchy first line: "ni wen wo ai..."

Everything came to a halt once Chyi Chin and his entourage arrived, but once he was out of earshot, the excitement quickly turned to disappointment, or judgment, really.

"Oh, he's so dark!" David whispered. The people around us were all equally shocked and dismayed by how tan he was. However, in Chinese society, where the pressure to have fair skin verges on obsession, I wanted to applaud him.

This also got me thinking a great deal about how much popular music has changed. Born in Taiwan, Chyi Chin got his start singing at western restaurants in his early twenties and even served in the army for a few years after releasing his first album. Chyi Chin shot to superstardom 1985 after the release of his second album "Wolf," and two years later made "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin," or "The Moon Shows My Heart" into a mega-hit.

After an evening spent observing him, I have to I admired his casual and gracious manner: smoking his Marlboro Red cigarettes, chatting with guests and making a point to applaud the other performers. What I found particularly amusing was that when he finally performed "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin," those years of smoking Marlboro Reds became extremely apparent, and no one seemed to care.