| About 6 or 7 years ago, when I was in College, I had a summer job teaching summer school to a class composed of 99% chinese students. A couple of the girls were arguing who was better looking, Leon or Andy. They showed me two pictures of two asian men I had never seen before and demanded I answer. I asked who they were, and they were all completely shocked I did not know. They quickly explained to me about the 4 Kings (Jacky, Leon, Andy, Aaron) and that they were all famous singers in Hong Kong. Even though I quickly ushered the topic aside, I found it interesting how entrenched these artists seemed to be in these girls lives. Especially when they proceeded to show me picture after picture of different artists. |
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Shortly after, one of my friends was listening to a chinese tape. I asked her what it was, and she told me to listen to it. It was in chinese, except for the chorus which was "Long and Lasting Love". (by Vivian Chow) She played me this and a tape by Leon Lai (a name I remembed from before), which was really good. I borrowed both (I still have Leon's tape! - Maybe its not good to loan me anything... ) and listened to them a hundred times. That next week I went and had my friend buy me my first chinese tape - Vivian Chow's "Long and Lasting Love". Soon I was asking my friend about other artists, and seeking out more Vivian albums. I learned who Sammi, Prisicilla and Jacky were for the first time. |
| I slowly learned and began listening to more and more artists. Although Leon and Vivian remained my favorites, I quickly got into more and more artists. My interest really exploded once I found information on the artists on the internet. Now, I was not limited to just what my friends reccomended to me. I could hear the music before I bought it, learn about more artists than ever before. The WORLD CONCERT in 1995 really made my interest grow like nothing else. I saw Vivian, Shirley, Jacky, Vivian Hsu, Leon, Grasshopper and Leon perform (on tape), and loved the interaction between them. It was like they all belonged to some big club together. To this day, that double cd is one of my treasured cd's. |
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After I went back to school, I made a lot of Taiwanese friends, and they opened up a whole new world of artists for me. A-Mei was a revelation, and there were a lot of other talented Tawainese artists, Coco Lee, Valen Hsu, Tarcy Su, Lee Hom Wong and many, many more. These artists have become some of my favorites, along with their Hong Kong counterparts. I await the new Coco Lee cd now as much as I look forward to Sammi's new cd. More than 7 years later, I regularly go to the cd store to get the newest chinese release, and I look forward to the new round of concerts each year. I was, and am totally hooked. |