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UPI
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
'Eternal Queen of Asian Pop' sings last encore from beyond the grave
To the delight of millions of fans of the late Teresa Teng, the track titled 'Love Songs Are Best in the Foggy Night' will appear on an album to be released June 25. Photo by Van3ssa_/ Pixabay Several years ago, an employee at Universal Music came across a cassette tape in a Tokyo warehouse while sorting through archival materials. On it was a recording by the late Taiwanese pop star Teresa Teng that had never been released. The pop ballad, likely recorded in the mid-1980s while Teng was living and performing in Japan, was a collaboration between composer Takashi Miki and lyricist Toyohisa Araki. Now, to the delight of her millions of fans, the track titled "Love Songs Are Best in the Foggy Night" will appear on an album to be released June 25. Teng died 30 years ago. Most Americans know little about her life and her body of work. Yet, the ballads of Teng, who could sing in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Indonesian, continue to echo through karaoke rooms, on Spotify playlists, at tribute concerts and at family gatherings across Asia and beyond. I study how pop music has served as a tool of soft power, and I've spent the past several years researching Teng's music and its legacy. I've found that Teng's influence endures not just because of her voice, but also because her music transcends Asia's political fault lines. From local star to Asian icon Born in 1953 in Yunlin, Taiwan, Teresa Teng grew up in one of the many villages that were built to house soldiers and their families who had fled mainland China in 1949 after the communists claimed victory in the Chinese civil war. Her early exposure to traditional Chinese music and opera laid the foundation for her singing career. By age 6, she was taking voice lessons. She soon began winning local singing competitions. "It wasn't adults who wanted me to sing," Teng wrote in her memoir. "I wanted to sing. As long as I could sing, I was happy." At 14, Teng dropped out of high school to focus entirely on music, signing with the local label Yeu Jow Records. Soon thereafter, she released her first album, Fengyang Flower Drum. In the 1970s, she toured and recorded across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Southeast Asia, becoming one of Asia's first truly transnational pop stars. Teng's career flourished in the late 1970s and 1980s. She released some of her most iconic tracks, such as her covers of Chinese singer Zhou Xuan's 1937 hit, "When Will You Return?" and Taiwanese singer Chen Fen-lan's "The Moon Represents My Heart," and toured widely across Asia, sparking what came to be known as "Teresa Teng Fever." In the early 1990s, Teng was forced to stop performing for health reasons. She died suddenly of an asthma attack on May 8, 1995, while on vacation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at age 42. China catches Teng Fever Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Teng's story is that Teng Fever peaked in China. Teng was ethnically Chinese, with ancestral roots in China's Shandong province. But the political divide between China and Taiwan following the Chinese civil war had led to decades of hostility, with each side refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the other. During the late 1970s and 1980s, however, China began to relax its political control under Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening Up policy. This sweeping initiative shifted China toward a market-oriented economy, encouraged foreign trade and investment, and cautiously reintroduced global cultural influences after decades of isolation. Pop music from other parts of the world began trickling in, including Teng's tender ballads. Her songs could be heard in coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Shanghai, inland cities such as Beijing and Tianjin, and even remote regions such as Tibet. Shanghai's propaganda department wrote an internal memo in 1980 noting that her music had spread to the city's public parks, restaurants, nursing homes and wedding halls. Teng's immense popularity in China was no accident. It reflected a time in the country's history when its people were particularly eager for emotionally resonant art after decades of cultural propaganda and censorship. For a society that had been awash in rote, revolutionary songs like "The East is Red" and "Union is Strength," Teng's music offered something entirely different. It was personal, tender and deeply human. Her gentle, approachable style -- often described as "angelic" or like that of "a girl next door" -- provided solace and a sense of intimacy that had long been absent from public life. Teng's music was also admired for her ability to bridge eras. Her 1983 album, Light Exquisite Feeling, fused classical Chinese poetry with contemporary Western pop melodies, showcasing her gift for blending the traditional and the modern. It cemented her reputation not just as a pop star but as a cultural innovator. It's no secret why audiences across China and Asia were so deeply drawn to her and her music. She was fluent in multiple languages; she was elegant but humble, polite and relatable, she was involved in various charities, and she spoke out in support of democratic values. A sound of home in distant lands Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Chinese immigrant population in the United States grew to over 1.1 million. Teng's music has also deeply embedded itself within Chinese diasporic communities across the country. In cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, Chinese immigrants played her music at family gatherings, during holidays and at community events. Walk through any Chinatown during Lunar New Year and you're bound to hear her voice wafting through the streets. For younger Chinese Americans and even non-Chinese audiences, Teng's music has become a window into Chinese culture. When I was studying in the United States, I often met Asian American students who belted out her songs at karaoke nights or during cultural festivals. Many had grown up hearing her music through their parents' playlists or local community celebrations. The release of her recently discovered song is a reminder that some voices do not fade -- they evolve, migrate and live on in the hearts of people scattered across the world. In an age when global politics drive different cultures apart, Teng's enduring appeal reminds us of something quieter yet more lasting: the power of voice to transmit emotion across time and space, the way a melody can build a bridge between continents and generations. I recently rewatched the YouTube video for Teng's iconic 1977 ballad, "The Moon Represents My Heart." As I read the comments section, one perfectly encapsulated what I had discovered about Teresa Teng in my own research: "Teng's music opened a window to a culture I never knew I needed." Xianda Huang is a doctoral student in Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California-Los Angeles. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The views and opinions in this commentary are solely those of the author.
Epoch Times
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
The Inspiring Teresa Teng
Commentary After the Soviet Empire expired in the 1989–91 period, commentators worldwide revealed the autopsy results. The patient died of terminal socialism, a disease characterized by backward economies, massive shortages, and the absence of competition in both political and economic life. Powerful internal resistance movements (such as Solidarity in Poland), encouraged by the resolute leadership of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II, helped pull the plug. The state had indeed 'withered away,' but not in the fashion the false prophet Karl Marx envisioned. The role played by music in ending so many evil regimes, Rock & Roll in particular, is not so well understood. Historian Larry Schweikart Though a tune involves an entire group performing collectively, what struck home to listeners was the distinctiveness of individuals within the group. Band members accompanied Bruce Springsteen, for example, but it was Springsteen who stood out and inspired the imagination of young fans. How refreshing in societies where propaganda had long taught that it was the collective that mattered, not the individual! Individuality is the toxin that music injects into the totalitarian system. Try as it might, the system ultimately cannot resist it. Schweikart 'We could keep out books. We could keep out television. But we could not keep out rock 'n' roll. Rock 'n' roll was fundamental to bringing down communism.' Related Stories 5/15/2025 5/2/2025 A similar story played out in Communist China, though it helped produce regime change , not regime extinction (unfortunately). It involves a pop music icon from Taiwan, Teresa Teng 鄧麗君(1953–1995). Teresa Teng established herself as Asia's premier singer in a career that spanned nearly three decades. She mixed Eastern and Western genres into her own unique popular music. No Asian musician came close to her renown in the decades of the '80s and '90s. She was a superstar by any estimation, recording more than 1,700 songs and selling about 48 million albums. Her songs of love and relationships, combined with a new 'breath singing' method, broke the collectivist mold ordained by authorities in communist countries like China. Young people turned to Teresa Teng to escape the boredom of official tunes meant to glorify state and country. Teng's music began to be pirated into mainland China in the mid-'70s, and would influence listeners in the Communist state just as Rock & Roll helped shred the Iron Curtain in Europe. Check out the music video for ' The PRC hard-liners perceived the threat almost immediately. Not only was Teng from Taiwan, which Beijing considered a breakaway province, but her music also celebrated the individual instead of the state. Her lyrics were not explicitly political, but she occasionally sang of freedom in vague terms. People found the music liberating, so Beijing's paranoids banned her work for years. Meanwhile, Mao Zedong died in 1976, opening the door for a new generation of reformers led by Deng Xiaoping. He became the mainland's leader in 1978, and, like Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, he recognized that sclerotic socialism needed some measure of freedom to reform. Under the slogan 'It doesn't matter what color the cat is as long as it catches mice,' Deng opened the country to limited free enterprise, foreign trade and investment, and a diversity of cultural influences (the 'Open Door Policy'). By the time of Deng's reforms, Teresa Teng's songs had already flooded China's black markets. Deng's government surrendered to the inevitable and lifted the ban on Teng's music in the mid-'80s. Her notoriety then broke all records. It was widely said that while Chinese people listened to 'old Deng' by day, they preferred to hear 'little Teng' by night. Then came the nightmare of the Tiananmen Square massacre in early June 1989. Student protesters by the thousands occupied Beijing's main square for a month, demanding greater freedom and an end to the communist one-party monopoly. Teresa Teng supported the students from afar, even performing before 300,000 in Hong Kong in their defense. But as the world sadly knows, Deng Xiaoping ordered the Army to crush the uprising, killing at least a thousand and jailing many more. She never performed on the mainland. After Tiananmen Square, she publicly declared she would not do so until the two Chinas were united under freedom, not communism. Teng earned millions as Asia's music superstar and became a pioneering philanthropist, raising huge sums for projects ranging from water systems in Thailand to disaster relief and other charitable endeavors in multiple countries. To the communists in Beijing, that was another mark against her because humanitarian assistance should come from the State, not private, 'greedy' capitalists. As the first Chinese-speaking vocalist to gain recognition and international influence, she opened doors for other artists throughout the region. Her notoriety ultimately reached every continent. Countries that issued postage stamps in her honor include: Russia; Sierra Leone, Mali, and Guinea-Bissau in Africa; Grenada in the Caribbean; as well as many in Asia. Her music still sells briskly the world over. Teresa Teng died at the age of 42 from a severe asthma attack while in Thailand. Her premature demise sent shock waves throughout Asia, but the spirit of her unique music resonates to this day. When the captive peoples of Beijing's tyranny are someday liberated, we will look back and likely credit Teng's music for contributing to the revolutionary spirit that finally got the job done. From the Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Star
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Unreleased song to mark singer's death anniversary
AN unreleased song by legendary singer Teresa Teng would be launched next month to mark the 30th anniversary of her death, Nanyang Siang Pau reported. The announcement was made by Teng's brother, Frank Teng Chang-fu, at a special commemorative concert in Taiwan. He said the family had gone to great lengths to secure the rights to the Japanese track, literally translated as 'Romance Song Loves the Foggy Night', as the original songwriters had died. Frank also shared that his sister cherished every song she performed, with her favourite being the Japanese hit Toki no Nagare ni Mi o Makase (Give Yourself to the Flow of Time), released in 1986, which helped her gain popularity in Japan. The Chinese version of the song, Wo Zhi Zai Hu Ni (I Only Care About You), was released the following year. Throughout her career, Teng recorded more than 1,700 songs in various languages. She died on May 8, 1995 in Thailand. She was 42. > Major Chinese dailies reported that a television drama, based on the award-winning novel The Age of Goodbyes by Malaysian author Li Zi Shu, would begin filming in July. The entire filming process will take place in Malaysia. Set against the backdrop of Ipoh, the novel follows the life of a blind woman, Yin Xia, chronicling her journey alongside childhood friends over several decades. It was reported that the production team from China spent two years developing the script before preparing to film last year. The drama will feature 20 episodes and is expected to air in August 2026. > The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
The Mainichi
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Mainichi
Taiwan holds service for pop legend Teresa Teng 30 years after death
TAIPEI (Kyodo) -- A remembrance service marking 30 years since the death of beloved Taiwanese pop legend Teresa Teng was held in Taiwan on Thursday, drawing fans from across Asia to pay their respects. Fans sang and held up cherished albums and favorite photos of Teng as her hit songs, including "The Moon Represents My Heart," echoed through the air at Chin Pao San cemetery in New Taipei, where the late singer's tomb is located. Teng, whose crystalline voice propelled her to fame as one of the most prominent recording stars in the Chinese-speaking world and Japan, died of a respiratory attack in Thailand on May 8, 1995, at age 42. Minoru Funaki, a key figure in Teng's entry into the Japanese pop music scene, also paid tribute at the event, noting that she covered popular Japanese songs in Chinese and helped make them hits in China. "People say music has no borders, and Teresa truly created a world that proved that. Her achievements will never fade," Funaki said. Born in Taiwan as the daughter of a career military officer, Teng's songs were once banned in mainland China, where authorities deemed them "decadent." Today, no such restrictions remain. According to Teng Chang-fu, the singer's older brother and head of the Teresa Teng Foundation, commemorative concerts have been held or are planned at over 10 locations, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand this year. Many fans in mainland China could not attend the memorial service in Taiwan, the brother said, citing current tensions in cross-strait relations. "I sincerely hope both sides of the strait will recognize the people's desire for closer ties and mutual visits," he said. Meanwhile, in Japan, an unreleased song by Teng has been discovered and will be released in June. The light pop song, likely recorded in the mid-1980s, was found on a tape stored in a warehouse in Tokyo several years ago. The song is titled "Love Song wa Yogiri ga Osuki," which translates as "Love songs like fog at night."
Straits Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Taiwan holds service for pop legend Teresa Teng 30 years after death
Taiwanese pop legend Teresa Teng died of a respiratory attack in Thailand on May 8, 1995, at age 42. PHOTO: ST FILE A remembrance service marking 30 years since the death of beloved Taiwanese pop legend Teresa Teng was held in Taiwan on May 8, drawing fans from across Asia to pay their respects. Fans sang and held up cherished albums and favorite photos of Teng as her hit songs, including The Moon Represents My Heart, echoed through the air at Chin Pao San cemetery in New Taipei, where the late singer's tomb is located. Teng, whose crystalline voice propelled her to fame as one of the most prominent recording stars in the Chinese-speaking world and Japan, died of a respiratory attack in Thailand on May 8, 1995, at age 42. Minoru Funaki, a key figure in Teng's entry into the Japanese pop music scene, also paid tribute at the event, noting that she covered popular Japanese songs in Chinese and helped make them hits in China. 'People say music has no borders, and Teresa truly created a world that proved that. Her achievements will never fade,' Funaki said. Born in Taiwan as the daughter of a career military officer, Teng's songs were once banned in mainland China, where authorities deemed them 'decadent'. Today, no such restrictions remain. According to Teng Chang-fu, the singer's older brother and head of the Teresa Teng Foundation, commemorative concerts have been held or are planned at over 10 locations, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand this year. Many fans in mainland China could not attend the memorial service in Taiwan, the brother said, citing current tensions in cross-strait relations. 'I sincerely hope both sides of the strait will recognize the people's desire for closer ties and mutual visits,' he said. Meanwhile, in Japan, an unreleased song by Teng has been discovered and will be released in June. The light pop song, likely recorded in the mid-1980s, was found on a tape stored in a warehouse in Tokyo several years ago. KYODO NEWS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
