60 People, 60 Stories

Island platform

By Edwin Yeo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-30 08:08

It is ironic today that when one thinks of Chinese music, or what is more commonly known as Mandopop, Taiwan is the place that comes to mind for most Asians.

Indeed, most Chinese music fans have music from pop idols such as Jay Chou, A-mei, Jolin Tsai and Wang Lee Hom rather than artistes from the Chinese mainland.

The irony here is that when one looks back about a century, most Chinese music had actually come out of Shanghai. It was not until the late 1980s when the "New Taiwan Song" era started that Taiwan music really came to the forefront. Although Taiwan singer Teresa Teng was already taking the rest of the world by storm, she was, until the song movement, about the only recognizable Taiwan face on the mainland.

Singers such as the Blacklist Studio, Wu Bai, Emil Chau and Jimmy Lin later started catching on all across Asia, in particular on the mainland, in Malaysia and Singapore.

While Hong Kong was still pretty much charming Asians with their Four Heavenly Kings in Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau and Leon Lai, Taiwanese music was spreading like wildfire. By the 1990s, it was seen as the destination to be if you wanted a Chinese singing career. Singaporeans such as Kit Chan, Stefanie Sun and Tanya Chua all made their names because their success in Taiwan. It was only about a decade later that foreign musicians started venturing into the Chinese mainland to make their careers.

Although the Chinese mainland is now often considered a key destination for all pop idol wannabes as a market, there is little doubt that the Taiwan music stars are still the most influential. Just pop into any karaoke and it will be the music of S.H.E., 5566, Zhang Zheng Yue, MC Hotdog or any of a multitudes of Taiwan singers that the mainland people follow.

Taiwan music is without doubt, one of the region's biggest exports today.

Edwin Yeo, a Singaporean, is a former journalist and now works as a public relations consultant.