I decided the way to celebrate the new release of Andrew Xia Fukuda’s novel Crossing was by showcasing some super talented Chinese male singers. As I’ve mentioned in my review, our narrator is depicted to have some amazing pipes (i.e. his singing will knock you dead) and I figured it’d be a good
Note: The singers I will showcase are mostly based in Taiwan, because TW-music predominates not only all the Chinese songs I listen to, but just, make up a large majority of the music I listen to in general. I heart the Taiwan music scene. (They gave me F.I.R,! ♥ So if you think I'm biased towards Mandopop/rock... YOU'D BE RIGHT. *shot*
I’ll start off with songs sung in English, as I believe those who visit this blog predominantly speak English.
First up, recent Youtube sensation Lin Yu Chun, who can sing like Whitney. Rock on!
Sam Tsui - who sings the most awesome medleys and if he doesn’t win the Glee audtions, THERE IS NO GOD. *
(Unfortunately this is all the English ones I know. Now, onto MANDOPOP~)
My absolutely favourite Mandopop male singer is JJ Lin, who made a name for himself in Taiwan, and hails for Singapore. I am a complete sucker for his ballads.
I’m not big on Wang Lee Hom, but he’s extremely popular, and also, he’s Chinese-American based in Taiwan who made it big in all of East Asia. Gotta give him a shoutout.
And... I apparently can’t talk about Mandopop without someone popping out Jay Chou’s name, so I might as well get him out of the way, even though I’m not a fan of the way he likes to slur his words together. Blah. (His lyrics are ah-mazing though, I'll give it that.)
BOYBANDS. Such as Fahrenheit. I’m no diehard fan, but their songs can be quite catchy.
Mayday. Rock bands FTW. (Thanks to ninefly for helping me pick out the song title)
I actually don’t listen to much Cantopop (okay, I don’t listen to them at ALL...), but I figure it’s not fair for me to go on and on about Mandopop without even at least giving one Cantopop song a nod. So here’s to Hins Cheung, recced to me by one of my very awesome Hong Kong Canadian friends.
And, just for jokes: everyone’s favourite crack Taiwanese song. *giggles like the little girl I am* ETA Replaced with Michelle's rec of Ah Niu's version, which was indeed much better than Richie Ren's. 8D
ETA OMG. Okay, Michelle just helped me point out something glaringly missing in this post: NO MALAYSIAN-CHINESE DUDES SINGING. Which is totally wrong of me, and I will now showcase my favourite based in Taiwan (like usual), Nicholas Teo, to rectify this.
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Okay, so I’m finally getting to the part that people actually care about: THE GIVEAWAY. Want to win a copy of Andrew Xia Fukuda’s Crossing? ETAThere are three options on how to enter. Please pick only ONE of the following.
1) Email me at gal novelty [AT] g mail [DOT] com with the subject title: CROSSING, telling me who is YOUR favourite Chinese male singer/boyband/all-male band (it can be one of the guys I named in this post if you were never exposed to the dulcet tones of Chinese men singing, OR a Chinese male singer I neglected to mention here), and you can win yourself a most excellent novel!
2) Leave a comment telling me who is YOUR favourite Chinese male singer/boyband/all-male band. Please also leave your email in the comments so that I can contact you if you've won.
3) Fill out the Form
Details:
-Open internationally
-Extra entry for linking this giveaway somewhere on the worldwide web, and there’s no limit to how many you can link to.
-Contest ends two weeks from today ie. May 14th 11:59 EST
-Yes you must answer the who is your favourite singer question. I mean, if I am hosting a contest, at least let the entries be interesting for me, right? 8D
* I am actually unsure if Sam Tsui has any Chinese ancestry, but he looks biracial to me and his last name reads very Chinese transliteration to me. I apologize if I’m wrong in my assumption.
6 comments:
Hins is like.. OMG, ok? Heee.. (I listen to WAY more Cantopop than Mandopop (I didn't even know there was such thing as Mandopop...). But then again, I speak more Cantonese than anything else. Lolz..
Not a big fan of Chinese boy bands, really, nor of Jay Chou (but like you said, his lyrics are wicked).
Definitely love JJ. Also Eason Chan, Rynn(?!) Lin Yu Zhong (guy's from Malaysia, hee), Hacken Lee (I'm a little old school, in case you haven't realised..).. Oh, and Hins Cheung, of course. =D
LOVE this post. (I'm sure you've deduced that by now.)
Oh, and about that last YouTube vid you posted of Richie Ren... I had ALWAYS thought it was Ah Niu's song (you know, that wacky Malaysian dude..).. Looks like he just wrote the song and lyrics.. Hmm.. (But I'm pretty sure he's got the song on his album too.. considering he's a singer himself)
Am I getting carried away? Lolz..
Ok, I realise I'm probably taking over the comments.. But I really like Ah Niu's version a lot better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE_b0c6Qr34
Please, PLEASE go check it out, Yuan. =)
You know I love your comments Michelle. SEND ME MORE. ♥
LOL, clearly I should go to you for all the Cantopop recs. Honestly I have way more exposure to Cantonese as I hear it all the time at home from the tv/radio, and my parents speak it every single day (It's my mom's native tongue), and all my HK friends speak it but... I have all this baggage in terms of my relationship with Cantonese. As much as I associate it with good things, like my family life, food (I still and forever revert to a kind of butchered and broken Cantonese whenever I order food in restaurants), the awful yet endearing TVB shows that air without fail at 8 and 8 o'clock every weekday, I also associate it with a kind of chasm that would form between me and the Hong Kong dominant Chinese Canadian growing up, my inability to speak the language (I never managed to get down the tones pat), and that hackneyed Hong Kong accent people liked to wield as a weapon against you (as a person of Chinese ethnicity) for being too FOB, for not being Canadian enough. ie. somewhere down the line I did my darnest to separate myself from anything Hong Kong related and Cantonese related. I just have a lot of baggage towards speaking Cantonese (I no longer remember how to read in Cantonese, my default when I see Chinese characters is to revert to whatever I remember of Mandarin), in ways that I *don't* towards Mandarin. Even if I spoke it badly, it wasn't personal because I was just learning - not like the way it is for Cantonese wherein people keep pointing out that my parents speak it and why can't I speak it properly too? But of course, objectively that shouldn't stop me from listening to some good HK music. 8D
EASON CHAN AND HACKEN LEE, I KNOWZ THEM!! I've actually never heard of Lin Yu Zhong, but obviously I should rectify that. MALAYSIA REPRESENTTTTT. (Dude, this just reminds me that I DIDN'T PIMP THE HECK OUT OF NICHOLAS TEO. Whaaaaaaat is wrong with me.)
LAWL I just saw the Ah Niu version. Omg hilarious. Replacing my vid. (And adding Nicholas Teo. Holy shit how did I forget him)
YOU SHOULD TOTALLY DO A CANTOPOP REC POST. I'd totally comment the heck out of that. 8D
You know, I completely forgot about Chi Lam and Leo Ku!!
Actually, it's not odd you haven't heard of Lin Yu Zhong. I don't think he's that popular outside of Malaysia as yet.. He's probably somewhere in Taiwan now as well.. not too sure.. But he's definitely well-known in Malaysia, that much I know.
I *think* I know the love-hate relationship you have with HK/Cantonese. Y'know, Malaysian Cantonese is super different when compared with HK Cantonese. It's become disturbingly obvious to me when I got to NZ. But then, I suppose when I've been speaking Malaysian Cantonese for my whole life, I got to the point where I couldn't be bothered when my HK friends made fun of my 'accent'. Haha..
Ah Niu is hilarious, isn't he? There's this new movie he directed/acted in very recently, just out in Malaysia in fact. It's got like ALL the great Malaysian-gone-to-Taiwan people in it, like Fish Leong, Angelica Lee Sinje.. (I think Nicholas Teo makes a cameo appearance..) Go see THIS.
(I've gone a little out of topic, but what the heck, right? lol.. This is just sharing some Malaysian love with you. Feels so good to be able to do that. Hee..)
I thought you'd like to know that Andrew Xia Fukuda has mentioned he's a fan of Lin Yu Chun :)
Thanks for putting all of this together!
Marissa
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