TAIWAN: Once banned Taiwanese pop singer Chang Hui-mei re-emerges in China

Record ID: 815988

  • Title: TAIWAN: Once banned Taiwanese pop singer Chang Hui-mei re-emerges in China
  • Date: 27th September 2007
  • Summary: TAIPEI, TAIWAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) CHANG HUI-MEI LISTENING CLOSE-UP VIEW OF CHANG HUI-MEI'S HANDS FIDDLING WITH A ROSARY
  • Embargoed: 12th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Reuters ID: LVA85AR5RLF8X35VWV5EYFN36PVE
  • Story Text: Taiwanese pop singer Chang Hui-mei, who sold over a million copies of her latest album in Asia, is planning a world tour with the first stop in China, which once banned her from performing.

    Taiwan's top pop singer Chang Hui-mei, once banned from performing in China, is leveraging off a new album to build her reputation in Asia's biggest market, while Beijing officials use her name to improve political ties.
    Right after her album "A-Mei Star" came out in August, Chang appeared on Chinese state TV, performed for 80,000 people at Shanghai's largest music hall and met with Chinese fans.
    More China concerts are set for November as Chang, better known as A-Mei, brushes off her one-time ban and vies with an exploding number of other musicians for the attention of Chinese fans.
    Looking back over the past ten years of her career and life, Chang said her love for music has kept her going through the best and worst times.
    "I cannot say that my ten-year career path has been very smooth, but at least in the past ten years, I have had highs and lows and I am glad to have walked safely through it all," said Chang.
    Chang's first album, Sisters, released at the end of 1996, became an instant hit featuring her strong vocal on light rock tracks mixing with a local tempo, since then, she always incorporates Taiwanese elements into her music.
    The 35-year-old celebrity grew up singing for fun in her native village.
    A-Mei Star, her 14th album in a 10-year career, has sold one million copies, largely in Chinese-speaking Asia.
    Shining on the world stage, Chang believes her ability to touch people's lives come from singing whole-heartedly and taking responsibility for the quality of the music she produces.
    "Even if it was not a fan, just a passer-by, they told me while holding my hand, looking into my eyes and said: A-mei, thank you, because this one song of yours, saved me, or helped me not to feel so bad at that period of time. At that moment I thought, how could I influence so many people? My ability really comes from music," she says of the effect that her music has had on her fans.
    In 2000, after Chang sang the Taiwan national anthem for anti-China President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration, China stopped her from performing in China until summer 2001.
    China views self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory. The island split from Mao Zedong's Communist-ruled mainland after the defeated Nationalists fled there in 1949.
    Beijing officials have threatened to take the island back, by force if necessary, but over the past few years sought to seek favour with Taiwanese people by promoting cultural exchanges.
    To promote exchanges, Chinese authorities wrote off the anthem incident as a "misunderstanding", said Li Peng, assistant director of Xiamen University Taiwan Research Institute in China.
    Chang said the incident was "media exaggeration" and declined to discuss it further.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register