Zhang Liangying
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- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zhang
Zhang Liangying (also known as Jane Zhang, Simplified Chinese: 张靓颖; Traditional Chinese: 張靚穎; Pinyin: Zhāng Liàngyǐng) (born October 11, 1984) is a Chinese singer.
Zhang held the third place in Super Girl contest of 2005 (a female singing contest in People's Republic of China). She is best known for her singing ability in English, Spanish, Cantonese and other languages besides Mandarin Chinese. She is regarded by some critics to be one of the top-level foreign language singers in China.
Her vocal range ranges from at least the D below middle C, up to the F above soprano C (latter demonstrated in her performance of Loving You).
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[edit] Humble Beginnings
Zhang was born to a modest household in Chengdu, Sichuan. Early on, she displayed a talent for singing and stage performance. She performed at her parents' work place on several occasions. Her parents were divorced when she was 13. Two years later, Zhang's father passed away and the worsening family financial situation forced her to work outside of school. She started to sing at a local public house, where her musician uncle played the accompaniments.
Exposed to a wide variety of music genres in the pub, Zhang developed a taste for Western singers such as Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera as well as American country music. Unable to afford her own music players, she frequently borrowed a walkman and headphones from her classmates and skipped lunches to save enough to buy cassettes. Several years later, she started drawing attention from audiences and gained a small group of fans.
[edit] Super Girl Competition
Zhang entered the local Chengdu competition of Super Girl contest in 2005. She became the first runner-up of the competition and entered the national competition with Li Yuchun (Chinese: 李宇春) and Hejie (Simp. Chinese: 何洁; Trad. Chinese: 何潔).
Zhang is known for singing her favorite songs, especially songs in foreign languages. Her style attracted wide support from the educated and college students influenced by the West. At the same time, her performances irritated several critics and received negative reviews from them. These reactions may have been to an implicit comparison with Chinese music in view of her song choices. Her fans, outraged by the criticism, launched online protests and eventually forced two critics to resign from the board of reviews.
During the national competition, Zhang sang "Reflection", "I Still Believe", "What's Up", "Beautiful", and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and so on. Her outstanding performances of music in foreign languages lead some commentators to propose that she sing in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Although she received positive reviews from some critics and professional musicians, she was not the most popular contestants among young supporters of the TV program. Her final number of votes (1.3 million) by messaging fell behind Li Yuchun and Zhou Bichang, placing her in the second runner-up.
[edit] Performances in Super Girl Competition
| Date | Round | Track | Original artist |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 26, 2005 | Preliminary Round | Contigo En La Distancia Each time When I Miss You (Chinese: 每一次想你) |
Christina Aguilera; CoCo Lee (Chinese: 李玟) |
| June 4, 2005 | Round I (eliminate 30 out of 50) |
I Turn to You | Christina Aguilera |
| June 10, 2005 | Round II (eliminate 10 out of 20) |
Any Man of Mine; Mix of 3 songs in different languages; which includes French, Spanish and Japanese |
Shania Twain; Multiple |
| June 17, 2005 | Round III (eliminate 3 out of 10) |
Simply the Best | Tina Turner |
| June 24, 2005 | Round IV (eliminate 2 out of 7) |
Country Love (Simp. Chinese: 乡恋; Trad. Chinese: 鄉戀); Passionate Desert (Simp. Chinese: 热情的沙漠; Trad. Chinese: 熱情的沙漠) |
Guyi Li (Chinese: 李谷一); Feifei Auyeung (Simp. Chinese: 欧阳菲菲; Trad. Chinese: 歐陽菲菲) |
| July 1, 2005 | Chengdu Final | I Still Believe; Writing a Song (Simp. Chinese: 写一首歌; Trad. Chinese: 寫一首歌) |
Brenda K. Starr; Shun Zi (Simp. Chinese: 顺子; Trad. Chinese: 順子) |
| July 15, 2005 | National Round I (eliminate 3 out of 15) |
Long Live Journey (Chinese: 漫步人生路); Beautiful |
Teresa Teng (Simp. Chinese: 邓丽君; Trad. Chinese: 鄧麗君); Christina Aguilera |
| July 22, 2005 | National Round II (eliminate 2 out of 12) |
Remember Me; You're the Most Precious (with Li Yuchun) (Simp. Chinese: 你最珍贵; Trad. Chinese: 你最珍貴) |
Beverley Knight; Jacky Cheung and Francesca Gao (Simp. Chinese: 张学友/高慧君; Trad. Chinese: 張學友/高慧君) |
| July 29, 2005 | National Round III (eliminate 2 out of 10) |
Remember Me; How Can You Let Me Upset (Simp. Chinese: 你怎么舍得我难过; Trad. Chinese: 你怎麼捨得我難過) Vision of Love; Jambalaya; Liu Yanghe(Simp. Chinese: 浏阳河; Trad. Chinese: 瀏陽河) |
Beverley Knight; Huang Pinyuan; Mariah Carey; Carpenters; Unknown |
| August 5, 2005 | National Round IV (eliminate 2 out of 8) |
Don't Cry for Me Argentina; Your Face (Simp. Chinese: 你的样子; Trad. Chinese: 你的樣子) |
Madonna; Lotayu (Simp. Chinese: 罗大佑; Trad. Chinese: 羅大佑) |
| August 12, 2005 | National Round V (eliminate 1 out of 6) |
Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now; Such a Big Tree (Simp. Chinese:好大一棵树; Trad. Chinee: 好大一棵樹) |
Starfish; Unknown |
| August 19, 2005 | National Round VI (eliminate 2 out of 5) |
The Fisherman's song of Ussuri River (Simp. Chinese: 乌苏里船歌; Trad. Chinese: 烏蘇里船歌) Lovin' You; Old Straw Hat (This is an English song with an Japanese name "人间の证明のテーマ", and it's Chinese name is 草帽歌); Make the World Full of Love (Simp. Chinese: 让世界充满爱; Trad. Chinese: 讓世界充滿愛); Story about a Small City (Chinese: 小城故事) |
Unknown; Minnie Riperton; Joe Yamanaka (Japanese: ジョー山中; Chinese: 山中明); Unknown; Teresa Teng (Simp. Chinese: 邓丽君; Trad. Chinese: 鄧麗君) |
| August 26, 2005 | National Final | What's Up | 4 Non Blondes |
[edit] The first E.P. "Jane.Love"
On January 9, 2006, her first Extended play, Jane.Love (Simp. Chinese: Jane 爱; Trad. Chinese: Jane 愛) was released. The E.P. contains three songs including "Radiance" (Chinese: 光芒), "Counterclockwise" (Simp Chinese: 逆时针; Trad. Chinese: 逆時針) and "To Be Loved". "Radiance" is a Mandarin song as well as "Counterclockwise" while "To Be Loved" is an English song. The E.P. contains the instrumental versions of these three tracks.
[edit] The first album "The One"
On October 11th, 2006, her first album, The One was released. The album contains ten songs, among those three are in English.
01.Body Language (Simp. Chinese: 身体语言)
02.This Damned Thing Called Love (Simp. Chinese: 这该死的爱)
03.Take it like a Man
04.If we Love Indefinitely (Simp. Chinese: 如果爱下去)
05.Can't Take It Back
06.Private Matter (Simp. Chinese: 个人秘密)
07.Zero O' One, Missing You (Simp. Chinese: 想你，零点零一分)
08.Blockhead (Simp. Chinese: 木脑壳)
09.Girl of Your Dreams
10.Midnight，Goodnight
[edit] Influence
- Although many of her followers could not comprehend the lyrics of her songs, she sparked language learning interests among her fans and appreciation of Western music.
- Her fans called themselves "Liang Fen" (凉粉), the combination of the pronunciation of her name and the English word "fan". The same term has been used to define a particular type of bean jelly snack in central China. This usage came from Hong Kong years ago, but nowadays more people use it.
[edit] Current Updates
Liangying was invited to visit her alma mater, Sichuan University during its orientation week celebration in early September and performed her version of Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine". On September 26, 2005, she became the first Super Girl contestant to hold a personal music show for her fans. Numerous celebrities attended the show. She has signed a contract with CCTV to play the supporting role in a stage music show "The Song of the Movie".
These guests included: Huang Jianxiang (one of CCTV's hosts of football programme), Zeng Zimo (Phoenix TV's famed host of commercial programme),Wu Sikai(singer from Taiwan),etc.
[edit] Awards
- 1998: Second Place in Chengdu Ailang Singing Contest
- 2004: First Place in Tongyi Ice Tea National College students singing contest
- 2004: First Place in Jingdu PUB singer contest
- 2005: Third Place in Super Voice Girl National Competition
