Talk:Teresa Teng

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How does one translate 月亮代表我的心? That is another one of her famous songs. -Spencer195 03:25, 6 May 2004 (UTC)

Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin is normally rendered as 'The Moon Represents My Heart'. Fantastic song, imho. - TheSeez

Contents

[edit] Cantopop

Regarding this edit by Huaiwei, her songs were not only sung in Mandarin. She also had some Cantonese songs. — Instantnood 12:55, May 1, 2005 (UTC)

Classifying every single singer who sings a single Cantonese song in his/her career as a Cantopop singer is plainly unworkable and makes little sense. Considering plenty of Cantopop Singers also sing a song or two in English, shall we classify them as English singers instead? Terera Teng, in particular, is also a major contributor to the Japanese music scene. Shall we call her a J-Pop singer next?--Huaiwei 13:39, 1 May 2005 (UTC)
While I would conceive her as an Enka singer, not a J-Pop one. Anonymous Coward 59.78.18.5 12:33, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
I am not defending to keep it in that category. I bring the issue to this discussion page because we have to work out what would be qualified. And as a matter of fact, Teng did not only sing a "single Cantonese song in her career", or "a song or two". — Instantnood 14:24, May 1, 2005 (UTC)
And I am not defening my action in removing it from the category either? Duh. This is not of major interest here. Bring forth the evidence to demonstrate why she should be classified in this category, and we shall talk further. My commentary on one song is obviously an analogy, because you arent specifying if "some" means a few or hundreds of songs.--Huaiwei 14:32, 1 May 2005 (UTC)
Out of the 60 songs listed on this site, 10 are Cantonese. And I'm pretty sure she has more than 60 songs. Would you mind telling why you think she is not notable for Cantopop? Thanks in advance. — Instantnood 14:54, May 1, 2005 (UTC)
Which of the 10 are cantonese? As for why she is not a Cantopop Singer, her carrier is overwelmmingly based in Taiwan, and she sings overwelmingly in Mandarin. In addition, she has sung a few in Japanese (many of which were translated into Mandarin and became some of her best hits), Cantonese, Hokkien and English. But all these were obviously secondary to her Mandarin singing career. Cantopop is a niche market she does not represent. Just about every Cantopop singer also belts out Mandarin songs, so I suppose that makes the Cantopop category redundant, if you are going to go by quantity of songs?--Huaiwei 15:15, 1 May 2005 (UTC)
To me, as long as one's career in Cantopop is substantial, she/he will be qualified. It was you who tried to quantify. :-D — Instantnood 15:33, May 1, 2005 (UTC)
You still have not defined when is someone's Cantopop career "substantial" for it to be qualified. Instead, you prefer to make strange sentences like "It was you who tried to quantify" which I completely fail to comprehend.--Huaiwei 15:40, 1 May 2005 (UTC)
In the link that Instantnood sent, the songs that are Cantonese are the ones with the yellow 粵 icon next to them. Out of the 60, 10 of them have that icon. Also, I think it's not necessarily the number of Cantonese songs that matter, but whether the person had influence in Cantopop culture. Teresa Teng was heavily featured on Hong Kong radio during the the 1970s, and so was not uninfluential during the history of Cantopop. Faye Wong, who is unambiguously classified as a Cantopop singer, considers Teng her idol. Online music stores also categorize her music under Cantopop [1]. HKVP radio also considers her a Cantopop singer [2], and they describe themselves as "the only Cantonese Internet radio station that plays music 24 hours a day from Hong Kong's golden era of pop music" [3]. HKVP radio also says this in one of their featured articles: "One of the most recognizable faces in Cantopop belongs to the bright Teresa Teng" [4]. There are many sources out there that classify her under Cantopop, so if that view exists, shouldn't it be included? --Umofomia 20:43, 1 May 2005 (UTC)
Please be careful interpreting sources, and not simply plug them off the internet without thinking through them. I shant talk about the "60" song issue, since I agree quantity is hardly a valid qualifer. Instead, I refer to the only other two sources cited. An online music store can hardly be considered definitive in defining who is a cantopop star, when clicking on "Cantpop" [5] shows you artist ranging from Leehom Wang, to Stefanie Sun, from Jay Chou to Tanya Chua, from Jolin Tsai to Stella Huang? Worse, do I see F4 and S.H.E as well? And even Wu Bai and China Blue, because Wu Bai has moved to HK or what? Cantopop Singers, all of them? As for the sources from HKVP radio, I see the same issues. Jeff Chang? Zhang Huimei? Emil Chau? Jay Chou? Fong Fei Fei? Tsai Chin? Takeshi Kaneshiro? Just some examples, and I didnt actually scritinise every single one of their entries, but isnt it obvious by now they are merely playing songs from some of the more revered artists across the Chinese music industry, even if they have never sung a single song in Cantonese, or contributed directly to cantopop, merely being an influence in the way Western music also influences Cantopop? I suppose The Cranberries should be added, since Faye Wong sang a cover of one of their songs?--Huaiwei 22:03, 1 May 2005 (UTC)
While I agree that just because they're listed on a list doesn't necessarily make them Cantopop, however, in the case of the featured article I linked, she's specifically cited as influential in the development of Cantopop [6]. She different from say, the Cranberries, because subsequent singers borrowed her singing style and manner of performance, and she was beloved by the Hong Kong public (plus the Cranberries didn't sing in Cantonese, which is the other criteria for telling whether someone is considered Cantopop). I'm not familiar enough with the other singers you cite to comment on them (my knowledge of Cantopop only extends up until the early 80s). Here's another article (in Chinese), that cites her in the development of Cantopop (粵語流行曲): [7]. Taiwanese singers during that period had an influence in the direction of Cantopop. Cantopop didn't really mature until the 70s and 80s, and many of the songs before that period were in Mandarin, but these singers helped push it along by singing in Cantonese. Just because she originates from Taiwan doesn't mean she can never be considered part of Cantopop. She wouldn't be mentioned in the articles otherwise if there were no influence. Here's another article in Chinese on the history of Cantopop that cites her also: [8]. Isn't the fact that it's cited by others enough to add it to the article? These links aren't just lists, they're actual essays on the development of Cantopop. --Umofomia 06:24, 2 May 2005 (UTC)
Cranberries was just an analogy, but hey, they did influence alot of Faye Wong's singing style, which in turn influenced Mandopop, wont you agree? (And talking about Faye Wong, she isnt Cantopop either. She is much more revered as a C-pop or even Mandopop artist) Now the problem with Teresa Teng, is that she influences the entire East Asian music scene, and not just cantopop alone. All your sources fail to indicate that she is only an influence to cantopop. And all the more, none of them indicate that is a direct contributor to cantopop comparable to other cantopop artists who develop the genre consciously. Teresa Teng is beloved by the HK public, but so is she across the rest of East and Southeast Asia. Does this make her an automatic artist in all regions her music had an influence in? Why is she not classified as a Japanese singer? An English singer? And remember the cuisine discussion? Teresa Teng is clearly a C-pop artist, and if Cantopop is a subset of C-pop, why classify her twice in the same genre? Remember Hong Kong Surnames? Some of you seems overly intent in classifying anything and everything remotely related to all things Hong Kong, without taking account the fact that doing so gives quite a skewed impression of their overall impacts, contributions, influence, and scope. In my opinion, she should be classified as a c-pop artist, as well as a Japanese singer.--Huaiwei 07:28, 2 May 2005 (UTC)
Sorry, I've been away so it took a while to get back to you. Anyway, I think this case is different from the surname and dim sum cases that we had discussed previously. In this case, she specifically wrote her songs for the Cantopop market in the Cantonese language. If she had not done this but was famous in Hong Kong anyway, then I would otherwise agree with you. Also, if we follow your reasoning all the way, I don't see why you would classify her as a Japanese singer as well. Since she influenced the entire East Asian music scene, wouldn't she then just be listed as an East Asian singer and not specifically C-pop and J-pop (she's also pretty popular in southeast Asia as well)? In my opinion, I agree with you that she should be classified as C-pop and J-pop, but she should also be classified as Cantopop because that category is not entirely a subset of C-pop. --Umofomia 23:32, 8 May 2005 (UTC)
I can see from the above that the same issue applies. Some folks somehow think that surnames like Ng can only be found in HK, and created a classification for it alone. They think Dim Sum is "Hong Kong eating culture", as thou it was not eaten in the rest of the Cantonese or further afield, and classify it twice in a subset of Chinese cuisine. In this case, both problems cross paths. Firstly, please note that "Taiwanese Singer" and "Cantopop" are two different categories. While the first suggests they are classified according to nationality, the second classifies it according to genre. If you have her classified as such, it is as thou she is a Taiwanese-born singer who contributes to nothing but cantopop. As I said above, it skews impressions quite badly in that setup. Secondly, as far as I know, there is no accepted genre for "East Asian music", but there is one for C-pop and J-pop. We could create one based on nationality, as in "East Asian singer", but is this category sustainable?
I made references above to her being classified as "Japanese singer" or "J-pop" and so forth, but in actual fact, I mentioned this to bring out the absurdness of trying to classify her just because she wrote or sang a few songs in that language. I do not consider her a J-pop or Japanese singer, even thou she grapped plenty of singing awards there, commands a legion of Japanese fans, and many of her hits were Mandarin cover versions of Japanese songs. Needless to say, I hardly consider her a cantopop singer as well, particularly when her Cantonese songs are not even well heard off outside that region. Compare, for example, to Sio Ba Zang, a hokkien song, but one of her signature tunes even outside the Hokkien speaking regions. In other words, one has to take a step back, and evaluate her from her overall contributions to the music industry. How much is her contribution to Cantonese music, compared to Chinese music? She sang a few songs in English, and travelled there to perform too. Do you classify her in that genre as well? I have been asking this over and over. Do you classify people by genre just because they sang one song in it?
Which then leds me to ask. Is cantopop as a category sustainable? Is it simply a category attempting to group any singer who sang at least a single Cantonese song in his/her career (such as the attempt to add Kit Chan to that category, which I repeatedly removed?) And can anyone elaborate on why Cantopop is "not entirely a subset of C-pop"?--Huaiwei 05:40, 11 May 2005 (UTC)
Let's settle the surname issue first. I guess you're saying about me by saying "some folks". Did I ever say that the surname "Ng" is only found in Hong Kong? Just leave this question if you don't think you're talking about me, and sorry for the trouble. — Instantnood 09:06, May 11, 2005 (UTC)
I said "some folks", coz I dont even know if you are the only one. In fact, I dont even know if you still hold that view, so of coz saying "some folks" is far less pointed and confrontationary then saying "Instantnood", wont you agree?--Huaiwei 15:47, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Just to let you folks know, that I am considering a cfd on the Cantopop category. Category_talk:Cantopop.--Huaiwei 07:01, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Xie Xie Ni VS Rong Shu Xia

Did anybody notice they have exactly the same melody? I wonder what's the story behind that... Yu Tian made a tribute...???

Hello, there,

-)

Teresa has the remarkable ability of singing someone else's songs, popularize them to a degree the songs had never been known before and make them her signature songs. The songs "The Moon Represents My Heart" and "Rong Shu Xia" were both sung by Chen Fen Lan (陳芬蘭) Various other singers also sang "The Moon Represents My Heart" but none achieved the same level of success with it as Teresa did. When Teresa covered the song "Rong Shu Xia," her lyricist gave her different lyrics. Hence, it was not a tribute by Yu Tian.

Teresa pulled this stunt with quite a number of songs, notably, Yeh Lai Xiang (夜来香) which was originally sung by Li Xianglan (李香蘭) whose real name is Yoshiko Otaka (大鷹 淑子, Ōtaka Yoshiko?), (English Name: Shirley Yamaguchi) born February 12, 1920, a China-born Japanese actress and singer who made a career in China, Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States. By the 1940s, she became one of the Seven great singing stars.[1] Yoshiko was elected as a member of parliament in Japanese Government in 1970's and served for 18 years.

The song, "When Will You Return?" was originally sung by Zhou Xuan (周璇) who lived from 1920 to 1957. From 1935 to 1950, Chow made several movies. Her songs are still popular today, by themselves as well as covered by other singers. She was named, "The Golden voice." Chow died in Shanghai at the young age of 37 (38 by Chinese reckoning) of what doctors believe to be encephalitis. She had been in and out of a mental asylum where she finally passed away. Regards, Jeremy Jeremysc 07:01, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Age

According to the dates of birth and death, Teng was 42 when she died, not 43 as the article claims. Can someone verify the birthdate and deathdate? Chopsticks 23:50, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

43 is what it would be under the Chinese system (people are automatically 1 at birth under this system). On a side note, when I searched ProQuest for her obituaries, I found that most of them listed her final age as 40.

not automatically ...... it is because you are 10 month in your mum before she give birth of you , it is roughly you are age 1 already . but by now fewer and ferwe chinese adopt this system

[edit] As Gentle as Breeze

I am pondering -- should that song be removed, because the version of the song she recorded was a cover of Cai Qin? --Nlu

[edit] KMT connections??

According to a recent blogpost [9] Ms Deng had covert KMT connections. Can anyone confirm/deny this? 88.104.40.180 20:46, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More on Teresa's Life

While Teresa's entry contains a good discussion of her music (I am a fan) There are other facts about her life not covered. e.g. she was born with a different name, the Chinese name given here is her stage name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.141.92.13 (talk • contribs)

You are welcome to edit the article if you want to, as long as the edits fit Wikipedia's guidelines. --Nlu (talk) 08:13, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
OK, I have added the birth name Deng Li Yun from [10]. I have tidied it in various other ways and removed the Cleanup tag. Fayenatic london 21:13, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Biography

About the section on "By day Deng Xiaoping rules...by night Deng Lijun rules", doesn't there seem to be an error if her birth name is stated at Deng Li Yun, but the quote is Deng Lijun, or am I missing something? Ddcc 01:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Ddcc, Deng Li-Yun (鄧麗筠) is the name given by her parents at birth. Deng Li-Jun (鄧麗君) is the name she used as a singer. When she ventured into the Japanese music scene in 1973, she adopted the name Teresa Teng, as she admired Mother Teresa who did much for the less fortunate in many parts of the world, especially India. It was a good move because not all of her fans are fluent in Chinese. Jeremysc 13:36, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

The pronunciation of the name would vary according to dialect. Fayenatic (talk) 18:16, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

I believe "Airport" and "Empty Harbour" is the same. The Japanese characters for Airport mean Empty Harbour in Chinese.

(referring to: In 1973, with the song "Airport" and later "Empty Harbour", she conquered Japan, where she remained a leading star despite a short exile in 1979"... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.48.102.156 (talk) 07:41, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Well spotted. I have removed "Empty Harbour". Can anyone confirm 1973? several sites give 1974 for that song in Japan. - Fayenatic (talk) 18:14, 29 September 2007 (UTC)


I'm curious why no one ever mentions the name of the French boyfriend (other than very occasional naming of what I take to be his first name, "Paul") she was vacationing with in Thailand at her death. Could someone fill me in on that?Hulijing 23:21, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Dear friends,
I am Jeremy, a Malaysian-born Chinese, who grew up listening to Teresa's songs. I spotted the "Airport" and "Empty Harbour" statement in the article. I was still in school at that time and aware of her impact on the Japanese music industry but do not recall the exact year. Still in school, I was not able to buy many of her records, cassettes or cartridges at that time. However, after her death in 1995, as a working adult, I managed to get CDs of all her Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien) releases marketed by Polygram (Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore) and a compilation boxed set of her Life Records CDs. Out of curiosity, and for sentimental reasons, I bought 2 boxed sets of her CDs of Japanese songs. The song "Airport" according to the information on the CD was released in 1974. This information is also confirmed by the various Newspaper articles in the Chinese Language papers.

After her death, I collected all newspaper and magazine articles I could get my hands on. The reports, stories, etc went on for months. I have 6 file folders and about 10 booklets about her life and death. These include stories, anecdotes and interviews with her family members, close friends and songwriters who have worked with her before since childhood. She was barely in her teens and still in school when she started singing professionally.

In 1964, she entered a singing contest and walked away with the grand prize when she sang an old Hubei opera number entitled "Visiting Ying Tai."

In 1967, Taiwan television soon noticed this sweet young thing who had more than a voice to match her looks. Teresa began to make appearances in the TV show Galaxy of Stars. This boosted her career and she later got her own show called A Star for Every Day.

In 1970, she appeared in a movie titled "Thank you, General Manager." In 1971, she sang the Theme for a TV series, "Jing Jing."

In 1972, she joined Life Records (Hong Kong,) the label under which she released 22 records, all in Mandarin, except for 4 which were in Hokkien. There were also some Malaysian singers and songwriters under the Life Records label in Malaysia and Singapore. Therefore, Teresa did sing some Mandarin songs writen by Malaysians. About half the population is Chinese. Hence, Teresa did not have to sing in Indonesian to become popular here. In fact, after her death, while hunting for all her recordings in vaious languages, I came across a cassette of Indonesian songs credited to her but even the shopkeeper was not sure if that was true although it did sound like her. (There were many singers around trying to mimic her.) I regret now that I did not purchase the tape at that time.

While still with Life Records, she sang theme songs for many Taiwanese movies based on novels by romantic writer Qin Yao, starring Chen Chen and Alan Tang. These songs from the movies made her a household name throughout the Chinese-speaking community in Asia. She made many trips to Malaysia and it was during one of those trips that I got an autographed photo of hers which I still have.

In 1973, she joined Polydor (Japan) which prepared her for the Japanese Entertainment industry. Together with another singer from Life Records, Yu Yar, they went to Japan. Yu Yar who was, at that time on par with her in popularity, if not more popular, in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, was not able to penetrate the Japanese market due to the language barrier. Teresa, however, mastered the Japanese Language through sheer hard work. In March 1974, her first record (EP) was released. In July, her second record, "Airport" gave her the breakthrough.

In 1975, Teresa joined Polygram. All the records released under this label were in Mandarin. There were two in Cantonese and one in Hokkien. Recordings of English songs which she sings live during concerts or on TV specials were also compiled and released as CDs after her death.

In September, 81, she was featured in The Reader's Digest (Chinese Edition). In May, 1982, the year I entered College, Teresa was featured on the front cover of The Asia Magazine which gave her credit for "Uniting Asians." I have kept the magazine cover and article till now.
Regards,
Jeremy

Thanks for all that, Jeremy. It would be really helpful if you could provide names and dates of publications for the major facts above. The bio in the article is already rather weak on references. - Fayenatic (talk) 15:13, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Dear Fayenatic, Welcome. I can provide names and dates of the publications for the major facts. There are in many of the newspaper and magazine cuttings I collected in 1995. In the year that Teresa passed away, her recording companies released special editions of CDs and Video CDs in various packages and sets, many with colourful booklets and pamphlets containing the above information and photos. I have many of those. (At that time, DVDs were not yet in the market.) Every year, around the month of May, these companies still come up with special editions, many of which I have collected. In recent years, I have also collected many DVDs of her TV and live performances in concerts. These also come with booklets of photos and her biography, some more detailed than others. I may be reached at canaan_optical@yahoo.com
Regards and best wishes, Jeremy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.51.23.120 (talk) 02:17, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

OK, that's good news. I wish we had such info for Faye Wong! Would you mind inserting the references into the information above? If you add the publication details at the end of sentences/paragraphs, starting and ending with the tags <ref> and </ref>, then they will show up at the end of the article (where there is a tag {{Reflist}} or <references/>). Or you could add info with such sources directly into the main article. - Fayenatic (talk) 13:05, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello again, Fayenatic, I notice you respond within 24 hours each time I have something to express. Thanks! They don't include Faye's biography in her CD releases because Faye's still around, I guess. Anyway, I liked her first few releases. Like, the Cantonese "Fragile Woman," and the Mandarin "No regrets." When Teresa was alive, her Cassettes, Cartridges and records do not list her successes and achievements either! LOL. I am quite new to Wikipedia in the sense of writing in. I only discovered by accident that I could actually edit it after I spotted the Airport and Empty Harbour sentence. In terms of usage, I have used Wikipedia for some time as a tool whenever I needed to do research or check some facts. I think for the time being, I should leave the main article to pros like you.  :-)) Yesterday, I installed the Asian languages part of my Windows into my pc and discovered the external links to "The one and only - Teresa Teng." Wow! I was impressed. They have really got info that is quite exhaustive. Thanks and regards, Jeremy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.54.36.230 (talk) 09:47, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi Jeremy, if you register, then you can add as many pages as you like to your "Watchlist" which then shows you which of those pages have been changed recently. I check mine at least daily. "Real pro"? - maybe I'm just an addict! But real pro Wikipedians will only add facts that are sourced, i.e. we have the detailed references. So, whatever of the above info is important enough to add to the article, please insert publication details above, when you have time. Thanks, - Fayenatic (talk) 12:21, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Discography?

Anyone interested in making a discography for Teresa Teng? Is it even a viable idea? Qwerty (talk) 08:38, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

We'd probably have to create a separate page for it. That's why there are separate pages for Andy Lau, Leon Lai, etc.'s discographies. Pandacomics (talk) 10:09, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Teresa Teng's perfect Mandarin accent

Although I am not fluent, I use some Teresa's songs for learning Mandarin and I can tell (supported by comments from native speakers) that her accent is perfect. I am amazed not only about her voice but about her immaculate Mandarin accent, not typical at all to even Taiwanese broadcasters or actors, which use a softened version of Mandarin, in particular (using Hanyu Pinyin) sh, zh, ch, r and their counterparts. Although Teresa Teng was born to an immigrant family, she was born and grew up in Taiwan, hence, I'd like to hear some comments about her accent. Acquiring accent may not be too difficult, if you work on it but what about perception in Taiwan? Did it sound unusual to Taiwanese people? --Atitarev (talk) 04:34, 30 April 2008 (UTC)