Who is the most popular Chinese singer in your country?

[ses096]

Coco Lee?Faye Wong?S.H.E?Jay Chou?Andy Liu?or others?

[Lu]

I'm not aware of any Chinese singer being even known in my country, let alone famous. I wish it was different. I'd change it if I could.

[gougou]

I never heard any Chinese song in Germany, and doubt that people will be able to name even one singer.

Actors are more likely. I suppose the majority would know Jacky Chan and Lucy Liu.

[Outofin]

In the US, William Huang is quite popular. Hope you know his story...

[pazu]

I know William HAng and I hope to get an autograph of him.

In THailand I guess Andy Lau is qutie popular, when Thai knows I'm from Hong Kong they always ask, "do you know Liu Dehua?" (They translated the name by Mandarin's sound).

[Ultimate_Phil]

In Germany, Faye Wong is quite popular because there is no problem to get her CDs from internet-firms like amazon or yesasia. Many people I know posess movies or albums from her. Leslie Cheung is also very popular, but most because of his movies like "A Better Tomorrow" or "A Chinese Ghost Story".

[owen]

I'm not aware of any Chinese singer being even known in my country, let alone famous. I wish it was different. I'd change it if I could.

I am so so so thankful that you don't have any say in this matter. That way i know there will always be a haven from this absolutely sickly sweet, fawning, pointless nonsense known as mandopop. Even if said haven must contain junky american pop music i would still consider it a refuge.

[Lu]

I'd only import the good Chinese music Owen, not the bad, thirteen-in-a-dozen Mandopop. And fyi, Dutch pop is not better than Mandopop.

[owen]

Actually the only mandopop i really loathe is those jokers with their over styled razor cuts designed to look messy and wild, with faces expressing a deep and phony heartache, singing in a really serious, breathy, and for lack of a better word, faggy*, tone. And the melodies they sing are more like anti-melodies. Do people take those songs seriously?? They're every bit as formulaic as modern american country tunes. Blechhhhhhh.

*sorry if the word offends anyone, but i'm struggling to explain the singers i'm referring to and that word does the best job.

[Lu]

So far I've been able to avoid those, but now I bought a cd for one song I liked and it turns out Alex To is exactely the kind of singer you're describing. :-/ Luckily I bought the cd very cheap.

[owen]

Well if there is more to the genre than those kinds of singers perhaps you could give me some names to check out. 好不好？

[Oblivavation]

umm... I've heard of S.H.E... their really popoular in china... theres also a band called B.A.D.... I have a CD of Pan Wei Bo (Wilber Pan) from my last visit to china... but besides that... i dont think i've heard of others... besides Jay Chou...

[Lu]

Try Beijing Rock. Cui Jian 崔建, Tang Dynasty 唐朝, Baojiajie 43 hao 鮑家街43號. Also Zheng Jun 鄭鈞, who sounds like britpop. And also current bands from there, I like Ouch (Aiyo) and Color 顏色 but I know there must be many more.

As for Taiwan: Xiao An 小安 is good. David Tao is also quite ok I think, you might put him with the other singers you so detest but he at least does something original. There's Zhang Zhen.... 張震... (there's one more character in his name that I can't remember), he doesn't sing the bad love songs but music that at least sounds ok, although the guy doesn't always sing that well. A band that might be ok is 六甲, although I don't have any cd of them, just heard 1 or 2 songs, so I can't guarantee.

And now everybody can flame me for my taste in Chinese music.

[Azchael]

Hi folks,

unfortunately I also do not know any bands / singers being known in Germany, but ...

First of all, check out Soundtoy (http://www.soundtoy.net), they're incredible!!!

Furthermore I can only recommend 'Xu Wei' from Xi'an, he's a one of a kind rocker.

Then take 'Overload' (Chao Zai) or 'Tomahawk' (Zhang Fu).

Actually, Sun Yan Zi's CD 'The Moment' also has touched me, even though it's pop music and from Singapore (I've nothing against Singapore, she's just no 'real' Chinese singer)...

See Ya,

Azchael

[Outofin]

Actually the only mandopop i really loathe is those jokers with their over styled razor cuts designed to look messy and wild, with faces expressing a deep and phony heartache, singing in a really serious, breathy, and for lack of a better word, faggy*, tone. And the melodies they sing are more like anti-melodies.

Biting sarcasm, which I totally agree with. Kids need the kind of music and music companies need money. That's why it works out. I can hardly take any singer who doesn't write his/her own songs seriously. But I won't label music good or bad. My good music is bad for others.

[Azizam]

In my country most of the people laugh at me when I say i learn Chinese.

And it sounds odd to them.

I don't remember that I ever heard some Chinese POP or something similar.

And that kind of music can't be found, except if U want to buy some oriental sounds record.

[aline]

The hua ren in my country are not really into chinese music. So sad.

Still , Jay Zhou seems to be quite popular.

[whiteorchid]

The pity is ... there are no Asian singers in the United States .. that have the popularity, or talent of Leslie Cheung, Sam Hui, Anita Mui, Andy Lau,

Faye Wong, Roman Tam, Danny Chan, Teresa Teng, James Wong, etc ..

If I am in error here, please correct me ..

However, to my knowledge, there isn't any artiste ..

It is sad to think of Leslie, Anita, Danny, Roman, James .. all gone, and yes, particularly tragic is Leslie's departure.

All we may do now is cherish their legacies and pass it along to others.

[woodcutter]

Every country has its cheesemongers along with the real artists. In China there is a lot of cheese, and little respect for real artists (even though a lot of people are lactose intolerant!).

All the same I love to be in China because the ubiquitous plastic pop is relaxing and sometimes tuneful, rather than the brutal stuff you get most places. Anyone else share my old-person type view of it?

As to the OP's question, Anglo-Saxons can't be bothered with anyone else's culture, sadly.

[owen]

Anglo-Saxons can't be bothered with anyone else's culture

Especially since, by now, 'anyone else's culture' is usually just a corporate-driven, cheap, pale, and altogether inferior reflection of anglo-saxon culture.

It is the gravest insult i can think of to the majority of chinese pop (i am referring to the stuff that is played on repeat 24 hours a painful day on cheap, over-driven speakers in public places where there is no escape) to say that compared to it i think american pop is cutting edge and 'exciting' (which it is clearly not).