我爱Cpop: Artist of the month: 刘文正 (Liu Wenzheng)

I need to say right off the bat that Liu is my favorite Chinese singer. I think I have a thing for Taiwanese singers since my top 3 artists Liu Wenzheng, Jay Chou and Wang Lee Hom all hail from this island (Lee Hom is actually American-born Taiwanese but since he always refers to himself as a Taiwanese singer, let's just see him that way). What I love about Liu is his voice, and if I may say this, he has a very endearing sweet vocal, it's almost like he's the female version of Teresa Teng. When I was a volunteer for Vietnam 1st International Film Festival (which btw was an awkward and embarrassing failure in the organizing process), I got assigned to a Chinese actress and acted as her interpreter and much to my surprise and disappointment, she looked at me wide-eyed when I said Liu Wenzheng was my favorite Chinese artist. "He's ancient", she said, "I heard of him before but never really listened to his song. How come you know the guy anyway??". If even a Chinese native speaker, a mainland-born 23-year-old girl doesn't really know and appreciate Liu Wenzheng, I doubt any foreigners or Chinese learners would hear of him. Come on, the guy's not too old. He was born in 1952 and was once Taiwan's (if not the entire Chinese-speaking countries') biggest sensation. His greatest contribution is the successful promotion of 校园歌曲 (songs about campus life/students' life). What's mysterious about him is that he decided to leave the music industry at the peak of his time. He immigrated to the US in 1991 and despite the crazy searching effort by Taiwanese paparazzi, no one really knows what happened to him since then, although some says he's a propriety businessman now (actually Wiki says it). So let's discover this impeccable gem of the entire Cpop industry, shall we?

Liu Wenzheng, was once Taiwan's 红的男歌手(hottest male singer), to the point that "比现在的周杰伦绝对是有过之而无不及", meaning he's no less famous than our present humongous star Jay Chou. Liu also starred in some movies and he's gotten an impressively huge and solid fanbase. He's the first one to introduce and popularize 校园歌曲-type songs. And he's regarded as one of Chinese (as in, all Chinese-speaking places) dazzling stars, with many great contributions for the music industry. He used his distinctive, sweet and celestial vocal and his genuine emotions to write many of Chinese classic songs. To name just a few 诺言, 小雨打在我身上, 奈何，寻，睡莲，为青春欢唱，却上心头，热线你和我，太阳一样, etc... In 1976, he dabbled in movies and TV series like 门里门外, 跳跃的爱情, 爱情文凭牛仔裤, 闪亮的日子, 却上心头... He took part in a total of more than 20 TV productions.

For most of people born after 1985, Liu Wenzheng is an unfamiliar name, but for the 70s, 80s Chinese peopl, you must have been living under a rock if you hadn't heard about the guy. Liu was the youngest in a wealthy Taiwanese family. He had one brother and two sisters who lived in the states, and since he's the youngest son, he was very loved and cared for by his family. His parents were probably the coolest Asian parents I've ever heard of, always encouraging and never protest his love and passion for music. When Liu became a symbol of Chinese music, he's so popular that anywhere there's a Chinese people, there were people who worshiped him, tried to emulate and imitate him (like what the world did with MJ, Madonna and lately Lady Gaga). His sudden and untimely withdrawal from the Chinese entertainment industry really took his fans and his many celebrity friends aback. Some even criticized him, telling him "if he considered them as friends, why did he leave without saying goodbye". The guy did such a good job at hiding his whereabouts that when there were countless number of times newspaper announced his fake death, his friends didn't even know whether to trust the news or not. There were also numerous rumors and speculations surrounding his decision to depart from the entertainment world and his life after that, but it seemed like no one was able to verify any of those.

Okay, enough about the guys. Here are my three absolute favorites from him, each with a different style and topic. I hope you guys will give him a try after this and will love and respect him as much as I do (Oh I forgot the guy was a lyrics genius so check out the meaning of his songs as well :D).

1.童年(Child hood) --> a very representative 校园歌曲