鄧麗筠 Teng Li-chun 鄧麗君 月亮代表我的心

Her singing, described as "soft, melodious, often whispery and restrained,"

 

"Wherever there are Chinese-speaking people, there is the music of Teresa Teng."  

 

A Polyglot, Teng's crystalline voice and emotionally resonant songs, laced with a clear and soft voice, have transcended geographical, linguistic, and political boundaries, captivating audiences across Asia for several decades.

 

Teng was selected as the "most influential cultural figure in China since 1949

鄧麗君  月亮代表我的心

Yuèliang Dàibiǎo Wǒ de Xīn

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFm7AWP9n4

 

"The Moon Represents My Heart" (Chinese: 月亮代表我的心; pinyin: Yuèliang Dàibiǎo Wǒ de Xīn) is a song originally recorded by Taiwanese singer Chen Fen-lan for her album Dreamland, which was released through Li Ge Records in May 1973.

 

The song was made famous throughout the Sinophone world by Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng in 1977.

Teng's version was met with widespread recognition upon its release and is regarded as one of the first foreign songs to achieve widespread popularity in mainland China following the Cultural Revolution.

 

It is often cited as "one of the most famous and beloved Chinese songs of all time".

 

Background

The lyrics to the song were written by Sun Yi [zh] (孫儀) and the music was composed by Weng Ching-hsi (翁清溪).

 It was first sung by Chen Fen-lan (陳芬蘭) in 1972 or 1973 for Chen's album Dreamland (夢鄉)  but was made famous by Teresa Teng's version later in 1977.

 

Originally, "The Moon Represents My Heart" was a piece that Weng thought was not as good and considered discarding it. Sun Yi accidentally discovered it among many works waiting to be scrapped, and expressed shock since he thought it was a good song. After Sun penned the lyrics, both Weng and Sun sold the song to Li Ge Records in 1972

 

Teresa Teng version

Teng's rendition, which is three minutes and 29 seconds long,  was described as a "love song with a waltz-like lilt". It was recorded for her studio album  Love Songs of Island, Vol. 4: Love in Hong Kong, which was released through Polydor Hong Kong in December 1977.

Legacy

"The Moon Represents My Heart" has been performed frequently around the world since its release by famous singers and musicians such as Nana Mouskouri, Katherine Jenkins, Shila Amzah, Faye Wong, David Tao, Andy Lau, Leslie Cheung, Jon Bon Jovi, Siti Nurhaliza, David Archuleta, English vocal group Libera and Grammy Award winning American musician Kenny G.  The song is considered a "classic,"  and according to one source, "Chinese all around the world are familiar with [it]."

 

"The Moon Represents My Heart" is also popular in karaoke, with one chain in Singapore listing it at #42 on their hits list (which made it the highest ranked of all Teng's songs).  According to The New York Times, it is one of the best-known Chinese pop songs of all time.

Cultural impact

Until the late 1970s, foreign music had not been allowed into mainland China for several decades.  "The Moon Represents My Heart" became one of the first popular foreign songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan (called "gangtai" songs) in the country.  Teng's songs over the following decade revolutionized music in China. Her singing, described as "soft, melodious, often whispery and restrained," was considered the "ideal" in gangtai music at that time.  The style was in striking contrast to the then officially sanctioned songs in mainland China which were often revolutionary songs, and made a strong impact on its listeners. She became so popular that "within months the country was literally flooded with [her] songs."   "The Moon Represents My Heart", however, is often cited as one of her best-known or most popular pieces.

 

Before Teng's music arrived, such romantic songs had been nonexistent in China for many years as they were considered bourgeois and decadent.  As film director Jia Zhangke later said, "'The Moon Represents My Heart' [was] something completely new.  So people of my generation were suddenly infected with this very personal, individual world. Before that, everything was collective..."

Copyright status

Lyricist Sun Yi filed a lawsuit against the Li Ge Record Company (麗歌唱片公司). Sun lost the lawsuit, so the company owns the copyright of this song.

 

덩리쥔(鄧麗筠)

 

Teng Li-chun (Chinese: 鄧麗君; 29 January 1953 – 8 May 1995), commonly known as Teresa Teng, was a Taiwanese singer, actress, musician and philanthropist. Referred to by some as the "Eternal Queen of Asian Pop", Teng is considered one of the most successful and influential Asian popular singers of all time.  Teng is recognized as a cultural icon for her contributions to Chinese pop, giving birth to the phrase, "Wherever there are Chinese-speaking people, there is the music of Teresa Teng."  A Polyglot, Teng's crystalline voice and emotionally resonant songs, laced with a clear and soft voice, have transcended geographical, linguistic, and political boundaries, captivating audiences across Asia for several decades.

 

* (Her birth name 鄧麗筠; Dèng Lìyún was commonly mispronounced "Dèng Lìjūn" (jūn is an alternative reading of the final character 筠), so she later adopted 鄧麗君; Dèng Lìjūn as her stage name, changing the final character,[26] to match that pronunciation.)

 

With a career spanning almost 30 years, Teng established herself as a dominant and influential force in Asia throughout most of her career,  including East Asia, Southeast Asia, and, to some extent, South Asia. Teng is credited as Asia's first musical superstar  and by some as the pioneer of modern Chinese pop music—a major force in the development of the Chinese music industry by incorporating western and eastern styles into her music, replacing the most revolutionary songs then prevalent in mainland China and laying the foundation for modern Chinese popular music. Teng was also instrumental in bridging the cultural gap across Chinese-speaking nations  and was one of the first artists to connect Japan to some of East and Southeast Asia by singing Japanese pop songs, according to Nippon.  In Taiwan, she was famous for entertaining the armed forces and singing patriotic songs that appealed to the natives of the island. Teng was nicknamed "the patriotic entertainer" and "the soldiers' sweetheart".

 

Teng recorded more than 1,700 songs throughout her career, starting at age 14, not only in Mandarin, but also in Hokkien, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Japanese, Indonesian, English, and Italian.  To date, Teng's songs have been covered by hundreds of artists all over the world.

 

According to available IFPI statistics, Teng has sold over 48 million albums outside of mainland China as of 2010. In 1986, Time named her one of the seven greatest female singers in the world.  In 2009, in a poll by a Chinese government web portal to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, Teng was selected as the "most influential cultural figure in China since 1949" by 8.5 million netizens.  On the eve of the "March 8th International Women's Day" in 2010, Teng was voted "the most influential woman in modern China" by the Chinese media and radio stations in and outside the country.  In 2022, Teng received a street name in Ivry-sur-Seine, Grand Paris, from the Municipal council of France. Teng was inducted into the "Popular Music Hall of Fame" at the Koga Masao Music Museum in Japan in 2007, making her the only non-Japanese national to do so.

 

Early life

 

Teng was born Teng Li-yun[a] to waishengren parents in Baozhong, Yunlin County, Taiwan on 29 January 1953. Her father was a soldier in the Republic of China Armed Forces from Daming, Hebei, and her mother was from Dongping, Shandong, who fled to Taiwan after communists took over mainland China in 1949.

 

The only daughter among five children, Teng was raised in a poverty-stricken family and spent her early childhood in military dependents' villages, first in Yunlin and then in Pingtung. Teng's father retired in 1957, and then worked selling cakes to make ends meet. Teng received her early education at Luzhou Elementary School [zh] in Luzhou, Taipei County, Taiwan.

 

Teng was exposed to music at an early age through her music-loving parents. Her father was a Peking opera enthusiast, and her mother appreciated Huangmei opera, often accompanying Teng to Chinese movie theatres and opera houses. At the age of six, Teng began her voice lessons through an acquaintance of her father's, who instructed an air force band. Considering the environment of 1950s Taiwan under martial law, Teng's first mentor introduced her to singing before military audiences, a practice Teng continued throughout her life. 

Teresa_Teng's_first_performance

Teng performs at her first musical performance at the age of 7 (1960).

 

Teng earned her first major prize in 1964, when she sang "Visiting Yingtai" from Shaw Brothers' Huangmei opera movie, The Love Eterne, at an event hosted by the Broadcasting Corporation of China.  The following year, Teng went to attend Ginling Girls' High School [zh] in Sanchong, Taipei County, to further her studies. However, due to conflict between her performances and studies, forced by family economic factors, Teng dropped out of school in the second year and pursued her career as a singer professionally. Teng was soon able to support her family with her singing.

 

Teresa Teng - Wikipedia

 

Career

Early beginnings and overseas tour

鄧麗君幼年時照片 Teng as a child

Teng's career commenced in 1967 as a host of the television show One Star a Day, which aired for 20 minutes from Tuesday to Sunday. She then appeared in television dramas and movies, including a leading role in the 1967 film Thank You, Manager.  the age of 14, Teng withdrew from school to focus on music. She signed with a local company, Yeu Jow Records, and began to release a series of long-playing albums of "a go-go" dance tunes and cover versions of western pop songs as well as local Taiwanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian folk tunes. However, due to the lack of extra copyright royalties to increase her income, Teng committed to singing in night clubs around Taiwan. She debuted at Paris Night, an upscale Taipei nightclub, and set a record for performing onstage there for 70 consecutive days, giving a 90-minute performance every single day. Teng's albums sold well, and she eventually got an opportunity to record a theme song for Jingjing, Taiwan's first televised series and did a promotional tour that attracted quite a bit of attention in the media. Teng's first taste of fame came in 1968, when performance on the popular Taiwanese music program The Gathering of Stars led to a record contract. She released several albums within the next few years under the Life Records label in Hong Kong.  During these years, Teng recorded several top hits, such as "Remembering Mama" and "The Moment I See You, I Smile". She held concerts in Southeast Asia, drawing big crowds throughout the region. Teng's earnings from performing and recording eventually afforded her family a comfortable life; they moved from Luzhou District to Beitou District, Taipei, where they bought a home.

 

By the 1970s, Teng's music style had changed; she fused pop and opera styles and incorporated western jazz in order to further expand her market. Teng's popularity boomed in Asia after she released several albums in multiple languages. In April 1979, Teng held her first concert in Vancouver, Canada. On her next trip, Teng toured major US cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 1980, she was invited to perform at Lincoln Center in New York and the Los Angeles Music Center in California, becoming the first singer of Chinese descent to make a headline there. Upon her return to Taiwan, Teng went on a Southeast Asian tour in 1981, drawing 35,000 attendees in Malaysia. She continued to hold large-scale concerts in Hong Kong and the Southeast Asian region almost every year. In 1983, Teng performed a series of concerts at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. They met with tremendous success. Teng gave many free concerts throughout most of her career to help the less fortunate or raise funds for charities. The funds collected from her concerts were donated to public welfare.

 

Musical move in China

For most of the previous three decades, China was both economically and culturally closed to the rest of the world. Around 1974, Teng's songs began to trickle into mainland China with the availability of radios. In 1977, her song "The Moon Represents My Heart" became one of the earliest foreign songs to arrive in the mainland.  In 1978, with economic reform and the opening of borders, cassette recorders and pirated recordings of Teng's songs began to flow from coastal cities to the rest of the country. Her popularity soon skyrocketed.  In Taiwan, Teng's songs became a propaganda tool for the KMT's psychological war against the Chinese Communist Party. Her songs were blasted from the sea-facing speakers from Kinmen Island to the residents of mainland China at a much higher volume. This propaganda practice continued throughout the 1980s.  In the early 1980s, continuing political tension between mainland China and Taiwan led to her music, along with that of other singers from Taiwan and Hong Kong, being banned for some years in mainland China, describing it as too "bourgeois" and "corrupt" by Chinese authorities. In spite of the ban, Teng's songs defied the censorship and penetrated China's iron curtain. Her popularity continued in China through cassettes sold on Black market, with fans paying up to a month's rent for pirated cassettes of her songs. Teng's songs continued to be played everywhere, from nightclubs to government buildings, and the ban was soon lifted. Teng became almost as well known in mainland China as the country's leader. Her fans nicknamed her "Little Deng" because she had the same family name as Deng Xiaoping; there was a saying that, by day, everyone listened to "old Deng" because they had to. At night, everyone listened to "Little Teng" because they wanted to.  Shanghai Party newspaper Wenhui Bao expressed fears that Teng's songs may erode the revolutionary spirit of the (Communist) Chinese.  Faced with this solid wall of popularity, China ceased its restrictions on her music from the mid-1980s onward.

 

Light Exquisite Feeling and political outlook

 

Teng's contract with Polydor ended in 1981, and she signed a contract with Taurus Records in 1983 and made a successful comeback appearance in Japan. That same year, Teng released her most critically acclaimed album, Dandan youqing, translated as Light Exquisite Feeling, which sets 12 poems from the Tang and Song dynasties into music, blending modern and traditional styles. It became her first album to include entirely new songs, without any covers. The most popular single from the album is "Wishing We Last Forever". Teng apparently felt a deep attachment to the mainland, as she immersed herself in the classics of the Tang and Song periods.  In a television special, Teng spoke of her desire to contribute to the transmission of "Chinese" culture. Dressed in her period clothing, she commented:

I have one small wish. I hope everyone will like these songs so that the flourishing begonias within China's 10 million square kilometres and the treasures of this 5000-year old culture can be handed down generation through song. And through this, I hope our posterity will never forget the happiness, sadness, and glory of being a "Chinese" person.

 

Teng watching a football game in United States

 

The album received a positive response from both the public and critics, commending Teng's outstanding interpretation of the ancient poems and successfully projecting classical Chinese literature into a contemporary popular music style. It was well accepted in Southeast Asia and went gold on the first day of its release in Hong Kong.  Yang Yanxing, a professor at Tianjin Conservatory of Music, greatly praised the album, describing it as "the finest work of the Chinese music circle". In March 2012, Pu Xiqian from the China News Service called the album a "perfect combination of poems and music". Later, Teng started working on completing a sequel to the album. However, due to changes in the surroundings of music, as well as her deteriorating health and other reasons, she failed to realise her wish.

 

In 1987, Teng released the Mandarin version of the album I Only Care About You. After that, owing to her health issues, she basically stopped participating in commercial activities and gradually entered a semi-retired state.

 

Teng performed in Paris during the 1989 Tiananmen student protests on behalf of the students and expressed her support. On 27 May 1989, over 300,000 people attended the Concert for Democracy in China (民主歌聲獻中華) at the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong. One of the highlights was her rendition of "My Home Is on the Other Side of the Mountain".

 

Though Teng performed in many countries around the world, she never performed in mainland China. During her 1980 TTV concert, when asked about such a possibility, Teng responded by stating that the day she performs on the mainland will be the day the Three Principles of the People are implemented there—in reference to either the pursuit of Chinese democracy or reunification under the banner of the ROC.

 

Career in Hong Kong

In 1975, Teng collaborated with Polydor Records of Hong Kong. Her album Island Love Songs: Goodbye My Love (1975) won her the Ten-Star Prize and the opportunity to star in a movie musical of her own. The album was awarded platinum at Hong Kong's first Golden Album Awards. In 1976, Teng held her first Hong Kong concert at Lee Theatre, which was a tremendous success. Teng continued performing in concerts for the next five years, attracting big crowds throughout this time. Two years later, Teng's albums Teresa Teng's Greatest Hits and Love Songs of the Island 3 won her second Golden Album Award. Teng released her first Cantonese album, Irreconcilable (勢不兩立) in 1980, which became the best-seller of the year; its single, "Forget Him", became one of the most famous Cantonese pop songs at that time. The album received platinum at the Golden Album Awards. In 1982, her dual-album of Teresa Teng's Concert Live became another platinum after hitting the market. Teng became a household name in Hong Kong and held a concert at Queen Elizabeth Stadium the same year. Her second album, Strolling Down the Road of Life (漫步人生路), released in 1983, achieved even greater success than her predecessor. It became her fifth consecutive album to be awarded platinum, a record-breaking win against all singers in Hong Kong.  Teng's popularity reached its peak by the end of 1983 with six straight sold-out concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum. These concerts broke all sorts of Hong Kong records and played to a combined total audience of about 100,000 people. The concert, named A Billion Applause Concert, was performed in both Taiwan and Hong Kong from 29 December 1983, to 3 January 1984, in honor of her 15th year as a performer. A year later, Teng was awarded a special medal by PolyGram Hong Kong as a tribute to her success for having sold more than five million copies in Hong Kong.

 

Career in Japan

Teng in the United States, after temporarily being banned from Japan due to passport controversy (1979)

 

 

Teng entered the Japanese market in 1973. On 1 March 1974, Teng released her first Japanese single "No Matter Tonight or Tomorrow", which marked the beginning of her career in Japan. The single initially received a lukewarm market response and was ranked 75th on the Oricon Chart with sales of approximately 30,000. The Watanabe firm considered giving up using Teng's name. However, considering her success in Asia, the record company decided to release two or three consecutive singles to test the market further. On 1 July 1974, Teng's second single "Airport" was released. The sales of 'Airport' were huge, totaling 700,000 copies. She then released a number of successful singles including "The Night Ferry" and "Goodbye, My Love". In 1979, Teng was caught with a fake Indonesian passport while entering Japan and was deported and banned from entering the country for one year.

 

After a long absence, Teng returned to the Japanese market on 21 September 1983, and released her first single "Tsugunai" (Atonement) after her comeback on 21 January 1984. The single did not receive good response initially; however, after a month, sales started to pick up, and seven months later, "Tsugunai" eventually ranked eighth on the Oricon Chart and first on Japan Cable Broadcasting Chart. By the end of the year, sales surpassed 700,000 copies and final sales reached a million copies. Teng won the top award of 'Singer of the year' from Japan Cable Award. "Tsugunai" won the most popular song category and stayed on the Oricon Chart for nearly a year.  The success broke all the sales records of her previous period (1974–79). On 21 February 1985, Teng's next single, "Aijin" (Lover) topped the Oricon Chart and Japan cable broadcasting request chart in the first week of its release. The song remained #1 for 14 consecutive weeks and sales broke the 1.5 million mark. With "Aijin", Teng won the 'Singer of the year' for the second time. Moreover, she was invited to perform in Kōhaku Uta Gassen, which represented a high honor that is restricted to the top performers of the year in the Japanese music world. Teng's next single "Toki no Nagare ni Mi o Makase" was released on 21 February 1986. The single topped both the Oricon and Japan Cable Broadcasting Chart and sales of the single reached 2.5 million in Asian market becoming one of the most popular singles in Japan that year. Teng won the Japan Cable Award for the third time in a row. She was invited to perform in Kōhaku Uta Gassen for the second time. Teng became the first-ever artist to achieve three consecutive wins of this Grand Prix, also known as Japan Cable Award. She also remains the only foreign singer to win this award for three consecutive years in the history of Japanese music (1984–86). Teng gave her last solo concert at the NHK Hall in Tokyo in 1985 before semi-retiring from the entertainment circle.

 

As a military singer in Taiwan

 

One of Taiwan's most famous cultural exports,  Teng was born to a military family in 1953, her father served as a member of the Republic of China Armed Forces during World War II. After the regime collapsed on the mainland, the Nationalist government switched to Taiwan as their base after 1949. As a child, Teng grew up in this martial environment of the 1950s. Her first mentor introduced her to singing before military audiences, a practice she continued throughout her life. In those years, Teng gave many performances for soldiers and sang patriotic songs on television programs. In February 1979, while attempting to enter Japan, Teng was caught using a fake Indonesian passport she bought on the black market. The incident was criticised both in Taiwan and Japan. She was barred for one year from entering the country by Japan's Minister of Justice. In 1980, a year after the incident, she was allowed to return to Taiwan on condition of cooperation with the Taiwanese government. Teng performed for the Taiwanese troops again, and the income from her performances was donated to the "Funds for Self-Improvement and Patriotism". In August 1981, Teng performed for the troops for one month, touring military sites all over Taiwan. She visited the generals of the army, navy, and air force and sang for them. These performances were broadcast on TTV's special program named Teresa Teng on the Frontline. Due to her vigorous devotion to soldiers in Taiwan, Teng was awarded the "Patriotic Entertainer" medal by the government information office. These frequent performances for the troops garnered her the nickname "the soldiers' sweetheart" by the media. In 1988, the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo marked the end of martial rule in Taiwan. In the early 1990s, Teng returned to entertain the troops again, with her last performance being in 1994

 

Artistry

Teng at her home in Los Angeles for a short break before her concert in New York (1980)

Influences

Teng credits Chinese folk songs and music as a major influence on her musical career, which she often grew up listening to.

 

As a young child, Teng was exposed to music by her music-loving parents. Teng learned Peking opera through her father, while her mother introduced her to Huangmei opera, accompanying her to opera houses and encouraging Teng to sing in that style by purchasing songbooks for her. Alongside regional and folk styles, Teng was also influenced by shidaiqu and Japanese music.

 

In addition to music, Teng was an admirer of Florence Nightingale, Xi Shi, and Lin Daiyu.

Singing

Teng was a soprano, according to The New York Times. She was known for her "soothing and crystalline" singing voice,  with her vocal trademark classified as a "quasi-whisper", which David B. Gordon characterises as a "private emotion" in her listeners—as though she were singing for each of them individually.  Cultural critic Rey Chow labelled Teng's voice as soft, throaty, and feminine,  whereas Mike Levin of Billboard described it as "soft and almost breathless".  Teng's voice covered a diverse range of musical styles and languages. Meredith Schweig at Emory University notes: "Teng was famously versatile: she confidently performed in multiple languages and grooved in a number of genres, such as Haipai, Enka, and Euro-American pop stylings, on dozens of hit records, and that her voice and physical appearance were revered as the apotheosis of feminine beauty and virtue."

Lyrical writing

In 1987, Teng recorded the song "Summer Christmas", a cover of the Japanese song "Merry X'mas in Summer", originally recorded by Kuwata Band member Yoshisuke Kuwata. The same year, Teng recorded "River of Destiny", a cover of the Japanese original "Sadame Gawa". She composed the lyrics of both songs in Mandarin and included them on her 1987 Mandarin album, I Only Care About You. In 1988, Teng wrote the lyrics for the song "We Are the Stars" in both Chinese and Japanese versions and sang it on stage with Japanese musician Yūzō Kayama on 29 October. In 1992, Teng penned the lyrics for what was later revised into a song, "Star's Wish", after she died.