Teresa Teng

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Teresa Teng (29 January 1953 – May 1995) was a Taiwanese singer and cultural icon, who was widely recognized as one of Asia's most influential artists and cultural icon.

Teng's fame peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, and she remained extremely popular in the 1990s and 1995 until she died in 1995.

Teng had a broad vocal range and performed in a distinctive melodic style that has since been much in demand around the world.

"When Will You Return" was a common expression used for her folk songs and ballads, such as "When Will You Return?" "As Sweet as Honey" and "The Moon Represents My Heart" are two songs on "As Sweet as Honey."

She recorded songs not only in Mandarin, but also in Taiwanese Hokkien, Cantonese, Japanese, Indonesian, and English.

She also spoke French fluently.

Hundreds of musicians have performed her songs around the world, up until date. Teng died of a serious respiratory disease while on holiday in Thailand in 1995 at the age of 42.

Even as the country's political divides refused to heal, she remains a hero and an emblem of cultural unity in greater China - Taiwan, mainland Chinese, and other ethnic Chinese groups.

Early life

Teng was born in Baozhong Township, Yunlin County, Taiwan, on January 29, 1953. Her father was a soldier with the Republic of China Armed Forces from Daming, Hebei, and her mother was from Dongping, Shandong, who escaped to Taiwan after communists took over the mainland in 1949.

Teng's only daughter of five children was born in a poverty-stricken household and spent her early childhood in military dependents' villages, first in Yunlin and then in Pingtung. Her father died in 1957, and she later worked baking cakes to make ends meet. She began her education at Luzhou Elementary School in Taipei County, Taiwan.

Teng was introduced to music at an early age by her music-loving parents. Her father was a Peking opera buff, and her mother adored Huangmei opera, often accompanying her daughter to Chinese movie theatres and opera houses. She began her voice lessons at the age of six by an acquaintance of her father, who commanded an air force band. Given the harsh milieu of 1950s Taiwan, her first mentor introduced her to performing in front of military audiences, a tradition she carried out throughout her life. At an event hosted by the Broadcasting Corporation of China in 1964, she sang "Visiting Yingtai" from Shaw Brothers' Huangmei opera film "The Love Eterne." She went back to Ginling Girls' High School in Sanchong Township, Taipei County, to further her education the following year. However, she dropped out of school in the second year and pursued her career as a singer professionally due to the rift between her appearances and study. She was soon able to help her family by singing.

Personal life

Teng grew up Roman Catholic, like her maternal grandmother Mary Chang (). She spent her youth as a child often spent her time outside St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lujhou, where she received her baptism.

Teng's first boyfriend, Lin Zhenfa, was a Malaysian paper tycoon, in 1971. Lin loved Teng very much, often accompanying her to dinner and writing poems for her. They fell in love within a few years. Lin died as a result of a heart attack in 1976. Later, Teresa released "Goodbye, My Love," a tribute to him who had just died.

Teng first met Jackie Chan, who was filming in Hollywood, in 1980, when auditing classes at UCLA after she was banned from Japan. However, they parted ways but remained friends despite the fact that their personalities were incompatible.

Teng was introduced to Beau Kuok, a Malaysian businessman and the son of multi-billionaire Robert Kuok in 1981. They were involved in 1982, but Teng pulled out the engagement because of prenuptial arrangements that stipulated she had to resign and sever all ties with the entertainment industry, as well as fully disclose her biography and all her previous writings. Teresa was content to live under the second and third conditions, but she was still hoping to announce her own songs. However, the Kuok family turned down her offer, and the marriage was annulled.

In 1990, Teng met French photographer Paul Quilery in France. They were married for five years and met a month before Teng's death on May 8, 1995.

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Career

Teng began his career in 1967 as a host of the television show One Star a Day, which aired for 20 minutes from Tuesday to Sunday. Since then, she appeared in television dramas and films, including a leading role in the 1967 film Thank You, Manager. Teng switched from school to music at the age of 14. She began working with Yeu Jow Records, a local Taiwanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian folk tunes, and soon after, she began releasing a series of long-playing dance tunes and cover versions of western pop songs as well as local Taiwanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian folk tunes. However, she began performing in night clubs around Taiwan due to a lack of additional copyright royalties to raise her income. She debuted onstage at Paris Night, a posh Taipei nightclub, for 70 days in a row, setting a record for doing onstage for 70 days in a row, a 90-minute performance every day. Her albums became well-received, and she had the opportunity to record a theme tune for Jingjing, Taiwan's first televised film, and did a promotional tour that attracted a lot of attention in the media. Her first glimpse of fame came in 1968, when appearance on the well-known Taiwanese music program The Gathering of Stars resulted in a record. She released several albums in Hong Kong under the Life Records banner. "Remembering Mama" and "I See You, I Smile" were among her hits during these years. She has appeared in Southeast Asia, attracting huge audiences around the region. Her earnings from performing and recording afforded her family a secure life; they moved from Luzhou District to Beitou District, Taipei, where they bought a house.

Since she released many albums in various languages, her fame in Asia boomed in the 1970s. She held her first concert in Vancouver, Canada, in April 1979. On her next trip, she visited major US cities, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. She was invited to perform at Lincoln Center in New York and the Los Angeles Music Center in California in 1980, making her the first Chinese descent artist to make a name for herself there. Teng returned to Taiwan in 1981, attracting 35,000 people in Malaysia. She continues to perform large-scale concerts in Hong Kong and the Southeast Asian region almost every year. She appeared at The Colosseum in Las Vegas in 1983, performing a series of concerts. They had a blast. Teng performed many free concerts throughout her career to benefit the less fortunate or raise funds for charities. The proceeds from her concerts were donated to public service.

For the majority of the last three decades, China has been both economically and culturally closed to the rest of the world. Around 1974, her songs began to trickle into mainland China due to the availability of radios. "The Moon Represents My Heart" by Jennifer May was one of the first foreign songs to land in the mainland in 1977. With economic integration and the opening of borders, cassette recorders, and pirated recordings of her songs began to flow from coastal cities to the rest of the country in 1978. Her fame quickly increased. Her songs in Taiwan became a propaganda instrument for the KMT's psychoanalysis of the Chinese Communist Party. Teng's songs were blasted from the sea-facing speakers from Kinmen Island to mainland China's residents at a much higher rate. This propagation campaign endured throughout the 1980s. Her music, as well as those of other singers from Taiwan and Hong Kong, was banned for some years by Chinese authorities in mainland China in the early 1980s, describing it as too "bourgeois" and "corrupt" by Chinese officials. Despite the ban, Teng's songs defied the censorship and penetrated China's iron curtain. Her songs were still being performed in clubs to government buildings, and the ban was soon lifted. Teng was once popular in mainland China as the country's leader. Since she had the same family name as Deng Xiaoping, her fans called her "Little Deng"; there was a saying that by day, everyone listened to "old Deng" because they had to. Everyone listened to "Little Teng" at night because they wanted to. "Wen Hui Bao," a Shanghai Party newspaper, worried that her songs would erode the (Communist) Chinese's revolutionary spirit. Faced with this ubiquity, China lifted its bans on her music from the mid-1980s to early today.

Teng's deal with Polydor ended in 1981, and she signed a Taurus Records deal in 1983 and made a fruitful return to Japan. Teng's most popular album, Dandanyouqing, was released in 1983, transforming modern and traditional styles into music. It was Teng's first album to feature entirely new songs, without any covers. "Wishing We Last Forever" is the album's most popular song. Teng's roots were evidently strong on the mainland, where she rooted herself in the Tang and Song classics. She referred to her desire to help with the propagation of "Chinese" culture in the television special. She said she was dressed in her period clothing:

Both the public and critics applauded the album's remarkable interpretation of the ancient poems and successfully projecting classical Chinese literature into a new popular music style. On the first day of its arrival in Hong Kong, it was well-reced in Southeast Asia and went gold. Yang Yanxing, a professor at Tianjin Conservatory of Music, lauded the album as "the finest work of the Chinese music circle." Pu Xiqian from the China News Service called the album a "perfect blend of poems and music" in March 2012. Teng began working on completing a sequel to the album later this year. She spent five years writing ancient poems and lyrics. However, she did not fulfill her dream due to changes in the music environment, as well as her declining health and other reasons.

Teng also introduced the Mandarin version of the album I Only Care About You in 1987. She basically stopped participating in commercial careers after that, but eventually moved to a semi-retired state due to her health problems.

Teng appeared in Paris during the 1989 Tiananmen student protests on behalf of the students and expressed her love for them. Over 300,000 people attended the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong on May 27, 1989. "My Home Is on the Other Side of the Mountain" was one of the highlights.

Despite performing in many countries around the world, Teng never appeared in mainland China. When asked about such a possibility, she replied that the day she performs on the mainland would be the day the Three Principles of the People are adopted there — in reference to either the quest for Chinese democracy or reunification under the banner of the ROC.

Teng collaborated with Polygram Records of Hong Kong in 1975. She received the Ten-Star Award and the opportunity to perform in a film musical of her own from her album Island Love Songs (1975). At Hong Kong's first Golden Album Awards, the album was given a platinum award. Teng's first Hong Kong concert at Lee Theatre in 1976 was a huge success. She has been performing in concerts for the next five years, attracting large audiences throughout this period. Teresa Teng's Greatest Hits and Love Songs of the Island 3 received her second Golden Album Award in 1978. Antagonist, her first Cantonese pop album, became the year's best-seller; its single, "Forget Him," became one of the most popular Cantonese pop songs of the 1990s. At the Golden Album Awards, the album received platinum. Teresa Teng's Concert Live's 1982-1982 was the most successful collection of her double-album after being rejected. She made a name for herself in Hong Kong and held a concert at Queen Elizabeth Stadium the same year. The Long Journey of Life, her second album, which was released in 1983, saw even more success than her predecessor. It was her fifth album to be named platinum, a record-breaking victory over all singers in Hong Kong. Her fame at the Hong Kong Coliseum hit its high in 1983 with six sold-out concerts in a row. These concerts sparked all sorts of Hong Kong records and attracted a total audience of about 100,000 people. In honor of her 15th year as a performer, this historic exhibition, appropriately named A Billion Applause Concert, was staged in Taiwan and Hong Kong from December 29, 1983 to January 3, 1984. One year later, she was given a special medal by PolyGram Hong Kong in honor of her continued success in Hong Kong, which has sold more than 5 million copies.

In 1973, Teng first appeared in the Japanese market. Teng's first Japanese single "No Matter Tonight or Tomorrow" debuted on March 1, 1974, marking the beginning of her career in Japan. The single was initially seen as a lukewarm market response and was ranked 75th on the Oricon Chart with 30,000 units. The Watanabe company considered dropping her name. However, considering her success in Asia, the record company decided to release two or three singles to see the world further. Teng's second single "Airport" was announced on July 1, 1974. The 'Airport' sales were enormous, totaling 700,000 copies. Teresa performed "The Night Ferry" and "Goodbye, My Love" after she released a number of chart-to-date singles, including "The Night Ferry" and "Goodbye, My Love." When entering Japan in 1979, she was found with a fake Indonesian passport and was barred from entering the country for one year.

Teresa returned to the Japanese market on September 21, 1983, releasing her first single "Tsugunai" (Atonement) after her comeback on January 21, 1984. The single didn't receive a positive response right off the bat, but after a month, sales increased, and seven months later, "Tsugunai" ranked eighth on the Oricon Chart and 1st on the Japan Cable Broadcasting Chart. By the end of the year, sales had surpassed 700,000 copies, with final sales approaching a million copies. Teng received the top award of the 'Singer of the year' from the Japan Cable Awards. "Tsugunai" debuted in the most popular song category and remained on the Oricon Chart for almost a year. The popularity of her previous years (1974–1979) was largely unsurpassed. In the first week of its introduction, she's next single, "Aijin" (Lover) dominated the Oricon Chart and Japan cable broadcasting chart. For fourteen weeks in a row, the song remained the most popular in the world, although sales fell below the 1.5 million mark. Teresa of "Aijin" was named the 'Singer of the Year" for the second time. In addition, she was invited to appear in Kouhaku Uta Gassen, which was the highest accolade in the Japanese music world. On February 21, 1986, her second single "Toki no Nagare ni Mi o Makase" was released. The single dominated both the Oricon and Japan Cable Broadcasting Chart and sales of the single in Asia, becoming one of Japan's most popular singles this year. For the third time in a row, she received the Japan Cable Award. For the second time, Teng was invited to perform in Kouhabu Uta Gassen. She became the first female artist to win three straight times of this Grand Prix, also known as the Japan Cable Award. Teng also remains the only foreign artist to win this award for three years in the history of Japanese music (1984–1986). Teng appeared in 1985 at the NHK Hall in Tokyo, her last solo appearance before resigning from the entertainment industry.

Teng was born in 1953, and his father served as a soldier in the Republic of China Armed Forces during World War II. He was one of Taiwan's most popular cultural exports. After the Chinese government's demise on the mainland, the Nationalist government's base in Taiwan was moved to Taiwan in 1949. Teng grew up in this turbulent 1950s society as an infant. She was introduced by her first mentor to performing in front of military audiences, a habit she maintained throughout her life. She appeared on television shows as a soldier and performed patriotic songs. When attempting to enter Japan in February 1979, she was discovered wearing a stolen Indonesian passport that she bought on the black market. Both in Taiwan and Japan, the incident was widely condemned. By Japan's minister of justice, she was refused entry to the country for one year. She was allowed to return to Taiwan in 1980, a year after the incident, on condition of cooperation with the Taiwanese government. She performed with the Taiwanese troops once more, and the proceeds from her appearances were donated to the "Funds for Self-Improvement and Patriotism Fund." She served with the troops for one month in August 1981, touring military sites all around Taiwan. She visited the generals of the army, navy, and air force, as well as performing for them. These performances were shown on TTV's special program "Teresa Teng on the Frontline." The government information office awarded the "Patriotic Entertainer" award in Taiwan for her continued service to soldiers. The media called her affection "olders' sweetheart" because of her regular appearances for the troops. President Chiang Ching-kuo's death in 1988 brought an end to martial rule in Taiwan. Teng returned to entertain the troops in the early 1990s, with her last appearance being in 1994.

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