The pleasures of Chinese pop

My younger sister Leny is currently moving heaven and earth to get enough cash to secure a good seat at the coming September concert by the two members of F4. She has been frantically calling on her friends, inquiring if they happen to be interested in the mobile phones she is selling. (Nokia 8850 if anyone is interested.) She is, I think, batting for the P3,000 seat at the Ultra.

Leny does not speak Mandarin, but, like most fans of the hit show Meteor Garden, will nonetheless troop to Ultra come September. For most Filipinos, no doubt, the coming concert will be their first encounter with Chinese music. Judging from the sales of the F4 cds and the rumored impressive early sales of the concert tickets, yes, the intsik behos, are now matinee idols.

I hope the enthusiasm for F4 music will lead Filipinos to discover other Mando- and Canto-pop singers. For those who are interested to hear more Chinese pop music, try listening to Jackie Cheung, who enjoys a reputation in Chinese pop equal to Michael Jackson�s in Western pop music. His repertoire is mostly saccharine-sweet love songs, but for people hopelessly in love Cheung may just be the singer they need to reinforce--and hopefully extend the duration of--their feelings.

Jay Chou, a much younger singer than Cheung, is also hugely popular in Taiwan. Although not as good-looking as most of the other Chinese pop singers, Jay Chou writes great lyrics. Time magazine has recently done a story about his music here. (The Time story tells that people thought he was simply stupid and just plain ugly;he later proved them all wrong.) I personally like his Ban Shou Ren, Xing Qing and Kai Bu Liao Kou.

Or some of you may also be interested in Leslie Cheung, who jumped off his hotel suite sometime during the SARS scare in Hong Kong. He is an actor known among international audience for the films Happy Together and Farewell to my Concubine. A Time story on his death is available here.

A techno version of mainland China's National Anthem "March of the Volunteers" was recorded by another Hong Kong icon, Leon Lai. The song is entitled "All Day Love." When it was released the song raised quite a furor from Beijing as authorities denounced it as sacrilege to the Chinese people. I wonder how our local singers would manage a techno version of our Lupang Hinirang. Now who would be the ideal singer to update our national anthem ?

Alas, these artists are not so readily available in Philippine record stores. The only record store I know that has a Chinese pop collection is the Tower Records at the Ayala Center. The collection can be found in the store�s world music section. Or you can visit Binondo. Or better yet, download the songs through the net through you p2p software.