Last Thursday, reporters on the Jay Chou (
In any event, it would be the only scrap that Alfa Music was going to toss to the media in the runup to tomorrow's stop on the Jay Chou Incomparable Tour.
The drab warehouse where Jay and his band have been practicing was stacked floor-to-ceiling with scores of amplifiers the size of Volkswagen Beetles while piles of thick cable were coiled in the back, along with stacks of enormous klieg lights.
Upstairs, reporters jammed into a tiny antechamber, the shaggy cameramen and newspaper photographers chain-smoking and the lady reporters chattering nervously. The only quiet, smoke-free place to await Jay's arrival was outside in the rain. And keeping people waiting is part of what stardom is about, which is why he showed up over half an hour late without anyone seeming to mind.
When Jay arrived in the company of his entourage of managers and sound people it was difficult at first to pick him out, as he was the only one ducking his head and staring at his feet. The others strode with purpose, politely shoving reporters aside and radiating a confidence attributable perhaps to their close proximity to celebrity. The star, though, showed mild ennui and seemed unimpressed by reporters calling him by his nickname Chairman Chou (周董).
He returned the hellos in his awkward, camera-shy manner before being ushered by his manager into the session room. The reporters spilled in after him, elbowing their way to the best spots at the foot of the singer's keyboard while he warmed up for what would be a truncated and mumbled version of two songs, off his latest album Common Jasmine Orange (七里香). It's been at or near the top of the charts in Taiwan most of the summer.
With that part of the event taken care of, Jay got down to the real business of the day, which was having his photo taken at his piano, draped over bongos and standing next to a turntable that provides the scratching on hip-hop numbers.
He played along for the media, even smiled a bit and explained his mumbling as a precaution against straining his voice when a couple of concerned reporters asked whether he'd recovered from a cold picked up recently in China.
The question-and-answer period was cut short, though, thanks to a reporter asking whether Jay would sing at the National Day celebrations on Oct. 10, a topic that Alfa had said beforehand was off-limits. The reporters were then asked to please leave and Jay was off the hook.
So the reporters, including myself, dispersed feeling a mixture of elation at meeting with the top icon of Mandarin pop music and disappointment that the only quotes he offered were trite soundbites of the, "Lately I've just been resting and practicing so I can put on a great concert," variety.
But these stage-managed media moments are part of the game for a singer whose album sales bankroll an entire record label's operations and who's graced the cover of Time, as well as practically every other publication in Taiwan since his 2001 eoponymous debut album.
Jay has also single-handedly redrawn the Mando-pop map with five albums by defying what was long accepted as the only format for success in the industry: ie, a handsome star singing simple love songs over harmless melodic instrumentation. Jay, by contrast, can rap in Taiwanese about nothing in particular before segueing into a more standard love ballad and then moving into a heavier, guitar-laden piece decrying a social ill. All without coming across as forced or insincere.
His album Jasmine sold 300,000 copies in Taiwan and Chou's total album sales in Asia are approximately 10 milion, from five albums.
His outward persona as the befuddled class dawdler who somehow happened into success also seems to strike a chord with young people's need for an anti-hero amid Mando-pop's crowded pantheon of polished, packaged pop stars.
At 173cm and of average looks, with a tendency to hide under a hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap, Jay could be any other 25-year-old wandering around Ximending. Except, he's not. At the annual Golden Melody Awards he has for the past three years walked away with the lion's share of trophies in the pop categories.
At tomorrow's concert Jay can be expected to perform some of the hits off that album and selections from his earlier ones. A word of caution, though: if he goes through all his hits, while breaking for the half-dozen or so outfit changes he's known for, the show could go until morning. So wear comfortable shoes and keep in mind that etiquette calls for raincoats not umbrellas.
Performace Notes:
What: Jay Chou Incomparable Tour 2004
When: Tomorrow, 7:30pm
Where: Taipei Municipal Stadium, 5 Dunhua N Rd, Taipei
Tickets: Tickets remain for NT$1,200. Available at the door or through artsticket.com.tw
When 17-year-old Lin Shih (林石) crossed the Taiwan Strait in 1746 with a group of settlers, he could hardly have known the magnitude of wealth and influence his family would later amass on the island, or that one day tourists would be walking through the home of his descendants in central Taiwan. He might also have been surprised to see the family home located in Wufeng District (霧峰) of Taichung, as Lin initially settled further north in what is now Dali District (大里). However, after the Qing executed him for his alleged participation in the Lin Shuang-Wen Rebellion (林爽文事件), his grandsons were
A jumbo operation is moving 20 elephants across the breadth of India to the mammoth private zoo set up by the son of Asia’s richest man, adjoining a sprawling oil refinery. The elephants have been “freed from the exploitative logging industry,” according to the Vantara Animal Rescue Centre, run by Anant Ambani, son of the billionaire head of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sheer scale of the self-declared “world’s biggest wild animal rescue center” has raised eyebrows — including more than 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, according to
They were four years old, 15 or only seven months when they were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald and Ravensbruck. Some were born there. Somehow they survived, began their lives again and had children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren themselves. Now in the evening of their lives, some 40 survivors of the Nazi camps tell their story as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of the death camps. In 15 countries, from Israel to Poland, Russia to Argentina, Canada to South Africa, they spoke of victory over absolute evil. Some spoke publicly for the first
I am kneeling quite awkwardly on a cushion in a yoga studio in London’s Shoreditch on an unseasonably chilly Wednesday and wondering when exactly will be the optimum time to rearrange my legs. I have an ice-cold mango and passion fruit kombucha beside me and an agonising case of pins and needles. The solution to pins and needles, I learned a few years ago, is to directly confront the agony: pull your legs out from underneath you, bend your toes up as high as they can reach, and yes, it will hurt far more initially, but then the pain subsides.
RSS