Music has been an integral component of the world’s cultural space virtually throughout the existence of the human civilization. Evidently, it has evolved in terms of form and presentation, but it has preserved the aspect of immense significance across a variety of contexts. From one perspective, music is a matter of esthetics and cultural pleasure, which serves to entertain listeners. On the other hand, music holds colossal potential, being thought-provoking and mesmerizing, promoting imagination. However, the impact of this cultural phenomenon extends beyond the acts of singing and playing instruments.
Prominent musical personalities have had an immense positive effect within the broader social context, as well, and Teresa Teng is an excellent example of it. Being a Taiwanese singer, she managed to transcend beyond national borders and political differences, uniting people of East Asia around her exceptional talent. Therefore, Teresa Teng is a vivid example of the positive effect of music in the context of interculturalism. While she was in the spotlight due to her singing talent, Teresa Teng actively promoted kindness and understanding through charity and social activism. The purpose of this paper is to examine the life and career path of this Taiwanese singer as the ultimate manifestation of musical interculturalism.
Biographical Information
Teresa Teng became one of the prominent musical personalities of the 20th centuries, and her significance extends far beyond the Asian continent. She was born on January 29, 1953, in the Yun-lin county of Taiwan. Her name at birth was Teng Li-Chün, even though she is widely known under a more Westen-like name to general public. Both of Teng’s parents were born in China and moved to Taiwan after the infamous events of 1949. In fact, the future singer’s father was an officer of the Nationalist army. Since a very young age, Teresa Teng demonstrated an immense interest to music, which was greatly supported by her exceptional talent. Already in the elementary school, Teng won an important singing contest, which provided her with the motivation to pursue music as her greatest passion. In her teenage years, she began to appear on the national television throughout the 1960s and the 1970s. These TV-based performances gave an impetus to Teresa’s popularity and ensured her recognition by the Taiwanese audience.
As such, the appearances of young Teresa Teng on television gradually became more frequent and attracted the public’s attention. Shortly after, Teng became to record professional music albums and even played roles in Taiwanese films. Eventually, the growth of her popularity became exponential, contributing to Teng’s status as a true star. Millions of people enjoyed her records, which inevitably prompted the development of her fandom outside Taiwan. Due to evident political reasons, Teng never gave live performances in continental China. Nevertheless, she did acquire a great deal of attention from the Chinese listeners, who pirated illegal copies of her albums and performances. In fact, at some point, Teng’s popularity rate in China rivaled that of the national president Deng Xiaoping. There was a highly popular saying, according to which the president ruled China by day, whereas Teng ruled the night.
Subsequently, the popularity of Teng transcended the reasonable limits within Taiwan and continental China, which prompted to singer to launch international campaigns and open her work to an even broader audience. As such, Teng’s team acknowledged the potential of Japan in this regard, which is why this island nation became the next target for them. Her success in Japan was inevitable and happened quickly. Further in 1980s, the stage name of Teresa Teng became an international phenomenon, as her songs roared across Asia and the rest of the world. Her appeal to the global audience was largely conditioned by Teresa’s ability to sing in different languages, including Mandarin, Japanese, and English. Consequently, her music existed in a brand new dimension outside conventional borders imposes by politics and ethnical differences. After her resounding success in 1980s, Teng shortly quits her musical career in the early 1990s and moves to France. Unfortunately, as she was on vacation in Thailand in 1995, Teresa Teng experienced a fatal asthma attack (Rodekohr 835). On May 8, 1995, the queen of Asian pop-music died at the age of 42.
Teresa Teng’s Songs and Professional Development
Teresa Teng’s status as an icon of Asian pop-music is considered to be well-deserved. Indeed, the singer was extremely talented and had a sweet and tender voice, which appeased the public from Taiwan to France. As discussed earlier, Teng performed pieces in different languages, which actively supported her popularity across various countries and regions of the world. In other words, while being highly melodic and harmonious from a technical point of view, Teng also spoke and sang the languages of her audience, which brough her closer to the public. Laramie Mok discusses the most important pieces ever performed by the singer and each one is in a different language.
In 1980, Teresa Teng released her first album in the Cantonese language with several covers, as well as original pieces. Forget Him (忘記他) was Teng’s original song, a gentle and romantic ballad, which touched the hearts of millions. In fact, this piece remains one of the most popular songs ever written in Cantonese. Second, as Teng expanded her influence to Japan in the 1970s, she wrote several songs in the language of her new audience. Her first original piece in Japanese was titled Give Yourself to The Flow of Time (時の流れに身をまかせ) and brought her a New Signer award.
At the same time, Teng’s international success was instigated by her English performances, including I’ve Never Been to Me. While she never had the opportunity to record an English album, Teng’s greatest hits in this language were released in The Way We Were anthology. Finally, Hokkien was the dialect of Chinese she used in such songs as Unforgettable First Love (難忘的初戀情人). This language is commonly spoken in several Chinese provinces, as well as Taiwan, Teng’s home country.
Teresa Teng’s Career in the Context of Interculturalism in East Asia
The life and of Teresa Teng represent a vivid example of music’s immense intercultural potential, which permeates nations despite political and cultural differences. Appadurai discusses the idea of an ethnoscape as a changeable entity subject to alternations caused by political, economic, and social perturbations (51). As such, the professional and social impact made by Teresa Teng becomes evident in the context of the Chinese and East Asian ethnoscape. Politics of the 20th century divided people and nations across the entire planet, and Asia suffered from it, as well. In the aftermath of World War II, the world saw relentless conflicts over the legacy of the war. In the end, Asian nations became divided, and the opposition between Taiwan and China became one of the critical factors affecting the ethnoscape of the area.
Nevertheless, despite powerful mechanism of social and political division, it was still possible to construct a cultural bridge. However, the “construction material” for it is supposed to be durable enough to withstand the hostility of the political climate. The work of Teresa Teng corresponds to this idea, as it represents an excellent example of unity through music. Ye Lai Xiang is another piece of paramount importance within her career, and its history is rather interesting in the context of the current discussion. As such, this song was initially written for the Japanese singer Shirley Yamaguchi born in China. However, during the War, the piece was banned by both Chinese and Japanese. Even though the tune was met with similar restrictions decades later, Teresa Teng was still able to ensure it’s second life. Due to the rapid technological development of music media, people outside Taiwan managed to obtain some illegal copies of the recording and share it within their communities. Surprisingly, this piece became immensely popular even without open publicity and radio rotations. In other words, the talented performance by Teng bypassed all restrictions imposed on her by political forces, People of Taiwan, China, and Japan listened to the same gentle tune. They were united in the cultural sense despite the irreparable damage done within the ethnoscape. Said writes that the people of the West value personal impressions and relationships, which corresponds to the practical observations. Accordingly, one can conclude that Teresa Teng addressed this personal dimension of East Asian people, as her music went through the hearts of the listeners.
As a matter of fact, her work remains an important part of the lives of people of Chinese origin. Laramie Mok reminds her readers a saying, which states that wherever Chinese people go, Teresa Teng’s music follows them. In the age of extensive globalization and immigration, people of Asian origin continue to preserve a certain part of their culture even if they travel far away from their homes. In this regard, it is possible to distinguish the two primary forms of interculturalism. The distinction is conditioned by the evolution of this phenomenon, as well as globalization processes. Previously, in the era of Teresa Teng’s life and work, the intercultural value of her music consisted of the ability to permeate national borders. Throughout most of that period, the audience remained static, and Teresa’s work reached out to them through the quality and impact of her songs. It was the time of increased political tensions, which served as the primary intercultural barriers. Music like this pushed the relations in a different dimension, in which those impediments could be disregarded. Accordingly, the first facet of Teng’s intercultural potential refers to the earlier period, during which her music established the global presence.
As the international landscape evolved, so did the nature of interculturalism of Teresa’s music. In a way, it utilized the first stage describe above to accumulate an immense amount of intercultural potential. Then, instead of reaching out to a static audience, this music followed people of East Asian background across the globe (Lao 525). In the period of globalization, it became possible and sometimes necessary to depart to other countries in order to utilize the potential to a complete degree. While it is vital accept the rules of the new community and become a part of it, immigrants also need to preserve this highly important link to their ancestors and their history. The saying cited by Laramie Mok and presented above, implies that this link does not lie in the dimension of politics, Instead, it is enabled through culture and traditions, as well as strong interpersonal aspects, as discussed by Said (34). However, in order to attain the desired level of the link’s strength, its cultural basis needs to be sufficiently solid.
Conclusions
Similarly to how she transcended political borders in the 20th century, Teresa Teng continues to maintain a global presence nowadays, following the people of East Asia wherever the fate takes them. The enablers of her immense intercultural potential can be viewed from two primary perspectives: these of form and content. In the first dimension, the music’s value is conditioned by Teng’s ability to perform in different languages used in Asia. She sang her famous tunes in several dialects, bringing herself closer to the people of Taiwan and continental China. Furthermore, she made an effort to appeal to the broader audience through songs in Japanese and English, which was warmly welcomed by listeners. In terms of content, the effect of Teng’s tunes is enabled by the eternal themes covered by the music. She sings about love, affection, friendship, and other feelings, which are universal. They exist outside of geopolitical domain, making them relatable for any person of the world. As long as Teresa spoke their language, she ensured that she would be understood and accepted.
Works Cited
Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity At Large. University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
Lao, Sijia. “Teresa Teng in Diaspora: Affective Replacement in Chinese World-Making”. Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 57, no. 3, 2020, pp. 520-529.
Mok, Laramie. “5 of Teresa Teng’s Songs, each in a Different Language – 25 Years After the Legendary Taiwanese Singer Died from an Asthma Attack.”Style, 2020, Web.
Rodekohr, Andie. “The Death of Teresa Teng.”De Gruyter, 2017, Web.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage, 1979.
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