Does he feel Taiwanese or Chinese? "Wherever I go I tell others I'm Asian, because we have the same yellow skin," Chou said.
Is Jay Chou a man in complete control of his career?
By the way he strode into a press conference on Monday, a dark silhouette with the elegant slouch of a poet musician, it would seem so.
Directed to pose, he did so -- in a rather deadpan way -- patiently fielding questions from TV and radio journalists, then settling down to a roundtable talk with 16 reporters, including myself.
Reputedly a "mumble-rapper," in person Jay Chou is poised and articulate, deftly parrying the inevitable questions about his private life.
"Would you invite [your girlfriend] Pattie Hou (侯佩岑) to be in your music videos?" one asked.
"That would be awkward," Chou quipped back.
"You are always the one in a relationship to finish it. What do you think?"another asked.
"Gossip again," he said, mentioning a compulsion to "be careful about the girls." He and past collaborators have gone on the record as "non-lovers."
The paparazzi have been intrusive though. Several paparazzi chased him down Keelung Road a few weeks ago as he was driving a car with Hou by his side. An angry Chou pushed over a Next magazine reporters' scooter.
"I focus on my career," he said. "Music is what's important. There's a day when I'll kiss girls and they won't care," he said.
Even so, he said he wrote Tse Mian Chu Ge (四面楚歌) about his relationships. A proverb signifying "surrounded on all sides," the song likens Apple Daily journalists to a "team of dogs (狗仔隊)."
"They bite an apple in their mouths, long cameras in their hands, seems they want to talk conspiracy," the lyrics say.
When asked about his English ability, Chou replied, "I have no talent for studying, only for making music."
When I asked how he planned to enter the Western market, Jay said that since his English "had stopped at junior high school," and his native languages are Chinese and Taiwanese, he made music "in Chinese only," adding he would "never do a song in English."
In the past, though, he has incorporated some Hakka, Japanese, Korean and Cantonese into his songs.
The following day's media reports focused on Chou's "poor English," and how there were many foreign reporters at the press conference. There was only one -- myself.
Despite the media, Jay seems to have taken his meteoric rise in his stride.
It is widely known he still manages to shoot some hoops.
And he's been given credit for not contracting "the illness of conceit."
The pressure of fame, he once said, "was like watching a movie. I change into a detective, or maybe a racer when others chase after you. You need to adjust your own mood."
Jay plans to tour Japan in June, and is considering playing in England.
Maybe he will decide to hire an English teacher, but then again he doesn't need to tap into the English-speaking market.
With an average 3 million sales per album in China alone, and lucrative Pepsi and Panasonic contracts as icing on the commercial cake, his English skills are irrelevant.
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