Cheer Chen's (陳綺貞) nine-year music career was officially launched in 1998 with the now defunct record label Magic Stone (魔岩). Although she only has four albums to her name, she is now rated by many as Taiwan's foremost indie songstress and her lyrical folk rock has spread far beyond Taiwan, her popularity built up through touring gigs at small venues and on campuses in Hong Kong and China, as well as at home.
Like other emerging local singer-songwriters Deserts Chang (張懸) and Summer Lei (雷光夏), Chen avoids the media limelight. This has not stopped her winning better record sales than many big-name pop singers and her previous three large concerts in Taipei saw the songstress playing before a full house.
Not surprisingly, tickets for Chen's long overdue first islandwide concert tour, which kicks off tonight at Taipei International Convention Center, are already nearly sold out, and all without the benefit of big media hype. The event was promoted solely through Chen's official Web site www.cheerego.com.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Chen's voyage into the music business began with her winning at the Wooden Ark Folk Song Competition (木船民歌比賽) in 1996. Two years later, the then philosophy major at National Chengchi University (國立政治大學) became the first female artist to join Magic Stone, which was most notable for signing Chinese rockers Dou Wei (竇唯) and Tang Dynasty (唐朝樂隊).
A slump in the music industry forced the label to close-down in 2002, and in response Chen set up the one-woman operation Cheergo Studio (好小氣工作室) a year later. Three singles were produced in a family-factory sort of way. The music was recorded sitting on a bed at home and Chen would later trek back and forth across the city to find the best price for packaging and then deliver packs of CDs to record stores herself.
To Chen, making singles in between larger projects is a natural way to express her creativity, to experiment with forms and new concepts. Her single, Pussy, released last year, was recorded live at Taipei Main Station to recapture an impressionistic moment riding the Paris subway.
PHOTOS: TAIPEI TIMES
In 2006, a bank loan helped the 32-year-old musician put together her forth album Fabulous Adventure (華麗的冒險), which sold 300,000 copies in two months and was the center of considerable attention at the Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎) the same year. Up till now, Chen remains a hotly pursued yet elusive star in the eyes of local press, who have described her music as being "like a delicate blade that rips open both the cruelty and tenderness of the world."
At a press conference held in between intensive rehearsals at a music studio on Tuesday, the folk songstress was reticent, accompanied by her close friend and fellow songstress Jasmine Leong (梁靜茹). "For the concerts, we will try to present a placid atmosphere for the audience to communicate with the music undisturbed," Chen said.
Leong will appear at tonight's concert as a special guest.
Another fan, rapper MC Hotdog, will join Chen on stage for the Tainan show. To the songstress, the choice of special guest was a matter of instinct. "When I thought of going to Tainan, the name MC Hotdog immediately popped into my head. It's a physiological reaction," Chen joked.
For those who won't have the chance to catch Chen's concerts, keep yourselves posted at the musician's Web site for her equally powerful performances at smaller venues across the island.
May 11 to May 17 Traversing the southern slopes of the Yushan Range in 1931, Japanese naturalist Tadao Kano knew he was approaching the last swath of Taiwan still beyond colonial control. The “vast, unknown territory,” protected by the “fierce” Bunun headman Dahu Ali, was “filled with an utterly endless jungle that choked the mountains and valleys,” Kano wrote. He noted how the group had “refused to submit to the measures of our authorities and entrenched themselves deep in these mountains … living a free existence spent chasing deer in the morning and seeking serow in the evening,” even describing them as
As a different column was being written, the big news dropped that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) announced that negotiations within his caucus, with legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, party Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chair Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) had produced a compromise special military budget proposal. On Thursday morning, prior to meeting with Cheng over a lunch of beef noodles, Lu reiterated her support for a budget of NT$800 or NT$900 billion — but refused to comment after the meeting. Right after Fu’s
Yesterday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominated legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) as their Taipei mayoral candidate, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) put their stamp of approval on Wei Ping-cheng (魏平政) as their candidate for Changhua County commissioner and former legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has begun the process to also run in Changhua, though she has not yet been formally nominated. All three news items are bizarre. The DPP has struggled with settling on a Taipei nominee. The only candidate who declared interest was Enoch Wu (吳怡農), but the party seemed determined to nominate anyone
What government project has expropriated the most land in Taiwan? According to local media reports, it is the Taoyuan Aerotropolis, eating 2,500 hectares of land in its first phase, with more to come. Forty thousand people are expected to be displaced by the project. Naturally that enormous land grab is generating powerful pushback. Last week Chen Chien-ho (陳健和), a local resident of Jhuwei Borough (竹圍) in Taoyuan City’s Dayuan District (大園) filed a petition for constitutional review of the project after losing his case at the Taipei Administrative Court. The Administrative Court found in favor of nine other local landowners, but
RSS