Blind folk singer Wang Ying-tan (
Wang, best remembered for his 1997 hit Wandering to Tamsui (
Wang was taken by a friend to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:11am yesterday.
According to a hospital news release, Wang died from myocardial infarction caused by arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat. The singer had a history of diabetes.
Wang lost his eyesight and left hand at the age of 14, when he accidentally stepped on a landmine in Kinmen.
After his 1997 hit, fans began to call him the "King of Kinmen" because "Wang" means "king" and he was born in Kinmen.
He and his partner Lee Ping-huei (
Wang's catchy tunes have sold almost 1 million copies, earning him about NT$1.3 million. Wandering to Tamsui alone sold over 700,000 copies nationwide. Their first album racked up 300,000 sales in 40 days, but the singers failed to cash in on their success. Royalties were meager, while bootlegged CDs robbed them of their profits.
Both Wang and Lee later retired from the music scene. Lee opened a small "scratch-and-win" lottery shop in Tamsui that doubles as a massage parlor. Wang did an occasional radio show or sang at teahouses to earn money.
A relative, who rushed to Taipei after hearing that Wang had collapsed, found the singer in hospital with only NT$6 in his pocket.
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