TOKYO, May 9— Teresa Teng, a singer from Taiwan whose love songs won her spectacular fame across East Asia, died suddenly on a holiday in Thailand on Monday. She was 40.
Miss Teng had been having respiratory difficulties since earlier this year, according to the Kyodo News Agency in Tokyo. She reportedly died after an asthmatic attack in the northern resort city of Chiang Mai, where she was vacationing with a French friend.
Kyodo reported that Thai doctors attributed her death to heart failure, but an autopsy had not yet been conducted.
Miss Teng was especially famous in China, where for much of the 1980's she was a litmus test of the political winds: when the authorities eased controls, her music sold briskly in stalls in the tiniest towns; when the hard-liners clamped down, her music was banned.
She was one of the first foreign singers whose music was swept into China after the country started opening up in the late 1970's, and she soon became a symbol of capitalist joys.
Known in Chinese as Deng Lijun, Miss Teng's surname was the same as that of Deng Xiaoping, China's paramount leader. So she was jokingly known as Little Deng, and in some circles she was nearly as famous as he. Even peasants in the countryside were familiar with her songs and brightly colored costumes.
Many other foreign singers became popular in China, but none captured the hearts of the country as she did.
From Singapore to Japan, Miss Teng was a superstar and brilliant linguist. She sang in Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Japanese and English, and in recent years she had lived in Japan and become popular among both the young and the old.
Her songs were bright and mellifluous, and her voice clear and sweet. Among her best-known songs were "The Moon Is a Reflection of My Heart" and "When Will You Return." In a song called "The Story of a Little Town," she sings:
Many are the stories of a small town
Full of joy and happiness.
If you came to this little town,
How much you would reap.
It looks like a painting,
It sounds like a song.
Relatives flew to Thailand today to make funeral arrangements.
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Teresa Teng (29 January 1953 – 8 May 1995) was a Taiwanese singer. She was known for her folk songs and extreme voice cracks ballads, such as "When Will You Return?" and "The Moon Represents My Heart".[1] She recorded songs not only in Mandarin but also in Taiwanese,[2] Cantonese,[3] Japanese,[4] Indonesian and English. She also spoke Frenchfluently.
Teng, a longtime sufferer of asthma, died from a severe respiratory attack while on vacation in Thailand in 1995, at the age of 42.

Early life[edit]

Teng was born in Baozhong Township, Yunlin County, Taiwan on 29 January 1953, to waishengren parents. Her father was a soldier in the Republic of China Armed Forces from Daming, Hebei Province, China and her mother was from Dongping, Shandong Province, China. She was the only daughter in the family, with three older brothers and a younger brother. She was educated at Ginling Girls High School (私立金陵女中) in Sanchong Township, Taipei County, Taiwan.
As a young child, Teng won awards for her singing at talent competitions. Her first major prize was in 1964 when she sang "Visiting Yingtai" from Shaw Brothers' Huangmei opera movie, The Love Eterne, at an event hosted by Broadcasting Corporation of China. She was soon able to support her family with her singing. Taiwan's rising manufacturing economy in the 1960s made the purchase of records easier for more families. With her father's approval, she quit preschool to pursue singing professionally.

Career[edit]

Teng's singing style conveyed simplicity and sincerity. Yeh Yueh-Yu, a professor of Cultural Theory at the University of Southern California said, "It was the sweetness in her voice that made her famous. She had a perfect voice for folk songs and ballads, and she added traditional folk song stylings into Western-style compositions." Her voice was also described as being "like weeping and pleading, but with strength, capable of drawing in and hypnotizing listeners." Songwriter Tsuo Hung-yun said Teng's voice was "seven parts sweetness, three parts tears."
Teng gained her first taste of fame in 1968 when a performance on a popular Taiwanese music program led to a record contract. She released several albums within the next few years under the Life Records label. In 1973 she attempted to crack the Japanese market by signing with the Polydor Japan label and taking part in Japan's Kōhaku Uta Gassen, an annual singing match of the most successful artists. She was named "Best New Singing Star".[5] Following her success in Japan, Teng recorded several Japanese songs, including original hits such as "Give yourself to the flow of Time" (時の流れに身をまかせ Toki no Nagare ni Mi wo Makase) which was later covered in Mandarin as "I Only Care About You".
In 1974 the song "Airport" (空港 Kūkō), which was covered in Mandarin as "Lover's Care" (情人的關懷) in 1976, became a hit in Japan. Teng's popularity in Japan continued despite being briefly barred from the country in 1979 for having a fake Indonesian passport she purchased for US$20,000. The subterfuge had seemed necessary due to the official break in relations between Republic of China and Japan that occurred shortly after the People's Republic of China replaced the ROC in the United Nations.
Teng's popularity boomed in the 1970s after her success in Japan. Singing by now in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and English, Teng's influence spread to Malaysia and Indonesia. In Taiwan, she was known not only as the island's most popular export, but as "the soldier's sweetheart" because of her frequent performances for servicemen. Teng was herself the child of a military family. Her concerts for troops featured Taiwanese folk songs that appealed to natives of the island as well as Chinese folk songs that appealed to homesick refugees of the civil war.
In the early 1980s, continuing political tension between China and Taiwan led to her music, along with that of other singers from Taiwan and Hong Kong, being banned for several years in China as too "bourgeois".[6] Her popularity in China continued to grow nonetheless thanks to the black market. As Teng songs continued to be played everywhere, from nightclubs to government buildings, the ban on her music was soon lifted. Her fans nicknamed her "Little Deng" because she had the same family name as Deng Xiaoping; there was a saying that "Deng the leader ruled by day, but Deng the singer ruled by night.[7]
Teng's contract with Polydor ended in 1981. She signed a contract with Taurus Records in 1983 and made a successful comeback appearance in Japan. In 1983 Taurus released her album, Dandan youqing. This album consisted of settings of 12 poems from the Tang and Song dynasties. The music, written by composers of her earlier hits, blended modern and traditional styles of East and West. The most popular single from the album today is "Wishing We Last Forever". The number of hits released in the years from 1984–1989 make them "Teresa Teng's Golden Years" to many of her fans. During this time, she won the All-Japan Record Awards for four consecutive years (1984–1988). Teng was also named one of the top female singers in the world by TIME magazine.[8] However, there is no article in the TIMEmagazine website so the reliability of such report is questionable.
Gunther Mende, Mary Susan Applegate and Candy de Rouge wrote the song "The Power of Love" for Jennifer Rush. Teng covered it and made it notable in Asian regions. She originally sang it in her Last Concert in Tokyo - eight years before being sung and released by Celine Dion.
Teng performed in Paris during the 1989 Tiananmen student protests on behalf of the students and expressed her support. On 27 May 1989, over 300,000 people attended the concert called "Democratic songs dedicated to China" (民主歌聲獻中華) at the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong. One of the highlights was her rendition of "My Home Is on the Other Side of the Mountain."[9]
Though Teng performed in many countries around the world, she never performed in China. The CPC eventually invited her to do so in the 1990s, but she never did.[10]

Death and commemorations[edit]


Teresa Teng's house in Hong Kong
Teng died from a severe asthma attack,[11] though doctors and her partner Paul Quilery had speculated that she died from a heart attack due to a side effect of an overdose of unspecified amphetamines while on holiday in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the age of 42 on 8 May 1995.[12] Quilery was buying groceries when the attack occurred.[12] He was also aware that Teng relied on the same medication in the two months before her death with minor attacks.[12] Teng was an asthmatic throughout her adult life.
Teng was given state honors at her funeral in Taiwan. President Lee Teng-hui was in attendance among thousands. She was buried in a mountainside tomb at Chin Pao San, a cemetery in Jinshan, New Taipei City (then Taipei County) overlooking the north coast of Taiwan. The grave site features a statue of Teng and a large electronic piano keyboard set in the ground that can be played by visitors who step on the keys. The memorial is often visited by her fans.[13]
In May 2002, a wax figure of Teng was unveiled at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong.[14] A house she bought in 1986 in Hong Kong at No. 18 Carmel Street, Stanley also became a popular fan site soon after her death. Plans to sell the home to finance a museum in Shanghai were made known in 2002,[15] and it subsequently sold for HK$32 million. It closed on what would have been her 51st birthday on January 29, 2004.[16]
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of her death, the Teresa Teng Culture and Education Foundation launched a campaign entitled "Feel Teresa Teng". In addition to organizing an anniversary concert in Hong Kong and Taiwan, fans paid homage at her shrine at Chin Pao San Cemetery. Additionally, some of her dresses, jewelry and personal items were placed on exhibition at Yuzi Paradise, an art park outside Guilin, China.[17] The foundation also served as her wishes to set up a school or educational institute.[12]
In April 2015, a set of four stamps featuring Teng were released by the Chunghwa Post.[18]
On January 29, 2018 a Google Doodle was released across Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Bulgaria and Iceland celebrating Teresa Teng's would-be 65th birthday.[19]

Personal life[edit]

Teng had guarded her personal life from the public since 1987, fearing that it would jeopardize her career. She had a failed relationship with the son of a Malaysian gambling tycoon that ended with his death when she was about 19.[citation needed]
In 1982, Teng was engaged to Beau Kuok, a Malaysian businessman and son of multi-billionaire Robert Kuok. They met in 1978, but Teng called off the engagement due to prenuptial agreements which stipulated that she had to quit and sever all ties with the entertainment industry, as well as fully disclose her biography and all her past relationships in writing.[citation needed]
Teng also had a high-profile relationship with Jackie Chan, which resulted in failed farewell performances on Enjoy Yourself Tonight in her attempts to fade out of the entertainment business.[citation needed]
In 1998, Paul Quilery revealed that Teng was engaged to him, and was due to get married in August 1995.[12]

Discography[edit]

Main article: Teresa Teng discography

Awards[edit]

Teng received the following awards in Japan:[20]
  • The New Singer Award for "Kūkō (ja)" in 1974.
  • The Gold Award in 1986 for "Toki no Nagare ni Mi o Makase" (時の流れに身をまかせ).
  • The Grand Prix for "Tsugunai" (つぐない) in 1984: "Aijin" (愛人) in 1985; and "Toki no Nagare ni Mi o Makase" in 1986. This was the first time anyone had won the Grand Prix three years in a row.
  • The Outstanding Star Award for "Wakare no Yokan" (別れの予感) in 1987.
  • The Cable Radio Music Award for "Wakare no Yokan" in 1987 and 1988.
  • The Cable Radio Special Merit Award (有線功労賞) in 1995 for three consecutive Grand Prix wins.

Legacy[edit]

Teresa Teng was billed as one of the "Five Great Asian Divas" during the 1970s and 1980s (along with Judy Ongg, Agnes Chan, Ouyang Feifei (1949-) and Yu Yar (1953–)), due to their huge cross-cultural popularity.[citation needed] Her songs have been covered by a number of singers, including Faye Wong who released a tribute album (Decadent Sound of Faye, 菲靡靡之音, 1995) of Teng's popular hits. In 2015, Chinese singer and actor Luhan recorded a cover of Teng's 1979 song "Tian Mi Mi" for the 2015 release of "Comrades: Almost a Love Story." Her songs are featured in various films, e.g. Rush Hour 2, The Game, Prison On Fire, Formosa Betrayed, Gomorrah.
The 1996 Hong Kong film Comrades: Almost a Love Story directed by Peter Chan features the tragedy and legacy of Teng in a subplot to the main story. The movie won best picture in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and at the Seattle Film Festival in the United States. In 2007, TV Asahi produced a TV movie entitled Teresa Teng Monogatari(テレサ・テン物語)[21] to commemorate the 13th anniversary of her death. Actress Yoshino Kimura starred as Teng.
In 2013, Teng was "revived" briefly in a Jay Chou concert in 2013 where she appeared as a 3D virtual hologram singing three songs with Chou.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv_cEeDlop0


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Obituary: Teresa Teng

8

Click to follow
The Independent Online

Teresa Teng's music was, by the standards of her international rock and pop contemporaries of the Seventies and Eighties, demure, even bland. Yet the multiple aspects of her appeal made her the Far East's first trans- national singing star, as popular in the Republic of China as in her fiercely anti-Communist homeland Taiwan, and through the entire region.
Teng's status may be gauged by the fact that senior Taiwanese government officials were at Taipei airport for the arrival of the singer's body from Thailand, where she died, while national and regional television stations began to broadcast tribute specials. Sing Tao, the region's principal Mandarin newspaper, ran a second edition for the first time ever, and record shops in Hong Kong were reported to have sold out of Teng's albums within hours. In London shops in Chinatown, in Soho, experienced the same phenomenon and Spectrum Radio's Chinese programme had to repeat its Teng memorial programme because of listener demand. "Lots of middle-aged people asked for this or that song because it reminded them of when they were courting," said Joseph Wu, Spectrum's presenter.
For the Taiwanese, Teng was a sort of forces' sweetheart, often pictured entertaining the "front line" who still maintain sizeable defensive positions along the straits separating the island from mainland China. Her patriotism and support for the army may have been based in her family background; she was born in 1952, the daughter of a career soldier who had fled mainland China after the revolution. She won a children's singing competition at the age of 12, made her first album at 16, and by her late teens was ensconced in the ranks of the Taiwanese entertainment industry, whose records and low-budget films dominated the Mandarin-speaking market.
When she was 21, her record Small Town Story was a great hit, establishing the soft, mellifluous voice that her one-time producer described in Billboard magazine as an "elegant whispering in your ear" as a national phenomenon. In 1970 she performed in Hong Kong, at first on a supporting bill, and within two years was among the colony's top artists.
In 1973, with the song "Airport" and later "Empty Harbour", she conquered Japan, where she remained a leading star despite a short exile in 1979 when she was deported for having entered on a fake Indonesian passport, bought for $20,000, a subterfuge rendered necessary by a break in relations between Taiwan and Japan on China's entry to the UN Security Council. Singing by now in Cantonese, Japanese and English as well as her native Mandarin, Teng was soon popular as far as Malaysia and Indonesia.
With the general opening up of the Republic of China in the late Seventies, Teng's cassettes became legally available for the first time. A wholesome girl-next-door figure in the brasher world of Taiwan and Hong Kong, Teng seemed sexy and glamorous to the mainland Chinese, so much so that her inoffensive love songs were briefly re-banned as unhealthy. The Chinese fell for her. A popular saying played on the fact that Teng's family name (Teng Li-Chun: Teresa was a stage name adopted for Hong Kong and Japan) was essentially the same as the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's: "Lao Deng [old Teng, i.e. Xiaoping] dominates the world by day but by night it belongs to Hsiao Teng [little Teng, i.e. Teresa]".
Teng received numerous offers of concerts in China, which she always declined, and was quoted in 1987 as saying that the day she performed in China would be the day Communism fell there. Although otherwise not given to political pronouncements, Teng was much affected by the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and performed at Hong Kong protest concerts afterwards: pictures show her casually dressed on these occasions, with a white headband and a placard, by contrast with her usual sequin-covered cocktail dresses.
By the end of the Eighties, Teng had semi-retired (she last recorded in 1989) and was living in Paris, where she met Chinese pro-democracy exiles. Unmarried and with no children, she was able to live comfortably on her Japanese royalties alone, she once said (total world sales of her 25 albums are estimated by Billboard at 22 million, with another 50 to 75 million pirate copies).
Prone to respiratory problems, she had contracted severe flu, pneumonia by some accounts, during her last visit home to Taipei at the Chinese New Year. She was on holiday with a group of friends, including her French boyfriend, in the Thai resort of Chiang Mai, when she was struck by a severe attack of asthma and died of heart failure after the ambulance taking her to a private hospital was delayed by heavy traffic. Her family, outraged by the intrusive coverage of the death by Thai television - Teng kept her personal affairs private - was no doubt mollified by the award, personally presented to her mother on 12 May by the Secretary General of the ruling Kuomintang Party, of Taiwan's second highest civilian honour, the Hua Hsia medal.
Philip Sweeney
Teng Li-Chun (Teresa Teng), singer: born 1952; died Chiang Mai 9 May 1995.