王力宏: The Beginning

[Justin]

Hello everyone, my name is Justin, and I hail from the far mountainous wastelands of the United States formerly known as the Utah Territory; a land so unwanted that the U.S. government practically gave it away to a highly persecuted group (it's terrible really..), a land of strongly enforced gender roles and where diversity means having a couple Asian kids in a class of 50, and surprisingly, a land where the music of Taiwanese superstar Wang Leehom thrives in popularity.

Pictured: Utah, 5 months of the year.

Ok, so maybe I jumped a little too far back in time there when I was describing my hometown (in reality, things now are only half as bad as I described them).  But my point still stands: Salt Lake City is not widely known as a metropolitan center of culture.  So how is it that a foreign pop singer has any attention at all in such a remote bubble of U.S. society?

Let's start at the beginning.  Alexander Leehom Wang was born in 1976 in Rochester, New York to 外省人 (anti-communist fugitives) Taiwanese parents.  Following in his brother's footsteps, he asked his mother to enroll him in violin lessons, which she refused until he was 6 years old.  In high school he picked up the guitar and drums.  He showed a strong interest for a career in music, double majoring music and Asian Studies at Williams college.

In 1995, Wang released his debut album 情敵貝多芬 (Love Rival, Beethoven) with Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) with little success.  His next few albums with Decca Records were moderately successful.  However, Wang insisted on finishing school before pursuing his career.  After graduating with honors from Williams College, he released his first award-winning album 公轉自轉 (Revolution) with Sony Music Entertainment, with several more following in the years after.

Now back to my original point: how did I, living in a state whose population is dwarfed by that of most large cities, come to hear the angelic voice of Wang Leehom?  Well it started when he hired Wongfu Productions, another immensely popular Asian American group, to direct his music video for 依然愛你 (Still Love You).

The original music video no longer seems to be on Youtube, which makes me extremely sad, but it had a significant impact on me.  That music video launched my interest in Chinese pop music and prompted me to begin looking into my own Chinese heritage (maternal side) that I had almost resented in years past.  The group kind of poked fun at me when we were proposing blog ideas because I wouldn't shut up about WANGLEEHOM, but it's because of this identity crisis in Jr. High that his music will likely be forever close to my heart.