Lady Gaga of Taiwan • 台灣的Lady Gaga

Hello, my name is Halden Levin, and you are listening to Little Dragon’s Journey. 你好！我叫李靜辰，你正在聽小龍的旅程。

Transition Music（音樂）

In my quest to immerse myself in Chinese while stuck in the US, I decided to start listening to primarily Chinese music and YouTube videos and have discovered a plethora of talented Taiwanese artists and Youtubers. Today, I decided to share some of my favorites, or start the process at least. As I began developing a list of my favorite Taiwanese and Chinese artists and Youtubers, I quickly discovered that this episode was going to need to become a series. Today, I will be sharing a little bit about some of my favorite artists, and then I will continue this series with three episodes on Taiwanese and Chinese Youtubers.

Before I get into it, you’re probably wondering why this episode is titled “Lady Gaga of Taiwan”. Let me take a moment to explain.

Every year, Spotify releases the ever so popular Spotify Wrapped, both the overall year in summary and personal summaries for each Spotify user. When I checked out my Spotify Wrapped, I was honestly surprised by the results. Of my top five artists, two are Taiwanese, Jolin Tsai and Show Lo, one is Chinese, Lexie Liu, one is a Chinese girl’s group, Rocket Girls 101, and last but not least was Florence + The Machine. The official order was Jolin Tsai, Rocket Girls 101, Show Lo, Lexie Liu, and Florence + The Machine.

Sometimes I find one song I really like and listen to that singular song on repeat until I’m completely over it. I say this because, besides Jolin Tsai and Lexie Liu, I’ve only listened to one of Show Lo’s songs, being “No Joke.” Also, although I’ve listened to a few of Rocket Girls 101’s songs, I’ve mainly listened to their song called “卡路里” or “Calorie” over and over. And for Florence + The Machine, “Howl” was my go-to for a while.

The song “卡路里” is actually from the second Chinese movie I’ve seen. The movie was called 西紅柿首富, which literally translates to Tomato Rich Guy but actually translates to Hello Mr. Billionaire. It’s a Chinese comedy about this guy named Wang Duoyu 王多魚 who is a pathetic soccer goalie tasked with spending 1 billion yuan or RMB, which is about 154,276,100 USD, in 30 days. If he completes this task, his uncle will grant him access to his inheritance. However, there are a few rules, namely that he cannot tell anyone about this challenge, he cannot just give away the money to charities and the like, and he may not own anything upon the conclusion of the challenge.

Where does “卡路里” come into this? As a means of losing money as fast as possible, he decided to implement a policy called “fat insurance” where customers would pay one yuan to join the policy and, for every gram of fat they lost, they would earn one yuan. So, for reference, if you lost 1000g, which is 1kg or around 2.2 lbs, you would earn 1000 yuan, which is about 154.28 USD. You could healthily and feasibly lose around 2 lbs in a week. Not a bad deal.

Anyway, at the beginning of my Gap Year, to keep track of the Chinese music I am discovering, I created two Spotify playlists titled “Gap Year 2020 音樂 😤 [huffing face with anger]”, which is designed for workouts, and “Gap Year 2020 音樂 🥰 [smiling face with hearts]”, which is designed for relaxing. If you are interested in listening to my playlists, you can access links to the two on my blog under “Musing.” Listening to these playlists on repeat was likely what led my Spotify Wrapped to primarily consist of artists and songs from China and Taiwan. I was honestly so happy Jolin Tsai was my number one because, before looking at Spotify Wrapped, I felt that she is my favorite artist in the world right now. Having Spotify Wrapped verify my personal opinion is truly validating.

Anyway, “Lady Gaga of Taiwan” … In my eyes, the “Lady Gaga of Taiwan” is Jolin Tsai. Why, you ask? For one, especially in regard to her most recently released album, her choice of clothing is quite audacious. Go check out UGLY BEAUTY. The premise behind the song “UGLY BEAUTY” is beauty standards and the importance of loving yourself and being confident in who you are.

For two, her music videos are incredibly unique and entertaining. 《甜秘密 Sweet Guilty Pleasure》 (Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean subtitles) , 《腦公 Hubby》 (Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean subtitles), 《怪美的 UGLY BEAUTY》 (Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean subtitles), 《I’m not yours》 (Chinese, English subtitles), 《PLAY我呸》 (Chinese subtitles), and 《大藝術家 The Great Artist》 (Chinese subtitles) are six music videos I recommend checking out.

In the interest of not spoiling the story that unfolds in each mini masterpiece, I will just use a short phrase to describe each. “Sweet Guilty Pleasure” is dolphin love amidst destruction, “Hubby” is a rubber chicken slap in the face, “I’m not yours” is the tale of the nine-tailed vixen, “UGLY BEAUTY” is a trial against society won, “PLAY” is real life video game simulation on steroids, and “The Great Artist” is another hearty slap in the face.

For three, like Lady Gaga, Jolin Tsai is a gay icon. In Asia, the only country to legalize same-sex marriage is Taiwan, and Jolin Tsai is vocal in her support of the LGBTQ community. In exploring her music, one song I discovered was 《不一樣又怎樣 We’re All Different，Yet The Same》 (Chinese subtitles), which almost moved me to tears. The music video for “We’re All Different, Yet The Same” starts out by showing a woman at a hospital. Clearly, a loved one had suddenly passed away. One of the nurses asked the woman what her relationship to the recently deceased woman was. That’s where the song begins.

As we move through the music, the moments leading up to the initial scene are revealed, and we’re given two outcomes to that question of the woman’s relationship to the deceased. In the first scenario, the woman and her partner were in a lifelong relationship, but since same-sex marriage was not legalized at that point, when her partner became ill, she could not say she was her wife. In the second scenario, the woman married her partner years ago and was able to confidently respond to the nurse’s question. Her recently deceased partner was her wife.

Love is love. Love between a man and a woman is just the same as love between a woman and a woman or a man and a man. People don’t choose their sexuality; they are just the way they are, and we should accept and support them for who they are. Just my thoughts on this matter. Also, 《Womxnly》 (Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean subtitles) is another song released by Jolin Tsai in support of the LGBTQ community.

For four, Lady Gaga has been one of my longtime favorite artists, and now Jolin Tsai is joining her in the ranks. I’ve never classified myself as a fangirl, but I think I am definitely fangirling right now. I highly recommend listening to her music and checking out the other artists I mentioned. Lexie Liu, for instance, is based in Bejing and combines English and Chinese into pop/rap-type music. 《Mulan》 and 《Manta》 are two of my favorites.

Transition Music（音樂）

Please visit haldenlevin.wixsite.com/littledragonjourney to access the transcript of this episode, and know you are always welcome to contact me through my website, email, or social media. Thank you for joining Little Dragon’s Journey. 謝謝你們參加小龍的旅程。拜拜！