(China Daily) From Super Girl to 'Asian hero', Li Yuchun has always followed her own musical path, resulting in an original and unique body of work and a loyal fan base, Chen Nan reports.
Two years ago, while on a trip to Tokyo, Chinese singer-songwriter Li Yuchun was intrigued by the cover of an album by French group Club Cheval that she found in a record store. The cover art of Discipline shows six rows of identical men, all with shaved heads and the same black tops, facing the same direction-all except one.
After listening to the album, which is a mixture of electronic music and rhythm and blues, Li did some research on the internet. She found out that the group, consisting of four French indie musicians, Canblaster, Myd, Sam Tiba and Panteros666, has distinctive features.
She contacted the group and initiated the idea of collaboration, which eventually came to fruition and turned out to be Li's new single, entitled Wa. They not only wrote and produced the song together, but also recorded the song as a band.
The song, which deals with the topics of race, cultural difference and new lives, is also the title song of Li's 10th studio album, which she released on July 24. So far, the digital album, priced at 20 yuan ($2.83) on QQ Music, has sold over 1 million copies.
"The best part of my job is to be inspired by an idea, a photo, a picture or a sentence. But it also means the beginning of challenges, such as working on collaborations, expanding the idea into a song, then a full-length album, which delivers the messages I want to share," says the 35-year-old pop star.
On Oct 20, eight songs from the new album got their live premiere in Beijing at a concert which attracted hundreds of fans, despite the chilly night air. They carried neon lights with Li's name on while screaming her name.
She performed an impromptu dance while singing the song The Number You Have Dialed Is Not in Service and she played guitar while performing the soothing ballads All the Girls and The Seasons.
Lu Yongshan, 29, flew from Hangzhou to Beijing for the concert. She has been a fan of Li since 2005.
"She broke the stereotype of female singers and has been coming out with original ideas and music," says Lu.
It has been more than a decade since Li, a then unknown music student, won the singing show Super Girl and became a phenomenon. The TV show attracted a nationwide audience of 400 million and many fans voted for the young singer, who wore her trademark short hair and sang with a neutral style and deep, soulful voice. The 2005 show made her an instant pop icon in the country, as well as one of its best-selling female pop stars. She also appeared on the cover of Time magazine's Asian edition, which described her as a "hero".
Recalling that year, when she was still a student of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Li says that "everything happened so fast and I had to grow up quickly to fit in with the changing situation".
She even named her annual nationwide fan meetings, which started in 2009, Why Me?-a question she posed about her instant fame after winning the show.
Right after Li won in the Super Girl contest, Gao was teamed up with songwriter and music producer Zhang Yadong to write a song for Li, which was Li's first single as a singer then.
"There were lots of people, thousands, waiting outside Li's hotel to get a glimpse of her. I had to wait for two hours in the car to talk to her about the song. After she was escorted by the guards to meet me in the car, I asked her 17 questions about the idea behind the song," Gao said. "She was not very talkative, but willing to answer my questions. She looked tired and I later found out that she had undertaken a hectic schedule that day, attending four events without a break."
As a pioneer, Li was one of the first Chinese singer-songwriters to release digital albums. Her last album, Liuxing (Pop), released in 2017 via QQ Music, has raked in 16 million yuan in sales. Her 2016 album, Growing Wild, grossed over 32.8 million yuan, China's highest digital music sales figure since the platform released the nation's first digital album, Aiyo, Not Bad, by Taiwan pop icon Jay Chou, in December 2014.
While her last album explored how people deal with information shaped by social media networks, this new album talks about individuality.
"This new album is about me, my change, and my observation about people. I tried to expand my vision and unlock my full potential, so, despite my reluctance, I participate in reality shows and I act in movies," says Li, who has starred in big-budget movies, such as Hong Kong director Tsui Hark's The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, which also features Jet Li and Zhou Xun.
She was one of the three coaches on the talent show, The Coming One, which was released last year on the streaming platform, Tencent Video. The 15-episode series, targeting 12-to 24-year-olds, featured young, male Chinese singer-songwriters.
"When I met the contestants, I realized that some of them were not passionate about music. They just wanted to become famous and music was simply a route to success. I was angry and argued with my agent because that's not what I wanted to do," said Li in the show. "But after talking with those contestants, I realized that they also are confused about their future. I wanted to help them to see their potential and find their goal.
"When I was a newcomer to the industry, I felt hurt when confronted with the doubts of the public, but kept all this to myself, without seeking any help. Now I want to be able to help those that follow and find themselves in the same situation, and now I have the opportunity to make a difference," Li says.
On the new album, Li wrote a song, entitled You Are Always the Apple of My Eye, dedicated to her parents, which was released on Chinese Valentine's Day, Qixi festival, which fell on Aug 7 this year.
Li, who is usually protective of her privacy, surprised her fans by releasing a short video of a trip she made back to her home in Chengdu, Sichuan province. In the video, her parents cook together and Li chatted with them in the local Sichuan dialect.
"I used to avoid revealing my personal life on social media, but now, I would like to share. My father, for example, is not an ambitious man, but he takes care of the family as he always has," she reflects. "My family has made me who I am and, as I grow up, I cherish my moments with them more and more."
Source: By Chen Nan | China Daily