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Jay Chow is a good singer and excellent pianist from Taiwan. Mainlanders like to complain about how incomprehensible some of his lyrics are, but in our selection today his vocals are relatively easy to make out. This song is actually one of Echo's favorites, and we hope you like it as much as she does.

Our votes for the most useful vocab here go to "tornado" and "wild storm". Echo also really likes his use of 后知后觉, which comes across as very cultivated even though it isn't technically a real word. If you're feeling adventurous, give a listen to this song, a cute rap intended for the under-12 set.
 said on
October 15, 2008
Good pick. I actually felt badly for the guy briefly after seeing him in Zhang Yimou's execrable Curse of Chow Yun Fat. Then I realized he was paid boatloads of money to take the role, and probably knew going in what I figured out when the credits were rolling: the one wasn't worth the effort.

Still, Jay needs to stick to music. I'll pick up his albums when they come out, but instinctively steer clear of any film remotely associated with him at this point.
 said on
October 15, 2008
I watched "不能说的秘密" 3 times. But that was, like, totally only to improve my mandarin listening skills. I swear...
 said on
October 15, 2008
Looks like this lesson is becoming a public confessional. My Jay study song was 简单爱. Not sure if it's embarrassing to publicly admit to knowing the lyrics to that one.

I really liked 七香里 too, though I have the hardest time making sense of his Taiwanese accent without the lyrics right in front of me.

 said on
October 16, 2008
This reminds me of a funny experience I have had. When I was in high school, most of students were big fans of Jay Chow. It was “爱在西元前" generation.(If you were/are a fan of him, you'd know what I mean) It was his first CD, and his Chinese was not as clean as now. It was a morning, and I was on the way to school. I was singing one song of Jay Chow--最后的战役--my favorite one at that time when I saw one neighbor came by. I said hi and kept singing and walking away. Meanwhile, I heard the old woman sighed, “多努力的孩子啊,走路还背英语!” ......

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
October 16, 2008
ha ha. that's hilarious Echo. Doesn't surprise me though. I asked some kids I used to teach what some of his lyrics were. They basically replied, "beats us -- we have no clue what he's saying."

 said on
October 19, 2008
Shouldn't this song be called "Tornado"?

When I searched on Youtube for the KTV version of this song "quiet" turned out to be a completely different song also by Jay.
 said on
October 19, 2008
@swigr - yeah it should. We were going to go with quiet but Echo veered towards this at the last minute. Fixed.
 said on
October 19, 2008
Hehe, it's my favorite one:) Like 安静 too, since I can hear the lyrics clearly.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
Mark Lesson Studied