Wu Bai is a Taiwanese rock singer and songwriter. He formed the band Wu Bai & China Blue. Wu Bai has also appeared in films such as 'The Personals' (徵婚啟事), 'A Beautiful New World' (美麗新世界) and 'Time and Tide' (順流逆流) Making him a huge, huge star. Despite being one of the biggest rockstars in East and Southeast Asia this song is probably the cheesy equivalent of our Macarena. This song is horribly catchy, and I desperatley want to dislike the song, but am drawn to it like a moth to a lightbulb. The ensuing dance and catchy melody will stick in your head. I stop short of learning the dance though, I don’t think it would go down well at my local night club.



伍佰 - 你是我的花朵
Wu Bai - You are my flower



So that seems to be, a one of cheesy infectious dance hit, that has become a symbol of Taiwan. Now to give you a real show of what Wu Bai’s rock band sounds like. He grew up listening to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and other classic rock bands. This quite clearly shows in how different this song is to the one above. It is astonishing to me that a rockstar can indulge in cheesy pop. In the West there is a problem with the integrity and authenticity of an artist should they indulge in such activities. He seems to have reinvented himself any times, at times looking as wild s David Bowie in the glam rock era.



伍佰 - 挪威的森林
Wu Bai - My Lonely Life



Let me know what you think of Wu Bai below in the comments.

Hopscotch are now seemingly defunct, however they were quite popular a few years ago. Hopscotch, were a 4 piece Wuhan band, based in Beijing. Their most popular song 'Wishful Way' is influenced by trip hop and indie music. It was the 15th most played song on Chinese radio when it was released and whilst her English isn't quite so smooth, the song is so haunting and I really am drawn to it.



Wishful Way & She are the lead singles off of Hopscotch's 2002 album 'Wishful way'
Singer and lyricist Tian Yuan, appeared in the 2004 Hong Kong film Butterfly, winning an award for best performance.

PunkHoo (literal translation as far as I can tell works out more like : 'Fat Tiger Orchestra') have a pop punk sound heavily influenced I assume by SUM 41. The band from Taipei has been carving a name for itself on the walls of the city's music scene. Singing mainly in Chinese with the odd line shouted out in English. The melodic offerings of "Life & Live" work towards the sound of pop-punkers like new Green Day, Blink 182. Though the album was released in 2006, the song was reccomended to me by a friend. (@GraceLee0806) Below are a couple of videos.

Zhang Liyin plays violin, piano and sings in both Korean and Chinese on her tracks. She is so far the only solo singer to have broken both Chinese and South Korean music markets. Her powerful soulful vocals could easily be compared to well-known R&B vocalists such as Whitney Houston or Leona Lewis. Her voice is stunning, complete knockout vocal performances in several of her songs are truly incredible and made the hairs on my neck stand on end.

Her 2008 album, I Will contained mainly ballads, although "A Flame For You" was more upbeat and is the theme song for CCTV's drama 'Ding Jia You Nu Xi Yang Yang'. "Timeless" and "Y (Why...)" are her most popular songs. Y being my personal favourite.

You can watch a video of her performing 'Y (Why?...)' on youtube here but embedding is disabled. I include a download link to her album below. Depending on your morals, you may prefer to buy it: but I couldnt find anywhere where it is available.


1. Intro
2. 初恋 (First Love)
3. A Flame For You
4. 星愿 (I WILL) (Star Wish (I WILL))
5. 幸福的左岸 (The Left Shore of Happiness)
6. 后 (After)
7. 交错的爱 (Wrongly Given Love)
8. 相信爱 (Believe in Love)
9. 纯真的爱 (Pure Love)
10. One More Try
11. Y (Why…)
12. Timeless
13. 星愿 (I WILL) (Star Wish (I WILL)) – Korean version
14. 幸福的左岸 (The Left Shore of Happiness) – Korean version


You can download I Will
(If you are the copyright owner, please email me and I wil take the link down)