Pan-Asian Metropolis

Teresa Teng (鄧麗君) was a Taiwanese singer and Asian superstar. Despite her death at the age of 42, her career traversed four decades. With her covers of Japanese songs in Chinese (including Cantonese, Hokkein, and Mandarin), she is sometimes credited with helping to bridge the cultural gap between Taiwan, China, much of Southeast Asia, and their former colonizer, Japan (where known as テレサ・テン, she was especially popular).

Teresa Teng

Teresa Teng was born on 29 January 1953 in Baozhong, Yunlin County to Waishengren parents. Her father, Teng Hsu, was an ROC soldier from Daming, Heibei. Her mother was from Dongping, Shandong and when Teresa was a girl, she often took her to see Chinese movies and operas. Teresa was the fourth out of five children born to the couple and the only girl. She was schooled at Ginling Girls High School (私立金陵女中) in Sanchong Township.

As a child, Teng won awards for her singing at talent competitions, including in 1964, when she sang “Visiting Yingtai” from Shaw Brothers‘ Huangmei opera movie, The Love Eterne. With her parents’ approval, she afterward quit school to pursue singing professionally.

In 1973, Teng signed a contract with Polydor Japan and took part in the annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen competition. In 1974, the song “Airport” (“空港”) was a Japanese hit. She remained beloved in Japan despite being briefly barred from entering it in 1979 after she was discovered to be in possession of a fake passport purchased for US $20,000 following an official break in relations between Japan and Taiwan after China took the latter’s seat in the United Nations.

After the incident, Teresa Teng moved to Los Angeles to live with her younger

Teresa Teng in Los Angeles, 1975 — Teresa Teng in Los Angeles

brother in 1979 and she enrolled in a college preparatory program. It was also during her time in Los Angeles that she met Jackie Chan, then relatively unknown outside of Asia, who was then in the country for his first time filming The Big Brawl. According to his biography, they went on walks and dined in Chinatown but although the friendship was important, he stressed in his biography wasn’t what he’d characterize as a relationship.

In 1980, Teng became the first ethnically Chinese singer to perform in New York City‘s Lincoln Centre. In 1982, Teng was engaged to Malaysian businessman Beau Kuok. However, the family of her fiancee’s grotesquely wealthy family weren’t apparently keen on their son marrying a mere artist. They also, apparently, perversely insisted that she provide them with a written record of her previous relationships, which Jackie Chan and Teresa Teng reportedly begn with Lim Zhen Fa, the son of a Malaysian casion tycoon who died of a heart attack. Teng ended the relationship with Beau Kuok and, according to some, began self-medicating to deal with the pain.

It was also in the 1980s that Teng’s music was banned in China but grew thanks to the black market. By then, however, her fame had spread to places with large Chinese communities like Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the San Gabriel Valley. The ban in China was eventually lifted and Teresa was even nicknamed “Little Deng” because she had the same family name as China’s then-leader, Deng Xiaoping.

In 1981, Teresa Teng’s Polydor contract ended and she signed with Taurus Records. For many Japanese fans, the second half of the decade was Teng’s golden years. For four consecutive years between 1984-1989, in fact, she won Japan’s All-Japan Record Awards. In 1989, Teng performed in Paris and voiced support for the pro-democratic protesters at Tiananmen Square. On 27 May 1989, she performed to an audience of over 300,000 people at Hong Kong’s “Democratic songs dedicated to China” (民主歌聲獻中華).

The CPC invited Teresa Teng to perform for the first time in China but she died on 8 May 1995 in Suite 1502, Imperial Mae Ping Hotel whilst on vacation in Chiang Mai, Thailand. There are plenty of rumors, of course, including that shed died from a drug overdose — a view shared by her French boyfriend Paul Quilery who was supposedly buying groceries when she died. Quilery later claimed that the two were, at the time of her death, engaged to be married that August.

Ten was given state honors at her funeral in Taiwan. A day of national mourning was declared and president Lee Teng-hui was amongst those in attendance. Teng was posthumously awarded the KMT Hua-Hsia Grade One Medal (the Ministry of Defense‘s highest honor for civilians). She was buried in a mountainside tomb at Chin Pao San, a cemetery in Jinshan. The grave features a statue of Teng made of gold and a large electronic keyboard that can be played by visitors.

Teresa Teng

A tribute album called A Tribute to Teresa Teng was released in 1995. In 2002, a wax figure was unveiled at Madame Tussaud’s Hong Kong. A house she purchased in Hong Kong in 1986 at No. 18 Carmel Street, Stanley has become a site of pilgrimage for her fans. A set of stamps featuring Teng was released by the Chunghwa Post. In 2007, Yoshino Kimura played Teresa Teng in the Japanese film, Teresa Teng Monogatari (テレサ・テン物語). Her songs have covered by the likes of Faye Wong, Joanna Wang, Jon Bon Jovi, and many others. Fans of Tengs recognized the inclusion of “When Will You Return” (also known as “Waiting For Your Return”) in the 2018 Hollywood film, Crazy Rich Asians.