Coordinates	27°50′″N48°25′″N
Name	Yue
Imagecaption	Yuht Yúh/Jyut6 jyu5 (''Yue'') written in traditional Chinese (left) and simplified Chinese (right) characters
Nativename	粵語/粤语/
Familycolor	Sino-Tibetan
States	China, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Kota Kinabalu), Vietnam, Indonesia (Medan), United States, Canada, United Kingdom and other countries where Cantonese migrants have settled.
Speakers	56 million in 1984
Region	in China: the Pearl River Delta (central Guangdong; Hong Kong, Macau); the eastern and southern Guangxi; parts of Hainan;
Fam2	Sinitic
Fam3	Chinese
Fam4	Ping–Yue
Dia1	Yuehai (Cantonese)
Dia2	Siyi (Taishanese)
Dia3	Gao-Yang
Dia4	Yong-Xun
Dia5	Goulou
Dia6	Luo-Guang
Dia7	Qin-Lian
Dia8	Wu-Hua
Dia9	Hainan Yue
Script	Traditional Chinese
Nation	Hong Kong and Macau (''de facto,'' though officially referred to as "Chinese"; Cantonese and occasionally Mandarin are used in government). Recognised regional language in Suriname.
Map	Cantonese in China.png
Iso1	zh|iso2bchi|iso2tzho|iso3yue
Notice	IPA }}

Yue, commonly known as Cantonese, is a primary branch of Chinese spoken in southern China.

The issue of whether Yue is a language in its own right or a dialect of a single Chinese language depends on conceptions of what a language is. Like the other branches of Chinese, Yue is considered a dialect for ethnic, political, and cultural reasons, but it is also considered a distinct language because of linguistic reasons. Spoken Cantonese is mutually unintelligible with other varieties of Chinese, though intelligible to a certain degree in its written form.

The areas of China with the highest concentration of speakers are the provinces of Guangdong and (eastern) Guangxi and the regions of Hong Kong and Macau. There are also substantial Cantonese- and Taishanese-speaking minorities overseas in Southeast Asia, Canada, Australia, and the United States.

Names

The prototypical use of the name "Cantonese" in English is for the Guangzhou (Canton) dialect of Yue, but it is commonly used for Yue as a whole. To avoid confusion, academic texts may call the primary branch of Chinese ''Yue,'' following the Mandarin pinyin spelling, and either restrict "Cantonese" to its common usage as the dialect of Guangzhou, or avoid the term "Cantonese" altogether and distinguish Yue from Canton or Guangzhou dialect.

In Chinese, people of Hong Kong, of Macau, and Cantonese immigrants abroad usually call the Yue language ''Gwóngdùng wá'' (廣東話) "speech of Guangdong". People of Guangdong and Guangxi do not use that term, but rather ''Yuht Yúh'' (粵語) "Yue language". They also use ''baahk wá'' (}}) on its own to refer to the Guangzhou dialect. It is also used to refer to Yue dialects in Guangxi, as for example in an expression like "南宁白话", which means the ''baak waa'' of Nanning.

History

Relation to Classical Chinese

Since the pronunciation of all modern varieties of Chinese are different from Old Chinese or Middle Chinese, characters that once rhymed in poetry may no longer do so today. Some linguists agree to some extent that Cantonese is closer to classical Chinese in its pronunciation and some grammar. Many poems that don't rhyme in Mandarin do so in Cantonese. Cantonese retains a flavour of archaic and ancient Chinese, and this has been used to study ancient Chinese culture.

Qin and Han

In the Qin Dynasty Chinese troops moved southward and conquered the Baiyue territories, and many Han people began settling in the Lingnan area. This migration led to the Chinese language being spoken in the Lingnan area. After Zhao Tuo was made the Duke of Nanyue by the Qin Dynasty and given authority over the Nanyue region, many Han people entered the area and lived together with the Nanyue population, consequently affecting the lifestyle of the Nanyue people as well as stimulating the spread of the Chinese language.

Sui

Before Emperor Yang Jian or Sui wendi of Sui Dynasty reunited ancient China ~581AD , Northern China was in a warring states for ~380 years during and after the end of Han dynasty ~220AD. To avoid wars and hardships, mass migration of Han Chinese started moving South. As a result, the population in Southern China (or Lingnan ) rose dramatically. The Han Chinese in the south intermixed with the locals and exemplified further during the latter Tang and Sung dynasties; their language/ culture, predominantly of ancient Han's with some local variations were quite well preserved and not so much influenced by the Mongolians/Manchurians rulers as compared to their counterparts in the North.

Tang

Yue pronunciation and vocabulary are quite similar to the official language of the Tang dynasty. Dialectologists believe that migrants and exiled officials from the heart of the Tang brought their dialect to Guangdong. Remoteness and inefficient transport to Guangdong created an environment in which the language remained largely intact after it arrived.

Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing

In the Song Dynasty, the differences between central Chinese and Yue became more significant, and the languages became more independent of one another. This trend continued during the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

Mid to late Qing

In the late Qing, the dynasty had gone through a period of maritime ban under the Hai jin. Guangzhou remained one of the few cities that allowed trading with foreign countries, since the trade chamber of commerce was established there. Therefore, some foreigners learned Cantonese and some Imperial government officials spoke the Cantonese dialect of Yue, making the language very popular in Cantonese-speaking Guangzhou. Also, European control of Macau and Hong Kong had increased the exposure of Cantonese to the world.

20th century

In 1912, shortly after the fall of the Qing dynasty, revolutionary leaders including Sun Yat-sen met to choose a new national language to replace Classical Chinese. Mandarin Putonghua was then a northern dialect spoken by the Manchurian officials. Many perceived it as an 'impure form' of Chinese. Cantonese is said to have lost out by a small margin of the vote to Putonghua, though some historians dispute this.

The popularity of Cantonese-language media, Cantopop and the Hong Kong film industry, has since led to substantial exposure of Cantonese to China and the rest of Asia. On the Mainland, the national policy is to promote Putonghua. While the government does not prevent people from promoting local Cantonese language and culture, it does not support them. Occasionally there are news reports of children being punished for speaking Cantonese in schools.

Dialects

The Yue language includes several dialects. In the classification of J.M. Campbell, they are:

Cantonese proper, ''Guangfu'' () or ''Yuehai'' (), which includes the language of Guangzhou and the surrounding areas of Zhongshan, Wuzhou, and Foshan, as well as Hong Kong and Macau; ''Sìyì'' ( ''Seiyap),'' exemplified by the Taishan dialect (), also known as Taishanese, which was ubiquitous in American Chinatowns before ''ca'' 1970; ''Gao–Yang'' (), spoken in Yangjiang; ''Wu–Hua'' ( ''Ngfaa),'' spoken mainly in western Guangdong; ''Gou–Lou'' ( ''Ngaulau),'' spoken in western Guangdong and eastern Guangxi, which includes the dialect of Yulin, Guangxi; ''Yong–Xun'' ( ''Jungcam),'' spoken mainly in Guangxi and its capital Nanning; ''Qin–Lian'' ( ''Jamlim),'' spoken in southern Guangxi, which includes the Beihai dialect; ''Danzhou'' (), which includes the dialect of Changjiang ''Haihua'' (), the dialect of Lianjiang

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The Yue dialects spoken in Guangxi Province are mutually intelligible with the Canton dialect. For instance, Wuzhou is about 120 miles upstream from Guangzhou, but its dialect is more like Cantonese spoken in Guangzhou, than is that of Taishan which is 60 miles southwest of Guangzhou and separated by several rivers from it. Formerly ''Pinghua'' (), which is not mutually intelligible with the Canton dialect spoken in central Guangxi, was classified as Yue in China, but it was designated a separate primary branch of Chinese by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the 1980s, a classification generally followed in the west.

The Canton/Guangzhou dialect of ''Yuehai'' is the prestige dialect and social standard of Yue, and historically the word "Cantonese" has referred specifically to this dialect.

Mandarin is the medium of instruction in the state education system in Mainland China but in Chinese schools in Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese is the oral language of instruction. It is used extensively in Cantonese-speaking households, Cantonese-language media (Hong Kong films, television serials, and Cantopop), isolation from the other regions of China, local identity, and the non-Mandarin speaking Cantonese diaspora in Hong Kong and abroad give the language a unique identity. Most wuxia films from Canton are filmed originally in Yue and then dubbed or subtitled in Mandarin, English, or both.

Cantonese dialect

The Cantonese dialect is the prestige dialect of Guangdong province, and along with English an official language of Hong Kong. It is the most widely spoken dialect of Yue, spoken in Canton (Guangzhou), Hong Kong, and Macau, and is the ''lingua franca'' of not only Guangdong province, but of overseas Cantonese emigrants, though in many areas abroad it is numerically second to the Taishanese dialect of Yue.

Phonology

See Cantonese phonology for the sounds of the Guangzhou–Hong Kong dialect, and Taishanese for the phonology of that dialect.

Yue development and usage

Usage

By law, Mandarin Chinese ''(Putonghua'' 普通话 or ''guoyu'' 国语) is the standard language of mainland China and Taiwan and is taught nearly universally as a supplement to local languages such as Cantonese in Guangdong. Yue is the ''de facto'' official language of Hong Kong (along with English) and Macau (along with Portuguese), though legally the official language is just "Chinese". Yue is also one of the main languages in many overseas Chinese communities including Australia, Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe. Many of these emigrants or their ancestors originated from Guangdong. In addition, these immigrant communities formed before the widespread use of Mandarin, or they are from Hong Kong where Mandarin is not commonly used. The prestige dialect of Yue is the Guangzhou dialect. In Hong Kong, colloquial Cantonese often incorporates English words due to historical British influences.

Development

Yue is in some respects a more conservative language than Mandarin. For example, Yue has retained ancestral consonant endings that have been lost in Mandarin. Putonghua has 23 syllable rimes, while Cantonese has 59, leading Putonghua to rely heavily on compounding and context for meaning. For example, because of the larger number of syllable finals, the Cantonese Yue transcription of David Beckham's family name uses two characters (碧咸 bik1haam4), while Putonghua's uses four (貝克漢姆 bèikèhànmǔ). On the other hand, Yue has lost distinctions in the initial and medial consonants which Mandarin has retained, and Wu Chinese has preserved the three series of stop consonant initials from Middle Chinese that both Mandarin and Yue have reduced to two.

Variations

The Taishan dialect, which in the U.S. nowadays is heard mostly spoken by Chinese actors in old American TV shows and movies (e.g. Hop Sing on Bonanza), is more conservative than Cantonese. It has preserved the initial /n/ sound of words, whereas many post-World War II-born Hong Kong Cantonese speakers have changed this to an /l/ sound ("ngàuh lām" instead of "ngàuh nām" for "beef brisket" ) and more recently drop the "ng-" initial (so that it changes further to "àuh lām"); this seems to have arisen from some kind of street affectation as opposed to systematic phonological change. The common word for "who" in Taishan is "sŭe" (), which is the same character used in Mandarin, whereas Cantonese uses the classical word "bīn go" (), meaning ''which one.''

Sound

Yue sounds quite different from Mandarin, mainly because it has a different set of syllables. The rules for syllable formation are different; for example, there are syllables ending in non-nasal consonants (e.g. "lak"). It also has different tones and more of them than Mandarin. Canton dialect is generally considered to have 6 romanization tones, as reflected in most romanization schemes such as Jyutping, Yale, Cantonese Pinyin. According to other analyses, the number of tones may also be 7 or 8. The choice mainly depends on whether a traditional distinction between a high-level and a high-falling tone is observed; the two tones in question have largely merged into a single, high-level tone, especially in Hong Kong Cantonese, which has tended to simplify traditional Chinese tones. Many (especially older) descriptions of the Cantonese sound system record a higher number of tones, 9. However, the extra tones differ only in that they end in p, t, or k; otherwise they can be modeled identically.

Yue preserves many syllable-final sounds that Mandarin has lost or merged. For example, the characters 裔, 屹, 藝, 憶, 譯, 懿, 誼, 肄, 翳, 邑, and 佚 are all pronounced "yì" in Mandarin, but they are all different in Yue (Cantonese jeoih, ngaht, ngaih/ngaaih, yìk, yihk, yi, yìh, yih, ai, yap, and yaht, respectively). Like Hakka and Min Nan, Yue has preserved the final consonants [-m, -n, -ŋ -p, -t, -k] from Middle Chinese, while the Mandarin final consonants have been reduced to [-n, -ŋ]. The final consonants of Yue match those of Middle Chinese with very few exceptions. For example, lacking the syllable-final sound "m"; the final "m" and final "n" from older varieties of Chinese have merged into "n" in Mandarin, e.g. Cantonese "taahm" (譚) and "tàahn" (壇) versus Mandarin tán; "yìhm" (鹽) and "yìhn" (言) versus Mandarin yán; "tìm" (添) and "tìn" (天) versus Mandarin tiān; "hàhm" (含) and "hòhn" (寒) versus Mandarin hán. The examples are too numerous to list. Nasals can be independent syllables in Yue words, e.g. Cantonese "ńgh" (五) "five", and "m̀h" (唔) "not", even though such type of syllables did not exist in Middle Chinese.

Differences also arise from Mandarin's relatively recent sound changes. One change, for example, palatalized with to , and is reflected in historical Mandarin romanizations, such as ''Peking'' (Beijing), ''Kiangsi'' (Jiangxi), and Fukien (Fujian). This distinction is still preserved in Yue. For example, 晶, 精, 經 and 京 are all pronounced as "jīng" in Mandarin, but in Yue, the first pair is pronounced "jīng", and the second pair "gīng".

A more drastic example, displaying both the loss of coda plosives and the palatization of onset consonants, is the character (學), pronounced '''' in Middle Chinese. Its modern pronunciations in Yue, Hakka, Hokkien, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese are "hohk", "hók" (pinjim), "" (Pe̍h-ōe-jī), học (although a Sino-Vietnamese word, it is used in daily vocabulary), 학 ''hak'' (Sino-Korean), and ''gaku'' (Sino-Japanese), respectively, while the pronunciation in Mandarin is ''xué'' .

However, the Mandarin vowel system is somewhat more conservative than that of Yue, or at least the Cantonese dialect of Yue, in that many diphthongs preserved in Mandarin have merged or been lost in Yue. Also, Mandarin makes a three-way distinction among alveolar, alveolo-palatal, and retroflex fricative consonants, distinctions that are not made by modern Cantonese. For example, ''jiang'' (將) and ''zhang'' (張) are two distinct syllables in Mandarin or old Yue, but in modern Cantonese Yue they have the same sound, "jeung1". The loss of distinction between the alveolar and the alveolopalatal sibilants in Cantonese occurred in the mid-19th centuries and was documented in many Cantonese dictionaries and pronunciation guides published prior to the 1950s. ''A Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Canton Dialect'' by Williams (1856), writes: “The initials "ch" and "ts" are constantly confounded, and some persons are absolutely unable to detect the difference, more frequently calling the words under "ts" as "ch", than contrariwise.” ''A Pocket Dictionary of Cantonese'' by Cowles (1914) adds: “''s'' initial may be heard for ''sh'' initial and vice versa.”

There are clear sound correspondences in the tones. For example, a fourth-tone (low falling tone) word in Yue is usually second tone (rising tone) in Mandarin. This can be partly explained by their common descent from Middle Chinese (spoken), still with its different dialects. One way of counting tones gives Cantonese nine tones, Mandarin four, and Late Middle Chinese eight. Within this system, Mandarin merged the so-called "yin" and "yang" tones except for the Ping (平, flat) category, while Yue not only preserved these, but split one of them into two over time. Also, within this system, Yue and Wu are the only Chinese languages known to have split a tone, rather than merge two or more of them, since the time of Late Middle Chinese.

See also

Sidney Lau romanisation

Hong Kong Government Cantonese Romanisation

Cantonese Pinyin

Jyutping (LSHK)

Yale Romanization

Written Cantonese

Cantonese grammar

Written Chinese

Chinese input methods for computers

Notes

References

External links

Free Intermediate and Advanced Learning MP3

cantoneseAID

Learn Cantonese (with Cantonese–English / English–Cantonese Dictionary)

Classification of Cantonese Dialects

Profile and Linguistic Map of Cantonese

Category:Tonal languages Category:Cantonese language Category:Chinese languages in Singapore Category:Languages of Hong Kong Category:Languages of Malaysia Category:Languages of the Philippines Category:Languages of Macau Category:Languages of the United States Category:Languages of Canada Category:Languages of Australia Category:Languages of New Zealand Category:SVO languages

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Coordinates	27°50′″N48°25′″N
name	Leehom Wang
chinesename	王力宏
pinyinchinesename	Wáng Lìhóng
jyutpingchinesename	Wong4 Lik6 Wang4
birth name	Alexander Leehom Wang
ancestry	Yiwu, Zhejiang, China
origin	Republic of China (Taiwan)
birth date	May 17, 1976
birth place	Rochester, New York, USA
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, film director, actor, record producer, music arranger, composer
genre	Pop, R&B;, rap, hip hop, rock, jazz, Broadway
instrument	Violin, piano, drums, guitar, bass/electric guitar, erhu, vibraphone, harmonica, chinese flutes, guzheng, zhongruan, etc.
voicetype	Tenor
label	Sony MusicDecca (1996–1997)BMG (1995–1996)
yearsactive	1995–present
influences	Stevie Wonder, Prince, Alicia Keys, Outkast, Missy Elliott, R. Kelly, The Neptunes
website	www.wangleehom.com
mtvasiaawards	Favorite Artist, Taiwan2006
goldenmelodyawards	Best Mandarin Male Singer1999 ''Revolution''2006 ''Heroes of Earth''Best Album Producer1999 ''Revolution''2004 ''Unbelievable''
awards	}}

Leehom Wang (born May 17, 1976) is an American-born singer-songwriter, record producer, actor and film director of Chinese descent based in Taiwan. Formally trained at the Eastman School of Music, Williams College and Berklee College of Music, his musical style is known for fusing Chinese elements (such as Beijing opera, traditional styles of ethnic minorities, Chinese classical orchestra) with hip-hop and R&B.; Wang has been active since 1995 and contributed in 25 albums. He is also a four-time winner of Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards, the "Grammys" of Taiwanese music.

In addition to his music, Wang also acted in several films, including Ang Lee's ''Lust, Caution'' and Jackie Chan's film ''Little Big Soldier''. He is an environmental activist, and his album ''Change Me'' was dedicated to raising eco-awareness among Chinese youth. Wang was one of the first torchbearers for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, and performed in the Olympics' closing ceremony in Beijing. He was listed as one of Goldsea's "The 100 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time".

Life and music career

Childhood and early beginnings

Born in Rochester, New York, Wang is the second of three sons of immigrants from Taiwan of waishengren heritage. His father, a pediatrician, and his mother moved to the United States to further their college studies in the early 1960s. Influenced by his older brother, Leo Wang, who had been taking violin lessons since he was seven, Wang began to develop a curious interest towards the violin and its musical counterparts when he was three. He begged his mother to put him in violin lessons with his brother but his mother was against it, reasoning that he was too young. When Wang turned six, his mother enrolled him in violin classes, performing along with his brother. As he became a teenager, he began taking piano lessons, also teaching himself the guitar. He also worked several jobs to earn money to buy a second hand drum kit.

He attended Jefferson Road Elementary School, Pittsford Middle School, and Pittsford Sutherland High School in Pittsford, New York. He graduated from Pittsford Sutherland. Passionate for a career in music, he chose to attend Williams College double majoring in music and Asian studies. He joined an all-male a cappella group, The Springstreeters, and the group recorded several demo tracks.

In the summer of 1995, while Wang was visiting his grandparents in Taiwan, he was offered a professional recording contract by Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) after he participated in a talent competition hosted by the label. Not wanting to lose the opportunity, he immediately began preparing for his debut, and released his debut album ''Love Rival, Beethoven'' (情敌贝多芬) that December. The record received little limelight, forcing him to leave the label. He signed with Decca Records the following year, a label then famous for producing "powerful singers" (實力派歌手) in Taiwan. Wanting to also have control in the idol market, the label initially planned to market Wang as the mainstream "romantic idol", like with their previous artist Mavis Fan. However, after discovering Wang's talent in music-making, Decca began promoting him as Taiwan's "quality idol" (優質偶像) instead. Wang released his second album ''If You Heard My Song'' in 1996, which included some of his own compositions. He co-wrote the album's eponymous title song, which earned positive responses from the audience. The album drew moderately successful sales, and he became a rising star in the idol market, also finding similar successes with his third and fourth albums. During this time, Wang was asked to leave his college studies to pursue a full time singing career, but he insisted on finishing school first.

Rise to prominence (1998–2000)

Wang's contract with Decca records was terminated after the release of his fourth album ''White Paper'' in the summer of 1997. After graduating with honors at Williams College, He released his first award-winning album ''Revolution'' under Sony Music Entertainment in August 1998. The album became his breakthrough album, immediately selling over 10,000 domestic units in the first week of release. Critics rated the album highly, and it won Wang two Golden Melody Awards—Best Producer and Best Mandarin Male Singer. He was the youngest artist to win in either of the two categories. Wang has been nominated the Best Mandarin Male Singer at the awards every year since the success of ''Revolution''. The singles of ''Revolution'' also achieved similar success–"Revolution" became Wang Leehom's first #1 single, becoming one of the top 20 songs of the year on Channel V Taiwan.

He continued his studies by attending Berklee College of Music's Professional Music program, with voice as his principal instrument. In 1999, Wang released his sixth album ''Impossible to Miss You'', which combined the catchy pop melodies of ''Revolution'' with a quirky style of new-found dance pop. It became his then best-selling album, selling over 1 million copies. All of the album's promotional singles topped KTV charts and yearly music charts, notably the upbeat "Julia" and the ballad "Crying Palm".His album also attracted international attention–Wang won three Best Male Vocalist awards at three different award ceremonies and was also awarded for his musical merit in the album at the 1st annual Asia Chinese Music Awards.

At the beginning of the millennium, Wang began filming for several Cantonese-language Hong Kong blockbusters, which inspired him to study the Cantonese language. He included a Cantonese track, "Love My Song," in the Hong Kong release of ''Forever's First Day'' (2000), his seventh album. Unlike his previous two albums, ''Forever's First Day'' consisted mainly of melodic R&B; tunes. The album's eponymous single is a tragic romantic ballad, speaking of a separation of two individuals. Although raised in New York for most of his life, living in Taiwan made Wang realize the deep roots of his Chinese heritage. ''Forever's First Day'' yielded a cover of his uncle's signature song "Descendants of the Dragon"; Wang re-arranged the song with heavier rock and dance elements. The song also included a rap bridge that summarized experiences of his parents living as a Chinese American in New York.

International success (2001–03)

Wang's next album, ''The One and Only'' (2001) received phenomenal international success. Selling over 1 million units in Asia, the rock-inspired album won him over seven different prestigious awards throughout 2001 and 2002. The album's title single "The One and Only" peaked #1 in almost all available music charts of Taiwan and was on the Ringback Tone #1 Download Charts for over a year, becoming his signature song. ''The One and Only'' also found success in Japan, opting him to release his first full-length Japanese album ''The Only One'' on May 9, 2003. The album only promoted one single, a Japanese version of "The One and Only", but it did not meet success on Japan's Oricon Charts. Wang also began filming several Japanese films, establishing his rising star status in Japan.

Eager to experience and perform different musical genres, Wang embarked on his first Asia-wide concert tour ''The Unbelievable Tour'' a few months before the release of his ninth album ''Unbelievable'' (2003). His concert tour received great reviews from both fans and music critics; they were impressed and shocked with his new-found hip hop image. His R&B;/hip hop-inspired album ''Unbelievable'' involved new urban pop numbers, drawing hip hop influences from different styles of popular music, such as Indipop and urban pop. The album marked a milestone in his musical career; his new image received international critical acclaim and the album a chart-topping success, selling over 1.5 million units by 2004. A celebratory version of the album was released three months later, also becoming a chart-topping album. The album's singles, notably the ballad number "You're Not Here" also experienced international success, ranking #1 on several music charts for over 10 weeks. ''Unbelievable'' yielded his second win for Best Producer of the Year at the Golden Melody Awards in 2004.

Chinked-out (2004–06)

Having established himself as one of the most important, influential, and prolific artists in Chinese music, Wang continued to invent and experiment with new sounds and voices. For most of 2004, he traveled to remote villages in China, collecting often unheard tribal sounds of aboriginal Chinese music, Tibetan music, and Mongolian music. With his younger brother Leekai as his assistant, they carried 15 kg of music equipment as he recorded these sounds, recording and producing his album on the way. He incorporated these sounds into R&B; and hip hop music, coining the style as "chinked-out." Despite the derogatory nature of the term "chink," Wang had wanted to repossess the term and "make it cool." ''Shangri-La'' was released on the last day of 2004, selling an 40,000 copies within the first ten days of release. ''Shangri-La'' became an international music sensation, especially catching the attention of many youths in Asia. Within a month, the album sold over 300,000 copies, ultimately selling over 1.5 million units.

Wang continued to infuse chinked-out elements into his next album ''Heroes of Earth'' (2005). Unlike the aboriginal tribal music heard in ''Shangri-La'', ''Heroes of Earth'' contained mixes of Beijing opera and Kunqu. Following the concept of "heroes," he collaborated with Ashin of Mayday ("Beside the Plum Blossoms"), Chinese American rapper Jin and opera master Li Yan ("Heroes of Earth"), and also K-pop artists Rain and Lim Jeong-hee ("Perfect Interaction"). ''Heroes of Earth'' was the fastest-selling album of both 2005 and 2006, selling over 1 million copies ten days after its release. Subsequently, the album stayed as #1 in the charts for six weeks, and remained in the charts for 23 weeks, ultimately becoming 2006's third best-selling album. By 2007, about 3 million units were sold, and has since been Wang's most commercially and critically successful album. The album earned Wang a Golden Melody Award for Best Mandarin Male Singer for the second time.

Three months after the release of ''Heroes of Earth'', he began the ''Heroes of Earth Tour'', his first major world tour. The concert commenced with two shows per night in the Taipei Dome in March 2006, breaking Taiwan's concert attendance records.

Professional breakthrough (2007–present)

Wang took a break in working on his music to film ''Lust, Caution'' (2007), an espionage thriller film directed by Ang Lee. He released a promotional single "Falling Leaves Return to Roots" on June 20, 2007 through Hito Radio, a month before the release of his twelfth studio album, ''Change Me''. "Falling Leaves Return to Roots" incorporated Broadway-influenced musical elements, with classical instrumental accompaniments, such as the violin and piano. When asked about the sudden change of music style, Wang explained that the inspiration behind the song was due to the influence of his portrayal of Kuang Yumin in ''Lust, Caution''. "In the past, I have only been releasing mainstream pop and chinked-out related hip hop. ''Lust, Caution'' made me return to 1930's Shanghai, re-living the moment."

''Change Me'' was released on Friday, July 13, despite the superstition generally attached to Friday the 13th. Unlike his previous albums, ''Change Me'' mainly concentrates on pop rock, including influences of Broadway ("Falling Leaves Return to Roots") and old-school Taiwanese pop ("You Are a Song in My Heart"). Through this album, he promoted the issue of global warming and raised environmental awareness. The packaging of the album used only recycled paper and contained no plastic. He believed that small changes by each person can change the world. "To change the world, you start with changing yourself." Reviews of the album were generally positive, defining the album as "mature." An online album poll organized by China's Sohu, however, suggested that Wang's album did not meet expectations. Netizens remarked that his chinked-out productions were more impressive, although that genre itself has also been criticized. Nonetheless, over 1 million units were shipped on the first day of release. The album broke past 2 million sales, becoming one of Wang's best-selling albums.

In August 2008, Wang sought US$320,000 in damages for plagiarism by Pritam, an Indian composer. The lead song for the movie ''Race'' (2008), composed by Pritam, was allegedly copied from "In the Depths of the Bamboo Forest," a single taken off from Wang Leehom's ''Shangri-La'' album. In November 2008, Wang was selected to conduct the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for their 2008 annual grand finale, being the first Asian pop musician to conduct the orchestra. The concert ''Hong Kong Music, Leehom Wang'' (港樂‧王力宏) was held in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre for three nights, with four shows, receiving CNN International coverage throughout.

Wang embarked on his second world tour, the ''Music-Man Tour'', in the latter months of 2008. The tour commenced with two shows per night in the Taipei Dome in September 2008, three months before the release of Wang's thirteenth studio album, ''Heart Beat''. ''Heart Beat'' was released on December 26, debuting at #3 on the weekly G-Music charts. The album peaked at #1 on its seventh week of release, ultimately staying on the charts for 17 weeks. Like Wang's previous album, ''Heart Beat'' showed a similar emphasis of rock influences. The album largely focused on guitar and electric guitar solos, which Wang also used for performances in most of the album's music videos. Wanting to continue a similar "chinked-out" element, the album's first single, "What's Up with Rock?!" incorporated rock influences with Chinese flavor. For the track, he worked with pipa artist Liu Fang, and the two concentrated on mixing both electric guitar elements and pipa strings into the song.

On April 15, 2011, Wang Lee Hom took home the Best Male Singer (Hong Kong and Taiwan region), Best Album for ''The 18 Martial Arts'', and Best Newcomer Director Award for his directorial debut, Love in Disguise at the Global Chinese Music Awards.

On Sept 7, 2011, it was announced that Wang hired Wong Fu Productions to direct his upcoming music video.

Musical style

Wang's music varies in style greatly from album to album. Although he is classified as an R&B; artist, Wang Leehom demonstrates competence with many styles of music ranging from traditional Mandopop, Broadway, jazz, rock, R&B;, gospel, acoustic, Indipop, hip-hop, to rap. Many of the styles are infused with a Chinese flavor.

When he first debuted, he sang old school pop and acoustic R&B; ballads. Starting from ''Revolution'' (公轉自轉), Wang began to test out R&B; pop music, but quickly jumped to a quirky style of dance pop for ''Impossible to Miss You'' (不可能錯過你). Starting from ''Forever's First Day'' (永遠的第一天), he began composing rock songs with heavy electric guitar melodies and less emphasis on dance pop. Nonetheless, he still concentrated in light R&B; music. ''The One and Only'' (唯一) became his only fully produced rock album.

''Unbelievable'' began a new road of music for Wang. Aside from the usual R&B; grove, he contributed hip hop and rap that was not clearly emphasized in his past albums. "Not Your Average Thug" was a newly composed R&B; style with a huge amount of American influence. "Can You Feel My World" was a different style of R&B;, and the song contained great uses of the piano and violin as the accompaniment. Fast dance songs like "Ya Birthday" and "Girlfriend" () incorporated rapid rap and heavy drum rhythms. "Girlfriend" included a heavily emphasised chinese flute and a music style that is influenced by Indipop.

''Shangri-La'' was the first chapter of Wang's new style, chinked-out. Chinked-out is a new kind of musical style developed by Wang that involves modern "west" music of R&B;, Hip Hop, rap, and Dance, along with "east" music of heavy Chinese instrument influences, more notably the koudi, tuhu, and ijac. "Deep Within the Bamboo Grove" () which emphasized samples of Tibetan Opera, and different minority tribes in Yunnan and other remote areas of China.

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''Heroes of Earth'' displayed a different side to chinked out. Instead of ethnic minority music, Wang focused on Beijing opera and Kunqu. He used instruments such as the erhu, guqin, and guzheng to infuse his new album with another side of traditional Chinese sound. "Beside the Plum Blossoms" () dealt with fast kunqu melodies. In the last 50 seconds of the song, Wang rapped over 250 words, increasing in speed towards the middle and then slowed down. This was to emphasize the accelerating and descending beats of traditional Chinese opera.

In addition to his chinked-out style of music, he is also noted for writing modern love ballads like "Forever Love", "Kiss Goodbye", "The One and Only" and most recently, "All the Things You Never Knew" (你不知道的事） which are sung with piano and string instrument accompaniments.

Acting career

Wang had displayed interest in acting when he starred in several musical plays when he was in high school and college. In 2000, he made his feature film debut in the Hong Kong action crime thriller, ''China Strike Force'', starring alongside Aaron Kwok, Norika Fujiwara, and Ruby Lin. Hong Kong critics had remarked Wang for giving a well-toned performance as his first film. His next starring role was the 2001 Hong Kong science fiction film ''The Avenging Fist'' as the main character Nova. He then starred in two Japanese films ''Moon Child'' (2003) and ''Starlit High Noon'' (2005).

The major breakthrough in his film career was in ''Lust, Caution'', directed and produced by Academy Award winner Ang Lee. The film is based on a novella written by Eileen Chang and revolves around a plot to assassinate a high-ranking Chinese official in the Wang Jingwei Government using a beautiful young woman as bait. Wang plays Kuang Yumin, a patriotic college student who persuades Wong Chia-chi (Tang Wei) to seduce Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). The film was released in the U.S. cinemas on 28 September 2007. ''Lust, Caution'' was produced on a budget of approximately $15 million and grossed $64,574,876 worldwide.

In 2009, Wang was selected to star with Jackie Chan in ''Little Big Soldier''.

In 2010, Wang stepped behind the camera to direct and star in, ''Love in Disguise'' (), also starring Liu Yifei and Joan Chen. ''Love in Disguise'' went on to become the highest grossing film for a first-time director in Chinese history grossing over 60,000,000 RMB domestically.

Endorsements

Wang is one of the most highly visible celebrities in Asia due in no small part to his many product endorsements including: Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Sony Ericsson, Bausch & Lomb, Bosideng MAN, Garnier, Lay's Chips, Nikon, Brand's, Hyundai and also Wahaha purified drinking water, which he has endorsed since 1999.

Wang's Bausch & Lomb print advertisements and TV commercials featured prominently in the popular 2008-2010 TV series ''Chou Nu Wu Di''. The series, which took place at an advertising agency, was an adaptation of the 1999 Colombian telenovela ''Yo soy Betty, la fea''.

Charitable events

Wang is also recognized for his effort and financial contributions to charity. He is active with Worldvision and has visited Laos and Sierra Leone in the last couple of years to raise awareness about the state of poverty in those countries. He personally sponsors over 20 underprivileged children throughout the world with NGO World Vision and frequently participates in the much needed fund-raising campaigns for disaster relief such as the massive earthquake at Sichuan (2008) and Typhoon Marakot in Taiwan (2009). In 2003, he and David Tao composed a song titled Hand in Hand (sung by over 80 celebrities in Taiwan) to promote support and courage to those affected by SARS.

Participation in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Wang was chosen as one of the torchbearers to run in Greece. He was torchbearer number 17 on March 24, the first day of the torch relay. He also attended the torch lighting ceremony before his run. Wang took the torch from Liu Hongliang, son of the first Chinese to attend the Olympic games, Liu Changchun. He represented the newest generation of singers from Taiwan and China. He was chosen mainly because he is devoted to helping save the environment, as shown in his latest album ''Change Me''.

Another reason he was chosen is due to Wang's enthusiasm in the 2008 Olympic Games Theme Songs Competition. His single One World One Dream was chosen as a Olympic Games participation song. The single was written, sung, produced, and scored entirely by himself. He sang along with Jackie Chan, Stephanie Sun, and Han Hong in the song for "The One Man Olympics" which was about the first Chinese to be in the Olympics. He also sang in the 100 days countdown theme song Beijing Welcomes You. He also sang alongside Stefanie Sun, Wang Feng, and Jane Zhang in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Torch Relay Theme Song, Light The Passion, Share The Dream. He is also one of the candidates on vote for performer of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Theme Song. In the closing ceremony, he sang "Beijing Beijing, I Love Beijing" alongside Hong Kong singer Kelly Chen and Korean singer Rain.

Discography

Filmography

+
! Year	! Title	! Role	! Notes
1999	''''	Dean McCoppin
2000	''China Strike Force''	Alex Cheung
2000	''Ashes to Ashes: Against Smoking''	Dave
2001	''''	Nova
2003		Son
2005	''Starlit High Noon''	Lian Song
2007		Kuang Yumin
2010	''Little Big Soldier''	Big General
2010	''Love In Disguise''	Du Minghan	also director
2011	''''	Luo Jialun
2012	''Yang Guifei''	Li Bai	Filming

Awards

Bibliography

December 18, 2001: ''The One and Only - The Official Piano and Vocal Score'' (唯一樂譜書) (Piano and Vocal Score)

March 20, 2003: ''Accidental Biography'' (純屬意外) (Biography; Piano and Vocal Score)

October 15, 2003: ''Portrait of a Love Song'' (Photobook; Prose and Biography) [Japan Release]

November 15, 2005: ''Shangri-La - The Official Piano and Vocal Score'' (心中的日月樂譜書) (Piano and Vocal Score)

June 9, 2006: "Heroes Of TOKYO" (Photobook) [Japan Release]

July 21, 2010: "Love In Disguise: photo collection" (Photobook)

July 21, 2010: "Wang Leehom, the practice of first-time director"

References

Further reading

External links

Leehom Wang official website

Sony Music: Taiwan Japan

Leehom Wang's weibo

Category:1976 births Category:Berklee College of Music alumni Category:English-language singers Category:Japanese-language singers Category:Living people Category:Musicians from New York Category:People from Rochester, New York Category:Taiwanese film actors Category:American musicians of Chinese descent Category:American musicians of Taiwanese descent Category:Taiwanese Mandopop singer-songwriters Category:Taiwanese male singers Category:Williams College alumni

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Coordinates	27°50′″N48°25′″N
Name	Zhuge Liang
Title	Chancellor
Kingdom	Shu Han
Birth date	181
Birth place	Yangdu, Langya Commandery (present-day Yinan County, Shandong)
Death date	234 (aged 53)
Death place	Wuzhang Plains, Shaanxi
Simp	诸葛亮
Trad	諸葛亮
Pinyin	Zhūgě Liàng
Wg	Chu-ko Liang
Zi	Kongming (孔明)
Post	Marquis of Zhongwu (忠武侯)
Other	Wolong (臥龍) Crouching Dragon Fulong (伏龍) Sleeping Dragon }}

Zhuge Liang (181–234) was a chancellor of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. He is often recognised as the greatest and most accomplished strategist of his era.

Often depicted wearing a robe and holding a hand fan made of crane feathers, Zhuge Liang was not only an important military strategist and statesman; he was also an accomplished scholar and inventor. His reputation as an intelligent and learned scholar grew even while he was living in relative seclusion, earning him the nickname "Wolong" (臥龍; literally: "Crouching Dragon").

Zhuge is an uncommon two-character compound family name. His name – even his surname alone – has become synonymous with intelligence and strategy in Chinese culture.

Early life

Zhuge Liang was born in Yangdu, Langya Commandery (present-day Yinan County, Shandong). He was orphaned at a premature age, and was raised by his uncle, Zhuge Xuan. He followed his uncle to live in Jing Province under Liu Biao later. After his uncle died, Zhuge Liang and his brothers settled in Wolonggang (in present-day Henan) for the next ten years or so, leading simple lives – farming by day and studying at night. Zhuge Liang's two older sisters married members of influential clans with strong connections in the region.

Zhuge Liang enjoyed reciting ''Liangfu Yin'' (梁父吟), a folk song popular in Shandong, his birthplace. He also liked to compare himself to Guan Zhong and Yue Yi, two famous historical figures. He developed close friendships with members of the local literati, such as Xu Shu, Cui Zhouping, Meng Jian and Shi Tao. Zhuge Liang also maintained close relations with other well known intellectuals, such as Sima Hui, Pang Degong and Huang Chengyan. Huang Chengyan once told Zhuge Liang, "I heard that you're seeking a spouse. I've an ugly daughter with a yellow face and dark complexion, but her talent matches yours." Zhuge Liang agreed and married Huang Chengyan's daughter.

Service under Liu Bei

At that time, Liu Bei resided at Xinye while he was taking shelter under Jing Province's governor, Liu Biao. Liu Bei visited Sima Hui, who told him, "Confucian academics and common scholars, how much do they know about current affairs? Those who analyze current affairs well are elites. Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix are the only ones in this region." Xu Shu later recommended Zhuge Liang to Liu Bei again, and Liu wanted to ask Xu to invite Zhuge to meet him. However, Xu Shu replied, "You must visit this man in person. He cannot be invited to meet you." Liu Bei succeeded in recruiting Zhuge Liang in 207 after paying three personal visits. Zhuge Liang presented the Longzhong Plan to Liu Bei and left his residence to follow Liu. Afterwards, Liu Bei became very close to Zhuge Liang and often had discussions with him. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were not pleased and complained. Liu Bei explained, "Now that I've Kongming (Zhuge Liang's style name), it's just like a fish getting into water. I hope you'll stop making unpleasant remarks." Guan Yu and Zhang Fei then stopped complaining.

As a lobbyist

In 208, Liu Biao died and was succeeded by his younger son, Liu Cong, who surrendered Jing Province to Cao Cao. When Liu Bei heard of Liu Cong's surrender, he led his followers (both troops and civilians) on an exodus southward to Xiakou, engaging Cao Cao's forces in a brief skirmish at the Battle of Changban along the way. While in Xiakou, Liu Bei sent Zhuge Liang to follow Lu Su to Jiangdong to discuss the formation of an alliance between him and Sun Quan.

Zhuge Liang met Sun Quan in Chaisang and proposed two solutions to Sun, "If you can use the forces of Wuyue to resist the Middle Kingdom, why not break ties (with Cao Cao) in advance? If you cannot oppose, why not demobilize the troops, discard your armour and surrender to the north?" After Sun Quan's viceroy, Zhou Yu, analyzed the situation and pointed out weaknesses in Cao Cao's army, Sun finally agreed to ally with Liu Bei in resisting Cao. Zhuge Liang returned to Liu Bei's camp with Sun Quan's envoy, Lu Su, to make preparation for the upcoming war.

As a logistics officer

In late 208, the allied armies of Liu Bei and Sun Quan scored a decisive victory over Cao Cao's forces at the Battle of Red Cliffs. Cao Cao retreated to Ye, while Liu Bei proceeded to conquer territories in Jiangnan, covering most of southern Jing Province. Zhuge Liang was appointed "Military Advisor General of the Household" (軍師中郎將). He was put in charge of governing Lingling (present day Yongzhou, Hunan), Guiyang and Changsha commanderies and collecting taxes to fund the military.

In 211, Liu Zhang, governor of Yi Province (covering present-day Sichuan basin), requested aid from Liu Bei in attacking Zhang Lu of Hanzhong. Liu Bei left Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and others in charge of Jing Province while he led an army into Sichuan. Liu Bei promptly agreed to Liu Zhang's proposal, but secretly planned to takeover Liu Zhang's land. The following year, Liu Zhang discovered Liu Bei's intention, and the two turned hostile and waged war on each other. Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun led separate forces to reinforce Liu Bei in the attack on Liu Zhang's capital city, Chengdu, while Guan Yu stayed behind to guard Jing Province. In 214, Liu Zhang surrendered and Liu Bei took control of Yi Province.

Liu Bei appointed Zhuge Liang "Military Advisor General" (軍師將軍) and let him administer affairs of his personal office (office of the General of the Left (左將軍)). Whenever Liu Bei embarked on military campaigns, Zhuge Liang remained to defend Chengdu and ensure a steady flow of supply of troops and provisions. In 221, in response to Cao Pi's usurping of Emperor Xian's throne, Liu Bei's subordinates advised him to declare himself emperor. After initially refusing, Liu Bei was eventually persuaded by Zhuge Liang to do so and became ruler of Shu Han. Liu Bei named Zhuge Liang his chancellor and put him in charge of the imperial agency where Zhuge assumed the functions of Imperial Secretariat. Zhuge Liang was appointed "Director of Retainers" (司隸校尉) after Zhang Fei's death.

Service under Liu Shan

In the spring of 222, Liu Bei retreated to Yong'an (present-day Fengjie County, Chongqing) after his defeat at the Battle of Xiaoting and became seriously ill. He summoned Zhuge Liang from Chengdu and said to him, "You're ten times more talented than Cao Pi, capable of both securing the country and accomplishing our great mission. If my son can be assisted, then assist him. If he proves incompetent, then you may take over the throne." Zhuge Liang replied tearfully, "I'll do my utmost and serve with unwavering loyalty until death." Liu Bei then ordered his son, Liu Shan, to administer state affairs together with Zhuge Liang and regard Zhuge as his father.

As a regent

After Liu Bei's death, Liu Shan ascended to the throne of Shu Han. He granted Zhuge Liang the title of "Marquis of Wu" (武鄉侯) and created an office for him. Not long later, Zhuge Liang was appointed governor of Yi Province and put in charge of all state affairs. At the same time, the commanderies in Nanzhong rebelled against Shu, but Zhuge Liang did not send troops to suppress the revolt as Liu Bei's death was still recent. He sent Deng Zhi and Chen Zhen to make peace with Eastern Wu and re-entered an alliance with Wu. Zhuge Liang would consistently send envoys to Wu to improve diplomatic relations between the two states.

Southern Campaign

During his reign as regent, Zhuge Liang set Shu's objective as the restoration of the Han Dynasty, which from Shu's point of view, had been usurped by Cao Wei. He felt that in order to attack Wei, a complete unification of Shu was first needed. Zhuge Liang was worried that the local clans would work with the Nanman tribes in Nanzhong to stage a revolution. Fearing the possibility that the peasants might rebel and press into areas surrounding the capital city of Chengdu while he was attacking Wei in the north, Zhuge Liang decided to pacify the southern tribes first.

In the spring of 225, regional clans including Yong, Gao, Zhu, and Meng had taken control of some cities in the south, so Zhuge Liang led an expedition force to Nanzhong. Ma Su proposed that they should attempt to win the hearts of the Nanman and rally their support instead of using military force to subdue them. Zhuge Liang heeded Ma Su's advice and defeated the rebel leader, Meng Huo, on seven different occasions. He released Meng Huo each time in order to achieve Meng's genuine surrender. Note that the story about Meng Huo and his captures is rejected as a reliable and accurate historical reference by the majority of the academic, including historians like Miao Yue, Tan Liangxiao, and Zhang Hualan.

Realizing he had no chance to win, Meng Huo pledged allegiance to Shu, and was appointed by Zhuge Liang as governor of the region to keep the populace content and secure the southern Shu border. This would ensure that the future Northern Expeditions would proceed without internal disruptions. Rich and abundant resources acquired from Nanzhong were used to fund Shu's military and the state became more prosperous.

Northern Expeditions and death

After pacifying the Nanman, Zhuge Liang ordered the Shu military to make preparations for a large scale offensive on the rival state of Wei. In 227, while in Hanzhong, he wrote a memorial, titled ''Chu Shi Biao'', to Liu Shan, stating his rationale for the campaign and giving advice to the emperor on good governance. From 228 until his death in 234, Zhuge Liang launched a total of five Northern Expeditions against Wei, all except one of which failed. The only permanent gains by Shu were the conquests of Wudu and Yinping prefectures, as well as the relocation of Wei citizens to Shu on occasion. However, Zhuge Liang's army never suffered casualties over 5% of the total forces, and the resources put into military were affordable (assuming Shu's zenith at 200,000 military strength.)

During the first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang persuaded Jiang Wei, a young Wei military officer, to surrender and defect to his side. Jiang Wei became a prominent general of Shu later and inherited Zhuge Liang's ideals. In late 234, Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi (the Wei commander) reached a stalemate at the Battle of Wuzhang Plains. Zhuge Liang fell seriously ill and eventually died in camp at the age of 54. Before his death, Zhuge Liang recommended Jiang Wan and Fei Yi to succeed him as regent of Shu. He was buried on Mount Dingjun according to his dying wish and posthumously granted the title of "Loyal and Martial Marquis" (忠武侯) by Liu Shan.

Family

The following list contains family members of Zhuge Liang:

Ancestor: Zhuge Feng (諸葛豐), served as Director of Retainers during the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han

Father: Zhuge Gui (諸葛珪), served as Assistant in Mount Tai Commandery during the late Han Dynasty

Uncle: Zhuge Xuan (諸葛玄), served as Administrator of Yuzhang, joined Liu Biao later. Raised Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jun.

Siblings:

*Zhuge Jin, older brother, served Wu

*Zhuge Jun (諸葛均), younger brother, served Shu

*Older sister, unknown name, married Pang Shanmin (Pang Tong's older cousin)

*Older sister, unknown name, married a member of the Xiangyang Kuai clan (headed by Kuai Liang and Kuai Yue)

Cousins:

*Zhuge Dan, served Wei, participated in the Three Rebellions in Shouchun, killed after his defeat

Spouse: Lady Huang, daughter of Huang Chengyan. Commonly known as Huang Yueying or Huang Shou (黃綬) in folk tales.

Sons:

*Zhuge Zhan, served Shu, killed in action during the Conquest of Shu by Wei

*Zhuge Huai (諸葛懷), lived as a commoner during the Jin Dynasty

Adopted children:

*Zhuge Qiao, son of Zhuge Jin, adopted by Zhuge Liang, served Shu, died at a young age

Grandsons:

*Zhuge Pan (諸葛攀), son of Zhuge Qiao, returned to Eastern Wu to continue the Zhuge family line there after Zhuge Ke's death

*Zhuge Shang, oldest son of Zhuge Zhan, killed in action with his father during the Conquest of Shu by Wei

*Zhuge Jing (諸葛京), second son of Zhuge Zhan, moved to Hedong in 264 with Zhuge Pan's son Zhuge Xian (諸葛顯), served the Jin Dynasty

*Zhuge Zhi (諸葛質), youngest son of Zhuge Zhan

Descendants:

Marie Zhuge Ziqi (諸葛梓岐), Hong Kong based Canadian model, claims to be a 63rd generation descendant of Zhuge Liang

Legacy

Inventions

Zhuge Liang was believed to be the inventor of mantou, the landmine and a mysterious but efficient automatic transportation device (initially used for grain) referred to as the "wooden ox and flowing horse" (木牛流馬), which is sometimes identified with the wheelbarrow.

Although he is often credited with the invention of the repeating crossbow that is named after him and called "Zhuge Crossbow", this type of semi-automatic crossbow is an improved version of a model that first appeared during the Warring States Period (though there is debate whether the original Warring States Period bow was semi-automatic, or rather shot multiple bolts at once). Nevertheless, Zhuge Liang's version could shoot farther and faster.

Zhuge Liang is also credited with constructing the mysterious Stone Sentinel Maze, an array of stone piles that is said to produce supernatural phenomenon, located near Baidicheng.

An early type of hot air balloon used for military signalling, known as the Kongming lantern, is also named after him. It was said to be invented by Zhuge Liang when he was trapped by Sima Yi in Pingyang. Friendly forces nearby saw the message on the lantern paper covering and came to Zhuge Liang's aid. Another belief is that the lantern resembled Zhuge Liang's headdress, so it was named after him.

Literary works

Some books popularly attributed to Zhuge Liang can be found today. For example, the ''Thirty-Six Stratagems'', and ''Mastering the Art of War'' (not to be confused with Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War'') are two of Zhuge Liang's works that are generally available. Supposedly, his mastery of infantry and cavalry formation tactics, based on the Taoist classic ''I Ching'', were unrivalled. His memorial ''Chu Shi Biao'', written prior to the Northern Expeditions, provided a salutary reflection of his unwavering loyalty to the state of Shu. The memorial moved readers to tears.

Zhuge Liang is also the subject of many Chinese literary works. A poem by Du Fu, a prolific Tang Dynasty poet, was written in memory of Zhuge Liang whose legacy of unwavering dedication seems to have been forgotten in Du Fu's generation (judging by the description of Zhuge Liang' unkept temple). Some historians believe that Du Fu had compared himself with Zhuge Liang in the poem. The full text is:

In fiction

The wisdom and achievements of Zhuge Liang were popularized by the historical novel ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', written by Luo Guanzhong during the Ming Dynasty. The novel is based on historical sources, including Chen Shou's ''Records of Three Kingdoms''. Other major influences include Liu Yiqing's ''A New Account of the Tales of the World'', and ''Sanguozhi Pinghua'', a chronological collection of 80 sketches starting with the Oath of the Peach Garden and ending with Zhuge Liang's death.

Some fictitious accounts involving Zhuge Liang from ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' include:

Borrowing of arrows with straw boats

Prior to the Battle of Red Cliffs, Zhuge Liang visited Sun Quan's camp to assist Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu was jealous of Zhuge Liang's talent and felt that Zhuge would become a threat to his lord in future. He assigned Zhuge Liang the task of making 100,000 arrows in ten days or face execution for failure in duties under military law. Zhuge Liang promised that he could complete the mission in three days. With help from Lu Su, Zhuge Liang prepared 20 large boats, each manned by a few soldiers and filled with human-like figures made of straw and hay.

At dawn, when there was a great fog, Zhuge Liang deployed the boats and they sailed towards Cao Cao's camp across the river. He ordered the troops to beat war drums loudly and shout orders to imitate the noise of an attack. Upon hearing the noise, Cao Cao's troops rushed out to engage the enemy, but they were unsure of the enemy's strength, because their vision was obscured by the fog. They fired volleys of arrows towards the sound of the drums and the arrows became stuck in the straw figures. In the meantime, Zhuge Liang was enjoying wine with Lu Su inside the cabin and they returned to camp when the fog cleared. Zhuge Liang acquired more than 100,000 arrows with this ingenious strategy and Zhou Yu had no choice but to let him off.

Praying for the eastern wind

Before the Battle of Red Cliffs, when all preparations for the fire attack on Cao Cao's fleet had been made, Zhou Yu suddenly realized that the wind was not blowing to their advantage, because the eastern wind was required to enhance the fire attack. He collapsed and became ill. Zhuge Liang visited him and prescribed a "cure" for him, by offering to pray for the eastern wind. Days later, the eastern wind started blowing, much to everyone's surprise. Zhou Yu was pleased, but became worried because he thought Zhuge Liang possessed magical powers and would become a greater threat to his lord. He sent men to kill Zhuge Liang at the altar, but Zhuge anticipated his move and had already escaped under Zhao Yun's protection.

Stone Sentinel Maze

In chapter 84, Liu Bei was defeated by Eastern Wu's Lu Xun at the Battle of Xiaoting and he fled towards Baidicheng with Lu Xun hot on pursuit. When Lu Xun arrived at Yufu Shore by the Yangtze River near Baidicheng, he felt a strong enemy presence and cautioned his troops of a possible ambush. He sent men to scout ahead, who reported that the area was deserted except for some scattered piles of rocks. Bewildered, Lu Xun asked a local, who told him that ''qi'' started emerging from the area after Zhuge Liang arranged the rocks there when he first entered Sichuan.

Lu Xun personally inspected the area and believed that the "maze" was only a petty display of deception, so he led a few men inside. Just as he was about to leave, a strong gust of wind blew. Dust storms overshadowed the sky and the rocks seemed like swords, mountainous piles of dirt emerged while the river waves sounded like an attacking army. Lu Xun exclaimed, "I have fallen into Zhuge Liang's trap!", and attempted to escape from the maze but to no avail.

Suddenly, Lu Xun saw an old man, who offered him assistance in exiting the labyrinth. Lu Xun followed him and got out of the maze unharmed. The old man identified himself as Huang Chengyan, Zhuge Liang's father-in-law. He explained to Lu Xun that the maze was constructed based on the ''ba gua'' concept. Huang Chengyan also told Lu Xun that Zhuge Liang had predicted that a Wu general would chance upon the maze when he first built it, and had asked him not to lead the general out when he fell into the trap. Lu Xun dismounted and thanked Huang Chengyan. When he returned to camp, he exclaimed that he was inferior to Zhuge Liang in terms of intelligence.

Empty Fort Strategy

During the first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang's efforts to conquer Chang'an were undermined by the Shu defeat at the Battle of Jieting. With the loss of Jieting, Zhuge Liang's current location, Xicheng, was in peril of being attacked by the Wei army. In the face of imminent danger, with his main force deployed elsewhere and only a small group of soldiers in the city, Zhuge Liang came up with a ploy to hold off the approaching enemy.

Zhuge Liang ordered all the city gates to be opened and instructed soldiers disguised as civilians to sweep the roads while he sat on the viewing platform above the gates with two boys flanking him. He put on a calm and composed image by playing his guqin. When Sima Yi arrived with the Wei army, he was surprised by the scene before him and ordered a retreat after suspecting that there was an ambush inside the city. Zhuge Liang later explained that his strategy was a risky one. It worked because Zhuge Liang had a reputation for being a careful military tactician who hardly took risks, so Sima Yi came to the conclusion that there was an ambush upon seeing Zhuge's relaxed composure.

Events before his death

When Zhuge Liang fell critically ill during the Battle of Wuzhang Plains, he attempted to extend his lifespan by 12 years through a ritual. However, he failed when the ritual was disrupted by Wei Yan, who rushed in to warn him about the enemy's advance. Before his death, Zhuge Liang also passed his ''24 Volumes on Military Strategy'' (兵法二十四篇) to Jiang Wei, who would continue his legacy and lead another nine campaigns against the state of Wei.

Temple of the Marquis of Wu

There are many temples to commemorate the Marquis of Wu, the most famous ones are the Temple of the Marquis of Wu in Chengdu, and Temple of the Marquis of Wu in Baidicheng

Modern references

Film and television

Zhuge Liang was featured as a minor character in the 2008 film ''Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon'' and was played by Pu Cunxin. Takeshi Kaneshiro played Zhuge Liang in John Woo's ''Red Cliff''.

Zhuge Liang was played by veteran Chinese actor Tang Guoqiang in the 1994 CCTV drama ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', based on the novel of the same title. Lu Yi played Zhuge Liang in ''Three Kingdoms'', a 2010 remake of the 1994 CCTV series. Alan Ke played the role of Zhuge Liang in the 2009 Taiwanese teen idol drama ''K.O.3an Guo'', a parody of ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' in a modern setting.

Video games

Zhuge Liang's reputation for being an unparalleled genius is also emphasised in his portrayal in video games. Reflecting his status as the most highly regarded strategist in ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', games such as ''Destiny of an Emperor'' and Koei's ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' game series place Zhuge Liang's intelligence statistic as the highest of all characters. He is also a playable character in Koei's ''Dynasty Warriors'', ''Dynasty Tactics'' and ''Kessen II''.

Zhuge Liang is the protagonist in Koei's tactical role-playing game ''Sangokushi Koumeiden'', where he can die at the Battle of Wuzhang Plains, as he did historically, or proceed to restore the Han Dynasty under Emperor Xian.

In ''Warriors Orochi'', Zhuge Liang pretends to be an ally of Orochi. While he was facing Zhao Yun and Sun Ce's forces, he betrayed Daji and made her show him where Liu Bei was being held. In ''Warriors Orochi 2'', he discovers Daji's hideout in Shiting, and he and his wife, Huang Yueying, help to capture both Daji and Himiko. He later suspects Taigong Wang of purposefully letting Daji and Himiko go. In Dream Mode, he teams up with Zhou Yu, Takeda Shingen, Taishi Ci, and Gan Ning in holding off Shima Sakon's forces, Uesugi Kenshin, and Sima Yi.

Zhuge Liang appears in the game ''Civilization V'' as a great general along with Cao Cao.

Card games

In the collectible card game ''Magic: The Gathering'', there is a card named "Kongming, Sleeping Dragon" in the ''Portal Three Kingdoms'' set.

Comics

The young Chu-Ko Liang is a member of the League of Infinity in the superhero pastiche ''Supreme'' by Alan Moore.

In the manhua ''Faeries' Landing'', the protagonist of the story is a high-school student named Ryang Jegal, whose life is turned upside-down by a fairy and her heavenly (and not-so-heavenly) peers. Ryang Jegal, or Jegal Ryang in the proper Asian sequence, is the Korean translation of "Zhuge Liang".

See also

List of people of the Three Kingdoms

List of Dynasty Warriors characters

Notes

I. Some other historical sources contradict this story, claiming that it was Zhuge who visited Liu Bei first and offered his services.

References

Footnotes

Books

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Category:181 births Category:234 deaths Category:Aviation pioneers Category:Chinese inventors Category:Ancient Chinese military writers Category:Ancient Chinese military engineers Category:People from Linyi Category:Shu Han regents Category:3rd-century heads of government Category:Officials under Liu Bei

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Coordinates	27°50′″N48°25′″N
name	Jolin Tsai
chinesename	蔡依林
pinyinchinesename	Cài Yīlín
origin	Republic of China (Taiwan)
birth date	September 15, 1980
birth place	Sinjhuang City, Taiwan
occupation	Singer, dancer, Actress, Designer, Model, Spokesperson
genre	Mandopop, Dance
instrument	piano
label	Universal Music Taiwan (1998–2001)Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan) (2002–2006)EMI Music Taiwan (2006–2008)Warner Music Taiwan (2008–present)
yearsactive	1998–present
website	Jolin@Warner Music Taiwan
mtvasiaawards	Style Award (2006)
goldenmelodyawards	Best Female Mandarin Artist (2007) ''Dancing Diva''Most Popular Female Artist (2007)
awards	}}

Jolin Tsai () was born on 15 September 1980. She is a Taiwanese Golden Melody Award-winning Mandopop singer, dancer and actor. She is managed by Mars Entertainment Ltd (天熹娛樂).

Career

Tsai's foray into the entertainment industry started with an MTV singing competition. She was signed on by Universal Music and released her first album ''Jolin 1019''. Her second album ''Don't Stop'' was also a success. Tsai's music career came to a halt when conflicts between her and music company surfaced. Tsai signed on with Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan).

Tsai's success as a singer continued with the release of her 3rd album, '''Castle''. Tsai's J1 World Tour included countries across Asia and North America. In that same year, Tsai released ''J-Game'', which sold over 1 million copies in Asia in the span of one month.

In 2006, Tsai left Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan), and joined EMI Music Taiwan's label Capitol Records(Taiwan). Her 8th album, Dancing Diva, proved more successful than the previous albums. Tsai's ''Dancing Forever Tour'' featured a dance performance. The tour spanned across Asia, North America and Australia. In 2005, Tsai won the Golden Melody Award for ''Best Mandarin Female Singer Award'' for her album ''Dancing Forever Tour''

In 2008, Tsai released her first English cover album ''Love Exercise''. The sales for this album was lower than expected due to minimal publicity efforts. Tsai ended her contract with EMI Music Taiwan in 2008.

Tsai re-signed her contract with Warner Music Taiwan and released her 10th album, "Butterfly". "Butterfly" was her most successful album to date.

In 2010, Tsai released Myself. The music video features a style of house dance called Vogue. Tsai's December 2010 'Myself World Tour' sold out quickly. The concert, which features Tsai performing dangerous stunts in mid-air, was choreographed by Benny Ninja.

In 2011, Tsai will continue her world tour in May, which spanned across Asia.

Tsai was named the top 2nd earner among Taiwanese Singers in a 2010 poll, with earnings of US$14.51 million that year.

Early life

Though Tsai was introverted and shy as a child, she intensively studied English during her youth and eventually majored in English Literature at Fu Jen Catholic University. During her childhood years, Tsai developed an interest in singing and experimented with different vocal techniques after listening to the songs of popular female singers such as Teresa Teng and Faye Wong.

Acting career

During the two years she faced conflict with her recording company before signing with Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan), she pursued an acting career. She debuted in a popular soap series called "HI,上班女郎" with actor Show Luo. The series, about a female worker enduring the taboos of dating her own superior in the office, became a huge hit that allowed Tsai's fans to follow her amidst her hold on singing. Since her acting debut, Jolin Tsai continues to pursue her acting career by filming music videos on the side. In an interview, she stated that after her music career is over, she hopes to make movies full time, learn more about filming, and act in movies.

Musical career

Universal Music Taiwan (1998–2001)

Tsai first started out by taking part in an MTV singing competition at the age of 18. She won the top prize at the competition with her rendition of Whitney Houston's #1 hit "Greatest Love of All". She was then signed by Universal Music.

On July 1999, her first single "Living With the World" (和世界做鄰居) was released. It was sold in convenience stores and was a tremendous success, which led to the release of her first album, ''Jolin 1019'', on September 1999. At that time, she was packaged as "The Girl Next Door," and was an instant hit with teenagers, earning her the title "Teenage Boy Killer". ''Jolin 1019'' ended up selling more than 400,000 copies in Asia. With the success of her first album, she released her anticipated second album in May 2000, ''Don't Stop''. Many of the hits from that album were well known throughout Asia and the album was also a tremendous success. She also released her first photobook with pictures mainly taken in Hawaii.

Tsai's image changed for her third album, ''Show Your Love''. Nearing the age of 21, she released an album that was much more mature and soothing. However, the album did not sell as well as her last two albums. Her fourth album, ''Lucky Number'', was not able to bring her back to the same level of popularity either. The following year, due to conflicts with her record company, Tsai did not release any albums. She did, however, release her second photo book, with photos taken in Thailand. At the end of 2001, Tsai's contract with Universal Music ended and her first greatest hits compilation, ''Together'' was released.

Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan) (2002–2006)

Tsai signed with Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan) that year and got the biggest break of her whole career. The first single released was the track "Spirit Of The Knight" (騎士精神), which became a big hit and led to the highly anticipated release of her album ''Magic'' (看我72變). The album turned out to be a smashing success, topping the Taiwan album charts for three full months and selling more than 300,000 copies in Taiwan alone. The album has sold over a million copies in Asia. The album boasted many of her most well-known singles, including the hit dance song that brought Tsai back to the top of the charts "See My 72 Changes" (看我72變), a song which has been suggested to have been named after The Monkey King's 72 transformations. Other songs from the album, such as the extremely popular "Say Love You" (說愛你) and several others, including the hit "Prague Square" (布拉格廣場) were penned by fellow Taiwan mega star Jay Chou (周杰倫). The new image she presented for this album was more playful and sexy than before and her music became more dance-oriented. This transformation gave her what she needed to make a comeback to the music scene after being gone for almost a year.

Tsai's sixth album, ''Castle'' (城堡), was just as popular as its predecessor and became a top album in many Asian countries. Just as with ''Magic'', many songs on this album were written by Chou, her rumored boyfriend at that time. Two of these songs, the cute and playful "It's Love" (就是愛) and the moving rock ballad "Rewind" (倒帶), became two of Tsai's biggest hits. Prior to the album's release, she showcased her single "Pirates" (海盜), another song composed by Chou, at a mini-concert. She subsequently filmed one of the most expensive music videos in Taiwanese history for the song. This album also featured many other hit songs including the main upbeat dance track "36 Tricks of Love" (愛情36計), the sad love ballads "The Smell of Lemon Grass" (檸檬草的味道) and "Disappearing Castle" (消失的城堡), and "Love Love Love" (Love Love Love), a Mandarin cover of the Ukrainian song "Stop Stop Stop" by Nu Virgos. Tsai also wrote the lyrics to the song "The Starter" (始作俑者).

Between ''Castle'' and her next studio album, Tsai released a CD of remixes called ''J9 New + Party Collection''. This remix album featured two new songs including the hit song "Signature Pose" and remixes of Tsai's most popular dance songs. A medley of her dance hits was also included on the album. In 2003, Tsai sang the Mandarin version of "Mirage (Warriors In Peace)", the theme song for the film ''Warriors of Heaven and Earth''.

On April 25, 2005, Tsai seventh album ''J-Game'' was released, also topping charts throughout Asia and raised her popularity in Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Not only did the album become the longest running album on the Taiwanese album charts in 2005, it also sold over 1 million copies throughout Asia in just a little over a month. The album featured many more hip-hop influenced tracks than before, though it retained the dance pop and love ballads that made her famous. Though she supposedly broke up with Chou around the time the album was recorded, Tsai was able to find many other writers and producers for this album, including another huge pop star, Leehom Wang. One of the songs he penned for Tsai, "Exclusive Myth" (獨佔神話), was included on the album. The first single of the album "Barbaric Game" (野蠻遊戲) was a huge hit across Asia and it was followed by several other strong singles including "The Greek Girl Next To The Wishing Pond" (許願池的希臘少女) (composed by rising Hong Kong singer Ivana Wong), "Sky" (天空), "Repeat Signs" (反覆記號), "I Really Miss You" (好想你) and "Eyes Half Shut" (睜一隻眼 閉一隻眼). The music video of the latter song presented a much sexier image of Tsai than ever seen before. During this time, Tsai also rapped in a duet with fellow artist Show Luo called "真命天子" [Destined Guy], which was featured on his album Hypnosis Show. She also appear with Show in his first solo concert at the Taipei Arena, performing "真命天子" [Destined Guy].

Late in 2005, Tsai released her ''J1 Live Concert DVD'', featuring performances from a concert in Taipei in late 2004. Her hits from her albums ''Magic'' (看我72變) and ''Castle'' were performed. Show Luo made a guest appearance in the performance of "Prove It". The concert also had a guest appearance by Jay Chou, in which he danced together with Tsai, however this portion was not included in the DVD. It was later placed in the DVD for her greatest hits compilation, J-Top.

In early 2006, it was announced that Tsai would be leaving Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan), the record company that helped elevate her to superstar status, and joining Capitol Music Taiwan, which released under the name of EMI Music Taiwan. Since her debut and through her years, Tsai had progressed in becoming an excellent dancer and performer. To prepare for her new album, Tsai worked very hard to perfect her dancing and change up her style yet again. This was evident at the 2006 MTV Asia Awards where she performed her hot new single "Dancing Diva".(舞孃). with elements of yoga and using various props including a ball and a ribbon. She also won the Style Award during the ceremony, demonstrating the influence she has in Asia.

In May 2006, Sony released a greatest hits compilation album called ''J-Top'', which included two CDs and a DVD with new and previously unreleased music videos and a 70 minute documentary on Tsai's time at Sony. The compilation featured many of the best songs from the albums she released under Sony. There were two new songs included on the album, one of which featured a music video where Tsai looks back on all her old music videos.

EMI Music Taiwan's label-Capitol Records (2006–2009)

After the release of ''J-Top'', her first album with EMI Music Taiwan, ''Dancing Diva'' was released on May 12, 2006. This album became Tsai's biggest album yet, selling over 2 million copies in Asia. The album featured some of her most popular and sexiest dance songs ever, including the aforementioned title track "Dancing Diva" (舞孃), "Pulchritude" (玩美), "Mr.Q" (the music video for this song shows a very sexy Tsai getting intimate with Hong Kong pop star Edison Chen), and the bonus track "Attraction of Sexy Lips"(唇唇欲動) (a song she did as part of an endorsement deal with MaxFactor which is almost close to Anita Mui's song "Hot Red Lips"). The album also featured two of the biggest hits in Asia during the year: the fun and upbeat "A Wonder in Madrid" (馬德里不思議)and the touching love ballad "Pretence" (假裝). She collaborated with friend and label-mate Stanley Huang on the song "Nice Guy" (乖乖牌), which he also helped to write. Tsai also had some writing duties on the album, writing the lyrics for the song "The Prologue" (開場白), which many speculate was written about Chou. The album was re-released in July as the "Perfect Celebration Edition" with a DVD featuring music videos of all eleven of the songs on the album. She has done the same thing for ''Magic'', ''Castle'', and ''J-Game'' as well.

During the fall of 2006, Tsai began her Dancing Forever World Tour, performing concerts to sellout crowds in Asia. The huge opening concert in Hong Kong, which took place on her birthday, featured many special guests, including one of Hong Kong's top male artists Eason Chan, Taiwan's rising pop princess Rainie Yang, and Show Luo. Show Luo and Huang also made surprise appearances in other stops of her tour, however, the most shocking moment was when she kissed fellow Taiwanese diva Elva Hsiao on the lips during one of her concerts. Tsai made guest appearances at her friend Stefanie Sun's concerts, while she and popular Singaporean male artist JJ Lin took turns appearing at each other's concerts.

Tsai released another album, ''Dancing Forever'' (唯舞獨尊) in October 2006. It features two CDs and a DVD. The first disc contains all new material, including the title track and theme for her tour: "Dancing Forever". Covers of songs by Chinese divas Sandy Lam and Faye Wong and a duet called "Marry Me Today" (今天你要嫁給我)she recorded with her idol and mentor David Tao, are also included. Furthermore, she experimented with two other dialects — Taiwanese and Cantonese (the Canto version of "Pretence" is on the album). Up to this point, she had only released music in Mandarin and English. The second disc features remixes of three dance hits from ''Dancing Diva'', while the DVD features the LUX sponsored mini-concert she performed in the summer in Kaohsiung. It features Huang and Taiwanese boy band Energy.

A month later, Sony released another 2 CD compilation album called ''Jolin Favorite Live Concert Music Selection''. This album consists of remixes of popular songs Tsai recorded under Sony, as well as rare live tracks.

Tsai ended 2006 on a high note, performing hits like "Mr.Q", "A Wonder in Madrid", "Pretence" and "Dancing Diva" at several New Year countdown parties in Taiwan. Furthermore, according to g-music, ''Dancing Diva'' became the biggest selling album of the year in Taiwan, while ''Dancing Forever'' reached #15 on the year-end album sales charts. ''Dancing Diva'' accounted for 4.26% of all Mandarin album sales in Taiwan for the year, ahead of Jay Chou's ''Still Fantasy'', which placed second and accounted for 3.50%. Tsai's singles also topped year-end charts, particularly her extremely popular duet with David Tao, which is considered by many lists to be the #1 song of the year in Taiwan. Singles like "Dancing Diva," "Pretence," and "A Wonder in Madrid" were also the winners of many song awards at the end of 2006 and the start of 2007.

2007: Tsai released ''The Acquired Talent'' (地才) (DVD, photobook and poster) on June 8, which featured performances from her latest world tour and documented her hard work and perseverance in preparing for the tour. The DVD shows footage of her performing dance sequences with concert guests Luo, Huang, and Hsiao. The DVD opened at the top of the Taiwanese audio/video charts and stayed there for thirteen weeks. It is said that her new album will be coming out in mid-August or September.

On June 16, Tsai finally won at the most prestigious music awards show in Taiwan. She received the ''Most Favorite Female Artist'' and the ''Best Mandarin Female Singer Award'' at the annual 18th Golden Melody Awards. Furthermore, her duet with David Tao won the ''Best Song Award''. Tsai's win for ''Best Mandarin Female Singer'' has drawn some criticisms from netizens and industry critics due to her voice not being as strong as the other nominees (A-mei, Sandy, Angela Chang, and Penny Tai). However, many say that she won due to her all-round talent, hard work, and universal pop appeal. Regardless of the controversy surrounding this award, her other award for ''Most Favorite Female Artist'' shows the immense popularity she has around the world as the award was voted on by the fans for a couple of months prior to the awards show. She beat out many other artists such as, Fish Leong, Sun, Hsiao, Twins, A-mei, Yang, and others.

Just a few days before the release of Tsai's new album at EMI Music Taiwan, Sony released another compilation album, ''Jolin's Final Wonderland'' (Jolin夢綺地精選). This collection is the most comprehensive, featuring almost all the songs Tsai released during her time at Sony. The album includes three CDs (songs are separated into dance songs, cute songs, and love ballads), as well as a DVD with 22 music videos and a 52-page photo book.

Tsai's second album with EMI Music Taiwan, titled ''Agent J'' (特務J), was released on September 21, 2007. The album features eleven new tracks and the bonus track "Let's Move It," which was used as a promotional track in commercials for Toyota. The deluxe version of the album features a 3-part 70-minute music movie filmed in France, London, and Bangkok. The movie, costing NT 50 million to film, stars Tsai as the leather-clad Agent J and features popular Korean actor Kim Jae Won and Hong Kong stars Stephen Fung and Carl Ng. During the filming of the movie, Tsai had to learn two new forms of dance in 10 days: aerial silk dancing and poledancing, almost paralyzing her right arm and causing her to faint in the process. Hits from the album include the title track "Agent J" (特務J), the ballads "Alone" (一個人) and "Fear Free" (怕什麼), and the dance tracks "Bravo Lover" (愛無赦)(best known for its often-imitated dance steps) and "Tacit Violence" (冷‧暴力).

According to G-music Taiwan, the album accounted for 45% of album sales and over 65% of Mandarin album sales in Taiwan in its first week of release. Since its release, the album had stayed at the #1 position for two weeks. For the first time, Tsai released two more versions of the album: the Champion Special Edition (featuring 10 music videos, 4 dance instruction music videos, and a remix of Bravo Lover) and the No. 1 Special Celebration Edition (featuring the "Let's Move It" music video and her "Agent J" celebration concert featuring the best male artist at the Golden Melody Awards, Nicky Lee from Taiwanese hip-hop group Machi).

Tsai then collaborated with Australian pop queen, Kylie Minogue in a song called "In My Arms", which would be included in the Asian version of Kylie's album ''X''. Tsai was invited to the world premiere of Kylie's movie 'White Diamond', where Tsai presented Kylie with her newest album and a jade bracelet which she personally picked for her.

Soon after, Tsai traveled to Hong Kong for Christmas, attending various functions and performing and winning three awards at the 2007 Metro Showbiz Music Awards, before returning to Taiwan. Once again, Tsai ended off the year performing hits in Taiwan to celebrate the end of 2007. For the second year in a row, Tsai had the best-selling album in Taiwan. According to g-music, sales of ''Agent J'' accounted for 3.08% of all album sales in Taiwan and 5.96% of Chinese albums for the year, even higher than the numbers for ''Dancing Diva'' a year ago. ''Agent J'' also topped the year-end album charts according to Five Music, while ''The Acquired Talent'' was the best-selling music DVD of the year.

Like the previous year, Tsai also topped the Hito Top 100 Singles chart for the year. This time her song "Sun Will Never Set" was voted to be the top song of the year by over 340,000 voters.

In April 2008, Tsai incorporated newly learnt skills such as flying rings and pole dance in addition to her usual multi-style dances in her concert in Beijing's Workers' Gymnasium.

Tsai's first English album ''Love Exercise'' (愛的練習語) was released in November. The album features remakes of 10 popular English songs such as "I Won't Last A Day Without You" and "Lady Marmalade". This marked her first full-fledged venture into the English music territory. However, the lack of promotional activities leading up to the release of the album and the fact that it was pushed back from its original release date in March, contributed to lower-than-expected sales volume being recorded.

Because Tsai was not active in the Chinese music market during 2008, she was not on the year-end music charts. This broke her streak of having the year's best-selling album in Taiwan as ''Dancing Diva'' and ''Agent J'' topped the charts in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

''Love Exercise'' would mark Tsai's last studio release with EMI Music Taiwan. Similar to how Sony released a ''J-Top'' when she left the label for EMI Music Taiwan, they also released a greatest hits compilation to mark the end of Tsai's contract with them. ''Jeneration Collection 2006-2009'' (J世紀Jeneration 大牌新曲+精選盤2006-2009), a 2CD compilation of songs from ''Dancing Diva'', ''Dancing Forever'', and ''Agent J'' was released in February, packaged with a 416 page photo book with over 555 photos of the "goddess of a thousand faces." The album hit #2 on the album charts, while ''J-Top'' hit #1 back in 2006.

Warner Music Taiwan (2009–present)

Tsai's new Mandarin album, ''Butterfly'' (花蝴蝶), was released on March 27, 2009. This was her first official full-fledged album after joining Warner Music Taiwan. Early images that were released indicated that the album's image would be based on the concept of a "colorful butterfly", namely it being colorful and able to fly freely without worries. It is of her view that the songs in the album seek to encourage her fans to follow their dreams and not allow anything to hold them back from succeeding, thus the meaning of "flying high, flying freely" just like a butterfly. The production costs of ''Butterfly'' reached a new high – the 16 promotional outfits cost $2.5 million and the 6 most beautiful outfits were specially ordered from America. The album's first plug, entitled "Real Man" (大丈夫) was released and features Taiwanese rapper Nick, and was announced as the first single of the album. The album's subsequent singles, and the ballad "Compromise" (妥協)the title track "Butterfly" (花蝴蝶) were released soon after and was announced as the 2nd and 3rd single respectively. The music video for "Butterfly" features Tsai's new dance skill, ballet pirouettes, while the video for "Compromise" features one of Taiwan's biggest idol actors, Ethan Ruan. The final track on the album, "Hot Winter" (熱冬; 热冬), is a cover of a Monrose song called "Hot Summer," written by Thomas Troelsen, which later become the 6th and final single of the album.

After almost two years off the Chinese music charts, Tsai was back at the top. According to g-music Taiwan, the album accounted for 37% of all album sales in Taiwan and 68% of Chinese music sales in Taiwan in its first week. In 2009, ''Butterfly Jolin'' has the largest first-week sales of any artist. Its first week-sales were also greater than the first-week sales of the previous year's best-selling album, ''Poetry of the Day After...'' by Taiwanese band Mayday. The album spent two weeks on the top of the sales charts, outselling BoA in its second week but being overtaken by TVXQ in its third week. "Slow Life" (愈慢愈美麗) and "My Reliance" (我的依賴) became the 4th and 5th single of the album respectively.

Her song, "Slow Life" (愈慢愈美麗) has been used by almost 3,000 schools in Taiwan as their recess song to replace the bell ring.

Tsai injured her waist while holding a "school tour" in Taiwan. Due to the injury, Warner Music Taiwan announced that she would be taking a two months break from her work. In May 2009, she was invited as one of the special guests of her friend Stefanie Sun's "The Answer Is.." world tour. She subsequently performed a duet of the song "First Day"(第一天) with Stefanie in the concert.

Tsai launched her own brand of apparel, Seventy Two Changes, during Fashion Week in New York City, inspired by the star’s own distinctive style. The designs for each of the clothing sold under this brand are specially designed by Tsai herself. She also worked as a spokesperson for Shiatzy Chen.

In June 2010, Jolin appeared in the third night of her old friend, Jay Chou's concert, which shocked the audience with her appearance as a surprise guest and was the major highlight of the concert.

On July 11, Jolin attended the 2010 ''Head & Shoulders Chinese Show'' as the ambassador in Shanghai. She announced that her new album "Vogue" could be booked since early August, but the album name was later change to "Myself". It is said that to make "Vogue" more attractive, Jolin has invited the vogue teacher Benny Ninja (teacher of "America's Next Top Model") and Ahn Hyung Suk (dance teacher of Dong Bang Shin Ki, also known as TVXQ) to teach her hand-gesture-based Voguing dance.

The lead single of her album, "Honey Trap" (美人計), along with its music video, was leaked through the Internet. Two other songs, "Immediate Effect" (即時生效) and "Small Wound" (小傷口), were leaked as well,which would be the 5th and 6th single of the album. Her album was stated to supposedly be released on 3 August 2010. The album, titled ''Myself'', was released on August 13, 2010. The music video of "Love Player"(玩愛之徒), also the 2nd single of the album, feature Jolin naked in the bathtub. While the 3rd single, "Nothing Left to Say"(無言以對), feature her 1st dance in her ballad.

''Myself'' have topped the chart of G-Music for 3 consecutive weeks only to be overtaken by Hebe Tien's first solo album.However, the album rebound back to first,during its 6th week and sold higher than its debut week. The lead single, "Honey Trap"(美人計), managed to peak at Number three of the Yes 93.3 Music Chart, while "Real Hurt"(小傷口) managed to topped the Singapore Yes 93.3 Music Chart for two consecutive weeks.

The 4th single, "Butterflies in my stomach"(七上八下) was also made into an MV. "Take Immediate Effect"(即時生效) video was also released in September 2010, featuring her dog in the video and "Real Hurt"(小傷口) video was released in the 2nd week of September 2010.

Jolin made an appearance in the ''China Got Talent'' final, in which she perform "Black-Haired Beautiful Girl" (黑髮尤物). The winner of the ''China Got Talent'', Liu Wei, got to perform in Jolin's subsequent World Tour.

In 2011,Jolin will be continuing on her Myself World Tour,in support of her album,Myself,which spanned around Asia,which consist of her performing another dangerous stunt and songs.

Fund-raising

After the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Tsai was one of the first few artists to contribute to the Earthquake Relief Fund. She, together with Jay Chou, S.H.E, Jiang Hui and over 100 celebrities appeared in the “Send Out Your Love” fundraising disaster relief show on the 18th of May to help raise more funds to help the victims.

References

External links

Jolin@Warner Music Taiwan Jolin@Gold Typhoon formerly EMI Music Taiwan (2006–2009) Mars Entertainment Ltd Jolin's 'I Love Super' blog Jolin's Sina Blog Jolin's Sina Microblog WeiBo 微博

Category:1980 births Category:Living people Category:Taiwanese aborigines Category:Taiwanese female singers Category:Taiwanese Mandopop singers Category:Fu Jen Catholic University alumni Category:MTV Viewer's Choice Award winners Category:People from New Taipei

zh-min-nan:Chhoà I-lîm ca:Jolin Tsai cs:Jolin Tsai de:Jolin Tsai es:Jolin Tsai eo:Jolin Tsai fr:Jolin Tsai ko:차이이린 id:Jolin Tsai hu:Jolin Tsai my:ဂျိုလင်းချိုက် nl:Jolin Tsai ja:蔡依林 pl:Jolin Tsai pt:Jolin Tsai fi:Jolin Tsai tl:Jolin Tsai th:โจลิน ไซ vi:Thái Y Lâm zh:蔡依林

Xiao Yanling (; born 27 April 1968) is a Chinese discus thrower. Her personal best throw was 71.68 metres, achieved in March 1992 in Beijing. This is the current Asian record.

She won the gold medal at the 1991 Summer Universiade and the bronze medal at the 1998 Asian Championships.

Achievements

{| |- !colspan="5"|Representing |- |1997 |East Asian Games |Busan, South Korea |bgcolor="gold" | 1st |63.82 m |- |1998 |Asian Championships |Fukuoka, Japan |bgcolor="cc9966" | 3rd |53.32 m |- |1991 |World Championships |Tokyo, Japan |11th |61.20 m |}

References

Tsvetanka Khristova|title=Women's Discus Best Year Performance|years=1992|after= Larisa Korotkevich}} Ilke Wyludda|title=Women's Discus Best Year Performance|years=1997|after= Franka Dietzsch}}

Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:Chinese discus throwers

it:Xiao Yanling pl:Xiao Yanling