Teresa Teng

Teresa Teng TENG LICHÜN Chinese singer born Jan 29 1953 Yünlin county Taiwandied May 8 1995 Chiang Mai Thailand was a superstar throughout East Asia and was especially admired in her homeland where she earned the affection of fans by entertaining troops with her renditions of Mandarin love songs Although she repeatedly declined invitations to visit the Peoples Republic of China pirated recordings of her songs could be found even in remote villages The governments effort to ban Tengs songs as spiritual pollution proved futile Her popularity was so great that it was said to rival that of Deng Xiaoping Teng Hsiaoping Chinas paramount leader with whom she shared a surname A popular saying was that Old Deng ruled the day and Little Teng the night Her transnational success was attributed to her multilingualism she sang in Mandarin Cantonese Japanese and English her clear and sweet vocals and her heartrending love songs which appealed to both young and old in such farflung locations as China Malaysia Singapore Indonesia and Japan where in 1975 she was crowned the best new artist and won top prize at the 18th Album Awards Some of her most popular albums include Faded Feelings 1983 Im in Your Debt 1984 and The Unforgettable Teresa Teng 1992 Before her death Teng had taken up residence in France where she was able to live comfortably off her Japanese royalties She was vacationing in Thailand when she suffered a fatal asthma attack