Mao Ning -- a blast from the past

[PJ]

Recently I recovered an old hard drive from 5+ years ago, including some songs that I hadn't heard in a long time. It was from this opportunity where I rediscovered the music of Mao Ning -- the Chinese singer who was popularized in the early 90s with the hit "Taosheng Yijiu".

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It occurred to me that I haven't heard any of his news for a while, so I looked him up. And I found this:

Coming out of the closet

You get the picture just by reading the headline.

Here is a relevant text:

The biggest story in recent times, the scandal surrounding singer Mao Ning, hit the headlines in November 2000 after he was hospitalized with stab wounds, inflicted by a jealous boyfriend. Suicide attempts and press conferences by ex-lovers fanned the tabloid flames, and numerous photographs testifying to their own ongoing relationships with the star were made public.

Mao Ning doesn't get much sympathy from many in China's homosexual communities, and certainly has not assumed the mantle of gay icon. "Mao Ning only came out because he had to," says Paul, a 26-year-old artist living in Beijing. "I think gay people just feel sorry for him. He's definitely not as popular as he used to be."

Daniel in Shenzhen agrees. "If he bought sex, then that's OK," he says. "Plenty of people do it, and people would have forgiven him. But he represents and image of Chinese gay people. Now he's announced he's getting married [to a woman] … if he's not brave enough to stand up, then we don't want him to be our face."

I'm not sure of the details surrounding his stabbing incident(s), but it seems unfair to me that he should be condemned for his sexual preference by advocates on both sides. I don't imagine that coming out in China would be a comfortable thing to do, and the gay community there should not put pressure on Mao Ning.

Anyway, the song I like the most from him is 蓝 蓝 的 夜，蓝 蓝 的 梦

[Lady Zhuge]

I don't care about Mao Ning's sexual preference or personal life, but I do like his singing. My favorite song is Xin Yu (心雨), a duet with Yang Yu Ying. Most recently he performed Ye Shang (夜殇), the ending theme song for the TV series "Huo Yuan Jia" along with Chen Ming and Tian Xia (天下), the opening theme song for "Ming Dynasty." He also sang Pu Tong Ying Xiong (普通英雄), the opening theme song for "Ping Zong Xia Ying."