Taiwan singers vs Hong Kong singers - old and new, which group will win?

[Jirehmy]

Post your thoughts here...

[sweetcandy520]

what do you mean group will win?
like group {eg. twins, S.H.E} or group as in HK and TW as a whole

[Jirehmy]

what do you mean group will win?
like group {eg. twins, S.H.E} or group as in HK and TW as a whole

I mean HK and TW as a whole.

I would say:
80s to mid-90s - Hong Kong
Mid-90s to present - Taiwan

[Canuck21]

HK hands down.

[Guo Xiang]

Taiwan do have a number of good singers, but they are either low profile or are kept to only Taiwan because of their focus on Hokkien language.

[big master]

taiwan! all because of : lee hom, david tao and jay chou

[Jilly]

taiwan! all because of : lee hom, david tao and jay chou

I second that. Add A-Mei and Tank to the list

[Trinie]

Taiwan do have a number of good singers, but they are either low profile or are kept to only Taiwan because of their focus on Hokkien language.

I don't really agree with that since there are a lot of good singers in Taiwan that are known outside of Taiwan as well. For example, Jay Zhou, Tank, the group SHE, F4, A Mei, Winnie Hsin, 5566, and many other groups from Taiwan are really well known and sing very well. For HK, it is more of the individual singers, but a lot of my favorites are now retired. Therefore, most of the new singers now aren't so great. I don't think there are any famous groups from HK though( at least I can't think of any off the top of my head).

[girllikeme]

For old, I believe that HK will win, but for new? Certainly Taiwan; by miles. Majority of the HK artist's today can't sing live.

[Guo Xiang]

I don't really agree with that since there are a lot of good singers in Taiwan that are known outside of Taiwan as well. For example, Jay Zhou, Tank, the group SHE, F4, A Mei, Winnie Hsin, 5566, and many other groups from Taiwan are really well known and sing very well. For HK, it is more of the individual singers, but a lot of my favorites are now retired. Therefore, most of the new singers now aren't so great. I don't think there are any famous groups from HK though( at least I can't think of any off the top of my head).

I was actually not referring to these Mandarin mainstream singers.

[AndyChrono]

I would say:
80s to mid-90s - Hong Kong
Mid-90s to present - Taiwan

Definately agree. To be more specific:

Old
All-around: HK
Males: Definately HK (4 Kings)
Females: TW (Teresa Teng pretty much defined the era.)

New
All-around: TW
Males: TW (Jay, Lee-Hom, JJ Lin, etc.)
Females: TW (A-mei alone already trumps any current HK female)

[LuNaR]

Definately agree. To be more specific:

Old
All-around: HK
Males: Definately HK (4 Kings)
Females: TW (Teresa Teng pretty much defined the era.)

New
All-around: TW
Males: TW (Jay, Lee-Hom, JJ Lin, etc.)
Females: TW (A-mei alone already trumps any current HK female)

responding to comment on bold:

then who is anita mui? sally yeh? priscilla chan? wong faye? sammi cheng? shirkey kwan? cass pang? and much more, im just naming a few here

ok anyways here is my response to the topic

old male: HK
old female: HK
new male: TW
new female HK

other than eason chan, and maybe hins cheung/justin lo, i see little talent in new HK male singers. (im counting leo ku as old).

and the new female TW singers are all.... trying to act cute i know HK singers are like that too, but theres some talent i see (mainly, janice vidal, denise ho, joey yung, stephanie cheng, stephy)

[libby96]

i like taiwan singers a lot more. all hk singers i know (i only know 2) tend to sing in canto. its mainly because i don't know that many hk singers though.

[AndyChrono]

responding to comment on bold:

then who is anita mui? sally yeh? priscilla chan? wong faye? sammi cheng? shirkey kwan? cass pang? and much more, im just naming a few here

Pretty insignificant compared to Teresa. Only Faye Wong is really worth mentioning but most of her best work came around the time of Teresa's death or after so if anything she would be considered in the "new" category.

[LuNaR]

Pretty insignificant compared to Teresa. Only Faye Wong is really worth mentioning but most of her best work came around the time of Teresa's death or after so if anything she would be considered in the "new" category.

umm the 4 kings work are spread throughout the 90s ... so shouldnt they also be considered "new" according to ur standards then?

ps: i was just wondering why anita mui is not even worth mentioning? she is considered the asian madanna.

[Ian Liew]

If old means 80s to mid-90s then it's after Teresa Teng's time, really. That's the era of Anita Mui and Sally Yeh. Even Lisa Wang, Frances Yip and Jennifer Yen might be counted for their work in the early 80s, tipping the scales more in favour of HK. In the 70s Teresa Teng would have conquered the world. Faye Wong (then still called Wong Ching Man, I think) probably never made it big until the mid to late 90s. The era also had the very underrated Lam Yik Lin, and a huge number of talented singers who for some reason or another seemed to have a hit or two then disappeared.

80s to mid 90s I never listened to Taiwanese, so it's probably unfair, but I'd think that HK would win. Forget the so-called Heavenly Kings who, apart from Jacky Cheung, were a laughing stock when they first came out, that was the era of Alan Tam and Leslie Cheung, who between them probably accounted for every single Canto pop music fan in the world. Others like Lui Fong, George Lam were also extremely talented singers. Taiwan had singers like Liu Wen Chen and Wang Chieh (who sang a lot of wonderful songs for HK), but not sure how hot he was compared to the HK singers.

There were groups in HK, although not many, Wynners were still around in the (very) early 80s, then there was Beyond, Tat Ming Yat Pair, Radias, the group comprising Tong Bou Yue, Winnie Lau and a few others, Grasshoppers and I'm sure I've missed some.

From the mid 90s to now I believe Taiwan has come a long way, not just in music quality, but in marketing. The HK TVB marketing machine led us to believe for 15 years that nothing else existed in that part of the world worth listening to, but even I found myself listening to Mandarin songs (and I'm not very good at Mandarin). Probably because even the HK artistes started singing in Mandarin - people such as Emil Chow, Kelly Chen, both of whom are really good singers. That opened the floodgates and exposed much of HK pop for what it was then. A lot of flair and marketing, but with several exceptions - notably the amazing Jacky Cheung, the rapidly improving Andy Lau, the Malaysian import Eric Moo, Emil Chow, Kelly Chen, Faye Wong and several others - most of them couldn't compare with the Taiwanese.

I'd vote for the HK in the first half, Taiwan in the second.

[Ken Cheng]

I have to concur that the Golden Age of Cantopop was circa 1974-1994. It started with Sam Hui, Sandra Sin (Sindokla), and the Wynners in the 1970s...peaked with Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung, and Anita Mui in the 1980s...and kind of plateaued with the Four Kings in the 1990s. Personally, I feel Cantopop after about 1988 was rather boring and predictable. The 1980s had some pretty rocking stuff, though...with Tat Ming and Raidas (honest to goodness ROCK bands...a rarity in Cantopop). Anita Mui's late 1980s stuff was great too (although she had to credit the Japanese songwriters whose hits she adapted for the Hong Kong audience).

[BlueBelle]

HK hands down.

Agree

taiwan! all because of : lee hom, david tao and jay chou

Agree

I second that. Add A-Mei and Tank to the list

Agree and add Mayday, Shin, F.I.R. & S.H.E. to the list as well

[BlueBelle]

I have to concur that the Golden Age of Cantopop was circa 1974-1994. It started with Sam Hui, Sandra Sin (Sindokla), and the Wynners in the 1970s...peaked with Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung, and Anita Mui in the 1980s...and kind of plateaued with the Four Kings in the 1990s. Personally, I feel Cantopop after about 1988 was rather boring and predictable. The 1980s had some pretty rocking stuff, though...with Tat Ming and Raidas (honest to goodness ROCK bands...a rarity in Cantopop). Anita Mui's late 1980s stuff was great too (although she had to credit the Japanese songwriters whose hits she adapted for the Hong Kong audience).

Just want to share this with everyone here. While HK have the popular artists mentioned above, Taiwan have following famous & talented artists:

70s 姚苏蓉, 张琍敏, 高凌风, 刘文正 Steven Liu, 凤飞飞, 黄莺莺 Tracy Huang, 陈淑桦, 尤雅

80s 费翔, 费玉清, 崔健, 黄仲昆, 刘家昌, 李宗盛, 罗大佑, 罗时丰, 童安格, 齐秦, 林隆璇 Kevin Lam, 伍思凯 Sky Wu, 张雨生 Chang Yu Sheng, 周华健 Emil Chau, 欧阳菲菲 AuYeung Fei Fei, 蔡琴, 张小英, 蔡幸娟, 崔苔菁, 高胜美, 韩宝仪, 李碧华, 江蕙, 蓝心湄, 林慧萍, 龙飘飘, 叶瑷菱, 潘美辰, 潘越云 MICHELLE PAN, 齐豫, 裘海正, 苏芮 Julie Su, 娃娃, 杨林, 赵咏华, 伊能静, 张清芳

90s 伍佰 Wu Bai, 黄安, 黄品源 Huang Pin-Yuan, 林志炫 Terry Lin, 邰正宵 Samuel, 熊天平, 游鸿明 Chris Yu, 庾澄庆, 张洪量 Chang Hung-Liang, 张信哲 Jeff Chang, 张宇 Phil Chang, 陈明真 Jane Chen, 李翊君, 梁雁翎, 林淑容, 辛晓琪 WINNIE HSIN, 孟庭苇, 刘若英 Rene Liu, 彭佳慧 Julia Pang, 苏慧伦 Tracy Su, 万芳, 许茹芸 Valen Hsu, 张惠妹 Ah-mei

And of course the most popular Teresa Teng.

[AndyChrono]

umm the 4 kings work are spread throughout the 90s ... so shouldnt they also be considered "new" according to ur standards then?

My standards? I tend to divide old and new into the following.

Old: Roughly anything before 1994-1995 or so. Chinese music in general still had a distinct oriental sound to it and not so much Western influence.

New: Anything after 1995 or so when Chinese music started to mix in more Western influences.

Some artists like Teresa Teng and Jay Chou fall easily into one category or the other. Others like say Sandy Lam or Faye Wong or the 4 Kings I would partition them based on which period their most well-known works were put out. Thus Sandy Lam and Faye Wong would be in the new category and the 4 Kings would be considered old. Hope that clears things up a bit.

ps: i was just wondering why anita mui is not even worth mentioning? she is considered the asian madanna

Because no artist in Chinese music history, male or female, deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Teresa Teng as far as popularity, talent, and cultural impact are concerned. Michael Jackson was popular, talented, and definately made an impact on the music industry. But when you compare him to Elvis he's insignificant.