张国荣 & 黄家驹

[Ian_Lee]

I browse a lot of Mainland forums and discover that strangely there are many fans of 张国荣 & 黄家驹. Both of them had seldom stepped on the soil of Mainland when they were alive and their songs were almost all Cantonese.

[skylee]

Perhaps Leslie Cheung was/is popular on the mainland mainly because of his acting career? Farewell to my Concubine is a lot of people's favourite. And there are those films made by Wong Kar Wai, like Days of Being Wild and Happy Together. He was actually a very good actor.

黃家駒 had a special voice and was fairly unique in his time.

[roddy]

Why on earth is it strange? There are plenty of singers who have never been to China and sing in languages even more foreign than Cantonese but are popular on the mainland. Radio, TV, the Internet - they're all here, Ian

Cheung I think is better known as an actor.

[Ian_Lee]

I am curious about the popularity of 黄家驹 because:

(1) He died 14 years ago -- in Japan in 1993;

(2) Unlike Cheung, Wong had gradually been forgotten in HK;

(3) Most of his fans in Mainland were toddlers at the year of Wong's death;

(4) There are even legends/rumors in those Mainland forums that singer Wong actually didn't die but hibernated somewhere in Japan.

[zhwj]

The Beyond sound is distinct enough from standard Mandarin pop music that even if the language was a problem (and it may not be - singing bad Cantonese in imitation of HK pop stars has a certain cachet among KTV-going folk) it appeals to people looking for something different. It's "rock & roll" but still familiar, unlike the less popular mainland rock stuff. The tragic death didn't hurt either, I'm sure.

Leslie I can't explain other than the fact that he's a charmer - his mainland fanbase was well-established by the time of his suicide. I'm not sure if his reputation rests on those quality Wong Kar-wai and Chen Kaige films, though - at least from what I've seen of the fan base, it's more generic pop star appeal.

Of course, it's not hard to find fans of pretty much anything online.