Wild childs wacky styles
Musician Shang Wenjies
wedding dress outlandish fashion statements say more than most care to hear. Han Bingbin reports. When Chinese people call Shang Wenjie "Chinas Lady Gaga", its not meant as a compliment. Rather, the moniker conveys disdain for her imitation of Western fashion.
Shang traipses across red carpets with half her face painted yellow, her hair curled into a ball of frizzled wool, a mask shaped like an eagles beak or headgear shaped like a birds nest. Such daring antics have earned her another nickname - "Leiren Jiaomu", which translates as, "Lady Shock". To these detractors, she has failed to live up to the role of being Chinas Lady Gaga.
Her current image would have been unimaginable when the former French
cheap jerseys major at Shanghais Fudan University first appeared in the "fair lady" role of the 2006 Super Girl reality TV singing competition, Chinas take on American Idol. Shang dressed more conservatively than the other contestants and barely moved onstage. She projected what audiences widely considered a "petty bourgeois" identity, marked by reticence, elegance and arrogance.
Kevin Tsai, the Taiwan talk show host who judged the competition in 2006, said: "I would love to hear you sing jazz in a little pub." Then, people were more likely to liken her to Norah Jones or Ono Lisa. Her transformation has sparked
custom wedding dress speculation that her subsequent flamboyance is actually contrived by her publicists. Some believe she, too, is struggling to come to grips with her esoteric appearance.
She says her musical style is about to take a turn for the fantastical, too, as she will become more experimental in her writing. Her latest release, La Muse de la Nuit, for example, fuses traditional Chinese instruments, rap, ancient Indian melodies, Southeast Asian religious music and French lyrics. The tune is the lead song of her upcoming album, In, to be released in late August. She hopes to sell it in the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea.
Shang also hopes the album can lead a musical fusion trend. She wrote 80 percent of the music and lyrics, she says. Shang says the album takes inspiration from Jean-Francois Maljean, the Belgium musician who combines genres, such as piano, Kunqu Opera, electronic organs
cheap wow gold and ethnic music from Southwest China. "Chinas culturally profound musical genres can gain greater recognition overseas if combined with recognizable Western elements," she says. "Not everyone has adapted to my musical style. But I like to be a pioneer, who most people dont understand."