Is adorable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee-Hom_Wang
For example, piano man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC5IZKsx4nQ
^—Rough translation of bookending pointless banter, sloppily recorded here for my own amusement (preserving grammar for hilarity > actual translating):
Interviewer dude: SHOW TIME! Why do I say “show time” now?
Lee-hong: I don’t know.
dude: Because someone is going to perform!!!
Lee-hong: Really???
dude: Yeeah!
Lee-hong: Is maybe… a piano man???
dude: Is a piano man! Not only that, is a violin man!
Lee-hong: OK!
dude: Do you have lots of chances to perform these things?
Lee-hong: Very few.
dude: Your best instrument is what?
Lee-hong: Uhh, right now, piano is chasing up to violin. Because, because–
dude: Violin is your most ___ right? (I’m assuming it means “most studied” or “what you’re best at,” I don’t know the phrase he uses, “sang4 chang2”)
Lee-hong: Right, violin is my most “sang chang.”
dude: Eh! Then the electric guitar and drums and stuff, those were from later when you were doing “band” then started to “play” (he used the word “play” as in “play around,” or “play games,” pronounced “wang,” not the “play” you usually use for instruments, which is “tang”) (he also used the word for “do” and then the english word “band.” this amuses me greatly. I’m going to do band now)
Lee-hong: Yeah, yeah, those I picked up in my teens.
dude: So the ones that you really practiced were violin and piano.
Lee-hong: Piano at 18 I started. So I’m saying, piano’s chasing up to violin.
dude: Did you have a guo4 chen2 (???? I’m assuming it means teacher)… /makes smacking noise
Lee-hong: No…
dude: kapow! Some teachers will… /makes gestures to hands
Lee-hong: Nono, because I myself wanted to learn.
dude: You yourself wanted to learn. If you feel like you yourself don’t play well, piano goes CLANG /makes motion of … a piano eating his hands I guess. /cackles and says “so hard” in english
Lee-hong: /mumbles something about having to discipline yourself I think
dude: You need to have the Force in order to improve. Ok. So today’s showtime, is just, we have wang lee-hong. And a piano. And piano’s most important song, piano man. Billy Joel!
I like him for these reasons, which are all obvious:
1. Chinese (Taiwanese)-American
2. Tall, slim
3. Sings like he means it, beautiful voice
4. Plays the piano
5. Plays the guitar, electric guitar, drums, mandolin, flute, er-hu, kazakstan instrument thing, others
6. Fluent in English, Mandarin chinese, cantonese, and japanese. Also tries to speak french in some interviews.
7. Not only fluent but woefully articulate. My siblings and mom and I sat around and watched this five-part interview conducted wholly in chinese that I could barely understand and he knew how to say “kazakhstan” in chinese. He also talked about how khoomei and throat singing are the same thing, only they call it khoomei in mongolia, and demonstrated his own fledgeling khoomei ability in that interview. He talked about how tribal chants he heard are like Nelly’s rapping: on so and do. He also made fun of the interviewer’s ass. Let’s see, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzNG2d1ltsE (be warned, there are five parts to this interview) (although it is very amusing. so like apparently these people have this show, and they both took one word from each of their names, and that’s some emperor’s name, so the show is _ _ lai le which means “the emperor is here.” also the girl is called xiao S (little S) because her big sister da s (big s) is another prominent entertainer in taiwan or something)
Reasons to sort of have doubts:
1. I don’t even really know his music. It’s more his aura, or simply that he’s chinese-american, and sings really well, and plays every instrument, and is Vienna Teng except a different genre and language and uh, totally different. Yeeaaaaaahhhh
2. “Chinked-out” …? Um. I’m inclined to want to like this music, which isn’t the same as saying I like it. I’m actually very intrigued: traditional asian music put into hip hop, ancient eastern art forms incorporated into modern western music, but I don’t really … I don’t really like chinese pop-rap. Or chinese pop. It’s too… sickeningly sweet. Or something. And I don’t very much approve of the term he’s chosen for himself (he explains it in interviews very seriously. “You know how Snoop Dogg is pimped out? I’m chinked out.” Yeah. Yeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.) I can’t really stomach what few music videos I’ve watched. Too much synchronized posturing, bopping around. But those other acoustic performances with him on a piano have me smitten. “ba wo men do mi se le”
etc.
I found out about him because my grandma mentioned in passing that when our cousins in new jersey found out she knew his grandmother, they asked for an autograph. I was like “sorry, never heard of that guy,” and my sister said “what?? can i have an autograph too?” so I made her look him up on youtube for me. My sister is hipper than I am. (We can’t really get autographs because my grandma doesn’t live in Taiwan anymore, btw.) (We were talking about taiwanese artists because they were looking for chinese CDs and we came across and watched this video of coco lee. She’s sickeningly cute.) How come none of you have ever told me about him? I like pop music (or do I? /with disclaimers above, I guess) and I like chinese things and I like cute boys. This is right up my alley.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esyr45Cjm88 <–chou jie wen (jay chou) and wang lee hong interviewed about each other. this is a pretty cute video. leehong is really… cute
Man, my livejournal is disgusting.