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Jay Chou: I was scolded as a child with limited intelligence since I was little
by kelvin@multistars - 31st January 2004I was called as a child with limited intelligence since I was little, scolded as being stupid, maths, English, etc.... subjects, I was completely ignorant at all of them. When I was 4, mother sent me to learn piano, all day I only wanted to play, when the practise time went over I just couldn't sit still, but mother would have her eyes fixed on me at anytime, using a pencil to hit my hand, it super hurt. One time I was naughty and didn't practise, mother was very angry, she shouted at me regardless of face: "OK, if you don't want to learn piano then leave." She even forcefully dragged me out. I rebelled as a rebel, but I was very crap at it, I grabbed onto the chair strongly and said: "Don't! Don't drive me out."
It was fortunate that I had my mother's persistence, only then can I make music, when I was 14 I wrote my first piece "Everlasting" (when I listen to it now it is very "common"), at that time Chow Yung Fat, Leslie Cheung and Andy Lau's movies were very popular, this song was written after watching the romantic art love movies they acted in. Once I graduated from high school, I went to brother Xian's company (Jacky Wu), at that time I didn't have anything to do, I only occasionally wrote songs; afterwards brother Xian arranged for me to go to his restaurant to sing and play, every week I would sing two days, on average I only earned about $1500 every week, even though I could take tips, actually I couldn't live on my income.
Wait and wait, at last I waited to my first album being released, I was very confident towards my own work, but I was very clear that the market response is very realistic, if the fans don't like it then they don't like it. Until one day when I went to nurse school to sing, I sang onstage, I saw the girls below screaming, not only this but they followed singing every song, in my heart I thought: "Hm! Full of diao, looks like I've really become popular."
These few years I've rushed about all over the place, working without interruption, indeed it is very tiring, but if you let me choose again, I would still sing, write songs, and the benefit this industry brings, lets me and my family live a little better. At least now when I buy things, there's no need for me to worry that I cannot bear the burden, if I didn't make this money because of singing, I would probably take a long time to consider buying this sofa. Even though it's like this, I still have a persistence towards music as "diao" being the principle, only then will it make someone improve, that is you need to have an individuality to make music, not following the wave, not walking on the same path someone else has walked on.