Sarah Chen the Therapist

Analysis of Dream Awakening 梦醒时分(陈淑桦/陳淑樺)

Dream Awakening (梦醒时分), 1989  Sarah Chen (陈淑桦/陳淑樺) 

中文版:心理医生陈淑桦

Sarah Chen (陈淑桦;陳淑樺) is not just a singer or a magician, but also a therapist for the masses. This page delves into her top hit, "Dream To Awakening" (梦醒时分), to explain its impact and Sarah Chen's role. 

Online view data are used to evaluate two competing hypotheses: the "Urban Woman Hypothesis" and a new "Sarah the Therapist" Hypothesis

Rock Records YouTube: Dream Awakening

Background and Popularity

"Dream To Awakening" is the opening track from Sarah Chen (陈淑桦;陳淑樺)'s record-breaking 1989 album "Talk to You, Listen to You," the first album in Taiwan to surpass 1-million sales. Jonathan Lee composed the piece and was the producer of the album.

"Dream To Awakening" sent shockwaves through Taiwan's society and music scene upon its release in 1989, catapulting Sarah Chen to the status of "the diva of divas" and earning her the honorary title of "voice of urban women." It arrived at a time when women were increasingly moving to urban areas of Taiwan for white-collar jobs, often having to work harder than men and sacrifice their personal lives. Sarah Chen represented this demographic, serving as a friend and counselor for those in need of comfort amidst personal heartbreaks. But the song is not gendered; the message resonated with all genders and a wide age range

As of April 2024, on YouTube, the Rock Records channel MV garnered 37M views, a Live Performance from TVMoron1 received 21M views, and four separate Sarah Chen channels received a total of 20M views. The Chinese music site bilibili had at least 5M views, with most uploads less than 3 years old. Spotify garnered about 12M replays. 

A conservative estimate is that this song has received 100 million views. Had YouTube and Spotify not being banned in China, which comprised 98% of the Chinese-speaking population, the song would likely have been played 4-5 billion times.

Lyrics

The following is an interpreted translation

Why so popular?

The Urban Woman Hypothesis. The prevailing view of the song's popularity is the Urban Woman Hypothesis, which attributes the success of the song and album to the genius of Jonathan Lee, particularly his efforts to shape Sarah Chen into the image of an urban woman (including the short, gender-neutral haircut) to meet the societal needs of the 1980s-1990s Taiwan. Its success was built upon the two preceding albums, Heart of a Woman (1988) and Tomorrow, Will You Still Love me (1988). These three albums contained songs that, according to Lee, transformed Sarah Chen from a singer of melancholic tunes to a modern, urban woman, making her more relatable to her audience. 

Lee summarized this view in "A Letter to Sarah" (2003). According to Lee, "Sarah fulfilled my dream," and "although not always willing, Sarah tried to fit the image." In addition, the two 1988 albums aimed to "completely wash away Sarah's past." In the same documentary, while other colleagues affirmed Lee's role, they gave more credit to Sarah Chen. 

Sarah the Therapist Hypothesis. The online view data, most of which came from the last decade, however, suggests that the success of "Dream Awakening" is not tied to the societal needs of the 1980s-1990s Taiwan. The alternative hypothesis, Sarah the Therapist Hypothesis, attributes the song's success to Sarah Chen's ability to function as a mental health counselor on a massive scale. Specifically, the song's success stems from its delivery of a psychologically important message by the most competent therapist. The songwriting is credited to Lee, while Chen's performance is credited for its effectiveness as therapy. As the best and most effective therapist, Chen is crucial for the success of this song. 

Screenshot of Sarah Chen singing Dream Awakening live, for the line "Love is hard to part and hard to break."

What makes the song therapeutic?

In the song, the singer assumes the role of a friend, counselor, and advisor,  and draws from her life experiences. The first few lines convey her empathetic understanding, while the subsequent lines deliver a message of letting go and moving on from heartbreaks. 

In essence, "Dream To Awakening" functions as psychological therapy, effective only when administered by the right therapist. She must possess life experience, wisdom without arrogance, and deeply felt empathy. Many singers attempted to perform this song in later years. Most successful were renditions by Sandy Lam (2.8M views) and Faye Wong (0.6M views), two singers with comparable diva status as Sarah Chen. But they fell far short of Chen's rendition.

Data from online views show that "Dream To Awakening" is popular because it's psychological therapy at its finest, delivered by the best therapist, and done on a massive scale.

Sarah the Therapist Hypothesis

Sarah Chen is Essential: The lack of competing versions of "Dream To Awakening," coupled with Sarah Chen's remarkably high play counts from the last decade, proves that Sarah Chen is the only artist who could have generated such a profound impact. Therefore, she deserves most of the credit for the song, perhaps 90%. The 10% attributed to the songwriter and other collaborators is still significant.

The Song Is Not Tied to the Image or Social Needs of Urban Women: Contrary to the predictions of the Urban Woman Hypothesis, historical evidence refutes its assertions. First, the video with the highest view-count on bilibili was Sarah Chen's 1993 live performance, featuring her with long hair,  suggesting that her appearance as a short-haired urban woman is unimportant. Second, the high play counts came from the past decade (i.e., since 2011), demonstrating that the song's popularity is not tied to the societal needs of 1980s-1990s Taiwan. Third, contemporary audiences have limited knowledge of Sarah Chen's preceding albums or personal history, yet they still love her performance of this song, indicating that the popularity of "Dream To Awakening" lies in the song and its performance, rather than in any personal transformation. Thus, data from the last 3 decades refute the three key assertions of the Urban Woman Theory. 

People want to see Sarah Chen

Importantly, the staggering number of views shows that people want to see Sarah Chen, not merely to listen to her. Because Chen did not generate this kind of viewership in her other live performances or MVs, her handsome features failed to explain the high view counts of "Dream To Awakening." The Sarah as Therapist account provides an explanation: the song is therapeutic and best done face-to-face. People want to see Sarah Chen performing this song because watching her is reassuring and comforting.

The 650 Years of Therapy by Sarah Chen 

The 1989 album, "Talk to You, Listen to You," is Sarah Chen administering therapy to the masses. She had the experience, wisdom, purity of heart, and humility necessary to be an effective therapist. She was singing from her heart to her listeners'. She had perfected the magic of breathing life into every line, every word, and every syllable she sang. She will not solve her listeners' problems, but she has a comforting message for them to go on because she's been there, done that. 

Thus, online view data strongly support "Sarah the Therapist Hypothesis," affirming that it is Sarah Chen's performance that made "Dream To Awakening" successful, rather than efforts to transform Sarah Chen's image into an urban woman

How much impact did Sarah Chen generate? Over the last decade, viewers have collectively spent a staggering 380 million minutes, or 723 years, watching "Dream Awakening." Assuming a 90% share for Sarah Chen's part, she may claim credit for administering 650 years of therapy.

Open source image: A therapy session

Problems with the Urban Woman Theory

The strong endorsement of the Urban Woman Theory is puzzling. Upon first glance, the theory is sound because it captures the motivation of the producers. At the time, there was no contradictory data to indicate that their effort was irrelevant. However, new data from recent decades indicate that the success of the song lies in Sarah Chen's performance rather than any personal history of transformation. Here, we note several additional problems with the Urban Woman Theory.

Conflict of Interest: First,  while the album proved beneficial for both Chen and Lee, as acknowledged by Sarah Chen in a 1993 interview, the Urban Woman Theory sheds positive light on the producers while casting a negative shadow on the singer. Proposed by the producers, this theory represents a potential conflict of interest, so it must pass a higher standard before acceptance. At the minimum, it needs to: (1) clarify what needs to be transformed and why; (2) demonstrate ways in which transformation has happened; (3) prove that the the transformation is the cause of the song's success. The theory failed on all three.

Lack of Articulation about the What and Why of transformation. Based on the 2003 "A Letter to Sarah," the producers aimed to "completely wash away Sarah's past," such as being a singer of sad songs. New songs were written to capture modern women's feelings. However, it was incorrect to describe the old Sarah as one who sang only sad songs. She produced some of the most delightful songs (e.g., "Sunset Follows Me Home," "Wandering the World"). One of the saddest songs Sarah Chen performed was in a transformation album (Heart of A Woman), titled "That Year I was 25." Why including such songs if Chen should deviate from singing sad songs? In addition, Sarah Chen's old songs were by no means old-styled. It had a mixture of Western and Eastern music, pop and MinYao, often capturing complex emotions and sophisticated relationships. In fact, Chen's EMI albums sold at record-breaking pace; she also just won the prestigious Golden Bell Best Singer award. Rock Records were excited to sign her in 1986. They had, in their hands, the best singer and the "standard bearer."  It seems wise to build on the strength of such a prized singer rather than washing away her past. 

No proof that transformations actually took place. Second, it's unclear what had transformed from 1986 to 1989 for Sarah Chen. Surely it's not superficial things like wearing a tote bag and cutting hair short. Is it Sarah Chen's singing? Well, it did not change significantly relative to, say her 1983 work. There were subtle changes in her vocal quality and skills, but that could just be age and experience rather than anything else. Image-wise, she had previously been building an image of a gentle and graceful woman. But she didn't lose that signature: she was gentle and graceful in her performance of "Dream To Awakening," which may be the crucial reason why her performance was so effective. Or was Sarah herself transformed? This seems both unlikely and unrealistic - personality is a stable trait; it's foolish to expect a singer to change into what they sing, much as expecting an actor to become who they portray. So what was transformed? 

No proof that the transformation attempt caused the song's success. Superstition often arises due to spurious correlation, such as attributing the recovery from a viral infection to the antibiotics one took. Likewise, just because the producers aimed to transform Sarah Chen's image does not mean that the attempt caused the song's success. View-count data from the past decade showed that the success of "Dream Awakening" is attributable to Sarah Chen's effectiveness as a therapist, rather than any transformation of her image. 

The Urban Woman Theory had harmful effects. Unfortunately, the transformation theory is not harmless. It places Sarah Chen in a subordinate role and under negative light, as if she harbored a terrible past in need of transformation. Its negative impact was already felt in 1993. When Shanghai TV had an opportunity to interview Sarah Chen, they decided to ask her to describe Jonathan Lee rather than herself. Fast forward to 2024, nearly three-decades after Chen's departure, it is not uncommon to encounter websites online that describe Lee as Sarah Chen's "Noble Person" (贵人). Lee looms large in online biographies of Sarah Chen as if she owed her career to him. 

Society's acceptance of male dominance. The widespread acceptance of the Urban Woman theory, despite the apparent conflict of interest and lack of evidence, reflects a sobering reality of our society: the implicit endorsement of men's dominance. Imagine if the roles had been reversed, and Chen had produced an album that the Best Male Singer, Jonathan Lee, sang. Would Sarah have made the same claims about her role in molding Jonathan, washing away his past, and having her dreams fulfilled by him? Would she? If she did, would society have accepted her claims? If the answers are "no", then why is it acceptable in the reversed case?

Can you help?

"Dream To Awakening" is commonly considered Sarah Chen's career-defining work. But the narrative around its success, particularly the Urban Woman Theory, undermined Chen's independent reputation. Before joining Rock Records, Sarah Chen, the Best Female Singer, had already ascended to diva status and produced around 20 high-quality albums. To this day, the work she did before 1989 remains highly popular online. She had a stand-alone reputation, unchained to anyone else.

"Dream To Awakening" changed that. Its enormous success and the Urban Woman theory began to erode Sarah Chen's reputation. While the Lee-Chen collaboration generated multiple memorable songs, their collaboration comprised only about 10% of Sarah Chen's entire body of work. Sarah Chen had worked extensively with Xiao Xuan and Tan Jian-Chang in the 1980s, and did high-quality work with Johnny 'Bug' Chen in the 1990s, including winning the Gold Melody Best Female Singer Award twice. She was successful no matter who she collaborated with. But "Dream To Awakening" and the transformation narrative cast a shadow by tying her success to other successful people like Lee.

But Sarah Chen didn't chain herself to other people. We can all do something to restore her independent reputation and give her the credit she deserves. Here we recommend a few.

(1) For proponents of the Urban Woman Hypothesis. It's time to abandon that hypothesis. No doubt it's a nice framework for music production, but in the specific case of "Dream To Awakening," the success came from the song and Sarah Chen's performance, not the effort to transform her. The theory was damaging and unfair to Sarah Chen. It's time that you rectify the situation and make amends. 

(2) For publishers, contributors, and websites. Take a look at your coverage of Sarah Chen. Stop tying her reputation to anyone else.  Edit previous posts that chain Sarah Chen to her producers. Clean up wiki and comparable places to restore Sarah Chen the stand-alone reputation that she deserves. 

(3) For fans and the general public. Just remember Sarah Chen does not owe her success to anyone. Be grateful that our magician and therapist had successfully comforted listeners for over hundreds of years!

中文版:心理医生陈淑桦