Sarah Chen the Champion
Analysis of Red Dust 滚滚红尘 (陈淑桦/陳淑樺)
An analysis of "Red Dust": Why Sarah Chen is the Champion of female singers
An analysis of "Red Dust": Why Sarah Chen is the Champion of female singers
Red Dust (滚滚红尘) 1990 Sarah Chen (陈淑桦/陳淑樺)
Red Dust (滚滚红尘) 1990 Sarah Chen (陈淑桦/陳淑樺)
Sarah Chen singing the line "The heart that should have belonged to you..." in Red Dust
Background.
Background.
The 1990 film Red Dust, starring Brigitte Lin, depicted a tragic tale of lovers separated by the political turmoil of 1940s China. The theme song of the same name emerged midway through the movie when the two lovers had one of their last moments together dancing on a balcony, with their heads covered by a red scarf. The song was short, just over 3 minutes, but contained many layers of emotions. The songwriter, renowned musician Lo Ta-Yu, had sought Sarah Chen out. By then, Chen had an established reputation as a theme song artist. She also had just performed a piece Lo wrote ("The Silent Expression") in her record-breaking 1989 album; Lo must have really liked that performance. His original plan was to sing a duet with Sarah Chen. They recorded two versions, a Chen-Lo duet where they alternated lines, and a Sarah Chen solo. The solo version was played in the movie and is the dominant version online. The movie Red Dust won multiple awards at the 27th Golden Horse Awards, including the Original Cinematic Music Award, in a nod to Sarah Chen's performance.
The 1990 film Red Dust, starring Brigitte Lin, depicted a tragic tale of lovers separated by the political turmoil of 1940s China. The theme song of the same name emerged midway through the movie when the two lovers had one of their last moments together dancing on a balcony, with their heads covered by a red scarf. The song was short, just over 3 minutes, but contained many layers of emotions. The songwriter, renowned musician Lo Ta-Yu, had sought Sarah Chen out. By then, Chen had an established reputation as a theme song artist. She also had just performed a piece Lo wrote ("The Silent Expression") in her record-breaking 1989 album; Lo must have really liked that performance. His original plan was to sing a duet with Sarah Chen. They recorded two versions, a Chen-Lo duet where they alternated lines, and a Sarah Chen solo. The solo version was played in the movie and is the dominant version online. The movie Red Dust won multiple awards at the 27th Golden Horse Awards, including the Original Cinematic Music Award, in a nod to Sarah Chen's performance.
Popularity
Popularity
YouTube has 25M views of Chen's "Red Dust," most of which came from the solo MV. Spotify has 3.5M replays, and bilibili has approximately 3M views (most videos were under 3-years old). As of Spring 2024, the song "Red Dust" has been viewed or played for about 32M times in the past decade across different platforms.
YouTube has 25M views of Chen's "Red Dust," most of which came from the solo MV. Spotify has 3.5M replays, and bilibili has approximately 3M views (most videos were under 3-years old). As of Spring 2024, the song "Red Dust" has been viewed or played for about 32M times in the past decade across different platforms.
Lyrics
Lyrics
Lo composed the song based on adapted script from Sanmao, who herself adapted the story from Eileen Chang. The song therefore has deep roots in Chinese culture, literature, and history, making it difficult to provide an accurate English translation. The approximate English translation goes like this:
Lo composed the song based on adapted script from Sanmao, who herself adapted the story from Eileen Chang. The song therefore has deep roots in Chinese culture, literature, and history, making it difficult to provide an accurate English translation. The approximate English translation goes like this:
The careless you in the beginning, and the youthful inexperienced me; The love in the mundane world, only came because of the hurried and unspeakable deadlock. Perhaps it's a mistake in this life, or perhaps it's an inevitable result from our past life; All that we have, we are willing to trade for a moment of love. Easy to come, difficult to go, decades of our lives; Easy to separate, difficult to reunite, thousands of years of love and hate. The heart that should have belonged to you, it still stays tightly in my chest. Only for thundering experiences behind the aged faces. Easy to come, difficult to go, decades of our loves. Easy to separate, difficult to reunite, thousands of years of love and hate. So the you who did not want to leave, now have to part with the me who's no longer here. Till now the world still quietly talks about our legendary story. The mundane world still has whispers that follow our legendary story.
The careless you in the beginning, and the youthful inexperienced me; The love in the mundane world, only came because of the hurried and unspeakable deadlock. Perhaps it's a mistake in this life, or perhaps it's an inevitable result from our past life; All that we have, we are willing to trade for a moment of love. Easy to come, difficult to go, decades of our lives; Easy to separate, difficult to reunite, thousands of years of love and hate. The heart that should have belonged to you, it still stays tightly in my chest. Only for thundering experiences behind the aged faces. Easy to come, difficult to go, decades of our loves. Easy to separate, difficult to reunite, thousands of years of love and hate. So the you who did not want to leave, now have to part with the me who's no longer here. Till now the world still quietly talks about our legendary story. The mundane world still has whispers that follow our legendary story.
Why So Popular?
Why So Popular?
There's no doubt that the popularity of the song was based, in part, on the success of the movie. But it's hard for a 34-year-old movie, even one that was successful, to have sustained viewership. Someone sneaked in the whole movie on YouTube recently, and in one year, it received 9.5K views, a far cry from the song's popularity in recent years. Online comments by viewers of the song suggest that, for many, the song "Red Dust" is an independent entity from the movie.
There's no doubt that the popularity of the song was based, in part, on the success of the movie. But it's hard for a 34-year-old movie, even one that was successful, to have sustained viewership. Someone sneaked in the whole movie on YouTube recently, and in one year, it received 9.5K views, a far cry from the song's popularity in recent years. Online comments by viewers of the song suggest that, for many, the song "Red Dust" is an independent entity from the movie.
People like the song, and specifically, they like Sarah Chen's solo version. Years later, on live TV, Lo said that he was "being stupid trying to sing duet of Red Dust" with Sarah Chen. "Sarah was absolutely a first-rate singer. She was too good for me," Lo said. Indeed, it is unusual for the solo to outshine the duet. After all, Lo composed the song, likely with singing the duet in mind, and nobody else could have had a deeper understanding of the poetic lyrics than the composer himself. Except for Sarah Chen. And only Sarah Chen. There are no competing renditions of "Red Dust."
People like the song, and specifically, they like Sarah Chen's solo version. Years later, on live TV, Lo said that he was "being stupid trying to sing duet of Red Dust" with Sarah Chen. "Sarah was absolutely a first-rate singer. She was too good for me," Lo said. Indeed, it is unusual for the solo to outshine the duet. After all, Lo composed the song, likely with singing the duet in mind, and nobody else could have had a deeper understanding of the poetic lyrics than the composer himself. Except for Sarah Chen. And only Sarah Chen. There are no competing renditions of "Red Dust."
Sarah Chen was not a therapist in "Red Dust." She was not singing to comfort anyone or solving any problems. She was, however, the magician that gave life and feelings to every sound coming out of her; and she did so without drawing attention to herself. Sarah Chen the performer was gone, in fact, only her emotions were left in the gentle sounds you hear. So gentle, yet you feel the heaviness of her heart. So calm, yet you sense the agitation of her mind. So quiet, yet you hear the irrepressible screaming. She shed no tears, but you want to weep for her. You understand the pain, the loss, the helplessness, the emptiness she's going through, against the youth, happiness, and love she once had. And there was no crying. For that's what life is, one irreversible path, and we are gone, leaving whispers following the trail that we may not have wanted to have taken.
Sarah Chen was not a therapist in "Red Dust." She was not singing to comfort anyone or solving any problems. She was, however, the magician that gave life and feelings to every sound coming out of her; and she did so without drawing attention to herself. Sarah Chen the performer was gone, in fact, only her emotions were left in the gentle sounds you hear. So gentle, yet you feel the heaviness of her heart. So calm, yet you sense the agitation of her mind. So quiet, yet you hear the irrepressible screaming. She shed no tears, but you want to weep for her. You understand the pain, the loss, the helplessness, the emptiness she's going through, against the youth, happiness, and love she once had. And there was no crying. For that's what life is, one irreversible path, and we are gone, leaving whispers following the trail that we may not have wanted to have taken.
Sarah Chen won the Golden Melody Best Female Singer Award in 1992 for her performance of "Red Dust." This was a year after she missed out on the award for "Dream Awakening," a shocking miss. Some people say the win was to compensate for the miss from the previous year. But if you listen to "Red Dust" for the 32-millionth time, you'll understand why Sarah deserves to win that award every time she's nominated for "Red Dust."
Sarah Chen won the Golden Melody Best Female Singer Award in 1992 for her performance of "Red Dust." This was a year after she missed out on the award for "Dream Awakening," a shocking miss. Some people say the win was to compensate for the miss from the previous year. But if you listen to "Red Dust" for the 32-millionth time, you'll understand why Sarah deserves to win that award every time she's nominated for "Red Dust."
Sarah Chen the Champion
Sarah Chen the Champion
For various social and historical reasons, Sarah Chen was less influential than singers such as Teresa Teng (邓丽君). Yet "Red Dust" shows that, for certain types of music, Sarah Chen is the champion of female singers, the best that has graced the Chinese language music scene.
For various social and historical reasons, Sarah Chen was less influential than singers such as Teresa Teng (邓丽君). Yet "Red Dust" shows that, for certain types of music, Sarah Chen is the champion of female singers, the best that has graced the Chinese language music scene.