Yang Zhikuan: Teresa Teng in 1973 before breaking into the Japanese music scene

Chinese Herald PEN column

Lijunyuan Yang Zhikuan

In March 1973, The Japanese Polydor Records ostensibly sent producers Yukio Sasaki and Junryo Nakamura to Hong Kong to visit the Hong Kong Polygram Records Company and inspect the local music market. Sasaki is the producer of singer Kenji Sawada, while Nakamura is the producer of singer Goro Noguchi. At that time, the two had remarkable performance in work and were diligent enough that the company actually gave the two people a disguised vacation of 3 nights and 4 days as a reward.

After the two arrived in Hong Kong, they were really sick, did not lazy romantic leisure entertainment but went straight to the Hong Kong PolyGram Records Company, and the senior Mr. Zheng Donghan (English name Norman) was asked where to go to the evening when dinner, they replied that they wanted to go to the song hall to enjoy live singing and learn about Hong Kong music. Mr. Zheng arranged for someone to make an appointment.

Dinner was full of wine and smoke, and it was more than 9 o'clock in the evening when I arrived at the song hall of more than 200 people. The cabaret has a rule that drinking guests are not allowed to go near the stage, so their position is adjusted relatively backward. When the last female singer took the stage to sing, Sasaki's spirit was lifted and he blurted out applause! That's Miss Teresa. Because he was drunk that night, he couldn't see clearly, so he decided to go to see it the next night. After inquiring about the song hall staff's finale singing of Teresa Teng, the two asked Mr. Zheng Donghan to help collect Miss Deng's vinyl records. The next day, I listened to a lot of Miss Deng's songs during the day, and I felt that her gentle temperament would definitely have a market in Japan. Those years coincided with the first Chinese singer to develop in Japan, Ouyang Feifei, became popular, the Fifi whirlwind swept through Dongying, and the idol route of Chen Meiling killed from Hong Kong also killed Japanese local singers such as Momoe Yamaguchi. The development of Chinese singers in Japan became the litmus test for profits that the major Japanese record companies wanted to try one after another.

The owner behind the Japanese Polydor Record Company is actually a German, in essence, this international record company actually belongs to Germany, and the boss instructed Japanese employees to vigorously develop singers from other Asian countries and regions such as Hong Kong and Taiwan to play their fists and feet in the Japanese music market, activate the Japanese music market, and enhance the international status of the Japanese music market. Hong Kong Poly Gold and Japan's Poly Poly are actually allies.

The next night, two of Japan's top producers stopped drinking and went to the concert hall to sit in the best position in the fourth row to drink Coke and wait and see, although it was a vacation, but their professional habits made them concentrate on Miss Deng on the stage. Raising their hands and dancing lightly made them intuitively feel that this would be a good singer with great potential.

That night, Mr. Sasaki was eager to sign Miss Deng to Japan, and wanted to personally produce this very intelligent Chinese singer. They asked Mr. Zheng Donghan to help them consider the contract, and then quickly returned to Tokyo to report to the company's headquarters. Minister Igarashi of Japan's Polydon Records was presiding over the producers' conference at the time, and the two producers broke into the conference room to report on the business trip to Hong Kong, and took out Miss Tang's vinyl record with enthusiasm, strongly recommending that the record company must sign her.

Mr. Sasaki's fanaticism infected Minister Igarashi, and he ordered Mr. Minoru Zhoumu, the minister in charge of signing contracts with artists, to go to Polygram Records in Hong Kong and ask Mr. Zheng Donghan to assist in interviewing the mother and daughter of the Deng family.

At first, it was delayed to see Miss Tang, and the Hong Kong side repeatedly used other female singers as a shield, and there were really other female singers who were eager to try to develop in Japan; but Mr. Zhoumu persevered, insisted on meeting Miss Tang, and finally arranged the first meeting at the Miramar Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. Mr. Zhoumu, Miss Deng, Mother Deng and a female translator four people drank tea and chatted. Miss Deng listened calmly and politely, and everything decided to obey her mother. The first meeting left a very good impression on Mr. Zhoumu, although Mr. Zhoumu introduced the Japanese music scene as the second largest music market in the world in detail, but the tepid attitude and atmosphere of the Mother and Daughter of the Deng family made the conversation content can only be pointed out and cannot be deepened.

At the end of the conversation, Mr. Zhoumu asked if they could have dinner together the next day in order to continue the fate. Lucky enough to meet the next day at the Tsim Sha Tsui Grand Shanghai Hotel, Miss Tang showed interest in the Japanese music scene but did not open her mouth to go to Japan to develop. In fact, the night before, the mother and daughter called Deng Dad, who was far away in Taiwan, and Deng Dad did not agree to let his daughter, who had gained fame and fortune in Southeast Asian countries, go to Japan, where she was unfamiliar and very xenophobic, to make a new start. Miss Deng and her mother obeyed their father's decision and were embarrassed to directly refuse the polite Mr. Zhoumu in person.

Mr. Zhoumu learned from Tang's father that He did not agree through Mr. Zheng Donghan of Hong Kong Poly Gold, and persevered. Although PolyGram Records continues to recommend other Hong Kong and Taiwan female singers, Mr. Zhoumu has taken a fancy to Teresa Teng, known as Taiwan's American Skylark, and will never let go. Mikon Skylark is a Japanese national singer and a national treasure singer.

Mr. Zhoumu quickly flew back to Tokyo to report on the progress, and then flew to Taiwan to meet Deng Dad. Mr. Zhoumu and his interpreters were entertained by Mr. Deng Shu at the Unified Hotel on Dehui Street in Taipei, accompanied by an old friend of Deng's father who knew Japanese. During the four-person dinner party, Deng's father's attitude was clearly opposed to his daughter's adventurous development in Japan.

Mr. Zhoumu, 40, adhered to the Japanese attitude of persevering to the end, and then visited Deng Dad again, this time invited to Taipei Beitou Deng House to talk sincerely, and finally came to fruition, Deng Dad finally nodded in agreement.

On April 12, 1973, the contract was officially signed, and the monthly salary was 250,000 yen, and the senior salary of civil servants who graduated from Japanese universities and joined the work at that time was less than 60,000 yen. Music disc production was in collaboration with Japan's Polydor Records, and in Japan, it was arranged by Watanabe Performing Arts Agency. According to the contract, at first, Mother Deng and Miss Deng's mother and daughter temporarily stayed at the New Japan Hotel Akasaka, Tokyo, and the cost of accommodation according to the contract was also paid by Watanabe Brokerage.

After Deng's father agreed to sign a contract with a Japanese record company, he invited Mr. Minoru Funaki to dinner, and his daughter was about to go to Japan for development, and as a father, he agreed to only please. Ordered the 40-year-old Mr. Zhoumu to dance with the dancers on the dance floor, slaughtered the turtle and raised a glass to ask Zhoumu to drink and nourish his body. Mr. Zhoumu obeyed the instructions of Deng Dad, who had a strong military style, and completed the task entrusted to him by the record company.

At the end of November 1973, Miss Deng's mother and daughter were invited by The Japanese Polydor Records to explore the way to Japan first, and in the name of tourism, they recorded the new Japanese singles that debuted the following year under the arrangement of the record company, and watched the year-end music awards ceremony and the singing program production of major television stations. All the programs were sung with the accompaniment of a live band, and the work flow was meticulous and precise, which shocked Miss Deng. The music awards ceremony scene inspired Miss Deng's fighting spirit, and she couldn't help but tell the Japanese record company: After her official debut in Japan next year, she must also stand on the stage of the year-end music awards ceremony.