The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 930 Six Specials, One Sound, Going on Stage to Receive the Award (Part 1)

For Asian singers to sell albums in Europe and America, their own public persona is a crucial element for memorability. In simpler terms, the story you create for marketing needs to generate discussion.

After all, Western audiences are generally unfamiliar with Asian singers. If your backstory and persona aren't engaging, then it's probably a waste of time over 90%.

To put it simply, when Japanese female teachers debuted in Japan, they had to create all sorts of personas to build their image, such as company president, heiress, socialite, teacher, female host, idol, race queen, etc. The personas they portrayed on stage were more and more outlandish than the last.

Utada Hikaru's disadvantage as a serious singer lies precisely in this point. It's not bad to be a singer-songwriter, but if your songs are not good and don't become popular, and your live performances are also terrible, then this persona is useless.

Like Xiao Yaxuan, who, following the advice of the I Ching, pursued the path of an independent woman. Considering her abusive father, hardworking mother, rebellious younger brother, and her own difficult circumstances, her main strategy was to play the politically correct card.

In this context, "Because of You," the title track of her English EP, resonated with listeners, evoking sympathy and eliciting empathy from some. Combined with the song's inherent quality, this led to its success.

Sun Yanzi doesn't have Xiao Yaxuan's family background, so this model doesn't apply to her. After all, the most severe hardship she's experienced in her twenty-odd years of life was being publicly criticized by her teacher for not studying well and dragging down the whole class when she was in school. She then worked hard and proved herself through exams.

Apart from that, her life so far has been remarkably smooth sailing.

Born into a scholarly family, she enjoyed a harmonious and comfortable upbringing. A graduate of a prestigious university and a self-taught artist, she achieved instant fame without any prior experience, with her debut performance being a smash hit. Her mentors, the Singaporean duo Li and Warner Music's Zhou Jianhui, were not exploitative figures.

If someone with such a smooth life experience tries to forcefully apply the independent woman persona of Hsiao Ya-hsuan to debut in Europe and America, it will only backfire, causing disgust until it is found to be fake and then the whole thing collapses.

Therefore, Zhou Yi's arrangement for Sun Yanzi is to portray her as a well-behaved rich girl who bravely pursues love—which is why he used the song "Love Story" to kick things off.

Juliet in Romeo and Juliet is the quintessential innocent and romantic rich girl in a love story, willing to do anything for love—so Sun Yanzi can also abandon everything and elope in this EP.

This narrative logic also has a market in Europe and America; Sun Yanzi only needs to grab the money from this group of people.

After all, no one in this world can be perfect and have everything. The key to commercial success is to target specific demographics and pour money into their pockets.

As for why Sun Yanzi stands out among so many rich and well-behaved girls who pursue love—besides the quality of the songs in the EP itself, Zhou Yi, who is willing to elope with her, is the biggest selling point.

As a global legend, the appearance of the I Ching fills the last gap in this propaganda narrative—the fact that the completely unknown Sun Yanzi can marry Spike is just a perfect fairy tale love story, isn't it?
Just like Cinderella and the Prince, without the prince's character, this fairy tale would not have endured in the Western world.

"So, you mean I'm Cinderella and you're the prince?"

"No, you are Sun Yanzi."

"...Tsk, so glib."

With a playful complaint, the woman's eyes shone with undisguised joy: "I'm not talking to you anymore, I have to go to rehearsal. I still have to perform at the Golden Melody Awards, and the pressure is immense."

At this year's Golden Melody Awards, as a presenter and nominee for Best Mandarin Female Singer, Sun Yanzi also has a rather important performance task—to sing a medley of representative works by several generations of Golden Melody Award winners on stage.

This was a significant challenge for her, because all the Golden Melody Award winners, including Zhang Xueyou, were sitting in the audience this year, and the more she thought about it, the more nervous she became.

Her live performance skills are well-known.

High emotional intelligence is described as unique, while low emotional intelligence is described as being at the mercy of fate.

When you're in good form, you can create a god-like performance; when you're in bad form, it's a complete disaster.

Not to mention that at this year's Golden Melody Awards, she was performing a medley with Chen Yixun, who was going to sing a medley of representative works by several generations of Golden Melody Queens.

This person is known for being incredibly composed on stage.

In comparison, if you make a fool of yourself, that would be quite a joke.

"On the bright side, what if Chen Yixun gets so nervous that he underperforms?"

"..."

Sun Yanzi couldn't hold back any longer.

Although I really wanted to laugh, my mind was inevitably swayed, and I imagined the scene described in the Book of Changes—

"How can you comfort someone like that?"

Zhou Yi spread his hands innocently: "This is normal, okay? People aren't machines."

In fact, in his memory, Chen Yixun, who was always very composed on stage, was somehow seated at the same table as Sun Yanzi at this year's Golden Melody Awards.

During the medley of hit songs by legendary female singers and male singers, the two frequently sang off-key, forgot lyrics, and went into the wrong key.

Sun Yanzi's agent still used the same three excuses as "having a cold, fever, and being tired," once again earning her the nickname "Queen of Colds" from her haters. However, considering that she has never been known for her singing skills, the joke was not as big as Chen Yixun's mistake.

After all, Chen Yixun's public persona is that he has solid singing skills.

"No, I have to go. I can't let you lead me astray." Trying to shake this wrong idea out of her head, Sun Yanzi saw that no one was outside the door and tiptoed back to her suite.

If she stayed any longer, she feared she would be completely corrupted by the fallacies and heresies of the I Ching that hoped others would make mistakes.

..........................................

"Huh? What did you say? Alpha has reconfirmed that Jay Chou will attend this year's Golden Melody Awards and perform with Patty Hou?"

Thursday, June 8, 2006.

Amidst the undercurrents, a piece of news has once again shocked the entire Taiwanese music scene—Jay Chou, who publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the Golden Melody Awards in early May, has surprisingly made a comeback and will be performing on stage with his lover, Patty Hou.

This is truly one of a kind for scorpion poop.

Since their relationship was made public, it has been met with skepticism and has never received the blessings of Jay Chou's fans. Some radicals have even been constantly insulting the woman online, and the media has also been reporting rumors of a breakup.

For example, before Jay Chou announced in May that he would not attend the Golden Melody Awards, the relationship between Jay Chou and Patty Hou had already been exposed to be in crisis. Countless Jay Chou fans were overjoyed and kept clamoring for the two Js to reunite.

After all, Cai Yilin is currently enjoying great popularity.

In the "Online Golden Melody Prediction" jointly hosted by Yahoo! Music and the Golden Melody Awards, Jay Chou and Tsai Yi-lin, who were not nominated for this year's Golden Melody Awards, once again recreated the scene of the "Double J" battle in this online segment.

Ultimately, Tsai Yi-lin defeated Jay Chou with 236,041 votes today to win the Best Person of the Year award, becoming the final winner of this online voting program. Although this award was merely a consolation prize created by the Golden Melody Awards organizers for all those who were not nominated, it didn't stop Sony from throwing a celebratory banquet—it's all about saving face, not winning the prize.

Cai Yilin's fans were just planning to throw a punch on this joyous day, but unexpectedly, Jay Chou dropped a bombshell, completely breaking their nerves.

Even Jay Chou and Jay Chou never had this level of stage interaction before. Now, even though Jay Chou wasn't nominated, he's rushing to help that bitch Hou, the news anchor?!
"Uh, my change of mind is not because of the reasons that my friends in the media are speculating about. Although I appreciate everyone's concern for my private life, I do have reasons why I have to attend this year's Golden Melody Awards. Thank you."

Jay Chou spoke in his usual arrogant tone in front of the media: "I regret it because I don't want to go against my own moral principles, that's all."

???

How does this relate to morality?
Are you sure you didn't come here because Host Hou whispered in your ear?
you--

Ok?
Wait!
Reporters, suddenly reminded of another rumor, were startled and hurriedly asked, "Was Zhou Yi the reason for your decision? Is it true that Zhou Yi is withdrawing from the Golden Melody Awards?"

"Sorry, Jaylen won't answer questions that are unrelated to our artists. Please make way..." Alpha's people cleared the way, not giving the reporter any chance to continue the interview.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Isn't this just like trying to hide something obvious?

"Why has Zhou Yi recently been unusually meeting with fans offline in Taipei and Kaohsiung under the guise of brand events? Is it because he feels guilty about his plans to retire?"

"Excuse me……"

Despite the reporters' tireless efforts and persistent questioning, they ultimately yielded no results, but this did not prevent their reporting from causing a huge uproar throughout the Taiwanese music scene.

"Things rarely happen more than three times; will the legend eventually come to an end?"

Is the dawn breaking for Taiwan's music scene?

Is the sky about to fall on the Chinese music scene?

"The I Ching seems to be coming true, prompting the Golden Melody Awards officials to hold an emergency closed-door meeting overnight!"

"Deeply devoted, Jay Chou canceled 18 gigs for Zhou Yi!"

"..."

Taiwanese fans of the I Ching, who were initially happy because of its frequent appearances at various sponsored events, woke up one morning feeling like the sky had fallen.

During this period, they have been immersed in a warm pink bubble every day because Zhou Yi frequently travels around to meet with fans, even more frequently than when he first debuted in 00 before he was banned.

So now you're saying this is very likely a death sentence?!

Upon further investigation, it was found that Zhou Yi won two individual awards at the 15th Golden Melody Awards and only one individual award at the 16th Golden Melody Awards, while he had already won numerous awards abroad during the same period.

"Then there's really nothing wrong with eating this last meal before execution."

"With Zhou Yi's status, it's already an honor for him to be here. The Golden Melody Awards have been playing tricks on people for two consecutive years. If I were Zhou Yi, I wouldn't want to play this game anymore."

"Zhou Yi still gave the Golden Melody Awards some dignity. If anyone had stood up and lashed out, the entire family of the organizing committee would have been blown up by the rioting fans."

"The Golden Melody Awards held a closed-door meeting, so they were probably really scared."

"What's the use? Even if we gave it to them, it would just mean the baby would die and we'd have to use the milk instead..."

The neutral audience consisted mostly of fans of other artists, who were all watching the drama unfold with their pockets full of smug satisfaction – after all, Zhou Yi's departure was a good thing for their respective idols in terms of awards.

Because of this, on the red carpet before the Golden Melody Awards ceremony on June 10th, not many media outlets were willing to pay attention to celebrities who tried to gain attention through their outfits.

The popularity of celebrities like Liang Jingru in her see-through black dress, S.H.E. who tried to look mature, Mo Wenwei who showed off her sexy back, Xiao Xiao who boldly displayed her career ambition, and Yang Qianpei in her sheer dress without a bra, all fell far short of their expectations.

When Sun Yanzi, dressed in a gold halter-neck dress and sporting a slightly mature hairstyle, made her grand entrance, countless microphones and flashes were directed at the same name: Zhou Yi.

When interviewed, Sun Yanzi smiled without showing her teeth: "I don't really have anything to say about this. I respect all the decisions he has made."

Wang Lihong, who walked the red carpet with his younger brother, and Jay Chou, who once walked the red carpet with Hou Pei, both expressed their respect for the I Ching in interviews.

"Zhou Yi is a great singer; few people can beat so many Western singers like him."

“I will try my best to follow in A-Yi’s footsteps. He is the benchmark for our generation of singers.”

The die-hard fans waiting for Zhou Yi to take the stage grew increasingly disheartened as the music played...

Popular Korean stars, led by Kangta, kept praising Zhou Yi, which made fans feel uncomfortable.

When veteran artists like Zhang Xueyou, who were among the Four Heavenly Kings, appeared and gave interviews that focused on their blessings for the I Ching, the fans' hearts sank completely.

Until that man appeared.

When Zhou Yi stepped onto the red carpet in a dark purple Armani suit with embroidered details, he was greeted not only with screams and applause, but also with deafening shouts—

"Zhou Yi! Don't go!"

"Zhou Yi! Don't go!!"

"Zhou Yi! Don't go!!!"

The roar that swept through the venue like a tsunami left the two red carpet hosts speechless for a moment. After leaving his flamboyant signature in front of the autograph board, Zhou Yi turned around and sighed inwardly.

I knew this would happen, but when all the attempts to persuade me to stay came, it was still a bitter pill to swallow.

(End of this chapter)