The Indomitable Voice of Zhang Xuan

Opening the insert in Zhang's CD My Life Will..., rather than the two or three lines of acknowledgements you get from most artists, she has written an entire page. Two-thirds of it is dedicated to thanking friends in the indie music industry who have stuck with her through years of waiting for her moment to come.

As daughter of Chiao Jen-ho, former secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation, she felt tremendous pressure from high family expectations. In high school, finding the discipline too rigorous and life highly stressful, she decided to take a leave of absence and left home to live on her own, trying to understand life on her own terms while struggling to pursue her music dreams. Carrying three big notebooks of material with her, she ventured into the Witch House, an alternative music venue in Taipei, to seek a chance to perform. She was accepted, and the pub even gave her a job doing sound.

She recorded an album in 2002, but no record company would release it. But she refused to become despondent or withdrawn, and over the past five years, she has continually appeared at live music venues and festivals. In order to get on stage at the Hohaiyan Music Festival, which only allows groups but no solo artists, she threw together a unit called Mango Runs, which amazingly was selected as "most popular band" by vote of fans in attendance.

In the face of the negative attitude of record companies, at her gigs she handed out copies of her unreleased CD--which she facetiously called Maybe I Don't Care--to supporters and friends. This shows how much she really did care about her musical career.

Her persistence paid off, as ever-larger crowds showed up at the Witch House to see her, and, without any media exposure at all, her fame spread by word of mouth until she became one of the favorite singers among university students. When a record company finally agreed to release an album by this "newcomer" in 2006, 6000 copies were ordered even before the official release, showing that Zhang's individual efforts over the years have built her an astonishing base of supporters.

Her style is mainly "urban folk"--just vocals and acoustic guitar. Her lyrics, a combination of English and Chinese sung in a way that, in contrast to many of her peers, can be deciphered effortlessly, express her understanding of life and what she has learned along the way. Her most popular hit, "Baby," is sung in a genteel, lullaby-like tone: "My baby, baby / Let me give you something sweet / So you'll sleep well tonight." Written out like this, it looks a little sappy, but in fact it is a song she wrote to make herself feel better after leaving home after an argument with her parents.

Her main influences, she relates, are Kurt Cobain, late singer of the alternative rock group Nirvana, and Canadian Neil Young, the doyen of folk rockers.

After years of being up in front of crowds in live music venues, she has developed a unique unadorned and natural charisma. She talks to the audience constantly about this and that. Her occasional forgetting of lyrics, misplaying of chords, and curses of frustration--which might be seen as flaws in more polished performers--only add to her charm, as listening to her seems more like a conversation with a friend than a stage-managed pop performance. So some people have joked that she plays "heart-to-heart rock." Zhang herself, on the other hand, often apologizes for herself on stage, saying--half in jest, half in earnest--"Sorry. In the future I'll try to cut out the extraneous stuff and be more professional."

Whether "professional" or not, Zhang has undeniably become a star. For her once-a-month gigs at Witch House (maximum capacity 200) people have to register beforehand by ID number, then tickets are awarded by lottery. If your number is chosen, then you have to show up and register at the venue, getting a number which determines the order in which people can enter the club, to avoid a crush for the standing-room-only shows.

From her rejection by mainstream companies to the "sweet revenge" of being the first person from the indie music community to really make it big, Zhang Xuan has definitely earned a place to herself at the banquet of popular music in Taiwan.