Sarah Chen


Sarah Chen or Chen Shu-hua is a Taiwanese singer who was active from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The recipient of the "Best Female Artist" award at the 1985 Golden Bell Awards and the 1992 and 1996 Golden Melody Awards, Sarah Chen was known for hit songs such as "Dream To Awakening", "Red Dust", and "The Mundane World". Chen released over 30 albums in her career, which included Mandopop, Cantopop, Taiwan MinYao, and English songs.

Music career

Sarah Chen released her first single at the age of nine in 1967 with Seven-Star Records. She entered the professional music scene in the late 1970s with several record labels, including Big Ocean Records and . Subsequently, she signed with EMI Studios Singapore and later with Rock Records. Chen retired from public life following her final album release in 1998.
Chen explored various music genres such as Taiwan MinYao, Mandopop, Pop Music, and R&B. She is considered a critical link in Taiwan's music history, bridging the traditional Taiwan folk songs of the 1970s with the emerging Mandopop scene of the 1990s. Chen won Taiwan's Best Female Singer awards three times at the Golden Bell Awards in 1985, and at the Golden Melody Awards in 1991 and 1996. Her 1989 album Talk to You, Listen to You was the first to achieve one million sales in Taiwan. During the late 1980s and 1990s, Chen was known as the "voice of urban women" through her music. She was multilingual, recording tracks in Mandarin, English, Taiwanese, Cantonese, and Japanese.
Chen contributed to theme songs for various movies and TV series, including the award-winning "Red Dust" and "Samsui Women". Her collaborations included duets with Jackie Chan, Jonathan Lee, Leslie Cheung, and Wakin Chau. Chen's contribution to songs performed by multiple artists include "Tomorrow Will Be Better", "Happy Paradise", and "The Pearl of the Orient".
Chen's voice was known by its clarity, power, and accent-free articulation. Colleagues described her voice as a rare combination of being clean yet surprisingly powerful. Songwriters like James Wong Jim sought Chen out for her ability to convey emotions accurately. Wong noted that Sarah Chen's rendition of the theme song for the film Green Snake made this song one of his finest works, its enduring popularity surpassing the film itself.

Career timeline

Sarah Chen's music career spanned four decades, from the 1960s to the 1990s. Her collaboration with composers of various styles and her openness to exploring new musical directions resulted in a diverse discography.

Young Adult Years and First Breakthrough (late 1970s to 1982)

Chen's career took off in the late 1970s as her voice matured. Her early albums were produced under various labels, including Big Ocean Records, featuring Taiwan MinYao and ballads with tracks such as "I Am Quietly Waiting For You", "Mother, Where Are You", and "Night Jasmine". Transitioning to Haishan Records in 1979, Chen released a mix of Mandopop and MinYao and contributed to theme songs for various movies, including Road Home, Beauty and Sorrow, and Spring Comes Again. She also released an English album in 1978.
A notable album from this period was Sunset Follows Me Home in 1982. The title track was a career breakthrough. This album also included several ballad and MinYao tracks, notably "Red Chamber Dream", which Chen re-recorded twice in the 1990s.

EMI Studios Singapore (1983–1986)

In 1983, Sarah Chen began a productive collaboration with EMI Studios Singapore, working with the composer duo Xiao Xuan and . This partnership led to Chen winning her first major music award at the 20th Golden Bell Awards in 1985 for Best Female Singer, making her the 5th female singer to receive this award. EMI's global market brought Chen lasting international influences in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.
During this period, Chen performed in both Mandarin and English and explored different genres. Her English album The Right to Sing introduced English classics like "Diamonds and Rust" to her fan base. Her Mandarin albums in 1983, including Starry Sky and Song of the Ocean, featured both Mandopops and Western and Mandarin renditions of English songs. The next year, Endless Love led to Chen's first Best Female Singer Award at the 20th Golden Bell Awards in 1985. This was followed by Wandering the World, which broke sales records at EMI, outselling Michael Jackson's Thriller in Malaysia. Her other work with EMI included a special New Year's Celebration album in 1985 and Black Hair Turns White.
Chen also performed theme songs for popular TV series, such as "Samsui Women", which won the 2007 Singapore Television Top 5 Original Theme Songs Award.

Early Years with Rock Records (1986–1989)

In 1986, due to structural changes at EMI Studios, Chen's music production shifted to Rock Records while still under contract with EMI. This period marked her ultimate breakthrough in Taiwan's music scene. Considered the standard-bearer of Rock Records, Chen collaborated with producers like Jonathan Lee and Bobby Chen under the Artists and Repertoire approach. Chen released several Mandarin albums: Waiting for the Storm, Heart of a Woman, Tomorrow, Will You Still Love Me, and Talk to You, Listen to You. She also released two English albums: Miracle of Love and Hold Me Now. Chen's music during this period frequently reflected the independent mindset of women moving to urban areas of Taiwan. To support the image of a modern woman, Chen changed her public appearance, adopting new clothing styles and gender-neutral hairstyles.
Two albums were notable during this period. The 1988 album Tomorrow, Will You Still Love Me aimed to incorporate Sarah's personal life experiences, emotions, and personality into the songs. This was followed by the 1989 album, which was the first album in Taiwan to break the 1 million sales record. Although all tracks in the 1989 album were well-received, the first track, "Dream to Awakening", was pivotal for its success. The message of letting go of heartbreaks resonated with audiences of all ages and genders. Chen received a nomination for the Golden Melody Award Best Female Singer award for this work, though she did not win. Reflecting on this period during a TV interview in the mid-1990s, Sarah Chen recounted an encounter with a fan on the street, who tearfully embraced her, telling her, "You sang the words of my heart!"

Award-Winning Years with Rock Records (1990–1992)

From 1990 to 1992, Chen continued her success with individual music awards and new albums. However, health concerns slowed her down and the extensive effort invested in producing her first R&B album consumed three years.
In the early 1990s, Sarah Chen fell ill after taking a harmful weight-loss drug that was then popular in Taiwan. Despite health concerns, she released A Lifetime of Waiting, which won her the Golden Melody Best Female Artist Award, and Be Wise, Be Easy. In her 1992 appearance on Voice of Han, Chen discussed the origin of the title track for Be Wise, Be Easy, composed by her friend, the singer and composer . The song served as a gentle admonition and reminder for Chen to prioritize her well-being.
Chen also produced popular duets and theme songs for films and TV series. Her duet with Jackie Chan, "So Transparent is My Heart", won the duo the Best Mandarin Song Award at the 1992 RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards. Chen also sang the theme song for Red Dust, a film starring actress Brigitte Lin, which tells a tale of lovers torn apart amidst the political upheavals of 1940s China. Chen and the songwriter Lo Ta-yu gave a live performance at the 27th Golden Horse Awards, where Red Dust won the Best Cinematic Music Award. Chen also produced popular theme songs in martial arts films, such as "The Mundane World", "Gate of Love", and "Questions about Love". "The Mundane World", sung by the Kung Fu character Invincible East in The Swordsman series, starts with the declaration that "the mundane world is laughable, infatuation is most absurd, and seeing through everything is fine," capturing the universal wish to be carefree.

Career Wrap-Up (1992–1998)

Between 1992 and 1998, Chen released five albums. Sarah Chen's Taiwanese Album featured Chen's rendition of traditional Taiwanese songs. Chen described this album as her endeavor to preserve the cultural significance of traditional Taiwanese songs through her own interpretations.
The Dearest of Sarah was a compilation of songs that were dearest to Chen, featuring both new songs and her major hits such as "Dream to Awakening", "Red Dust", and "The Mundane World".
Forever, Taiwan's first R&B album, took three-years to produce, and Paradise Lost also incorporated elements of R&B. These two albums opened up new musical directions for Taiwan's music scene.
Forever Sarah contained three new tracks alongside re-recordings of nine songs centered on themes of love, farewell, and passage of time. The title track won Chen her second Golden Melody Best Female Artist Award in 1996. After the release of Forever Sarah, Chen rarely made public appearances. One of her last public appearances was in 1997, when she co-hosted the Golden Melody Awards.
After her final album and her mother's unexpected passing in 1998, Chen withdrew from public life.

Legacy

''A Letter to Sarah'' and Peer Evaluation

In an attempt to bring Sarah Chen back into the entertainment industry, her former colleagues at Rock Records appeared in a documentary titled A Letter to Sarah, complementing Rock Records' 2003 collection of Chen's songs Herstory. The documentary highlighted Chen's naturally beautiful voice, which required minimal modification, a sentiment echoed by renowned musician Lo Ta-yu. Rock Records released some of Chen's live concert recordings as official versions, such as the 1992 Rock Records China concert featuring the song "Questions about Love", to rival the quality of studio recordings.
Singer Wakin Chau noted Chen's critical role in Taiwan's music history, bridging the gap between the traditional Taiwan MinYao of the 1970s and the emerging pop music scene of the 1990s. MinYao composer regarded Chen as the female singer with the deepest understanding of Taiwan MinYao's cultural significance. Chen's musical repertoire was not confined to a single genre; she also performed English pop and folk songs and recorded Taiwan's first R&B album.
The 2003 documentary emphasized that Chen's contributions and achievements were unique and unlikely to be replicated. Unlike some singers who found success with one type of songs or during a particular period, Chen's success spanned multiple musical genres and different eras of the music scene. Chen Mei, manager at Rock Records, attributed Sarah Chen's success to her ability to transform Mandopop, English songs, Taiwanese songs, and R&B into distinctively Sarah Chen style renditions.
Singer Tarcy Su noted the difficulty other singers faced in performing Chen's songs. Chen Mei remarked that while some could imitate singers like Teresa Teng or Fong Fei-fei with some success, Sarah Chen's style remained inimitable. Sarah Chen's colleagues identified several factors contributing to her distinctive style: exceptional vocals, skillful articulation of the lyrics, deep cultural understanding, and a purity of heart untouched by societal complexities. This purity, according to her colleagues, radiated through Chen's music, making it uniquely enjoyable, modern and high-class. Efforts to safeguard Sarah Chen's image and legacy continue to this day.