#sing china

Oh man I had no idea she passed away.

I remember she sang the Chinese cover of “Reflection” (from Mulan), and she had a couple other pop hits. I never followed her career closely but I always had a soft spot for her. She’s one of (if not the?) the first Asians to break into the American (and Australian) charts and you know, between her and Lucy Liu, they were like the only 2 immigrant Asian female icons we had back then to look up to. Mind you, this was before K-pop and K-dramas took off, when anime and J-pop were popular but niche, and while Utada Hikaru’s “First Love” was on every Asian teen’s playlist, the reality was even with Utada’s immense talent and impressive voice, she could only have a career by going back to Japan…despite being US-born and bred.

I’m not someone to looks to media for representation, as such, but Coco Lee and Lucy Liu’s breakout into mainstream American media were an acknowledgement of sorts. The western world at the time was good at politely ignoring the achievements of foreign-looking people. Seeing them on screen was a nice reminder that all the hard work we put in are going to be worth something, because we can’t be ignored anymore, even though goddamn it can be hard work.

All that’s meant to say that even though I didn’t listen to much of her later music, Coco Lee has a special place in my nostalgic years because of what she proved possible. So it was heartbreaking to hear her recording where she talks about how badly this talent show mistreated her. She was angry on behalf of the contestants, who she felt were unfairly penalised despite their points made them eligible for another chance. She has a congenital lower limb condition which I believe was flaring up at the time and she needed someone to stand next to her to support her while she’s wearing high heels, and when she spoke up against the show’s unfairness, they allegedly called her support person away causing her to fall on stage.

Compilation of performances by Guo Qin (郭沁) on SING!CHINA S2