One of the first things I learned about Sarah Chen was that she began her career singing in English, an unusual path for a Mandopop singer. Yet that fact did not register with me. Even after I discovered her trove of English songs, I wasn't impressed by the poorly preserved, distorted sound quality. Nor did my writing of her biography bring out the significance of her English-language work. Like many others, I assumed it was simply fashionable for Mandopop singers to dabble in English covers. 

Despite resisting the mainstream narrative around Sarah Chen, particularly the idea that she was transformed by Rock Records, I had accepted one mainstream talking point: that her legacy lay in being the voice of Taiwan's urban women. My only hesitation was about who should take credit for her success.

Deep down, however, I suspected that Sarah Chen was never quite the urban woman she was made out to be. She never seemed proud of that label, even questioning whether the urban woman ethos - independent and carefree - would necessarily bring happiness. The two songs where she explicitly embraced that role, A Single Woman Like Me and Dream to Awakening, were among her least convincing. It felt as though someone had imposed their will on her, compelling a sentimental singer to put on a brave, indifferent smile.

It took two years of near-constant listening, and twenty entries into the Restoration Project, for me to understand where her greatness truly lay. It was neither Dream to Awakening or Red Dust, her signature work; nor Autumn Farewell or Tomorrow Will You Still Love Me, my personal favorites, but rather her English-language work. When I obtained the original recordings of her English albums, the effects were stunning. Music that compelling could not have come from a fashion chaser. 

I had known that Sarah Chen sang English songs in her early years and even produced an amateur English album as a teenager. What I had not grasped was how deeply she immersed herself in Western music. Those first 20 reports showed that she didn't merely dabble in English songs; they were her training ground, her foundation. In an interview after winning the Golden Bell, Chen mentioned that she had imitated Western singers early in her career. She stressed the importance of listening widely, absorbing the best techniques of other singers, and integrating them into her own voice while developing a unique style.

In one of the magazine entries, I found her nickname from that era: the East-West singer. That was when it finally clicked. Chen, who endured a frustrating early career, became great as she immersed herself in multiple genres over many years. Her vocal quality was already excellent at 18, but she was unmistakably still evolving, a singer who had not yet experienced or consolidated the diverse genres she would later draw from. Gifted with a keen ear and a talent for imitation, Sarah Chen absorbed the best of Eastern and Western music while developing a style that remains inimitable to this day. 

"Sarah is irreplaceable," her colleagues would say in a 2003 documentary, "Nobody sings like her." That much was true. But they went on to attribute her success to impeccable vocals or even purity of heart. Sarah may well have a pure heart, bless her, but what her colleagues failed to see were the unique conditions that shaped her. After years of absorbing Teresa Teng, the best of Asia, and even more years immersed in English-language music, Sarah Chen emerged as the greatest Mandopop ballad singer of her era. 

The true transformation Sarah Chen achieved was in her work. By integrating the best of Eastern and Western music, she elevated Mandopop to new heights. 

我很早就读到关于陈淑桦早年以演唱西洋歌曲起身的说法。虽然不平常，这点信息没给我留下印象。网上她的英文歌音质差，甚至被扭曲，听了那些录音感觉一般般。连写了她的生平后也没有意识到英文作品对她的重要性。毕竟，八九十年代有好几位台湾歌手演唱英文歌，我想她也许就是赶了潮流而已。

作为一个不赶潮流的人，我对官方关于陈淑桦的说法不以为然，尤其是她在滚石转型的说法，听起来很不公平。但我还是接受了陈淑桦「都市女子代言人」的称号；毕竟，这是对她文化意义的认可，在当年的电视上也出现过，应该是陈淑桦贡献的一部份。

但我一直怀疑陈淑桦不是贴切的都市女子。她自己对这个称号似乎从不自豪，采访中说都市女子的独立和潇洒不一定会帮她们找到幸福。她演唱的两首典型的都市女子独立的歌——《像我这样的单身女子》和《梦醒时分》—— 感觉有些牵强。就好像有人违背她的心意，勉强本来多愁善感的她去挂上无所谓的笑容。

我听了两年陈淑桦的歌，但最近在总结她早年的报道时才觉出她的贡献在哪里。陈淑桦的成就其实不是她的代表作《梦醒时分》和《滚滚红尘》，也不是我最欣赏的《秋别》和《明天还爱我吗》。她的成就来自于英文演唱。听了她英文专辑的原始版才知道她的演唱有多么绝妙。这么专业的作品绝不是业余爱好、赶潮流的结果。

我们都知道陈淑桦早年演唱英文歌，甚至在上大学时和同学录制过一张西洋歌专辑。但大家不知道的是她英文演唱功底之深。英文歌不是陈淑桦的副业，而是她音乐的根基，是她的训练场。赢得金钟奖后的采访中，陈淑桦说她早年对西方女歌手做过效仿，直到后来对她们失去了兴趣。她注重听各种歌曲，吸收别的歌手的技能，再转换为自己的唱法，以这种整合来建立独特的曲风。

早年报道中有一篇文章称陈淑桦为“中西歌手“。那篇文章终于让我领悟到英文演唱在她的音乐中起到的重要作用。陈淑桦虽然有天赋，歌声在18岁就非常完美，但她经过了一段漫长的跋涉，早期的作品听起来和后来不是一个人。毕竟，18岁时她还没有聚集到多种音乐路线的影响。但陈淑桦有超人的听觉识别能力，可以辨别出细微的发音差异。再加上善于模仿，这些天赋让她成功地吸取了中西音乐的精髓，建立了至今无人可以模仿的淑桦曲风。

2003年的记录篇里，滚石同事说”她不可以取代，至今没有人和她是一样的”。的确如此。然而同事将她的成功归结于完美的嗓音，甚至是不受社会复杂影响的纯净。也许陈淑桦是有颗纯净的心（祝福她），但同事没有看到的是她具备的独特的条件。陈淑桦早年经过了一段与邓丽君的同化，又多年沉浸在英文歌曲里。这种融合使她成为那个时代最优秀的抒情歌手。

如果说转型，陈淑桦生涯中真正的转型是她做的。她将西方流行和抒情歌曲的精髓融入华语歌坛，提升了华语流行音乐的标准。

This site was enriched by the generosity of a long-time Sarah Chen fan from Malaysia, C.Y., who shared her personal collection of clippings and magazine articles spanning much of Chen's career (1983-1996).