Sarah Chen Memory Gate Journal

 「陈淑桦记忆的门」期刊

August 15，2025 issue  ｜ Past Issues 前期

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Talk to You, Listen to You, released in November 1989, was Sarah Chen's most successful album. The concept of the album originated from Chen herself, but later promotions gradually weakened her credit; she was even said to have fulfilled the producer's dream. The now widely circulated male-centered narrative around this album contradicts news reports from the 1980s. Reviewing the history of the album is a critical step toward restoring Sarah Chen's musical legacy.

During Lunar New Year 1989, Sarah Chen returned to Malaysia's Shangri-La Night Club, performing two dinner shows while promoting her two recent albums, Tomorrow Will You Still Love Me and Hold Me Now. She told reporters that one of her New Year’s wishes was to record a traditional Taiwanese album, but she had not yet found a collaborator to work with her on this. This was the origin of her 1992 album Sarah’s Taiwanese Songs. In the interview, Chen also indicated that she might collaborate with Jonathan Lee again for her next Mandarin album. She wanted to produce an album that would “talk to” her fans, much like when she sang Say You, Say Me in Malaysia three years earlier.

This was the beginning of Talk to You, Listen to You. Although Chen’s previous collaboration with Lee on Woman’s Heart had been fraught with difficulties, its commercial success brought the two together again. By then, Lee had become vice CEO of Rock Records and had a busy schedule, but he had gained an appreciation for Chen’s singing through their earlier work. After Chen told Lee about her idea for an album to talk to her fans, he began working with her on it.

This time, the collaboration was smooth sailing as both had learned to trust each other. In a later interview, Chen said they had come to understand each other’s abilities and limitations, knowing when to ask for more and when to let go. Lee, she said, was more likable than before, no longer the imposing fatherly figure he had assumed a year earlier.

Lee considered Chen’s voice unmatched by other singers. To make it shine, the production used no backing singers, leaving just Chen’s voice and the instruments. The only exception was his own duet with Chen in Walk Your Own Way. But perhaps knowing that Chen’s voice was too beautiful for most male singers (including himself) to match, Lee composed the song so that the majority of the lines went to her. Chen’s career-defining album thus emerged from a smooth and balanced collaboration, as Lee, beyond highlighting her vocals, left her to decide how to sing.

To promote the album and add more “authority” to her message, Chen made a drastic change to her appearance, cutting her hair to a gender-neutral length. At the time, nearly all Taiwanese female singers wore long hair: gender-neutral looks were far from the societal ideal for women. Chen, however, had a natural advantage. She had inherited handsome features from her father, and the short-haired Chen suddenly added a touch of masculinity to her otherwise feminine looks. Her image perfectly matched her vocal quality — a blend of strength and vulnerability. Just like that, the stars lined up for the album. Chen appeared on Taiwan TV in November to perform the lead single Dream to Awakening, making it an instant and enduring Mandopop classic.

The promotion of this album was more even-handed than Woman’s Heart. In Singapore and Malaysia, EMI focused on both the singer and the producer. Within a week of release, Dream to Awakening topped the charts in Taiwan. By year’s end, the album was selling at a record-breaking pace. At the time, 50,000 copies made a platinum record, 200,000 a hit, and 300,000 the yearly bestseller. When the album sold about 150,000 copies, Chen joked with Rock Records’ sales office, saying they could have her new car if sales reached 400,000. Neither she nor her colleagues took her words seriously. Even in her wildest dreams, she had not imagined a 400,000-copy album.

By early 1990, the album had broken that record on its way to half a million sales. Chen still owned her car (she had been joking after all), but a sinking feeling came to her: how could she continue after this? Such success was historic; there was no way she could surpass it with future albums. In her career, Chen had developed a habit of always looking forward; each release drove her to strive for a better one next. This spirit had carried her through early struggles, as failures never deterred her. With that mindset, she should now focus on the next album, but clearly Talk to You, Listen to You had set a standard almost impossible to exceed.

By then, her mother’s worries had shifted to Chen’s marriage. Chen was already 30 but still only casually dating; marriage seemed as remote as ever. As her mother urged her to spend more time on her personal life rather than her next album, Chen gave her a hopeful promise: “Sure, if my next album sells over 700,000 copies, I’ll find a way to become someone’s wife!”

Talk to You, Listen to You would go on to become Taiwan’s first album to sell 1 million copies. It achieved Chen’s original aim of talking to her fans. One day, as she was crossing the street, a woman came up to hug her, telling her in tears, “You sang my heart!” Beyond that, the album sent a shock wave through Taiwan’s music industry and society. Sarah Chen became the de facto “Voice of Urban Women,” a symbol of female independence at a time when women were increasingly moving to cities to pursue their dreams. Within the music industry, Chen broke the uniformity of female singers, opening an era of independent and diversified female artists. The album also started a trend in Mandopop in which women were no longer portrayed as emotionally dependent on men.

In March 1990, EMI ended its partnership with Rock Records; the two labels had to sell remaining stock within six months and return original materials to their owners. Talk to You, Listen to You was already an extraordinary success. Rock Records bought the full rights to the album, but did not obtain the rights to the three preceding albums (Waiting for the Storm, Woman’s Heart, and Tomorrow Will You Still Love Me).

The following year, Rock Records’ new international partner, BMG, reissued the album and introduced it to mainland China. The reissue was titled after its lead single Dream to Awakening, removing Chen’s original intent ("Talk to You") while emphasizing Lee’s role as composer. This was the beginning of Sarah Chen’s market exposure in mainland China. Because her earlier albums belonged to EMI, they could not be reissued by BMG or Rock Records, leading to the misleading impression that Chen’s career began with Dream to Awakening. Unlike the balanced promotion EMI gave this album, later promotion credited producers more heavily. Over time, Talk to You, Listen to You followed the same path as Woman’s Heart. Chen’s role in conceptualizing the album vanished in the 2003 documentary A Letter to Sarah, which portrayed her as merely fulfilling the producer’s dream. Only the yellowing news reports from 1989, now rediscovered, told the true story of how this album came about.

After this album, Chen’s contract with EMI ended, allowing her to sign with other labels. She met with several rivals, but believing she was unlikely to achieve the same success elsewhere, Chen signed with Rock Records. After all, she had carved her heart into her work there for the past three years.

A new beginning is supposed to bring new opportunities. But just as Chen had not dreamed of achieving such extraordinary success, neither did she foresee the nightmare that would engulf her next.

For additional content, see Sarah Chen: Music Memoir.

Past Issues

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