Program Guide: 01 Holiday Wishes • 02 Give Me Peace• 03 Christmas 1983 • 04. A Look Back • 05 New Year
节目导览:1 佳节祝福 • 2 给我和平 • 3 八三年圣诞 • 4 回顾2025 • 5 迎接2026
It seems like only yesterday that we were debating the many ways to mathematically make 2025. The year has now gone by in a blink of an eye. We have so much to be grateful for.
Thank you, Ms. C.Y. Yong, for safekeeping Sarah Chen's photos and stories. Your archive has made it possible for us to reconstruct Sarah's music history.
Thank you, @ny1018, @changpingchun, and @tedchou8293, for sharing your knowledge about Sarah Chen and finding new ways to celebrate her work.
To all of our readers, listeners, and supporters: wishing you a peaceful new year.
2025是给数学爱好者的礼物,我们对它数学特性的讨论仿佛就在昨天。但一转眼这个奇特的一年就要过去了,留给我们无限的感激。
马来西亚歌友杨女士,谢谢你多年来收集和保留媒体对陈淑桦的报道。你的资料是我们音乐纪实的基础,给陈淑桦生涯的回顾带来客观和真实的一面。
YouTube歌友 @ny1018, @changpingchun, and @tedchou8293,谢谢你们分享对陈淑桦音乐的理解和信息,希望你从她的作品中继续找到启发。
祝愿我们所有的读者、听众、和陈淑桦歌迷一个平安的新年。
We celebrate the upcoming new year with Sarah Chen's song Give Me Peace on Earth, from her 1987 English album Miracle of Love. A 2002 reissue of the album was set at the wrong key and tempo, distorting Chen's singing. This video was digitized from a rare 1987 original cassette.
When Chen recorded this song in 1987, Germany was divided, the Soviets had not broken apart, and China's direction still uncertain. Communication relied on letters, telegrams, and telephones; international travel was slower and less common. In that more isolated world, music was key to cross boundaries between nations and people. Sarah Chen's English-language work was part of that effort.
Since then, the world has changed, with unimaginable technological advances and globalization. Some say that we are more peaceful, even as wars continue to devastate parts of the world.
What has not changed is our love for music and a universal wish for peace. Chen's song is now almost forty years old, but its wish still feels close to our hearts today.
我们以陈淑桦的英文歌「给我和平」庆祝新年。这首歌收集在1987年《爱的奇迹》专辑里,2002年重发的CD版不幸扭曲了音调和音速。这段视频来自一盘罕有的1987年卡带,虽然有些杂音,但保留了原版的陈淑桦音色。
1987年陈淑桦录制这首歌时,德国还分东西两国,苏联尚未解散,中国还在六四前夕。那时远程沟通全靠信件,偶尔有电报和电话。国际旅游则非常罕见。在那个更为封闭的世界里,音乐是跨越国界和文化交流的重要途径。陈淑桦的英文作品在当年就起了这个作用。
如今世界已变了很多。有人说科技发展和国际化的一个后果是世界更加和平了。但战争和冲突带来的灾难却并没有消失。
永恒不变的,是人们对音乐的热爱和和平的期待。陈淑桦的歌快40年了,但它传达的愿望是今天我们的心声。
陈淑桦 1983 圣诞节表演海山和百代早期作品
A rare footage of Sarah Chen performing live around Christmas 1983
中文的「闪舞」片段,录影棚版音乐
An audio-enhanced segment of the English classic What a Feeling, performed in Mandarin
Through much of Sarah Chen's career, holidays were workdays, performing away from family. Christmas 1983 was no exception. This rare footage shows Sarah Chen live in an early phase of her career, singing songs from her Haishan Records period and her first EMI albums. The 10-minute video is the original broadcast. The 30-sec video is a short segment of the English classic What a Feeling (sung in Mandarin), paired with the studio recording for clearer audio.
Wishing you and your family a warm holiday season.
在她的音乐生涯中,假日是陈淑桦繁忙的工作日,通常远离家人外出表演。1983年圣诞节便如此。这段视频是陈淑桦早年罕见的录像,演唱了海山期和百代早期的几首歌。十分钟的视频是原始录像,音响质量差;三十秒的录像是配置录音棚的《闪舞》片段。
祝你和家人共度温暖的假日。
This year, a new, well-researched narrative about Sarah Chen's career took shape. Instead of the familiar producer-centric view of her career, we highlight Chen herself as a primary driver of her music, drawing on rare contemporaneous materials that have never been brought together in one place.
Like many pre-internet singers, Sarah Chen did not have a well-documented music history. Her stories were printed but not digitized, often held in the collective memories of fans. Worse yet, the institutions that held power - media and record labels - were, by no means, objective or neutral. Over time, narratives about her career had consolidated around Jonathan Lee's transformation theory, contradicting contemporaneous reports from the 1980-1990s.
In 2025, we revisited Sarah Chen's career from a distance of decades and thousands of miles. Our late encounter with Chen's music and independent stance helped us listen to her music with fresh ears.
In 2025, Sarah Chen Memory Gate:
Wrote Love Is the Only Reason, a new biography of Sarah Chen
Tracked down rare recordings, including her 1982 Tokyo PopCon live performance of Promise Me Tonight
Received and synthesized rare archival articles from longtime fan C.Y.Yong
Wrote a music memoir based on this archive, establishing Sarah Chen as the driving force behind albums, such as Talk to You, Listen to You
Launched a biweekly journal to highlight her work and its continued resonance in the 21st century
We are grateful to everyone who made this possible. Together, we have begun to build the most complete bilingual resources on Sarah Chen's music, carefully, independently, and with love.
2025年,我们重写陈淑桦音乐史,一改几十年将她绑定在制作人身上的职业叙述。歌友收集的历年报道表明,陈淑桦是她音乐作品的主要推动人:是她,而不是李宗盛,提出《梦醒时分》专辑的制作概念。
陈淑桦的生涯处在互联网普及之前,她的音乐史没有完整的记录。八九十年代的报刊有几百篇对她的报道,但这些内容大都没有数字化,有些和她音乐相关的纪实只在歌迷的记忆中。不幸的是,媒体和唱片公司等官方渠道对她的职业没有采取公平或中立的态度。随着时间的推移还有陈淑桦自己的沉默,关于她职业的叙述成了2003年《给淑桦的一封信》里的李氏论。那种她受益于制作人、曲风转型的说法违背事实,和当年报道不符。
2025年,我们全面回顾陈淑桦的生涯。时隔三十年,远在千里之外,又不是她长年的歌迷,这些稀有的因素给我们的工作带来独立性,让我们能保持公正,以全新的眼光和现代的观念分析那段音乐史。
「陈淑桦记忆的门」在2025年做的工作如下:
撰写《爱是唯一的理由》,陈淑桦音乐旅程
找到几乎遗失的作品,比如1982年东京世界歌谣赛的现场录音《今夜承诺我》
收到并整合了歌友C.Y.Yong收集的陈淑桦在新马地区的历年报道
根据历年报道,撰写了陈淑桦音乐纪实,发现她是《跟你说听你说》等专辑的主要推动人
制作期刊,将陈淑桦的作品与二十一世纪时事相联
非常感谢促成这些工作的朋友和歌友。在大家的协助下,我们将建立最全面的陈淑桦中英双语网页,内容深入,见解独特,以尊爱回应她在音乐里刻下的人情。
The work done so far - archiving Chen's complete works, researching her biography and music history - will remain available, making her work truly forever, Sarah
如今「记忆的门」里收齐了陈淑桦所有的作品,她的歌唱生涯也有了一个全新的定位,提高了她作品永恒的可能
Just as we are about to pat ourselves on the back for the work we did in 2025, reality sets in. Sarah Chen Memory Gate is fighting an uphill battle. As recent as early 2025, official channels were still emphasizing producers as the key to Chen's success. In August 2025, a major TV segment aired rare footage of Chen in 1995 and 1996, confident and at peace with her life and career. Yet the commentary returned to the familiar story of a tragic diva, too weak to go on without her mother.
If clear video evidence cannot undo a story that has been repeated for three decades, it would be naive to think that an independent site will suddenly change the narrative. The forces that pushed Chen out of her beloved music - industry gatekeeping and deeply rooted sexism - are the same ones that limit our impact. What we did in 2025 were the "low-hanging fruits:" tasks under our control, but the road ahead remains challenging.
Looking to 2026, we do not have a grand plan, but we have a foundation that will stay. The work done so far - archiving Chen's complete works, researching her biography and music history - will remain available, making her work truly forever, Sarah. With the continued engagement of longtime fans and new listeners, we hope that the songs Sarah Chen poured her soul into will keep bringing love, happiness, and peace.
虽然2025年的工作有价值,我们对它的影响力没有谱。捧红、转型之类的说法虽是成年老调,但几十年来它们已经根深蒂固了。2025年初,官方渠道仍然将陈淑桦的职业定位在制作人身上。2025年八月,台湾电视播放了陈淑桦在1995和1996年两段录影,神采飞扬,对人生充满信心。但节目却老调重谈,将她定位为依赖母亲的悲剧天后。
如果连录像的事实都不能扭转这些成年老调,本站独立的工作更不可能将它连根拔起。陈淑桦生涯中面临的职场和社会阻力至今仍然存在,这些阻力也严重限制了「记忆的门」的影响力。2025年我们是采了触手可及的果子,做了我们可以控制的工作,但剩下的果实埋在了荆棘里。
我们没有2026年的宏伟计划,但对目前的工作深感欣慰。陈淑桦的歌官方只保留了一半,如今「记忆的门」里收齐了陈淑桦所有的作品,她的歌唱生涯也有了一个全新的定位,提高了她作品永恒的可能。
感谢陈淑桦的歌迷多年来的支持,也欢迎像我们一样的新听众。愿陈淑桦充满深情的音乐给你带来幸福,真爱,和平安。
Program Guide: 01 Holiday Wishes • 02 Give Me Peace• 03 Christmas 1983 • 04. A Look Back • 05 New Year
节目导览:1 佳节祝福 • 2 给我和平 • 3 八三年圣诞 • 4 回顾2025 • 5 迎接2026
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).