Wearing heavy stage make up and a 1960s "flip" hairdo, Tsai Chin (蔡琴) quietly enters the Four Seasons coffee shop in eastern Taipei. To most of the customers gathered for afternoon tea or business meetings, the small woman dressed in a white, puff-sleeved blouse and high-waisted black pants appears to be an ordinary, well-dressed cosmopolitan woman, except for the thick make-up. But Tsai's outfit has been carefully selected by a fashion designer, and her hair and make-up have been done by a make-up artist. She has just come from a TV interview to promote her latest album, Don't Look Into My Eyes That Way.
Tsai is one of Taiwan's best known female singers, famed for her melancholy ballads. Starting out as an earnest, sweet-voiced folk-singer while studying at Taipei's Shih Chien College, she has produced an amazing twenty-six albums over the past twelve years, all featuring her trademark bittersweet love songs. Her most successful album to date, The Lost Night, released in 1984, broke records by selling more than 400,000 copies. Her latest, which debuted last July, will also be promoted in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan.
But singing is not Tsai's only career. In 1982, she ventured beyond the recording studio to host a two-hour weekly radio program on BCC, Taiwan's biggest and most profitable station. Why would a popular singer tack a weekly deejaying stint onto her busy schedule? Tsai remembers that, at the time, she had been dissatisfied with attempts at reaching the public by performing on TV. Her plain, wholesome look—Tsai wore large, black framed glasses and white, button-down shirts—was not popular with variety show producers. "When I was singing on TV, directors would often tell me 'Thank you. That's enough,' before the lighting was even set," she jokes in her self-deprecating style. In a more serious tone, she adds, "Being an artist, I want people to really understand me. But the TV producers didn't care about who I was, what I was, or what I thought." So, when broad cast producer Chen Kuei-chu (陳桂珠) offered her a chance to host At High Noon, a Sunday music-and-interview program, she jumped for it. On the radio, she could share her true thoughts and opinions with listeners.
Today, a number of other performers have followed in Tsai's footsteps. Television actress and variety-show host Chang Hsiao-yen (張小燕) began hosting an evening music-and-personality show on BCC in 1989, and singer Cheng Yi (鄭怡) started her own show on the station about the same time. All told, about a dozen performers have crossed over from singing or acting to radio. "Since Tsai's program is quite popular, other singers think it is a good way to show their other talents and to promote themselves," says producer Chen. "Opportunities are limited on TV, so singers host radio shows."
As Taiwan's veteran singer-deejay, Tsai has learned some important rules of thumb in juggling the two jobs. The first lesson was that once the public develops an image of a performer, it is tough to shake it. Through her sweet, sentimental songs, fans thought of her as a sensitive, introspective woman. When listeners suddenly heard her laughing and poking fun at herself and her guests over the airwaves, some did not accept it. "They were totally shocked by my performance on the air," she remembers. "I was not the sad Tsai Chin in the songs." Listeners wrote in with mixed reactions to the up- beat, bubbly deejay they heard on the show.
When fans became confused by the two personae, the performer herself began wondering what her public image should be. She had expected the radio program to help listeners understand her better, but the show was having the opposite effect. "This reaction made me feel that I had two public personalities," Tsai says. In addition, her record company began worrying about how to promote the singer and her sad songs. "The company wanted me to reinstate the melancholy veil, but it was too late," she says.
Eventually, Tsai decided she could present both images to the public: "I asked myself. 'Why I should hide my true self?' I can sing sad songs, and still express my thoughts on the radio. That's the real Tsai Chin. Only by presenting a true face will my entertainment career last." The strategy appears not to have hurt either her radio or singing career. Two years after it started, the radio show was expanded from one hour to two. Meanwhile, on the singing side, Tsai's popularity has spread to Hong Kong, the United States. Canada, and Australia. And back at home, she was named Best Singer at the 1981 and 1990 Golden Tripod Awards, and Best Female Singer at the 1990 Golden Song Awards.
Hosting the radio show helps counter the disciplined, isolated life of a musical performer, Tsai adds, by keeping her in touch with the public. "A singer has to lead a very restricted life, and to deal with tremendous pressure," she says. "I always strive for a perfect performance. This kind of stress makes me long for the outside world."
As an interviewer, Tsai tries to make her guests relaxed and willing to talk. Whether she is interviewing Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) , the well-known founder and artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance Ensemble, or a security guard for a housing complex, she treats all her guests as persons to be respected for their own unique expertise. "My guests can always count on me; I never make them feel embarrassed or exposed," she says. At the same time, she keeps her audience in mind. "I want my guests to enjoy the interview and my listeners to hear something meaningful."
Why did Chen select Tsai Chin to host At High Noon? The producer says it was Tsai's unique voice and her individualism that attracted her ten years ago. "Tsai Chin has her own way of singing and interpreting songs, which means that she has her own thoughts," Chen says. "And her appearance is not like other singers, which means that she knows how to create her own unique style. These differences are what I was looking for."
"I like Tsai Chin's style," says regular listener Rebecca Wang (王兆楨), a computer operator. "She's very pleasant and not affected. She is such a wit! She always teases herself. Sometimes, she teases her guests too, but her interviews are never sarcastic." But not everyone likes Tsai's radio image. "Some people have criticized her because she doesn't speak perfect Mandarin, she speaks too fast, and she always bursts out laughing," says producer Chen. "This kind of relaxed style has never been on the air before. But it is what we want. We already have many profession ally trained deejays on the radio. We want to give listeners something different."
After more than a decade of this dual career, Tsai believes the radio show has helped to broaden her singing style. Her latest album features songs of many moods, not just the melancholy love songs that initially made her famous. "I hope people can see my different faces," she says. "It would be boring if I only presented one face."