Teng, Teresa (1953–1995)
Teng, Teresa (1953–1995)
Taiwanese popular singer. Name variations: Little Teng. Born in 1953 in Taiwan; died of heart failure at age 43, after suffering an asthma attack, on May 8, 1995, in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Born in Taiwan in 1953, pop singer Teresa Teng became a Chinese superstar after that nation became more open in the late 1970s. She was one of the first foreign artists to gain such a following, but Teng became a capitalist symbol in the eyes of the authorities. When her Mandarin love songs were banned in Beijing during the crackdowns throughout the 1980s, her records were smuggled in through Hong Kong. "It was said that 'Little Teng,'" noted Time, "was more popular than 'Old Deng' Xiaoping." When the cultural climate eased in China, her music again sold briskly. The songwriter Tsuo Hung-yun described her voice as "seven parts sweetness, three parts tears." Teresa Teng died suddenly after an asthma attack in 1995 in Chiang Mai, a northern resort city in Thailand, where she was on holiday.
Sally A. Myers , Ph.D., freelance writer and editor