New Wave Mandarin City-Folk: Leon Zheng’s Museum of Tears

Out of the many young male singer-songwriters that have emerged in the Mandarin music scene in recent years, one of the most refreshing voices is Leon Zheng. Unlike many of his fellow Chinese singers, did not actually start his musical career in the huge market of China. Hailing from Yangzhou in Jiangsu province, he had studied broadcasting at the Communication University of Beijing.

However, an exchange program brought him to Taipei, where he fell in love with this colourful, new city—don’t we all?—and its vibrant indie music scene. Besotted with the city, he applied to a master’s program at National Chengchi University, the alma mater of other renowned singer-songwriters like Qingfeng and Cheer Chen, and it was during his graduate studies that his musical career took off.

After winning a few songwriting competitions in Taiwan, Zheng’s self-funded the release of his debut album 《忽然有一天, 我離開了台北》“When I Leave Taipei”, a love letter to the city he adopted as his second home, but from which he would eventually depart at the end of his studies. This is probably a feeling shared by many who have studied or worked overseas.

《忽然有一天, 我離開了台北》“When I Leave Taipei” features everyday sounds of subway trains and buses. It brings listeners on a jaunt around Taipei, evoking the bustle of the city and the rainy nights that linger. The last few tracks of the album signify his homecoming to China and Yangzhou, with tracks that incorporate the sounds of his hometown. Just like Zheng, the listener  also experiences the bittersweet feeling of leaving one place and returning to another. The strong theme of the album, together with the clear crisp voice of Zheng, earned the album 3 nominations at the 27th Golden Melody Awards: Best Newcomer, Best Mandarin Album, and Album of the Year—no mean feat for a crowd-funded debut album.

Zheng’s debut album《忽然有一天, 我離開了台北》 “When I Leave Taipei” received three Golden Melody Award nominations

His sophomore album,《眼淚博物館》“Museum of Tears”, continues Zheng’s distinct musical style best summed up as “city-folk.” Plenty of folk-pop music today is produced in cities, as the  entertainment industry is largely urban-based, but Zheng’s music focuses on the everyday life of city-dwellers: the loneliness, the silence as you swipe across your phone on commute, the longing for a life outside the city.

As its title suggests, the album is an eclectic collection of random mundane matters—but when displayed together, weaves a narrative. While the album is supposed to revolve around the three key concepts of “space”, “things”, and “tears” (how awfully broad), the theme that truly runs through the album is “solitude,” best encapsulated in the moving 《過於喧囂的孤獨》 “Too Loud A Solitude”.

The song starts out softly, but crescendos into textured strings and vocals, then reverts to Zheng’s solitary singing, demonstrating how deafening solitude can be. It is my favourite track on the album and is definitely worth a listen. The accompanying music video has major Japanese film vibes.

Leon Zheng’s latest album《眼淚博物館》 “Museum of Tears” was released in 2020.

Zheng’s youthful voice is fully showcased on the track 《去海邊》“The Room By The Sea”, a song about heartbreak and longing in which Zheng sings about wanting to go to the seaside to write a letter to someone who has no feelings for him. Other compelling tracks include 《戀物癖》“Danshari”, 《牆》“Wall”, and the beautiful duet with fellow singer-songwriter Misi Ke in 《海》“A Roll of Film”, with Ke’s angelic voice complementing Zheng’s.

A stand-out track—the only light-hearted song in the whole album—is his duet with another singer-songwriter HUSH in 《陽台》“Rover on the Balcony”. The song waxes lyrical about staring at the night sky from the balcony and wishing to be transported away. Zheng and HUSH have such similar voices that when woven together in the song, it is difficult to differentiate them. Ultimately, the two voices blend to form a cohesive whole, making it another one of my favourite tracks on the album. A piece of trivia: during the filming of the music video, Zheng was stuck in Yangzhou due to Covid-19 and could only appear via video call.

I read with amusement the press statement for this track: 「更有歌迷留言表示：“聽完歌後被勾起了荷爾蒙，歌手你要對我負責！” 讓人看了又好笑又害羞。」 “There were fans who commented, ‘After listening to the song, my hormones were stoked, the singers have to take responsibility for this!’, making readers both tickled and embarrassed.” I have to give it to these studio marketers sometimes—half of the time, they don’t make sense, and the rest of the time, they feature the most random “responses” from imaginary fans. (On my part, not a nanoparticle of hormones was stoked upon listening to the song, but do tell me if you experience otherwise.)

The last track to recommend is the beat-heavy《雨季不再來》“Goodbye! Rainy Days”, a song that utilises the passing of the rainy season as a symbol of hope and looking to the future. Part of the beauty of Zheng’s songs is the poetry in the lyrics, with its heavy use of metaphors—references to everyday objects to draw out deeper themes.

《眼淚博物館》“Museum of Tears” is a wonderful sophomore effort for Zheng, and I predict a nomination or two at next year’s Golden Melody Awards. The underlying themes are not as compelling as those in his first album, but we also cannot expect him to continue singing about Taipei—as a singer-songwriter, he is widening his repertoire. Still, it was the Taiwanese capital city’s unique vibe and atmosphere that allowed Zheng to truly find his voice as an artist. Place makes a person, and he would have made music much differently, had he not spent those years in Taipei.

《眼淚博物館》“Museum of Tears” also represents the first entry in Zheng’s forthcoming trilogy “A Poetic Study of Space”—so we can expect more albums down the road. In the Mandarin-speaking world, the soulful, raspy voices of Jonathan Lee 李宗盛 and Bobby Chen 陳昇 represented the “city-folk” music of the 1980s and 1990s. Their songs expressed the ennui of urban life for listeners of their era. Today, Zheng’s music fills a similar, critical niche for youth living in cities, who are also in need of a generational voice to express their emotions. He is a modern-day poet who can speak to the hearts of educated urban youth, whether in China, Singapore, or Taiwan.

(Feature photo by 光河 from Xing Zheng / Facebook)