POP-STAR DREAMS

One year ago, Neko Zhang was barely able to pronounce the words "Delirious" or "Butterfly Girl" without twisting her tongue.

But after six months of speech lessons, the Chinese pop singer has not only managed to conceal her accent, but she's also on the media circuit promoting her first English-language album featuring those two titles, as well as "The Yao Song."

She hasn't met Yao Ming, the towering basketball star from the Houston Rockets, but her face has been splashed on the pages of New York City Chinese-language newspapers.

"He's the pride of the Chinese people," Zhang said of the NBA star. "He's my inspiration. We both come from mainland China. We come to America, we have American dreams."

The title track of the 12-track CD "Wanton Desires" is laden with double entendres and it's not by accident. She hopes the song, with its playful lyrics, will help her cross the cultural divide.

The song is a playful story about seduction and love in a Chinese restaurant with lyrics about her background, inviting listeners to try to look beyond the obvious.

Unknown to the majority of Americans, she hopes to be the first Chinese pop star to break into the mainstream music industry in the United States and at the same time, hopes to use music to teach new fans about the people and history of her native country.

"Wanton Desires" mentions some popular but mediocre dishes - such as Chow Fun, Buddha's Delight and moo shu - to get her message across that there's more to Chinese people than tasty food in a restaurant.

A verse from the title track: "Confucius say, you know, to Buddha's Delight, 'There's more to know about rice than simply yellow, brown or white.' And there's much more to who I am than just what's on this menu tonight!"

But Zhang takes a tongue-in-cheek approach in her mission to educate Americans about the Chinese. On her Web site - www.neko online.com - the "song bites" page is set up like a Chinese restaurant menu.

During an interview at the Manhattan studio where she records, Zhang said she wants her music not just to entertain with love songs and sweet ballads, but also to cross the cultural divide in some ways.

"I want the American people to know more about Chinese culture," she said. "The key of the song is the only thing they know is the food."



'Spicy sauce'

In her own words, the new album is mostly a "sweet soulful romantic love" album, adding after a pause, "but with 'Wanton Desire,' we have spicy sauce there."

She said New Yorkers may know a little more than the average American when it comes to Chinese people because of the diversity of the city. But in other parts of the country, such as the Midwest, few know that Chinese immigrants helped to build the railroads and took part in other industries.

Zhang, 25, was born in Nanjing, a southern Chinese province, about four hours by train from Shanghai. Her mother, Qi Wenying, was a classical composer who is now retired. Her father, Yu Zhang, is an architect.

Zhang, a permanent U.S. resident, came to New York in 1999 and lives in Manhattan. She performs regularly at several Atlantic City casinos such as Trump Plaza, the Tropicana and Claridge Sands as well as Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. She performed "The Yao Song" at Avery Fisher Hall during a Lunar Chinese New Year concert in January.

She hopes that her new album will win fans from all walks of life and backgrounds, much like her idol, Yao Ming, is doing.



Yao and that song

Bill Sanders of Team Yao, a management group based in Los Angeles, said that after hearing "The Yao Song," the 7-foot, 6-inch, 310-pound center joked that it reminded him of his naughty childhood days.

"He's never heard his name repeated over and over so many times, and it reminds him of when he got in trouble with his mom and she would say at him, 'Yao Ming, Yao Ming, Yao Ming, get in here.'" Sanders said. "So he sort of said in a funny way that it reminded of his mom when he was in trouble."

Yao's 2002 arrival in the United States from the Shanghai Sharks sparked greater interest in professional basketball among Chinese. Many Rockets games are aired live by Chinese-language radio networks in the United States and in China.

Zhang hopes to be as popular as Yao one day. While it's yet to be seen whether she will win new fans, Dean Bailin, the producer of her new album, said she has an edge that may please many ears.

"She has this really jazzy, soulful sound, which I really like, and because she's from another country, she's putting so much energy into the words," Bailin said. "She's actually making the vocals sound important, and I couldn't get that from American singers. There's a certain intensity that came from her having to work that hard."

Zhang doesn't disagree.

"This is my second language. When I'm recording, I want to make sure people understand what I'm saying," she said.

Perry Nee, a DJ at two Los Angeles Chinese-language radio stations, said Zhang's ability to sing for both Chinese and non-Chinese audiences makes her stand out.

"She has talent, and her voice is beautiful," Nee said. "Chinese like her songs, she gave a lot of Chinese people in the states a lot of encouragement and surprises."

Nee, who also manages the Los Angeles office of M Weekly, a Chinese-language entertainment magazine, said her popularity within the Chinese-American community soared after the Yao song came out.

"We are very proud of her," he said.

Bailin - the guitarist for Rupert Holmes' 1979 hit, "The Pina Colada Song," and who worked years ago with rapper Curtis Blow - said American audiences also should know there are many talented Chinese-American singers around, not just out-of-tune "American Idol" reject William Hung.

While Hung's popularity may be good for his career, many Chinese-Americans have expressed embarrassment that he may be seen as the typical Chinese entertainer.

"That's a real insult to Asian people," Bailin said. "He's almost a caricature of the way people want to think about Chinese people."

Zhang shares similar views of Hung. She feels he lacks musical talent, but is a humorous presence on stage.

Zhang's CD was released on Father's Day in the United States by Well Go Records, an independent label. The release was accompanied by several hourlong interviews on Chinese-language radio programs.

While Zhang learned a lot by doing an English-language CD, she introduced some ancient Chinese instruments to the mix of electric guitars and synthesizers.



9/11 Chinatown documentary

Last year, she recorded a song to accompany a one-hour documentary about the effects on Chinatown of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, "There's a Hole in Chinatown's Heart." The song, "There's a Hole in My Heart," was performed in English and Chinese for the documentary that aired locally on WNYE-TV. Zhang also has appeared in the movie "Coyote Ugly" and in HBO's "Sex and the City."

She performed titles from her CD June 25 in Los Angeles at the Pavilion at Hollywood Park in a concert to benefit needy children. The CD, which also features other titles such as "Open Sesame Wonton Prelude" and "Tangled," is available on Ama zon.com and itunes.com.

Although Zhang most admires female performers such as Sade and '70s singer Karen Carpenter, she credits her mother, who wrote and performed for years, for much of her love for music. From the age of 6, she says, she would sing along with her mother.

Zhang studied musical theory, piano and voice at the prestigious Nanjing Conservatory. Zhang released her first album soon after she won a silver prize in a nationally televised talent competition in 1994 as well as an award for a music video depicting life after the Japanese occupation of her native city of Nanjing. She also has performed on a compilation album with other Chinese singers.

After performing in arenas in Beijing and Shanghai, with her career just getting started, she left for New York. At first, however, her two older sisters, who live in China, questioned her bold move to seek out a music career in America.

"At the beginning they asked me to give it up and do something else," she said. "'Try to be a lawyer, try to be a doctor, work in an office, get a stable job.'"

In recent years, however, her mother has bragged about her popularity, often holding up newspaper stories to her friends in China. And in some ways, Zhang said, it's all about mom.

"I want my mother to be proud of me in China," she said. "I want to do something that makes her proud of me."

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at nynewsday.com/archives.
Article licensing and reprint options