Albums I have.

I have all of Cyndi Wang's albums: Begin (2003), Cyndi Loves You (2004), Honey (2005), Shining Cyndi 2005 (2005), Cyndi With U (2006), Magic Cyndi (2007), Fly! Cyndi (2008) and Red Cyndi (2008). I also have all of Rainie Yang's albums: Ambiguous (曖昧, 2005), Meeting Love (遇上愛, 2006), Anywhere Door (任意門, 2007) and Not Yet a Woman (半熟宣言, 2008).

I barely have most of Jolin's albums: Born To Be A Star (Universal, 2004), Magic (看我72變, Sony, 2003), Castle (城堡, Sony, 2004), J-Game (野蠻游戲, Sony, 2005), J-Top (Sony, 2006), Jolin's Final Wonderland (Jolin夢綺地精選, Sony, 2007), Dancing Diva (舞孃, EMI, 2006), Dancing Forever (唯舞獨尊, EMI, 2006), The Acquired Talent (地才, EMI, 2007), Agent J (特務J, EMI, 2007), Flower Butterfly (花蝴蝶, Warner, 2009) and Jolin Love Live (Warner, 2009). What I don't have are Jolin's first four albums with Universal, the two remix and three live albums she did with Sony, the English album Love Exercise (愛情練習語) she did with EMI or the compilation album Jeneration (J世紀Jeneration 大牌新曲+精選盤2006-2009).

I have a few Elva Hsiao albums: Tomorrow (明天, EMI, 2001), Love Elva... Remix & More (最熟悉的...蕭亞軒, EMI, 2006), 1087 + 137 (Warner, 2007) and 3 Faces of Elva (3面夏娃, EMI, 2008). She has eight other albums including her latest Diamond Candy (鑽石糖) which I might buy later. I've also downloaded a lot of her songs: I don't feel guilty doing that because most of her albums are hard to find now. I also have three A-Mit albums: Regardless (不顧一切, Forward, 2000), I Want Happiness? (我要快樂, 2006) and Star (EMI, 2007). She has fifteen other albums. I've also downloaded a lot of her songs: I don't feel guilty doing that because most of her albums are hard to find now.

I have Yao Yao's (郭書瑤) only album, Ai de Bao Bao (愛的抱抱), which I just realised is only an EP with only four songs. (I only bought it because there was an accompanying picture book and DVD and I never got round to listening to the CD.) I also have the Vicki Zhao (趙薇) album Swallow (小燕子, 1999) which I bought for cheap at an electronics store. Looking at Wikipedia, I was shocked to discover that Vicki has had six other albums since then including one released this year! Indeed, in 2006 she was "MTV Asia's Favourite Artist from Mainland China"! This tells me two things: 1) artists from Mainland China are not popular here (because her album received little or no promotion at record stores and may not even have been in stock) and 2) I'm not really all that impressed with Vicki's singing because I had never bothered to ask if she had any other albums come out. By extension then, I guess I'm not all that impressed with music from mainland China. (I've tried downloading Chinese music from the internet and the only stuff I like is from Taiwan and Hong Kong: I actually find the stuff from Mainland China slow and boring. Even Wu Bai's (伍佰), the famous singer "from China" who I had heard about before I came to Taiwan is actually from Taiwan and not the Mainland. So is Zhang Hong Liang [張洪量], the singer who Karen Mok sang the song Hiroshima Love [廣島之戀] with.)

The only Coco Lee albums I have are in English: Just No Other Way (1999) and Exposed (2005). Accrording to Wikipedia she has had a total of 24 albums! I've downloaded a lot of Coco Lee songs but I didn't realise she had that many albums. My favorite Coco Lee album would probably be Discoco from 2002, based on the songs I've downloaded. I've also downloaded the karaoke version of the live album L!VE is… KAREN MOK (拉活…莫文蔚) from youtube: it's subsequently been removed, obviously for copyright reasons, which I think is a bit unfair because I can't find Karen Mok albums at record stores here in Taiwan (other than the compilation album that was released last year) so it's not like I would have had the choice to simply buy the album rather than download it.

Oh and as for albums by non-Chinese performers, I do have most of the Destiny's Child albums (of which there were only seven altogether) and a few Bon Jovi albums. I also have all the Beyonce and Pussycat Dolls albums (if you include internet downloads). I used to use those albums in class and ask students what the songs were about. I eventually stopped doing this because it was too difficult a task for students, especially the Destiny's Child and Beyonce songs which were, after all, hip hop songs and a bit too fast for the students. Nowadays if I use music in class I use a karaoke video instead: there are plenty of English-language karaoke videos that I've downloaded by artists they would be familiar with (Jolin Tsai, Karen Mok, Coco Lee, A-Mei and Stephanie Sun [孫燕姿]).

Martin