there beneath the blue suburban skies

WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME?!

Just when you thought your favourite Asian singer of all time (I mean that, even though I'm constantly singing Zhen Zhong Ji's Jie Qing Ren and Yu Guan Hua's Qiu Xin Fu, both written by the great Liang Wern Fook) was going to remain NORMAL, in a world where Chinese pop is getting curiouser and curiouser - to quote Alice - she decides to pull the carpet right from under your feet and do THIS.

The latest music video of the new song by Chang Hui-mei or A-mei, "Hei Chi Hei", is shockingly filled with scenes of kidnap, sadomasochism, assassination and sexual connotations. Besides the Taiwanese MTV channel, other Taiwanese TV stations have declined to broadcast the music video.

A-mei's new album AMIT (based on her aboriginal name) has a strong vengeance theme, and "Hei Chi Hei" is a contemporary hard rock song with six foul words in the lyrics. Her record company has taken initiative in censoring those words to produce a standard version, and planned for the "original restricted" version to be broadcasted after 9pm starting Thursday night. However various TV stations have said that the vulgarities were but a minor problem and that the gory scenes and sadomasochistic images made the video undesirable for broadcast.

Overwhelming response to the music video on MTV channel boosted the record company's confidence in having wider promotions, but the TV stations' rejections were unexpected.

In considering A-mei's persistence in retaining the purest concept of the album, the record company would not consider snipping any more of the music video to cater to broadcast requirements. Instead they are currently exploring other less stringent avenues to allow fans to watch the uncut video.

A-mei "transforms" into "Amit" in the video and had to spend four hours in the image creation. The black crystals used cost NT$100,000 per set (about S$5000). Male lead in the MV, Chen Chu-xiang was dressed as a sadomasochistic King, top naked with leather straps around his body. The accompanying dancers are also dressed in dominatrix outfits.

The songstress thought very highly of the concept by famous MV director Bounce and described it as "very cool". - From Yahoo! News, 7 July 2009

Please, A*Mei. I am planning to watch you the next time you come to Singapore. Please, I beg you, don't make me change my mind. Not now, when I have memorised the lyrics to so many of your greatest hits and am dying for a chance to sing along with you live.