All News / Gossip On Sun Ho / China Wine (何耀珊) Aka Geisha Fan Club (Compiled)

[FluteGuan]

Press released in 2007 for an album that never was (released)

 

你搞什么鬼?

[Guest Guest2]

Press her Cheebye.

你不要跟我太過分！

[Guest Guest]

26 minutes ago, FluteGuan said:

Press released in 2007 for an album that never was (released)

 

你搞什么鬼?

 

片尾很cult的結局：

「你搞什麼鬼!」

「你不是告訴我在家裡睡覺嗎?」

「why you fucking here」

「你不要太過份!」

[Guest Guest]

https://www.facebook.com/pg/OH-NUS-1687877331431778/about/?ref=page_internal

[Guest Guest]

Firstly, an examination of Sun’s Geisha persona as portrayed in China Wine reveals a

constructed performance of Asianness that panders to Orientalist preferences. Geisha

incorporates salient features from various Asian cultures while erasing aspects of Asian

identities that cannot be culturally commodified by Orientalist ideology. By doing so, Sun

performs the stereotype of Asia generated by the “ensemble of relationships between works,

audiences, and some particular aspects of the Orient” (Said 20), creating a persona optimized

for Western consumption.

 

At the beginning of China Wine, a Jamaican emcee introduces her as “Sun a.k.a. Geisha”

ushering in the “Asian invasion” (Ho, et al. 00:00:07-00:00:09)—the

allusion to a generic Asia reflects the stereotype of a culturally homogeneous continent that

Sun later exploits when she sings that “in China we love the dutty wine so much that we mix

it with the China wine” (00:00:51-00:00:56), further blurring national boundaries by singing

about being a Chinese national while taking on a Japanese stage name.

 

Although Sun is a Singaporean Chinese woman, she erases her nationality in favour of singing about China

while assuming a Japanese name, exploiting the stereotypical precedent (Said 20) that

positions China and Japan as major Asian cultural hubs while ignoring lesser-known

Singapore. Finally, Sun eroticises the geisha, ignoring the “sacredness of their profession”

(Bardsley 6) in favour of the hypersexualised character that occupied Orientalist thought ever

since Europeans misconstrued the tradition as an erotic service (8).

 

Throughout the music video, Sun writhes amidst a gang of Asian ladies who caress her sensually (Ho, et al.

00:01:28-00:01:34; 00:01:49-00:01:51; 00:02:58-00:02:59), evoking erotic sentiments that

play into the Occidental misunderstanding of geisha as sex workers. As such, Sun’s Geisha is

a pastiche of stereotypes that draw upon Orientalist misconceptions of Asia, opening a path

into the music industry by portraying the Oriental that the West wants to encounter.

 

While one might see this wanton borrowing as a distinctively Orientalist manoeuvre,

we must remember that Sun exoticises herself; her Geisha persona reveals an awareness of

the Orientalist desire for “dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”

(Said 3) and her exploitation of the Western compulsion for categorising unknowns into easy

stereotypes (26). As Said points out, Orientalist ideology is buttressed by material investment

in the form of financial and physical infrastructures (6). In this case, these material

investments coalesce into the entity that is the American music industry. Therefore, one can

interpret Sun’s performance of Asianness as an insertion into the industrial-ideological

scaffold.  By embodying the Occidental fantasy of the exotic, promiscuous and generically

Asian woman, Sun’s Geisha persona is engineered to maximise her viability in the American

music market by locating herself as a new entry into discourses of Asian identity.

 

After inserting herself into the American music scene, Sun wishes to make herself its

focal point of discourse. In fact, China Wine allegorises Sun’s musical journey as an ambition

of cultural conquest through insertion and domination. Firstly, Sun’s entrance into Western

music is a threat to its status quo. Sun’s initial dance sequence showcases mastery of the

dutty wine (Ho, et al. 00:00:55-00:01:12), provoking Jamaican women into challenging her to

a dance battle in which she finally synthesises a Buddhist prayer gesture into the dutty wine

to produce her signature China wine (00:02:28-00:02:31). She does not merely stop at a

perfect enactment of local culture but proves her superiority by innovating upon it to produce

her winning dance move.  Sun’s performance of Asianness is not a desperate measure but a

coolly deployed strategy: unfazed by the Jamaican attack, Sun steps up with calm confidence

before performing the China wine, brazenly breaching the spatial boundary separating her

from the Jamaican crew (00:02:29-00:02:37). This display of Asian aggression is a conscious

performance that penetrates the barrier sealing off the Western world from the realm outside.

 

Therefore, Sun’s choreographic evolution is metonymic of her desire to conquer the society

that she attempts to infiltrate. Even though Sun’s entrance depended on a performance of

compliance to Orientalist norms, her attempt to thrive is marked by violence as she advances

into Western dance territory in order to expand her “Asian invasion” (00:00:07-00:00:09).

 

One can read Sun’s journey into American music as an attempt at reverse colonization

in which an Oriental enters the Western world and presents herself as a new model of

excellence. Towards the narrative’s conclusion, Sun’s China wine becomes an emblem of

exotic Oriental excellence that unites the dance nation, just like a coloniser’s flag. After out-
dancing the Jamaicans, Sun incorporates them into her dance crew, and all dancers—Asian

and Caribbean alike—accept her as their leader. Just before the final dance sequence, the

multiracial dance crew parts in a sign of deference as Sun saunters in (Ho, et al. 00:03:14-

00:03:16) and marks their allegiance by performing the China wine together (00:03:16-

00:03:18).

 

By this point, the China wine has transcended its functional role as a dance move

and is now a symbolic marker of Asian superiority. Similarly, Sun does not envision herself

as a passive subject of the Orientalist gaze but wishes to break the boundaries that it has

erected around her by inverting its power structure to put her at its top. Furthermore, Sun’s

triumph over Western dance culture is acknowledged by Western musical authority: veteran

Jamaican emcee Elephant Man articulates his recognition of Sun outplaying the West at their

own specialty when he raps: “every wine weh we do she cyaa outshine [Sun cannot be

outshone in every “wining” dance style], Jamaican Asian” (Ho, et al. 00:02:09-00:02:13),

highlighting Sun’s entrance into the dance scene as an intrusion that overhauls its power

structure in her favour. Interestingly, Sun’s domination of Western music subverts the typical

Orientalist move of ventriloquising the Oriental and “making the Orient speak” (Said 20);

here, Sun compels the Occident to speak about her.

 

Finally, the derivative nature of the China wine reveals Sun’s intention to colonialise

Western dance: by adding Asian embellishments to the Jamaican dutty wine and calling the

product her own, Sun performs the distinctively colonialist move of conquest and

incorporation, absorbing Jamaican dance into the Geisha’s musical engine. Hence, Sun’s

entire China Wine project begins by allowing herself to be Orientalised before exploiting the

Orientalist ideological scaffold to reverse the power dynamic in her favour, becoming the

“Jamaican Asian” (00:02:09-00:02:13) who controls her Jamaican subjects by incorporating

them into her Asian choreography.

 

In light of these points, we see that Sun’s conformance to the Orientalist gaze was a

minor concession that provided an opportunity to gain power as a breakthrough diva. Sun

gives herself the dual advantage of novelty and familiarity that in turn lets her reverse the

typical Orientalist-Oriental relationship. Hence, China Wine provides an understanding of

Orientalism that complements Said’s idea of the Orient as victim. By “[mixing] the China

wine with the dutty wine” (Ho, et al. 00:02:35-00:02:37), Sun inserts herself into the

American music scene in order to remake the West in her image.

[Guest Guest]

[Guest Guest]

[Guest Guest]

What is so surprising? SUN is an international superstar who have countless of hits worldwide. Her music is enjoyed by millions of people. Madonna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga recently joined Sun as one of the influential people in Dance by billboard.

 

SUN HAS countless of top tastemakers and talents wanting to work with her..people include Elephant Man, Lady Saw, David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager, Olivia Newton John, Wyclef Jean and many more.

 

So many designers want Sun to wear their cloths as being the ultimate Fashionista, everything she wears will have instant international coverage thus selling their cloths..besides having Sun wear their designs signify that that designer had Made it big!

 

So what is so surprising is students from Yale NUS want to set up a Fan Club for Sun?

[Guest Tanga]

Please tell me this is satire.

[Guest Guest2]

2 hours ago, Guest Tanga said:

Please tell me this is satire.

 

Mix the China wine with the dutty wine

[Guest Guest]

International superstar Sun Ho has fan club in NUS Kent Ridge campus and NUS-Yale

 

https://www.facebook.com/OH-NUS-1687877331431778/

[Guest Guest]

[Guest guest]

she is the joke lah

[Guest guest]

the best thing about her is her wealth.  KNN she is loaded.....dont play play

[Guest Sun Ho]

Mix the China wine with the dutty wine...

[Guest Chiney]

[Guest Geisha]

11 hours ago, Guest guest said:

the best thing about her is her wealth.  KNN she is loaded.....dont play play

 

[Guest Psycho]

You need to seek help for your mental illness incessantly creating multiple threads of this never-been trollop in this forum and go get laid for goodness sake for your pathetic need for attention.

[Guest Guest2]

3 hours ago, Guest Psycho said:

You need to seek help for your mental illness incessantly creating multiple threads of this never-been trollop in this forum and go get laid for goodness sake for your pathetic need for attention.

 

Who are you this bitch???

 

 

FUCK OFF

[Guest Guest]

Sun Ho's fan club by NUS... Oh-NUS!

 

https://www.facebook.com/OH-NUS-1687877331431778/?fref=nf&pnref=story

[Guest Sun Wukong]

[FluteGuan]

http://y3.ifengimg.com/1b53d3de6c49426e/2014/0110/rdn_52cee2629ed1b.jpg

 

 

[Guest Guest]

Mix the China wine do di dutty wine

[Guest Guest]

你搞什么鬼？你不要跟我太过分！

[FluteGuan]

 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

你好!

[Guest Guest]

Donald Trump performs Sun Ho aka Geisha's smash hit 'China Wine'!

 

 

[Guest Benson Pang]

Pang Wen Kang, Benson

Associate Professor Geoffrey Baker

YHU3210A: Proseminar in Literary Studies

21 October 2016

 

“Asian Invasion Coming to Your Residence": Rethinking the Orientalised Victim Through

Sun a.k.a. Geisha's China Wine

 

Postcolonial theory often assumes the Orientalised subject’s victimhood, interpreting

absences of resistance to Orientalist discourse as powerlessness. Edward Said writes in

Orientalism that Orientalist art comprises “artificial [enactments] of what a non-Oriental has

made into a symbol for the whole Orient” (21), depicting Orientals as mute effigies of the

mysterious East. Yet, Said does not account for cases featuring voluntary Oriental

compliance. This paper will bridge the knowledge gap between compliance as powerlessness

and compliance as an exercise of agency. I argue that Singaporean singer Sun a.k.a. Geisha’s

(her actual name is Ho Yeow Sun) entry into the American music market, China Wine, is an

act of agency that exploits entrenched Orientalist conceptions of the East, maximising her

industry value as an Asian pop star by performing the exotic mysterious Asianness that the

West wants to see. Through this essay, I hope to provide a view of Oriental compliance as

agency that complements Said’s view of the victimised Oriental.

 

For clarity’s sake, I will first define some terms and concepts. China Wine is the name

of a song and music video through which Sun hoped to enter the American music market

(Feng). China Wine features Jamaican dancehall artists Wyclef Jean, Tony Matterhorn and

Elephant Man, and premises itself on reinventing the “dutty wine”—a Jamaican dance move

comprising “vigorous [head] rolls . . . and shakes of the hip, pelvis, and buttocks” (Jones 1)—

through inserting Chinese gestures to create Sun’s signature move, the “China wine”. Sun

partnered Wyclef Jean because of his track record as a successful vector into American

music, as exemplified by his introduction of Colombian singer Shakira into the pop market

with their breakout single “Hips Don’t Lie” (Chan). Hence, Wyclef Jean and his genre,

Jamaican dancehall, serve as symbolic representations of the music scene that Sun wishes to

enter; it is through entering his music that Sun’s can enter America. Hence, China Wine is a

Jamaican-Asian music fusion project aimed at the American music industry (Feng), in which

Jamaican dancehall is taken to represent Western dance music. Throughout this paper, I use

China Wine when I refer to the music video and “China wine” to indicate the dance move.

 

Firstly, an examination of Sun’s Geisha persona as portrayed in China Wine reveals a

constructed performance of Asianness that panders to Orientalist preferences. Geisha

incorporates salient features from various Asian cultures while erasing aspects of Asian

identities that cannot be culturally commodified by Orientalist ideology. By doing so, Sun

performs the stereotype of Asia generated by the “ensemble of relationships between works,

audiences, and some particular aspects of the Orient” (Said 20), creating a persona optimized

for Western consumption. At the beginning of China Wine, a Jamaican emcee introduces her

as “Sun a.k.a. Geisha” ushering in the “Asian invasion” (Ho, et al. 00:00:07-00:00:09)—the

allusion to a generic Asia reflects the stereotype of a culturally homogeneous continent that

Sun later exploits when she sings that “in China we love the dutty wine so much that we mix

it with the China wine” (00:00:51-00:00:56), further blurring national boundaries by singing

about being a Chinese national while taking on a Japanese stage name. Although Sun is a

Singaporean Chinese woman, she erases her nationality in favour of singing about China

while assuming a Japanese name, exploiting the stereotypical precedent (Said 20) that

positions China and Japan as major Asian cultural hubs while ignoring lesser-known

Singapore. Finally, Sun eroticises the geisha, ignoring the “sacredness of their profession”

(Bardsley 6) in favour of the hypersexualised character that occupied Orientalist thought ever

since Europeans misconstrued the tradition as an erotic service (8). Throughout the music

video, Sun writhes amidst a gang of Asian ladies who caress her sensually (Ho, et al.

00:01:28-00:01:34; 00:01:49-00:01:51; 00:02:58-00:02:59), evoking erotic sentiments that

play into the Occidental misunderstanding of geisha as sex workers. As such, Sun’s Geisha is

a pastiche of stereotypes that draw upon Orientalist misconceptions of Asia, opening a path

into the music industry by portraying the Oriental that the West wants to encounter.

 

While one might see this wanton borrowing as a distinctively Orientalist manoeuvre,

we must remember that Sun exoticises herself; her Geisha persona reveals an awareness of

the Orientalist desire for “dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”

(Said 3) and her exploitation of the Western compulsion for categorising unknowns into easy

stereotypes (26). As Said points out, Orientalist ideology is buttressed by material investment

in the form of financial and physical infrastructures (6). In this case, these material

investments coalesce into the entity that is the American music industry. Therefore, one can

interpret Sun’s performance of Asianness as an insertion into the industrial-ideological

scaffold. By embodying the Occidental fantasy of the exotic, promiscuous and generically

Asian woman, Sun’s Geisha persona is engineered to maximise her viability in the American

music market by locating herself as a new entry into discourses of Asian identity.

 

After physically inserting herself into the American music scene, Sun wishes to make herself its

focal point of discourse. In fact, China Wine allegorises Sun’s musical journey as an ambition

of cultural conquest through insertion and domination. Firstly, Sun’s entrance into Western

music is a threat to its status quo. Sun’s initial dance sequence showcases mastery of the

dutty wine (Ho, et al. 00:00:55-00:01:12), provoking Jamaican women into challenging her to

a dance battle in which she finally synthesises a Buddhist prayer gesture into the dutty wine

to produce her signature China wine (00:02:28-00:02:31). She does not merely stop at a

perfect enactment of local culture but proves her superiority by innovating upon it to produce

her winning dance move. Sun’s performance of Asianness is not a desperate measure but a

coolly deployed strategy: unfazed by the Jamaican attack, Sun steps up with calm confidence

before performing the China wine, brazenly breaching the spatial boundary separating her

from the Jamaican crew (00:02:29-00:02:37). This display of Asian aggression is a conscious

performance that penetrates the barrier sealing off the Western world from the realm outside.

Therefore, Sun’s choreographic evolution is metonymic of her desire to conquer the society

that she attempts to infiltrate. Even though Sun’s entrance depended on a performance of

compliance to Orientalist norms, her attempt to thrive is marked by violence as she advances

into Western dance territory in order to expand her “Asian invasion” (00:00:07-00:00:09).

 

One can read Sun’s journey into American music as an attempt at reverse colonisation

in which an Oriental enters the Western world and presents herself as a new model of

excellence. Towards the narrative’s conclusion, Sun’s China wine becomes an emblem of

exotic Oriental excellence that unites the dance nation, just like a coloniser’s flag. After out-
dancing the Jamaicans, Sun incorporates them into her dance crew, and all dancers—Asian

and Caribbean alike—accept her as their leader. Just before the final dance sequence, the

multiracial dance crew parts in a sign of deference as Sun saunters in (Ho, et al. 00:03:14-

00:03:16) and marks their allegiance by performing the China wine together (00:03:16-

00:03:18). By this point, the China wine has transcended its functional role as a dance move

and is now a symbolic marker of Asian superiority. Similarly, Sun does not envision herself

as a passive subject of the Orientalist gaze but wishes to break the boundaries that it has

erected around her by inverting its power structure to put her at its top. Furthermore, Sun’s

triumph over Western dance culture is acknowledged by Western musical authority: veteran

Jamaican emcee Elephant Man articulates his recognition of Sun outplaying the West at their

own specialty when he raps: “every wine weh we do she cyaa outshine [Sun cannot be

outshone in every “wining” dance style], Jamaican Asian” (Ho, et al. 00:02:09-00:02:13),

highlighting Sun’s entrance into the dance scene as an intrusion that overhauls its power

structure in her favour. Interestingly, Sun’s domination of Western music subverts the typical

Orientalist move of ventriloquising the Oriental and “making the Orient speak” (Said 20);

here, Sun compels the Occident to speak about her.

 

Finally, the derivative nature of the China wine reveals Sun’s intention to colonialise

Western dance: by adding Asian embellishments to the Jamaican dutty wine and calling the

product her own, Sun performs the distinctively colonialist move of conquest and

incorporation, absorbing Jamaican dance into the Geisha’s musical engine. Hence, Sun’s

entire China Wine project begins by allowing herself to be Orientalised before exploiting the

Orientalist ideological scaffold to reverse the power dynamic in her favour, becoming the

“Jamaican Asian” (00:02:09-00:02:13) who controls her Jamaican subjects by incorporating

them into her Asian choreography.

 

In light of these points, we see that Sun’s conformance to the Orientalist gaze was a

minor concession that provided an opportunity to gain power as a breakthrough diva. Sun

gives herself the dual advantage of novelty and familiarity that in turn lets her reverse the

typical Orientalist-Oriental relationship. Hence, China Wine provides an understanding of

Orientalism that complements Said’s idea of the Orient as victim. By “[mixing] the China

wine with the dutty wine” (Ho, et al. 00:02:35-00:02:37), Sun inserts herself into the

American music scene in order to remake the West in her image.

 

Works Cited

 

Bardsley, Jan. “The New Woman Meets the Geisha: The Politics of Pleasure in 1910s Japan.”

Intersections: Gender & Sexuality in Asia & the Pacific, May 2012, pp. 1-24.

 

Chan, Lyn. “City Harvest Trial: 5 Things About Controversial China Wine Song.” The Straits

Times, Singapore Press Holdings, 18 Aug. 2014, shar.es/1Ex2p3.

 

Feng, Zengkun. “Sun Ho Sounded 'Too White' So Wyclef Jean Suggested an Asian-Reggae

Fusion: Kong.” The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings, 12 Aug. 2014,

str.sg/zLp.

 

Ho, Yeow Sun, et al. “China Wine.” YouTube, uploaded by WyclefVEVO, 17 Mar. 2011,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-E5SywuDWQ&list=RDy-E5SywuDWQ.

 

Jones, Adanna. Take a Wine and Roll “IT”!: Breaking Through the Circumscriptive Politics

of the Trini/Caribbean Dancing Body. University of California Riverside, 2016.

 

Said, Edward. Orientalism. Random House, 2003.

[Guest mookata]

All hail the new generation empress !!

 

SUN HO!!!

 

 

[Guest awkwardpenguin]

On 07/12/2016 at 1:11 AM, Guest sour wine swine said:

the one who can achieve 1% of what she did, then have a right to criticise

 

Yes

[Guest Guest]

Now that the CHC case has come to a close, do you think Sun can now be (fancy) free to pursue her goal of world domination in the global entertainment scene?

 

Remember how she beat Madonna and Kelly Clarkson in 2003 with her debut single, Where Did Love Go, on the Billboard Charts? 

 

And how she beat Adele with the release of her church's 2016 album, Draw Me?

 

Do you think Sun can stage a return as Singapore's top international superstar again?

[Guest Roll Eyes]

[Guest Dime and Nickel]

If the gullible sheeps continue to throw her the monies, she can still fulfill her list of wishes. Kong & Sun Co already richer than many people in Singapore, I don't think there is nothing she can't do.

[CKW]

[Guest Guest]

At the rate Sun Ho is going, she will outshine Chin Han and Fann Wong.

[Guest Guest]

What type of question is that? What again? Sun is already a global star.

[Guest Guest]

What type of question is that? What again? Sun is already a global star.

 

I heard that Sun rejected a duet with Beyonce and with The Chainsmokers as they have sub par vocals and production.

[Guest Guest2]

18 minutes ago, Guest Guest said:

What type of question is that? What again? Sun is already a global star.

 

I heard that Sun rejected a duet with Beyonce and with The Chainsmokers as they have sub par vocals and production.

 

Someone please post her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame please.

[Guest Guest]

Nothing can change the fact that Sun is a multi-platinum and Billboard-charting international superstar!!!

 

Her 5 hits, Where did Love Go, Without Love, Ends of the Earth, Gone and Fancy Free topped the Billboard Charts!

[doncoin]

Well, it was the Billboard Dance Charts. Not the Billboard 100 which is open to all genres. 

 

The reality for Sun Ho is she is too old now to be a pop star. She may have better success in other music genres like Gospel or Jazz, etc. where dressing up in skimpy clothes and gyrating on stage are not required. 

 

Face it, teenagers form the majority of pop music listeners and buyers. No teen is going to buy aunty music. 

[Guest Guest]

13 minutes ago, Guest Guest said:

Nothing can change the fact that Sun is a multi-platinum and Billboard-charting international superstar!!!

 

Her 5 hits, Where did Love Go, Without Love, Ends of the Earth, Gone and Fancy Free topped the Billboard Charts!

Yes..Sun has more hits than that way over rated Beyonce. Have you seen Beyonce's Formation tour? The tour is terrible! The set designs is 3rd rate, her cloths look like from pasar malam, no style, no class, not forward or trendsetting! Her songs, are at best American Idol grade. Beyonce's vocal skills is as thin as a cling film! That girl just cannot sing! Lets not talk about her dancinh skills where there is non...also no stage presence!

 

If not for the court case, Sun would have gone on tour and show the likea of Beyonce, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga how it is done and the true meaning of a global Superstar!

[Guest Sun]

6 minutes ago, doncoin said:

Well, it was the Billboard Dance Charts. Not the Billboard 100 which is open to all genres. 

 

The reality for Sun Ho is she is too old now to be a pop star. She may have better success in other music genres like Gospel or Jazz, etc. where dressing up in skimpy clothes and gyrating on stage are not required. 

 

Face it, teenagers form the majority of pop music listeners and buyers. No teen is going to buy aunty music. 

 

[Guest Guest]

7 minutes ago, doncoin said:

Well, it was the Billboard Dance Charts. Not the Billboard 100 which is open to all genres. 

 

The reality for Sun Ho is she is too old now to be a pop star. She may have better success in other music genres like Gospel or Jazz, etc. where dressing up in skimpy clothes and gyrating on stage are not required. 

 

Face it, teenagers form the majority of pop music listeners and buyers. No teen is going to buy aunty music. 

Sun is not the establishment. SUN sets the standards. I do not know whoch planet you are from but Sun is considered trendy and a pacesetter, a groundbreaking artist. Youths all the world is copying Sun's unique fashion style and singing her songs!

[Guest Guest]

4 minutes ago, Guest Guest said:

Sun is not the establishment. SUN sets the standards. I do not know whoch planet you are from but Sun is considered trendy and a pacesetter, a groundbreaking artist. Youths all the world is copying Sun's unique fashion style and singing her songs!

 

Check out a Sun Ho fan doing the China Wine in America!  Sun rules!

 

[Guest Guest]

2 minutes ago, Guest Guest said:

 

Check out a Sun Ho fan doing the China Wine in America!  Sun rules!

 

And we have an idiot who thinks youths do not buy Sun's music!

 

Trust me when I say this. The press hyped up Coldplay's recent sold out 2 concerts in National Stadium like it is such a big deal, Sun can fill the National Stadium as many times as she wishes to perform her artistry. The timing is not right as Sun chose to be a Mother first, a mother figure to millions more 2nd before performing. 

[Guest Hee haw]

36 minutes ago, Guest Guest said:

And we have an idiot who thinks youths do not buy Sun's music!

 

Trust me when I say this. The press hyped up Coldplay's recent sold out 2 concerts in National Stadium like it is such a big deal, Sun can fill the National Stadium as many times as she wishes to perform her artistry. The timing is not right as Sun chose to be a Mother first, a mother figure to millions more 2nd before performing. 

 

This is what we called alternative facts.

[Guest Guest2]

Pang Wen Kang, Benson

Associate Professor Geoffrey Baker

YHU3210A: Proseminar in Literary Studies

21 October 2016

 

“Asian Invasion Coming to Your Residence": Rethinking the Orientalised Victim Through

Sun a.k.a. Geisha's China Wine

 

Postcolonial theory often assumes the Orientalised subject’s victimhood, interpreting

absences of resistance to Orientalist discourse as powerlessness. Edward Said writes in

Orientalism that Orientalist art comprises “artificial [enactments] of what a non-Oriental has

made into a symbol for the whole Orient” (21), depicting Orientals as mute effigies of the

mysterious East. Yet, Said does not account for cases featuring voluntary Oriental

compliance. This paper will bridge the knowledge gap between compliance as powerlessness

and compliance as an exercise of agency. I argue that Singaporean singer Sun a.k.a. Geisha’s

(her actual name is Ho Yeow Sun) entry into the American music market, China Wine, is an

act of agency that exploits entrenched Orientalist conceptions of the East, maximising her

industry value as an Asian pop star by performing the exotic mysterious Asianness that the

West wants to see. Through this essay, I hope to provide a view of Oriental compliance as

agency that complements Said’s view of the victimised Oriental.

 

For clarity’s sake, I will first define some terms and concepts. China Wine is the name

of a song and music video through which Sun hoped to enter the American music market

(Feng). China Wine features Jamaican dancehall artists Wyclef Jean, Tony Matterhorn and

Elephant Man, and premises itself on reinventing the “dutty wine”—a Jamaican dance move

comprising “vigorous [head] rolls . . . and shakes of the hip, pelvis, and buttocks” (Jones 1)—

through inserting Chinese gestures to create Sun’s signature move, the “China wine”. Sun

partnered Wyclef Jean because of his track record as a successful vector into American

music, as exemplified by his introduction of Colombian singer Shakira into the pop market

with their breakout single “Hips Don’t Lie” (Chan). Hence, Wyclef Jean and his genre,

Jamaican dancehall, serve as symbolic representations of the music scene that Sun wishes to

enter; it is through entering his music that Sun’s can enter America. Hence, China Wine is a

Jamaican-Asian music fusion project aimed at the American music industry (Feng), in which

Jamaican dancehall is taken to represent Western dance music. Throughout this paper, I use

China Wine when I refer to the music video and “China wine” to indicate the dance move.

 

Firstly, an examination of Sun’s Geisha persona as portrayed in China Wine reveals a

constructed performance of Asianness that panders to Orientalist preferences. Geisha

incorporates salient features from various Asian cultures while erasing aspects of Asian

identities that cannot be culturally commodified by Orientalist ideology. By doing so, Sun

performs the stereotype of Asia generated by the “ensemble of relationships between works,

audiences, and some particular aspects of the Orient” (Said 20), creating a persona optimized

for Western consumption. At the beginning of China Wine, a Jamaican emcee introduces her

as “Sun a.k.a. Geisha” ushering in the “Asian invasion” (Ho, et al. 00:00:07-00:00:09)—the

allusion to a generic Asia reflects the stereotype of a culturally homogeneous continent that

Sun later exploits when she sings that “in China we love the dutty wine so much that we mix

it with the China wine” (00:00:51-00:00:56), further blurring national boundaries by singing

about being a Chinese national while taking on a Japanese stage name. Although Sun is a

Singaporean Chinese woman, she erases her nationality in favour of singing about China

while assuming a Japanese name, exploiting the stereotypical precedent (Said 20) that

positions China and Japan as major Asian cultural hubs while ignoring lesser-known

Singapore. Finally, Sun eroticises the geisha, ignoring the “sacredness of their profession”

(Bardsley 6) in favour of the hypersexualised character that occupied Orientalist thought ever

since Europeans misconstrued the tradition as an erotic service (8). Throughout the music

video, Sun writhes amidst a gang of Asian ladies who caress her sensually (Ho, et al.

00:01:28-00:01:34; 00:01:49-00:01:51; 00:02:58-00:02:59), evoking erotic sentiments that

play into the Occidental misunderstanding of geisha as sex workers. As such, Sun’s Geisha is

a pastiche of stereotypes that draw upon Orientalist misconceptions of Asia, opening a path

into the music industry by portraying the Oriental that the West wants to encounter.

 

While one might see this wanton borrowing as a distinctively Orientalist manoeuvre,

we must remember that Sun exoticises herself; her Geisha persona reveals an awareness of

the Orientalist desire for “dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”

(Said 3) and her exploitation of the Western compulsion for categorising unknowns into easy

stereotypes (26). As Said points out, Orientalist ideology is buttressed by material investment

in the form of financial and physical infrastructures (6). In this case, these material

investments coalesce into the entity that is the American music industry. Therefore, one can

interpret Sun’s performance of Asianness as an insertion into the industrial-ideological

scaffold. By embodying the Occidental fantasy of the exotic, promiscuous and generically

Asian woman, Sun’s Geisha persona is engineered to maximise her viability in the American

music market by locating herself as a new entry into discourses of Asian identity.

 

After physically inserting herself into the American music scene, Sun wishes to make herself its

focal point of discourse. In fact, China Wine allegorises Sun’s musical journey as an ambition

of cultural conquest through insertion and domination. Firstly, Sun’s entrance into Western

music is a threat to its status quo. Sun’s initial dance sequence showcases mastery of the

dutty wine (Ho, et al. 00:00:55-00:01:12), provoking Jamaican women into challenging her to

a dance battle in which she finally synthesises a Buddhist prayer gesture into the dutty wine

to produce her signature China wine (00:02:28-00:02:31). She does not merely stop at a

perfect enactment of local culture but proves her superiority by innovating upon it to produce

her winning dance move. Sun’s performance of Asianness is not a desperate measure but a

coolly deployed strategy: unfazed by the Jamaican attack, Sun steps up with calm confidence

before performing the China wine, brazenly breaching the spatial boundary separating her

from the Jamaican crew (00:02:29-00:02:37). This display of Asian aggression is a conscious

performance that penetrates the barrier sealing off the Western world from the realm outside.

Therefore, Sun’s choreographic evolution is metonymic of her desire to conquer the society

that she attempts to infiltrate. Even though Sun’s entrance depended on a performance of

compliance to Orientalist norms, her attempt to thrive is marked by violence as she advances

into Western dance territory in order to expand her “Asian invasion” (00:00:07-00:00:09).

 

One can read Sun’s journey into American music as an attempt at reverse colonisation

in which an Oriental enters the Western world and presents herself as a new model of

excellence. Towards the narrative’s conclusion, Sun’s China wine becomes an emblem of

exotic Oriental excellence that unites the dance nation, just like a coloniser’s flag. After out-
dancing the Jamaicans, Sun incorporates them into her dance crew, and all dancers—Asian

and Caribbean alike—accept her as their leader. Just before the final dance sequence, the

multiracial dance crew parts in a sign of deference as Sun saunters in (Ho, et al. 00:03:14-

00:03:16) and marks their allegiance by performing the China wine together (00:03:16-

00:03:18). By this point, the China wine has transcended its functional role as a dance move

and is now a symbolic marker of Asian superiority. Similarly, Sun does not envision herself

as a passive subject of the Orientalist gaze but wishes to break the boundaries that it has

erected around her by inverting its power structure to put her at its top. Furthermore, Sun’s

triumph over Western dance culture is acknowledged by Western musical authority: veteran

Jamaican emcee Elephant Man articulates his recognition of Sun outplaying the West at their

own specialty when he raps: “every wine weh we do she cyaa outshine [Sun cannot be

outshone in every “wining” dance style], Jamaican Asian” (Ho, et al. 00:02:09-00:02:13),

highlighting Sun’s entrance into the dance scene as an intrusion that overhauls its power

structure in her favour. Interestingly, Sun’s domination of Western music subverts the typical

Orientalist move of ventriloquising the Oriental and “making the Orient speak” (Said 20);

here, Sun compels the Occident to speak about her.

 

Finally, the derivative nature of the China wine reveals Sun’s intention to colonialise

Western dance: by adding Asian embellishments to the Jamaican dutty wine and calling the

product her own, Sun performs the distinctively colonialist move of conquest and

incorporation, absorbing Jamaican dance into the Geisha’s musical engine. Hence, Sun’s

entire China Wine project begins by allowing herself to be Orientalised before exploiting the

Orientalist ideological scaffold to reverse the power dynamic in her favour, becoming the

“Jamaican Asian” (00:02:09-00:02:13) who controls her Jamaican subjects by incorporating

them into her Asian choreography.

 

In light of these points, we see that Sun’s conformance to the Orientalist gaze was a

minor concession that provided an opportunity to gain power as a breakthrough diva. Sun

gives herself the dual advantage of novelty and familiarity that in turn lets her reverse the

typical Orientalist-Oriental relationship. Hence, China Wine provides an understanding of

Orientalism that complements Said’s idea of the Orient as victim. By “[mixing] the China

wine with the dutty wine” (Ho, et al. 00:02:35-00:02:37), Sun inserts herself into the

American music scene in order to remake the West in her image.

 

Works Cited

 

Bardsley, Jan. “The New Woman Meets the Geisha: The Politics of Pleasure in 1910s Japan.”

Intersections: Gender & Sexuality in Asia & the Pacific, May 2012, pp. 1-24.

 

Chan, Lyn. “City Harvest Trial: 5 Things About Controversial China Wine Song.” The Straits

Times, Singapore Press Holdings, 18 Aug. 2014, shar.es/1Ex2p3.

 

Feng, Zengkun. “Sun Ho Sounded 'Too White' So Wyclef Jean Suggested an Asian-Reggae

Fusion: Kong.” The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings, 12 Aug. 2014,

str.sg/zLp.

 

Ho, Yeow Sun, et al. “China Wine.” YouTube, uploaded by WyclefVEVO, 17 Mar. 2011,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-E5SywuDWQ&list=RDy-E5SywuDWQ.

 

Jones, Adanna. Take a Wine and Roll “IT”!: Breaking Through the Circumscriptive Politics

of the Trini/Caribbean Dancing Body. University of California Riverside, 2016.

 

Said, Edward. Orientalism. Random House, 2003.

[Guest Guest]

Sun Ho launches new single at US Fashion Week!

 

 

 

[Guest Guest]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFNIXtrDsfs

 

Sun & Wyclef

[Guest Guest]

Sun Ho new single - A Pure Heart

 

 

[Guest Guest]

7 minutes ago, Guest Guest said:

Sun Ho new single - A Pure Heart

 

 

One word to describe: STUNNING!

 

A world class vocal performance.