Jay chou - Greatest Works of Art

By Ann Huang

Greatest Works of Art is the fifteenth studio album of Jay Chou, released  in 2022. Jay Chou is a Taiwanese male singer and composer who has been engaging himself in various styles of pop music and is extremely famous among Mandarin speaking people. In this album, Chou includes one intro and eleven songs, conveying humorous imagination, ambition, nostalgia to recall youth and past love and enjoyments in daily life. 

The Intro, consisting of lively swinging piano, prepares ground for the title track of the album, ‘Greatest Works of Art.’ The lyrics are written by Alang Huang and Di Xie, constructing a vision of the city of Paris in the 1920s and interweaving masterpieces from the past with ambitious declarations from Chou himself as the contemporary master of Mandopop, expressing his ambitions  for  the future. Chou’s relaxed but expressive voice combines with the melodious, smooth tune of music. He leads his listeners through several famous artists and poets of the twentieth century, engaging himself with these significant figures and their works in an imaginary way that blurs the fantasy and the reality. Uniting his tone with his references, Chou creates a vintage and witty album. 

‘Cold Hearted’ is the only song with a flavour of the Chinese pre-modern antiquity in this album, the Mandarin title of which literally means something like “Rosy Figure Turns to Become Frost-like.” This song tells of a man separated from his lover for some reason and they can only communicate with each other through short letters. The man has a deep longing for his lover, but gradually feels the sense of estrangement between them, until eventually he no longer hears from his lover. The lyrics by Vincent Fang show skilled allusion, if not complete adoption, of classical Chinese motifs and images. The last line translates directly as “…but the fish and the wild goose cease to travel back and forth.” The images mentioned here are from the ancient Chinese tale of letters hidden within the fish’s stomach and the ancient practice of using wild geese to carry letters or secret information. Therefore, this sentence is an implicit way of indicating that the person is not able to contact his lover anymore. The rhythm of this song, on the other hand, is light, suiting Chou’s eloquent way of singing and casting a glow of ease over the pessimism conveyed by the lyrics. It seems that, although the man undoubtedly feels sad about the fact that he and his lover are estranged, he understands and accepts this inevitable truth, recalling their story from a peaceful state of mind to express a reluctant farewell. Nonetheless, the seemingly conflicting attitudes reflected by the lyrics of ‘Cold Hearted’ makes the audience empathise with the man’s experiences and wonder if there is more about the story untold. 

In contrast, ‘Mojito’ is full of brightness and romance. With the lyrics, by Huang, and the vivacious tune, this song offers a cool, relaxing view of Havana (the capital of Cuba) and the man’s enjoyable experience with his lover there. ‘Pink Ocean,’ likewise,  shares the delightful experience of father and child, hanging out in Australia and enjoying life. Upon hearing these songs, people have the warm impulse to take a rest and spare some time to stay with their beloved ones. 

Overall, Greatest Works of Art is an album of colourful mixture; all of the different styles of the songs embody various concepts and arouse various emotions for its listeners. While some criticise Chou for repeating himself and leaning into cliche, I would say that Greatest Works of Art successfully shows Chou’s own style. I am looking forward to his future projects, how he is going to explore new fashions of pop music, and how he intends to “make the world subject to [his] music,” as Chou declares in Greatest Works of Art.