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Teresa Teng Forever Page 6 of 10 
In the eyes of vocalist Fan Yu-wen, Teresa Teng may not have had a very broad range, "but she
had great microphone technique." Generally speaking, the singer can only really touch the
audience if the microphone is properly manipulated and the singer's breathing is
well-controlled. This was especially the case for Teng, because her voice was not very strong,
so she had to keep very close to the mike. But Teresa had masterful technique. Not only was
there no background noise from her breathing, her enunciation was very clear, and she was able
to project her delicate voice in such a way that you felt she was singing right up next to your
ear, singing for you and you alone. In Japan her voice was complimented as being "like weeping
and like pleading, but with strength, capable of drawing in and hypnotizing listeners."
When the China Television Network (CTV) first went on the air, it began by broadcasting the country's first serial drama, "Crystal." Teresa Teng sang the theme song. The song describes a daughter separated from her mother; the daughter spends her days searching for her lost parent. Teng was at that time only 17, and her life was far removed from such tragedy, so she had little understanding of the vicissitudes and tribulations of life. When she first tried singing the song she was smiling. Tsuo then patiently described to her the experiences of the lead character in the drama, so that by the time Teresa went into the recording booth she was actually crying. And in singing the song "More Than Words Can Say," which was in the film Where the Seagulls Fly (based on a story by the romance writer Chiung Yao), Teng fully grasped the sorrow and loneliness of the main female character, deeply moving her listeners. Tsuo believes that this is the song that really made her a star.
Cellist Chang Cheng-chieh went off to study music in Vienna at the age of 14. In that foreign
land, in Chinese restaurants or wherever there were Chinese people, one could always hear Teng's
crooning. She is the only Mandarin pop singer ever to have left an impression on Chang. "When
she sings, you can really feel the emotion. I was especially strongly affected when I would hear
her tapes at my friends' houses when I was living abroad." For the classically trained Chang,
"It doesn't matter if it's classical or popular, if it is done with emotion, then that's good
music."
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