Chou’s compositions are loosely categorized as pop music. While many of his works fall into contemporary R&B, rap, and rock genres, the term “Chou Style” has been popularized to describe his trademark cross-cultural music and his insistence on singing with relaxed enunciation. Taipei Times once described the meaning of “Chou Style”:”In what has become the archetypal Chou style, Taiwan’s favorite song blends pop, rap, blues and a smorgasbord of esthetic elements of world music to create his dream-like never-never land …”. He regularly fuses traditional Chinese instruments and styles with R&B or rock to form a new genre called “Zhongguo feng” (Chinese Style), some of which are written in the Pentatonic Scale as opposed to the normal seven-note scale(Diatonic Scale) to accentuate an oriental style. Sound effects from everyday life are frequently woven into his music, such as bouncing ping pong balls, touch tone phone dialing, helicopter blades, dripping rain, and radio static noise (concrete music).

Chou’s albums have been noted for the lack of change compared to his earlier works, yet he firmly stated that he will not alter his style: “They say I’ve been standing still …but this is the music I want, and I don’t see what I want by moving ahead.” To demonstrate his point, he named his 2006 album Still Fantasy after his 2001 album Fantasy. His use of relaxed enunciation has been criticized as “mumbling” which he also insisted will not change. However, recently he has adopted clearer pronunciation for certain songs, particularly more traditional “Zhongguo feng” (Chinese Style) songs, such as “Faraway” and “Chrysanthemum Terrace”

here comes three “Zhongguo feng” songs!!

Hair like snow (髮如雪 FA RU XUE)

Fa Ru Xue is the third track on Jay Chou’s album, November’s Chopin. Fa Ru Xue translates as, Hair Like Snow. The title may seem odd to non-Chinese speakers, the song also makes numerous references to Chinese philosophy, including past lives, reincarnation, and mythology, which leaves many non-Chinese fans confused when they read the translation of the lyrics. This confusion does little to impact the overall popularity of the song. The song was acclaimed by many of Jay’s fans and critics, it is known to be one of Jay’s best works. The lyrics for the song was written by Vincent Fang, Jay’s lyricist and good friend. The lyrics, which were written before the actual composition, earned Fang his eighth straight nomination for Best Lyricist at Taiwan’s 17th Golden Melody Awards.

Huo Yuanjia (霍元甲)

Huo Yuanjia (Chinese: 霍元甲; pinyin: Huò Yuánjiǎ) (c.1868-1910) was a Chinese martial artist and co-founder of the Chin Woo Athletic Association, a martial arts school in Shanghai. A practitioner of the martial art Mízōngyì, he is considered a hero in China for challenging foreign fighters in highly publicized matches at a time when Chinese sovereignty was being eroded by foreign concessions and spheres of influence. Due to his heroic status, legends and myths about events in his life are difficult to discern from the facts.

nunchakus (雙截棍 shuang jie gu)