Joanna Wang Ruo-lin is special and she knows it. Most 19-year-old Taiwanese singers might just utter saccharine comments about their nascent music and its label.
But Wang, barefoot and perched on a Harbour Plaza hotel divan, is criticising the songs on her debut album, Start from Here.
'I'm not particularly happy with the material I was given,' says Wang as her stylist fiddles with her hair. 'Sometimes, I feel like I can't do as well as I would with the songs I like. That's probably the biggest problem I have with this album.'
Such remarks might cause embarrassment among a Canto-pop starlet's entourage, but Wang's minders hardly bat, or roll, an eye. Maybe they are used to her precocity as the daughter of top Taiwanese Mando-pop producer Bing Wang Zhi-ping, the svengali behind rhythm and blues king David Tao Zee, and the mentor of the pop girl trio S.H.E. and the chart-topping Jolin Tsai Yi-lin. Maybe Wang's hungry for lunch. Or maybe we are seeing the hint of artistic perfectionism expected of a diva of tomorrow. After all, Start from Here has sold 80,000 copies in Taiwan, without much promotion by her label Sony BMG, and another 15,000 in Hong Kong.
Yet Wang's directness seems refreshing in an industry that all too often expects its performers to talk like ring-pull dollies to the press.
Casually dressed in tight jeans and a black top with a hint of makeup, she looks and fidgets like any other pampered teenager. But when she opens her mouth she seems to age 30 years. While many of her Canto-pop counterparts squeak labels' pre-packaged lines, Wang growls her individuality with a huskiness that suggests the soul of late-night lounge rather than the scream of conveyor-belt pop.
