Album Name
The word ‘decadent’ is an ironic echo of early PRC condemnation of music such as that of Taiwanese singer Teresa Tang's music as mǐmǐ zhī yue (靡靡之樂). The title of this album is a pun: during the Cultural Revolution, Teng's songs were condemned as "decadent sounds" (靡靡之音) by the Communist Party of China. The album title is literally translated as Faye's Decadent Music (菲靡靡之音), but as the character "菲" (fēi, i.e. the name Faye in Mandarin) has the same pronunciation as the related character "非" (fēi, no/not/non prefix in Classical Mandarin), the title can also be construed as "Non-Decadent Sounds".
Word play on Faye's name 菲 fēi in Mandarin has also been used on two EMI compilation albums: 菲卖品 Fēi mài pǐn ("Faye sale product", a pun on 非卖品 fēi mài pǐn, "Not-for-sale product") and 菲主打 Fēi zhǔdǎ ("Faye main beat", a pun on 非主打 Fēi zhǔdǎ "not main beat").
Read more about this topic: The Decadent Sounds Of Faye
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