da-zhangwei

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I was just telling people (@mittensmorgul @treefrogie84) how DZW's song lyrics are often either disaffected youth (for his Flowers era) or tired adult (for his more recent stuff) and yet he is the most cheerful and ridiculous person ever to exist.

So here he is singing a Flowers song about how apathetic he is, while surrounded by cartoons and trying not to smile in some parts. Recorded, of course, in his usual livestream studio that is an 8-year-old's dream.

I think after the singing he says "Happy song finished!" and then something about successfully singing a happy song. But I'm nowhere near sure enough to put it in the subtitles.

(I don't love the word era as the translation for 时代 because I think the way he's using it is closer to stage of life, but I couldn't think of a non-awkward to say that in song lyrics. I may just be too sleepy today.)

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《只为自己开的花》 A Flower That Blooms Only For Itself, performed by Da Zhangwei and Penny Tai on Our Song Season 6 Episode 2.

Re-posting this, now with translated lyrics! (I started with a machine translation to have a base to work from, then went through line by line and fixed it with my middling Mandarin + multiple dictionaries. I in no way claim it's 100% accurate, but I think it's mostly ok.)

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嘻唰唰-花儿乐队

Click play and be BROUGHT BACK TO YOUR CHILDHOOD~

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Our Song S3 Episode 3 - edited video with annotations is up!

You get to meet Da Zhangwei, I'm so happy! And in his very first appearance, he says something so unintelligible that the Mandarin subtitles skip it. I love him so much.

Episode 3 on Google Drive

Annotations on Google Drive

Annotations on AO3

Tags below cut, let me know if you want me to add you to the tag list.

@aleatoricwren @emmajanereading

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I love that I texted my sister “OMG I’m just going to sob at you for a minute because I finally looked up the lyrics to this song I barely understand and it’s about his wife he loves her so mucchhhhhhh 😭😭😭” and she immediately knew who I was talking about even though she didn’t recognize the name of the song.

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Did you enjoy Yibo's NYE performances?

Sure, we were all psyched for him to perform Observer, but did you like the surprise duet he did earlier in the show?

If so, I am here to tell you about the guy he was singing with - because Yibo loves him, and so should you!

That! Is Da Zhangwei!

He wrote that song! He was one of Yibo's cohosts on Tiantian Xiang Shang (also known by the terrible translation Day Day Up), and you know Yibo's TTXS cohosts were his family. His big brothers. It's how he got his reputation as a ge collector.

This is DZW's other NYE performance, which is a bit more representative of his usual aesthetic:

If you like either of those songs/performances, read on to learn more about why you should definitely be paying attention to this guy.

(Sorry most of these videos don't have English subs. But most are music so at least you can find the lyrics online.)

First off, DZW didn't just write this song and then perform it with Yibo (and give Han-ge a shoutout afterward). He then posted this video, basically shouting "I wrote this song because I miss my TTXS bros!" (The lyric being repeated here is "I will miss you")

I mean, I don't know for a fact that he wrote it about them. But I do know that he literally DID write a song about Yibo once. This is a thing he has done before. It's called Cool Guy:

But the fact that he and Yibo are on each other's lists of favorite people is only the beginning, and definitely not why I became obsessed with him.

Da Zhangwei fun facts:

You'll find him on English-language sites like Spotify and iTunes under his English stage name, Wowkie Da. People also often refer to him as DLS or Da-Laoshi, showing how respected his in the music industry.

He started a band (花兒樂隊, The Flowers), wrote all the music for said band, and had his first hit, 静止 (Static), in 1999 - when he was 16 years old. Like all his music, it's catchy as fuck. (To go back to Yibo for just a second, I'm guessing they bonded over having to deal with fame from a really young age.)

(Yes, the guy sticking his tongue out at the camera up there is 40 years old.)

Da Zhangwei is actually a stage name, too. His real name is Zhang Wei (so you'll occasionally find him as Wowkie Zhang), but that's such a common name that when he started his career he started going by "Big Zhangwei" - which is hilarious given that he was a scrawny teenager.

He continued to write pretty much all the band's music for the next decade. (Here's a whole concert from probably 2007ish). Then when they broke up in 2009 he started his solo career, also writing all his own music.

静止 was an angsty teenage anthem, but since then his aesthetic, both songwriting-wise and visually, has tended toward upbeat and cute.

I think it's safe to say he's leaned into this even more since going solo. Some of his recent hits: 撒花/Scatter Flowers, 一个Nice, 满怀可爱所向披靡 / Full of Cuteness and Invincible, and 万物盛开法则 / Law of All Things Blooming, from above.

However, don't be fooled! This just means that when he writes something sad, it's absolutely heartbreaking. Examples include 永远唱不完的歌/The Song That Doesn't End (above) and 我的深情就是个笑话/My Affection Is Just A Joke.

In addition to hosting TTXS, he has become a staple on all sorts of variety shows, both for music and comedy.

I found him via Season 3 of Our Song, where some of his accomplishments included creating a mashup of 12 different songs, from traditional Chinese folk music and opera to his own 撒花, and turning "your team will do 3 songs" into an entire 3-act musical (link is to the whole episode, since the 3 songs are alternating with the other team, but the other team is AMAZING with people you should get to know too).

He got to meet the Rolling Stones earlier this year! There's a translator but he's so excited he keeps breaking in while she's trying to ask his questions. His English is really good (if heavily accented), and he has a tendency to throw it in completely unnecessarily to both his performances and random conversation.

He's been on this show for a few seasons called Who's the Murderer? - basically, the same cast plays out a different murder mystery improv each episode. I haven't watched it yet but I've been meaning to - the latest season is on YT with English subs.

His birthday is the day after mine.

Want to see more? His tag is not very busy, but I try to reblog most things to @da-zhangwei. Feel free to contact me by any standard Tumblr method if you want more links!

Tagging people who said they'd be open to getting pulled into my Cpop fandoms, even though I don't have the edited Our Song episodes yet (consider this a preview): @json-derulo @poetry-protest-pornography @emmajanereading @percy-persephone @nuttysaladtree @thelima-aka-chickwriter @writergamermom @oneringtorulethem @trickybonmot @lovebird17 @erza155hasleftthebuilding

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I don’t know. I want to laugh, but tears fall down. Parting is always more heartbreaking than I expected. It doesn't matter. Can't say, can't forget, can't think. I will miss you. I will miss you.

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My 9-year-old niece at noon today: Ugh, I don’t know why you (me and her mom) listen to that Chinese music.

Same niece by 10:30pm: Wo bu zaihuuu-uu-uu-uuu-uu-uu-uu-uu-u!

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Da Zhangwei trying to eat along to his own song during his birthday livestream (8/31/23)

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Happy Birthday, Da-laoshi!

生日快乐大老师！

(Gif from his birthday livestream on Weibo)

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Made for @porcupine-girl as part of @fandomtrumpshate 2023!

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Da Zhangwei & Zhang Dongliang perform for Wang Han’s birthday (I think).

I’m sorry, I don’t know the song or any more info about the performance, I only know what I could get out of the short description on the Weibo post.

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大张伟 & 汪苏泷, 《梦醒时分》

Da Zhangwei & Wang Sulong, "Dream to Awakening"

Our Song, Season 3 Episode 4

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大张伟 & 汪苏泷, 《那一年》

Da Zhangwei & Wang Sulong, "That Year"

Our Song, Season 3 Episode 6

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大张伟 & 汪苏泷， 《我悄悄蒙上你的眼睛》

Da Zhangwei & Silence Wang, "I Quietly Cover Your Eyes"

Our Song Season 3 Episode 6

Also, I appreciate this performance 100x more after watching the original, I highly recommend it:

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A montage of Da Zhangwei & Wang Sulong performances from Our Song S3.

Note: Charm Limited Company is their team name.