Posted on 25th July, 2025 in Blog posts
Teresa Teng 邓丽君
A former student of mine is a media entrepreneur working with the Teresa Teng Foundation of Taipei to relaunch the singer known as the ‘Eternal Queen of Asian Pop’.
Teresa Teng (1953-1995) was a singer who united Chinese inside and outside the PRC, which was recovering from the savagery of the Cultural Revolution, and reminded them that the only important things in life are love and personal relationships – all of which the communists had sought to extirpate. Taiwan born, she represented everything wholesome in Chinese society, a rebuke to the politicians well recognised by her hundreds of millions of fans.
I was invited to join the production team meetings, where I found several of my former students from Goldsmiths and Westminster.
There are few pleasures greater than the joy of seeing your friends succeed. And for a teacher, to see former students doing socially valuable work which gives them a sense of self worth and achievement, is as gratifying as meeting those with husbands and babies whose success comes from their family relationships and home making.
I’m not going to embarrass my students by naming them or putting up individual pictures, but I’ll put up a graduation photo sent to me just now.
