The Trajectory of Trans-Asian aidoru Gloria Yip

Source: https://jpop.fandom.com/wiki/Nemuri_Hime_(Gloria_Yip_Album)?file=Nemuri_hime_gloria_yip_album_1.jpg

A couple of days ago, in my Alyssa Milano article, I mentioned the fact that some Asian girls were turned into aidoru singers in Japan during the 70s and 80s. Right now I can think of Agnes Chan (アグネス・チャン) in the 70s, but, most important for us right now, Gloria Yip (グロリア・イップ) in the very early 90s.

Natural from Hong Kong, Gloria Yip started releasing music in 1990, after starring in some commercials in Japan and even acting in plays. In a style similar to Western child actress-turned aidoru Alyssa Milano, who was committed to the Eurobeat sound that was popular with female aidoru singers in Japan at the time, she released songs such as the cute “S.O.S.” (original version by Angie), but also some old chestnuts like “Please Mr. Postman” or “Mas Que Nada”. And if the poor material choice wasn’t enough, her vocals were also pretty weak (although, honestly speaking, not near as bad as Alyssa Milano, who could barely follow the melodies). So, based on that, her debut album, “Harajuku” (原宿), can be described as a big mess with little to no personality.

Besides not being a big star in Japan, the idea of a Trans-Asian aidoru was, though, adopted, since Gloria Yip also released albums in South Korea, Taiwan and, of course, her homeland, Hong Kong. However, while Alyssa Milano could have her music career in Japan recording in English, Gloria Yip had to record her songs primarily in Japanese. So, when the time for promotion overseas arrived, she had to re-record the same songs in English or Cantonese. An English version of her “S.O.S.”, which she used to promote overseas, can easily be found on YouTube, for example.

While not a memorable work per se, a spark shined in Gloria’s debut album. Besides the lacking, yet understandable “S.O.S.”, there was another single released prior to the album, “Ashura” (アシュラ), which surprisingly served as her debut single in early 1990 (coupling song “Don’t Close Your Eyes”, featured in the video above, is a great Eurobeat number, although not included in the album).

“Ashura” is a slow song that, thanks to the melancholic oriental feel, foreshadows what Gloria Yip would record two or three years after, near the end of her career in Japan, and that would be what I consider the opus of her discography, which is the somewhat ambitious mini-album “Nemuri Hime” (眠り姫), from 1993.

Starting the mini-album right off the batch with the slower “Tenshi no Sumu Machi” (天使の住む街), we can sense a very dreamy and oriental – or Chinese – mood in the production, which becomes even more enhanced thanks to Yip’s vulnerable voice. Like I mentioned before, she’s not a great singer, but we can see she’s well capable of following the melodies and also putting some feeling into her singing.

The oriental, fairy-tale-esque atmosphere of the first song is not a standalone thing, since this almost stereotypical and vague East Asian sound serves as the tone of the whole project. Title track “Nemuri Hime”, in special, sounds very nostalgic to me, especially because I can see similar synth patterns and melodies in the old Sonic the Hedgehog games I played when I was a child in the 90s, but this time combined with a very light piano house, or Italo House, during the verses.

“Tokimeki Chinatown” (ときめきチャイナタウン) is bouncier and less melancholic than “Tenshi no Sumu Machi” or “Nemuri Hime”. Although the verses are not particularly lively, I think the sunny chorus evokes a nice stroll in the park. Other than that, I especially like the synth stabs that becomes recurrent in the song’s final instrumental section, which creates an interesting effect while also enhancing its main melody.

Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised with this album. I love the production and composition here, and, while Gloria isn’t a great singer, her voice is used in a very interesting manner in this mini-album. Somehow, it reminds me of the exotic things that Saki Takaoka (高岡早紀) have recorded some years before, and with the same vocal style. Unfortunately, though, “Nemuri Hime” served as Yip’s farewell to Japan, since she didn’t release anything after it. I think she never became quite as popular as Pony Canyon wanted her to be, since her releases were few and very sparse between each other (she had to do promotion overseas, so this is kind of understandable). On another note, it’s interesting to acknowledge how Japan introduced the idea of Trans-Asian aidoru performers, which nowadays got adopted by South Korea. These enterprises, while not as successful as today’s counterparts, are a curious footnote of a time when Japan believed it could import artists, manage them and re-export their music production to Asian neighbors. In other words, while the model may be successful in the K-Pop industry of nowadays, it all started back in Japan roughly thirty or forty years ago.