''Shangri-La'' () is an album by

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

-American R&B artist,

Leehom Wang Wang Leehom (; born May 17, 1976), sometimes credited as Leehom Wang, is an American singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and film director. Formally trained at Eastman School of Music, Williams College and Berklee College of Music, his music i ...

. It was released on 31 December 2004 by

Sony Music Taiwan Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

. In this album, Wang incorporated the often unheard music of the Chinese ethnic minorities and therefore began the first chapter of "chinked-out", a term he coined together to represent the ties between

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

music. He experimented with the tribal sounds of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

, and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

, traveling the area carrying 15 kg of equipment while fighting bouts of altitude and food sickness.

Album

In this album, Lee-Hom began the first chapter of "chinked-out," a term he coined together to represent the connection with both Chinese and Western music. He incorporated the often unheard Chinese ethnic minority music, which includes Mongolian, Taiwanese, Tibetan, etc. into modern hip-hop melodies. For the production of this album he traveled all around China with heavy equipment to collect these rare pieces of music. His reasons behind the title of this album is also well thought of.

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel '' Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, ...

is another meaning for a mythical paradise. Translated in Chinese, Shangri-La means 心中的日月, which is literally translated as the heart's sun and moon. When Lee-Hom arrived to the district of Shangri-La, he was immediately absorbed into the astonishing and unique music he had heard and therefore named his album, Shangri-La, or, Xin Zhong De Ri Yue. The music video for title track "心中的日月" (The Heart's Sun and Moon) features Taiwanese actress

Ann Hsu Hsu Wei-ning (; born 7 August 1984), also known as Tiffany Ann Hsu, is a Taiwanese actress. Hsu began her career as a model, and first came to attention for her supporting roles in the Taiwanese drama series '' It Started with a Kiss'' and its ...

Reception

The tracks "心中的日月" (The Heart's Sun and Moon/Shangri-La), "Forever Love" and "放開你的心" (Release Your Heart) were nominated for ''Top 10 Gold Songs'' at the Hong Kong TVB8 Awards, presented by television station

TVB8 TVB8 was a Mandarin language Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard C ...

, in 2005. The album was awarded one of the ''Top 10 Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year'' at the 2005 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards, presented by the Hong Kong branch of

IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1 ...

. IFPI Hong Kon
2005 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards winners list
Retrieved 2011-04-19

Track listing

# "開場" (Intro) # "放開你的心" ''Fang Kai Ni De Xin'' (Release Your Heart) # "心中的日月" ''Xin Zhong De Ri Yue'' (The Heart's Sun and Moon/Shangri-La) # "竹林深處" ''Zhu Lin Shen Chu'' (In the Depths of the Bamboo Forest) # "Forever Love" # "在那遙遠的地方" ''Zai Na Yao Yuan De Di Fang'' (At That Faraway Place) # "一首簡單的歌" ''Yi Shou Jian Dan De Ge'' (A Simple Song) # "星座" ''Xing Zuo'' (Astrology) # "過來" ''Guo Lai'' (Come Here) # "愛錯" ''Ai Cuo'' (Loved Wrongly) # "Follow Me"

Charts

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shangri-La (Leehom Wang Album) 2004 albums Wang Leehom albums Sony Music Taiwan albums