''Sing and Play'' () is a 1998 Mandarin album by

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

-based singer

Faye Wong Faye Wong ( zh, 王菲; born Xia Lin on 8 August 1969) is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter. Early in her career she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong. Born in Beijing, she moved to Hong Kong in 1987 and her debut album '' Shirley Wong'' ( ...

. It includes 10 tracks in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

, with a bonus disc of 3

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

tracks. It was released on 21 October 1998 in Japan.''Billboard''
Faye Wong article by Steve McClure, 6 February 1999, page 51, "Global Music Pulse" column, edited by Dominic Pride The album title is usually translated as ''Sing and Play'' in English sources.Stan Jeffries, ''Encyclopedia of world pop music, 1980-2001'' 2003 p224. "In January 1998, Wong won the favorite female category at Taiwan's Channel V awards. As part of her new goal of winning wider recognition, in the same year she released Sing and Play. The album included some Wong compositions and introduced more ballads to her canon, as most of her previous releases had been unerringly jaunty pop numbers. She then undertook a tour of Japan that lasted for six months. Her nomadic lifestyle throughout this period made her one of the most widely recognized people in East Asia (Asiaweek magazine included her in a list of "50 people you should know in China"), but it began to have an effect on her private life." Others refer to the album as ''Song Tour'' (遊 can mean ''tour''), ''Scenic Tour'' which was the name of Wong's 1998–1999 concert tour, ''Love Life'', or ''Song Play''. ''Sing and Play'' was the first Chinese album recorded using

HDCD High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) is a proprietary audio encode-decode process that claims to provide increased dynamic range over that of standard Compact Disc Digital Audio, while retaining backward compatibility with existing compact d ...

techniques. The album was noted for some of its ballads, in contrast to the pop songs which had provided most of Faye Wong's hits around that time. "Red Beans", "Face" and "Love Commandments" have been popular songs of the album. As of February 1999, the album sold almost 2,500,000 copies, including imports. It was rereleased in Japan on 3 March 1999 with the bonus track, " Eyes on Me".

Track listing

;Notes

Reception

The album debuted at number three, respectively, in Hong Kong on the week of 4 October and in Malaysia on the week of 13 October 1998.''Billboard''
"Hits of the World", page 61 It peaked at number one in Malaysia on the week of 20 October 1998.''Billboard''
"Hits of the World", page 51 It reached number two in Hong Kong on the week of 11 October 1998. ''Billboard'' Asia bureau chief,

Steve McClure Steve McClure (born 25 July 1970) is a British rock climber and climbing author, who is widely regarded as Britain's leading and most important sport climber for a period that extends for over two decades, starting from the late 1990s. In 2017, h ...

, placed it in number seven of his top ten list of 1999 Asian albums.''Billboard''
"Critics' Choice: Steve McClure", page YE-67, 25 December 1999

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1998 albums EMI Records albums Faye Wong albums Mandopop albums