Harlem Yu and Lee Min Ho Perform the Meteor Garden Theme Song at the CCTV Lunar New Year Gala

Happy Lunar Year everyone/da jia/yeorobun! It’s goodbye to the year of the snake and hello to the year of the horse. This is going to be a great year, I can feel it. Let’s all start by being optimistic and who knows if that’ll be a self-fulfilling prophesy. Last night was Lunar New Year eve and in China that meant billions of people spending the night at home eating and then watching TV. The most watched show was of course the CCTV Lunar New Year Gala and it was a long night of performances of all types not limited to just singing. Lee Min Ho became the first Korean entertainer to perform on the show and he actually sang in Korean as well. I’m impressed CCTV did not force him to sing the entire song in Chinese, though at the very end he did harmonize the chorus in Chinese with his co-performer Harlem Yu. They sang the Chinese-language theme song to Meteor Garden, the Taiwanese adaptation of the Japanese manga Hana Yori Dango which ties in with Lee Min Ho since he rocketed to stardom playing the male lead in Boys Before Flowers, the Korean adaptation of HanaDan. The song is called 情非得已 which is one of those Chinese idioms that is so hard to translate into English because there isn’t a corresponding phrase. The literal meaning is someone doing something against their will, not like torture or pain, but more like “I’m sorry I did something, it was not my intention but it couldn’t be helped”. I’ve seen the song title get translated into Can’t Help Falling in Love with You which is an incorrect use of the phrase but in the context of the song is actually correct. Harlem Yu is one of Taiwan’s top music composers and singers but this song is one that he actually only sang but did not write either the lyrics or the melody. For this particular performance, Harlem personally reworked the ballad into an uptempo Chinese New Year tone crossed with cowboy twanged oddity. It was quite enjoyable to watch but the ear does take a few seconds to get used to it. Lee Min Ho and Harlem alternating verses in Korean and Chinese and then finished off with a Chinese version rousing duet chorus. Harlem was definitely having lots of fun but Lee Min Ho was clearly ready to do his best and not make any mistakes. The result is a mixed bag but I walked away kinda bopping the new melody for this song in my head. Check out below and a fair warning that it’s a pretty love it or hate it trippy performance Continue reading