Sitting in the middle of the room, she's surrounded by activity. In what passes as the Workers' Stadium's green room, or backstage area, one of Asia's biggest music stars looks a bit like a red-velvet clad Dorothy caught up in the middle of a tornado of back-up singers warming up, dancers practicing their routines, and some guy in the corner slurping instant noodles.

    This is the first clue that Zhang Huimei is not your ordinary pop star. Often known by her public nickname, A-Mei (a name she never uses for herself) is no prima donna diva. Performing at Warner Music's 10th anniversary showcase in Beijing on October 24, Zhang is the only artist in the green room. Her Hong Kong counterparts - Sammi Cheng Siu-man (Zheng Xiuwen) and Aaron Kwok Fuk-cheng (Guo Fucheng) - are nowhere in sight.

    In person, Zhang is as real as they come. The sprightly young lass that first danced across television screens in the mid-nineties with the Rachel-from-Friends shag haircut may now favour multi-coloured dreadlocks, but the energy remains. For a bit of privacy we step out of the green room into... the locker room. Zhang, who had already finished her three-song opening set when she talked with that's, sat down like an athlete after a game.

    Zhang recalled the first time she realised she was more than just a girl who loved to sing and dance. "When the first record [1996's 'Sisters'] came out, I was doing a video, and a crowd of reporters gathered. When we were done filming, they were all over me. I didn't know what to do. The record company [then Taiwan's Forward Music] told me to just go out and relax. I went out there, and they asked me to introduce myself. I just burst into tears. I didn't know what to do."

    Seven years later, she has obviously grown accustomed to being in the spotlight. But Zhang doesn't feel it's had a negative influence. "I haven't really changed, not as a person. But of course, I'm not the same Zhang Huimei as in 1997. My attitude now is open to more and more new things." Despite having attained superstardom, Zhang doesn't like comparisons to singers that have preceded her, such as Taiwan's Deng Lijun. "That's a media tool. I would certainly never say that. No singer would ever say, 'I'm the new this-or-that-person of this generation.'There's only one Deng Lijun, we loved her so much, I love her music so much even now. After me, there will be somebody else."

    At the same time, Zhang isn¡ät afraid to venture off the beaten pop music path through covers of various Chinese and foreign musicians - including Chinese rocker Cui Jian. During a string of post-Christmas 2002 concerts in Hong Kong, Zhang unexpectedly performed Cui's hit, 'Nothing to My Name' ('Yi Wu Suo You'). She explains: "I knew the song well. I had seen Cui Jian perform it in a video a number of years ago, although I didn't know who he was then. I really liked it, but more importantly, I was really moved by it."

    Other covers, like her rendition of the folk song 'I Stand on the Mountain,' are standard A-Mei live fare, included in her set during a recent Beijing appearance. That said, Zhang won't be abandoning her native tongue in favour of English or Japanese. "I haven't seriously considered singing in English just to go further, nor Japanese. The most important thing [about a song] is if I like it, can I do it - how does it make me feel?"

    More on her mind is original material for her next album, slated for a Chinese New Year release in early 2004. What can we expect for the new record? "Really rock!" Emphasising the latter word, she hurls herself forward and thrusts her hands into the air with the pinkie and pointer up, thumb-in sign most familiar to heavy metal fans and Beavis and Butthead. Alert the media: A-Mei's a headbanger.

    "All my early songs were rock, Tina Turner, stuff like that," she says, indicating a return to her roots. "I've been listening to some Malaysian rock lately. I know some of the fans are going to think I've lost my head when they hear it, they're going to think, 'A-Mei's gone crazy,' but I just want it to have a real rock vibe to it." To underscore that vibe, she flips the sign again.

    Zhang hopes to stray further from the confines of pop music with another future recording. Born to a Taiwan aboriginal family, she looks toward an album that will focus entirely on minority music. To illustrate her point, she bursts into song, a slow, haunting melody in a little-spoken dialect. A back-up singer joins in spontaneously in harmony. One can imagine A-Mei does this a lot: she sings not because it's another day at the office, but because she would do it even if she were standing around washing dishes. That album is "For my mom. She has really let me be and express myself. Everything in her heart comes out in song. I want to help those feelings to come out, to share them with many others."

    Towards the end of our conversation, Singapore starlet Stephanie Sun Yanzi bursts in, having just finished her set. Based on audience reaction, and merchandise sales outside the concert, Sun may be the heir to Zhang's pop crown. What if that day comes? What if the great Zhang Huimei is one day silenced, one way or another? "I don't think I could ever get to that point. If I couldn't sing, I'd produce. Somehow, I'd use my experience."

(thatsmagazines.com)