A tourist visits the Teresa Teng Museum in Kaohsiung, southeast China's Taiwan, May 5, 2015. Superstar Teng had enjoyed popularity in east Asia for more than three decades. After selling millions of records, the pop singer retired in France in the early 1990s and died in 1995. (Photo: Xinhua/Cai Yang)
A memorial hall for the Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng in her impoverished hometown village, where she had never visited, expects a rush visitors on Friday, the 20th anniversary of her death.
Deng Zitao, 45, the operator of the memorial hall in Dengtai village of Hebei's Daming county, wrote his phone number on the door of the hall, which is usually locked. Deng is spelled Teng in Taiwan.
"When visitors come and call me, I'll open the door and serve as a guide for them," Deng said.
Deng first heard the artist when his brother bought a recorder to help with his English Study. It was Tian Mi Mi (Sweet As Honey), one of the most popular songs by Teresa Teng, he recalls.
Teresa Teng was born in Taiwan. She once mentioned at a concert that her hometown was in Daming of Hebei. "Authorities asked the local government to investigate which village her father came from," Deng recalled.
At that time, Daming only had three villages with people surnamed Deng, but the investigators spent half a year to finally find the singer's hometown village.
"Nobody dared to admit they were connected with the Taiwanese singer during a period after the Cultural Revolution," said Deng.
According to some elders in the village, Teng Shu, the singer's father, was raised by his two aunts. The teenager worked at a coal mine in Tangshan City and was never heard of again after joining the army.
When Deng Zitao knew he had some connection with Teresa Teng, he began to focus on all news related to her.
As deputy head of cultural affairs bureau of Daming, Deng met Chang-fu Teng, the late singer's third elder brother, in Beijing, and agreed to build a memorial hall at hometown for her.
The hall, which cost more than 300,000 yuan (about 50,000 U.S. dollars), was located in the county's downtown area, 15 to 16 km away from Dengtai village. It opened in 2011 with many items being donated by fans.
Each year, around 10,000 fans visited from across the world, Deng said. His biggest wish is to build a cultural center for Teresa Teng for the purpose of attracting more investors and tourists.
"You'll never grow tired of listening to her songs. Twenty years have passed, but people continue to sing her songs and to imitate her in shows," Deng said.
