''100,000 Whys?'' (

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

十 Radical 24 or radical ten () meaning ten, complete, or perfect, is one of 23 of the 214 Kangxi radicals that are composed of 2 strokes. In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 55 characters (out of 40,000) to be found under this radical. is al ...

萬個為什麼; ''Sapmaan go Waisammo'') is the sixth Cantonese studio album by Chinese recording artist

Faye Wong Faye Wong ( zh, 王菲; pinyin: ''Wáng Fēi''; born 8 August 1969) is a Chinese singer-songwriter and actress. Early in her career, she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong (). Born in Beijing, she moved to British Hong Kong at the age o ...

. It was released though

Cinepoly Records Cinepoly Records (新藝寶) is a Hong Kong–based record label founded in 1985. It was a subsidiary of PolyGram Records and the film company Cinema City. Ownership of Cinepoly Records switched to Universal Music Group after Universal acquired ...

on 7 September 1993. It is named after a popular Chinese science book, '' One Hundred Thousand Whys'' by

Ye Yonglie Ye Yonglie (, 30 August 1940 – 15 May 2020) was a Chinese writer of science fiction and biographies. A few of his stories have been translated into English in ''The Road to Science Fiction'' series and elsewhere. During the Anti-Spiritual Pol ...

Background and release

The Japanese version of the album released in April 1994 included three bonus tracks: another version of "Like Wind", a Mandarin version of "Fragile Woman" (from '' Coming Home''), and "Forgetting You Is Like Forgetting Me", the theme from ''

The Bride with White Hair 2 ''The Bride with White Hair 2'' is a 1993 Hong Kong film directed by David Wu. It is the sequel to ''The Bride with White Hair'', with Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung reprising their roles as Lian Nichang and Zhuo Yihang. Although the first film ...

''.

Songs

The album included several hit singles: "Flow Not Fly", "Summer of Love", "Like Wind", "Cold War", "Tempted Heart" and "Tempt Me". "Flow Not Fly", a lively pop number, became an unofficial anthem for Faye Wong, with the repeated chorus line "Fei Fei" being a pun on the singer's name. "Cold War" is a Cantonese cover of "

Silent All These Years "Silent All These Years" is a song by American singer-songwriter and musician Tori Amos, released as the second single from her debut studio album, '' Little Earthquakes'' (1992). It was originally released in the United Kingdom in November 1991 ...

" by

Tori Amos Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full ...

; a Mandarin version followed on ''

Mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' *Mystery, a seahorse that SpongeBob SquarePants adopts in the episode " My Pre ...

''. The song was a departure from mainstream

C-pop C-pop is an abbreviation for Chinese popular music (), a loosely defined musical genre by artists originating from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (the Greater China region). This also includes countries where Sinitic languages, Chinese la ...

, and Wong followed this markedly with further experiments in "alternative music" for her next Cantonese album, '' Random Thoughts''. The album included four more cover songs. "Summer of Love" is the Cantonese version of Helen Hoffner's 1993 hit. "Like Wind" is a cover of the Mandarin song 猜心 ("Guess my Heart") by

One-Fang Lin Wanfang (; born 6 July 1967), professionally known as Wanfang, is a Taiwanese singer, actress and radio DJ. She is renowned for her sonorous, gentle soft voice and probably best known for being the original theme singer of the film '' C'est l ...

. "Rainy Days Without You" covers

Love Unlimited Love Unlimited was a female vocal trio that provided backing vocals for American singer-songwriter Barry White on his albums and concert tours. They also found success with their own recordings. Career Formed in 1969, the group included Barr ...

's "Walking in the Rain (With The One I Love)", and "Do Do Da Da" is

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Within a few months of their first gig, the line-up settled as Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar, primary songwriter), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussi ...

's " De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da". "Do We Really Care" was Faye Wong's second song recorded wholly in English, after "Kisses in the Wind" on '' Coming Home''.

Commercial performance

''100,000 Whys'' debuted at number one on the IFPI Hong Kong album chart during the week of 16 September 1993. It remained atop the chart for four weeks and left the top ten after fifteen weeks.

Usage in media

"Tempted Heart" was the theme for the

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB; zh, t=電視廣播有限公司) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong. The company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Canton ...

series ''Eternity'', in which Wong also appeared. "Tempt Me" was the theme tune for

Joan Chen Joan Chen (simplified Chinese; 陈冲; born April 26, 1961) is an American actress and film director. She made her film debut in the Chinese film ''Youth'' (1977) before starring in the film (1979). She came to the attention of American audien ...

's 1993 film '' Temptation of a Monk'', and won a Best Movie Song award.

Live performances

Wong's 1994–95 series of concerts at the

Hong Kong Coliseum Hong Kong Coliseum (), commonly and informally known as the Hung Hom Coliseum (, ) is a multi-purpose indoor arena, in Hung Hom Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong near Hung Hom station. It is in Yau Tsim Mong District. It was built by the Urban Council ...

included five songs from the album: the first four, and "Tempt Me" which was extended with a prelude.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Sales and certifications

Release history

References

External links

Hundred Thousand Whys
at Joshua Cheung's fan site

at All Ah About Faye {{Authority control 1993 albums Faye Wong albums Cinepoly Records albums Cantonese-language albums Cantopop albums