Friday 23 June 2017

MUSIC: JJ LIN'S PRACTICE LOVE


JJ Lin's Practice Love.
The first time I heard this song I fell in love.
I watched the MV and thought nothing of it. In fact I was not a fan of the art style, but then it got to the end and these words appeared on screen:
"For the victims of the Silk Air MI185 incident and their families, and for my dear friend, Xu Chue Fern. 我好想你。[T/N: I really miss you]"

This song and MV was inspired by JJ Lin's friend who died on the Silk Air MI185 flight. When JJ was 16 and Chue Fern 14, they met at youth group and became friends. She came to like him and confessed but he did not reciprocate the feelings so they remained as friends.

On 19 December 1997, the Silk Air MI186 flight from Jakarta to Singapore crashed into the Musi River killing all 104 individuals on board. Chue Fern and her parents were on board returning after visiting her grandparents in Indonesia.

JJ found out about her death through the newspaper. Found among her personal belongings were photographs of JJ Lin. He had gifted them months before but did not know she carried them with her or why she did. Months later, Chue Fern's auntie returned the photos to JJ which he keeps to this day.

Aside from an interview in 1997 where JJ Lin sought to locate Chue Fern's relatives after identifying the photographs as the personal belongings of Chue Fern, JJ did not speak of this incident until the release of this song in 2013. Due to his young age at the time he was unable to grieve adequately, keeping the incident a secret for over 15 years. It is through music he has been able to process the tragedy.


REFERENCES:
news article - JJ's secret heartache
video - JJ speaking about the story behind the song in a Chinese music program