Valen Hsu

Valen Hsu has recorded 14 studio albums over the span of eight years, as well as four "Best Of" compilations. Her first album, Tau Hao, was completed in 1994 and received critical acclaim from the Asian music industry. However, record sales did not exceed expectations, only selling a little over 50,000 copies. Her next studio album was what significantly changed her career. Lei Hai, or Tear Sea as translated, sold more than 300,000 copies in Taiwan. And her third album, If the Cloud Knows, sold over 2.2 million copies alone in Taiwan. Her fourth album, Ri Guang Ji Chang (Sunlight Airport) was completed in 1998 and sold 800,000 copies in Taiwan, but over 3 million copies in Asia, permanently placing her in the company of Asian divas such as Faye Wong and Sandy Lam and becoming an integral part of a new Mando-Pop era including Coco Lee and A-Mei.

In 1999, after the sale of What's Music to Universal Records (Taiwan), she recorded a duet with Enrique Iglesias entitled You’re My No. 1, released on Enrique's Asian version of his Enrique album.

She ended her contract with What's Music in 2001 and signed on with EMI Taiwan. The first album with her new record label was titled I Just Want to Tell You, and it was produced by Yosinori Kameda, a famous Japanese music producer. In 2001, she decided to broaden her professional career by acting in her first TV drama with F4, Taiwan's boy-band equivalent to 'N Sync. She further broadened her acting career in 2003 by performing on stage with Zuni Icosahedron, an independent cultural collective concentrating on alternative theater and multi-media performances. In 2004, she decided to take a hiatus from the music industry to pursue other interests, including learning English in New York City.

Her 13th studio album entitled 66° Pohjoista Leveyttä was released on December 21, 2007. She traveled to Finland's Arctic Circle to film her music videos for this new album. Filming took place mainly in two cities: Helsinki and Rovaniemi. The first single is called "Fireworks". She recorded a duet with Amguulan, a very talented singer from Inner Mongolia, "Man and Woman" became one of the most popular song throughout 2008.

After a 19 months hiatus, Valen released her latest album My Love Journey 1 km. She invited her friend Josh to co-produced this album with her. Her first single is called 'Let's go when love arrives', 2nd song is a soft rock 'With You'.

In 2009, Valen ended her contract with Seed Music and decided to travel to Cuba. After returning from Cuba, she released a series of travelogues and photography books. In 2010, Valen decide to re-ignite her music career by setting up her own music studio, Valen Voice Production. Her new album When The Night Falls... Do You Hear (Me)? was released on November 10, 2011.[2]

In October 2011, Valen announced the start of her concert in Shanghai Grand Stage, which will span from Taiwan, other cities in mainland China and South-east Asia.

In August 2015, Valen entered The Chinese version of King of Mask Singer (蒙面歌王), using the mask of Iron Fan Ultraman to conceal her identity. She was crowned the Mask King of the fourth episode.[3]

In 2006, she filmed a full-length movie with Hong Kong director Patrick Tam entitled Fu Zi, or After This Our Exile as translated. She stars alongside Hong Kong actors Aaron Kwok and Charlie Yeung. The film was released in 2006 and subsequently won several Golden Horse Awards (Asia's equivalent to the Academy Awards) in the same year, including Best Picture and Best Actor.

In addition to composing and writing some of her songs, she has also published two books, one of them a compilation of short poems and the other a beauty book entitled Beauty Sense, which were published in 2003 and 2006, respectively.

In 2010, she published a travelogue, Vis-à-Vis, which comprises short poems and photos shot in Cuba. A digital version on iPad was released in 2011.[4]

In 2006, Valen and her friends, Charlie Yeung, Gigi Leung and Angelica Lee formed "Hope Education Foundation", which is a non-profit organization to help children in need.