Deb Fan celebrates a womanhood void of preconceptions on "Lady"

Rather than shying away from clashes of culture or reductive ideas of the rift between 'traditional' and 'modern' ways of living, Deb Fan finds her power from embracing difference and bridging gulfs. Seeing culture in a fluid, molten way comes naturally to the L.A. based artist, born in Taiwan and raised in Hong Kong.

With a renewed sense of self, much bolstered by her recent pilgrimage to Hong Kong after three years away, her latest track "Lady" confronts the variance in ideas of what it means to be a modern woman in these Western and Eastern cultures. It particularly touches on latent ideas of technology and sensibility, as well as her experiences as an Asian immigrant woman living in the United States. In all, she finds power in her identity as a whole human, pieced together rather than broken apart by these facets of her person; "There’s some beauty in made-up rules / King of my world with none to lose," she sings.

This is perhaps best capitulated by the track's accompanying visual (dir. by Breanna Lynn) which uses a traditional tea party and Qing Ming Jie, a Chinese festival of mourning and remembrance, as the narrative backdrop to forward ideas of stringent tradition co-existing and thriving alongside modern technologies. Moreover, she employs a full-female cast to further unsettle the status quo. In doing so, she seeks to unseat the reductive and outdated portrayals of Asian cultures as at once hyper-futuristic, as well as culturally stagnant. In the world of "Lady" women - as part of, as well as alongside culture - are not boxed in by stereotypes or half-identities.

Unfurling the story over a slinking 90s R&B beat, the soundscape Deb Fan pulls from is much akin to the sultry silkiness of Amber Mark or Kali Uchis, other notable contemporaries who incorporate and celebrate diverse heritages and empowering themes in their music. With Deb herself a professionally trained audio engineer, as well as instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer, she represents a holistic and multi-faceted mouthpiece brimming with momentum in the very fibres of her being.