The Chinese Mandarin language is pretty tricky.  Reading-wise it's particularly annoying.  When I learned Japanese, my lowest scores were always on the Kanji.  Anyway, enough about that.  Here I will point out some clever play of language that Vivian employs when she wrote the lyrics to this cool album.  Since in songs you can only hear the words, she plays a lot with words that sound the same but have different meanings.  In addition, explanations from Vivian herself during promotion for Disguised Angel were were combined so you know what she had in mind when she wrote lyrics to these songs. 

Disguised angel - Vivian has talked extensively about this song in interviews.  She conceived the idea for the song while talking to someone on the phone.  She disagrees with that person very much, but doesn't say it.  Afterwards Vivian thinks about how as we grow up, we are bound by etiquette and society to never really say what we think inside.  We become well-mannered disguised angels.  That is, we ACT like angels and people feel pleasant around us, but we are really under disguise. 

Ta ta - In Mandarin, HE, SHE, and IT are all pronounced TA.  In the song there are two characters, one male and one female.  It's tricky for the listener to distinguish HE, SHE, and IT (referring to the love affair).  Of course, when I translated the lyrics, I pretty much had to give it away.

Ban Diao Tze - My favorite song in the album.  It is written by Vivian's younger brother, Xu Yin.  BAN DIAO TZE is Chinese slang and I don't think there's an equivalent in English.  Literally it means HALF NOTE (as in musical note).  When you say someone's a ban diao tze, it normally means he does work half-heartedly.  It's like only putting in half the effort, or learning something but only knowing half of it, or never feeling anything wholeheartedly.  It's like saying someone is only 50% there.  There is a line saying that Half's love is the shy grass type.  Shy grass is native to Taiwan (I think, I've never seen it anywhere else).  It likes a humid climate and is found growing close to water.  When you touch the leaves, the leaves shrink into a wrinkly ball shape, hence the name "shy grass."  Children have a lot of fun with this plant.   

According to Vivian, this song can be rather sad if you get into it.  People often have moments where they become a bit autistic or turn inwards into themselves.  They wonder why sometimes no matter how hard they try, they're just not good at anything and nothing works for them. 

Walking in Turkey - Vivian says the idea of this song came to her while she was walking along a street in Turkey, where she shot the movie "Accidental Spy."  As you know, Vivian is a big celebrity in Asia and is easily recognized.  In addition, she had rather a notorious past and sometimes strangers bring this up to her face, which always gets her down.  No one knew her in Turkey though and she loved the freedom of anonymity while she was there, that she could go around looking like a bum with no make up and no pressure.

Lao fu fu - LAO means old, and FU FU means couple.  Literally, it's HUSBAND WIFE.  Because... in Mandarin, HUSBAND and WIFE are both pronounced FU!  Screwed-up language, huh?  :)  Vivian got the idea of this song when she saw an old couple walking along the beach hand in hand.  She was really moved and followed them for almost the entire day.  She says that is her dream...  To be still in love like that when she grows old. 

Almost expired strawberries - If you have a dirty mind like I do, you might have thought that strawberries were a reference to sex ^^; (let's not get into it)...  But if you did, you would be wrong!  Vivian says that strawberries that are almost rotten (expired) have a funny taste (once again, that sounds like a sex thing, but *cough cough* let's move on), so she is using this as a metaphor of a love affair gone bad.  Like when you know things are not working out?  The last moments when you are still together with that certain someone and you just KNOW it has to end soon?  Yeah, that feeling.  Like almost rotten strawberries in your mouth.