Sa Dingding has made a tremendous impression on the West. It could be the 24-year-old Chinese singer’s florid costumes. Perhaps it’s her music videos, which feature psychedelic graphics and monks striding to fashionable breakbeats. Or maybe it’s her songs, which incorporate Buddhist mantras, traditional Chinese instruments and electronica. At any rate, the U.K.’s Sunday Times has anointed her “the Asian Björk.” The Guardian gave her debut album, Alive, four stars upon its U.K. release last October, adding, “Sa Dingding deserves to be the first Chinese singer-songwriter to become a celebrity in the West.”

Ling Woo Liu (’06) writes for TIME.
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