Aggregating over 10 billion views within two months of its release, it peaked at number 1 on the China TME UNI Chart and remained on the top 100 for at least 22 weeks.
Dao Lang's debut album, The First Snows of 2002 (2004), was well-received critically and sold nearly six million copies by January 2005,[2] making him the best-selling artist in the entire Mandarin Chinese market.
For instance, in 2010, singer and jury chairwoman Na Ying vetoed his candidacy for the Top 10 Influential Artists of the Past 10 Years list, stating that he lacked "aesthetic sense".
[3] Dao left the music industry in 2013, citing a desire to focus on his family,[6] and returned in 2020, releasing three new albums within the span of six months to little fanfare.
[3] In the original story by Pu, "The Raksha Country and the Sea Market", the handsome merchant Ma Ji is stranded in the eponymous location, where the denizens are ugly to outsiders.
[1] In the final stanza, Dao mentions philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein,[4] and ends with the proclamation that "Ma Hu and 'you' bird / are the fundamental question of humanity!
For instance, Ma Hu's name is composed of the characters for "horse" (马) and "household" (户), which combine to form the compound ideograph for "donkey" (驴).
[1] It is generally acknowledged that the song mocks eminent figures in the Chinese music industry, including Na, Gao Xiaosong, Wang Feng, and Yang Kun, for their earlier dismissal of Dao.
[12] Other not very recognized readings drew parallels between the eponymous city and the United States,[1] and involve US President Joe Biden, transgender public officials, and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.
[7][10] Dao's fans claim that this surpasses the Guinness World Record for most total online impressions held by "Despacito", which has over 5 billion views on YouTube alone as of September 2023.