As someone who is fanatical about watching the number of streams my favorite songs get on Spotify (yep, it is a bit of an addiction), I keep a daily eye on several tracks to see how well they perform on the world’s most important streaming platform.
That way I can encourage others to play them, and help increase their streams even further.
That’s also why I noticed this week that Taiwanese singer Jeff Chang’s ‘No Separation‘ (aka 无别, Wú Bié), that gorgeous theme song for Heaven Official’s Blessing, Season 1, has just moved over the 7 million streams mark.
Or 7,000,538 to be exact, which is not a bad achievement for the theme song from a donghua, eh?
Although not a massive surprise either as, although the Chinese track was released in late 2020 to an initial large number of plays, it has been earning steady streams ever since.
Well-deserved steady streams, I might add, as Jeff Chang’s ‘No Separation‘ is utterly lovely (it was also my gateway track for becoming a big Jeff Chang fan as well), and a wonderful musical accompaniment to that touching donghua, and the story of our beloved Xie Lian and Hua Cheng.
What is Heaven Official’s Blessing?
The massively successful donghua (Chinese anime) came to major international attention when it began streaming on Netflix in early 2021.
Before that it had streamed on Bilibili and Funimation, and garnered a loyal fan base on both those platforms as well.
The Heaven Official’s Blessing anime is based on the popular Chinese novel of the same name — Heaven Official’s Blessing (Chinese: 天官赐福, pinyin: Tiān Guān Cì Fú) written by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.
The novel series spawned a manhua (Chinese manga), which also became hugely popular due to the incredibly touching Boys’ Love plot. A genre generally banned, or at the very least restricted in China.
The Heaven Official’s Blessing donghua based on the novel series came out in late 2020.
It’s plot looks something like this:
Heaven Official’s Blessing tells the story of Xie Lan, the once-Crown Prince of Xianle, who ascended to heaven twice, only to be banished both times and sent back to the mortal realm.
Eight hundred years later, Xie Lan has managed to ascend to godhood for a third time, and is again sent back to the earthly realm, this time to complete certain tasks so he can pay back his debts, and keep his newly-earned divinity.
Once there, however, he meets a mysterious young man whom he befriends, only to eventually learn he is Hua Cheng, a ghost king who has been paying attention to Xie Lan without his knowledge for hundreds of years.
You can learn more about the Heaven Official’s Blessing donghua, novels and manhua on the excellent Wiki.
It is THE donghua that got me started on my current obsession with everything Chinese donghua, manhua, novel and drama.
Jeff Chang’s ‘No Separation‘ – the Heaven Official’s Blessing opening theme song
As for Jeff Chang’s ‘No Separation‘ (aka 无别, Wú Bié), you can listen to the song (on repeat please) on Spotify via the player below, and help bump its streams even more (it’s gorgeous and deserves hundreds of millions of streams!).
You can also hear the song in the video of the Heaven Official’s Blessing donghua intro, and in the song’s official music video (extended version) below.
And, of course, the first season of the absolutely beautiful Heaven Official’s Blessing is still streaming on Netflix, while Crunchyroll is now streaming both Seasons 1 and 2.