Two Taiwan singers to present songs with lyrics written by acclaimed late author Sanmao.

Starting in August, a concert tour featuring Taiwan singers Chyi Yu and Michelle Pan Yueh-yun will make it rounds in the Chinese mainland.

The concert, which commemorates the life of legendary writer Sanmao, will take place in Shanghai on Aug 11, Beijing on Aug 17 and Wuhan, Hubei province on Sept 8. It had taken place earlier in June at the Taipei Arena.

Born in Chongqing, Sanmao, whose real name is Chen Maoping, published dozens of books before committing suicide in 1991 at the age of 47. Her books include the 1976 bestseller Stories of the Sahara which talks about her experiences living in the Sahara with her Spanish husband Jose Maria Quero.

The writer had worked with Chyi and Pan to produce the lyrics to the songs in the 1985 album Echo. The album also gathered some of the best-known songwriters from Taiwan to compose the songs, including Jonathan Lee Chung-shan and Li Tai-Hsiang (1941-2014). It was the first original album produced by Taiwan record company Rock Records and it is one of the most popular albums released by the company. Chyi, 60, withdrew from the limelight after releasing her last album Camel-Flying Bird-Fish in 1997. She has since been focusing on Buddhist music compilations instead.

"Pan called me to join the concert and I am very interested," says Chyi during a recent interview in Beijing. "I was one of the producers of the album Echo and the process of making the album was unforgettable."

The veteran singer, who rose to fame in the 1970s with her easy-listening songs and sweet voice, is one of the most famous singers of Taiwan and is credited as the one who started the trend of singing "campus folk songs". A self-confessed diehard fan of Sanmao, Chyi didn't meet the writer until the latter arrived in the Rock Records office to discuss about Echo. Sanmao had previously written Chyi's 1979 hit The Olive Tree.

Chyi and Pan also visited the writer at her home in Taiwan to listen to her personal stories and ideas about the lyrics for the album. One of Chyi's favorite photos was taken at Sanmao's home. The black-and-white photo depicts the three long-haired women sitting on a tatami mat with a set of giant bullock cart wheels leaning against the wall behind them.

"She was a mysterious woman before we met. She talked softly and sounded like a little girl. She liked Bohemian style," recalls Pan, 60, who is the first singer signed to Rock Records in 1980 and has released hits such as Blue Skies Everyday in 1982, Spring Comes For Wild Lilies Too in 1983 and Am I The One You Love Most in 1989.

Chyi says she would describe Sanmao as "an adventurous and brave woman" for she travelled around the world and her books "brought me to exotic places I had never been to".As a producer for the album, Chyi adds that it was a bold idea to release an album based on the lyrics by such an acclaimed writer, and that it was a good example of how a record company could focus on art rather than appeal to the market.

"The album represents the golden era of the Taiwan music industry," Chyi says, adding that the name of the album was given by Sanmao herself.

Sanmao was said to have derived inspiration for the album title when she was watching an Indian movie while writing songs for the album. In that movie, a little girl was listening to the echo of a bell ringing in a temple. Sanmao's English name also happens to be Echo.

Chyi and Pan say that audiences of the concert will get to see handwritten letters and photos of Sanmao through the use of multimedia technology. Some of the conversations they shared with Sammao will also be heard as voiceovers during the concert.

"People can now listen to fantastic music on high quality and keep sounds in digital formats. But what we had back in 1985 was totally analog so the audience could listen to her voice in a very real and natural manner," Chyi says.

Chyi thinks that telling stories in new and immersive ways can be liberating for a concert. She reveals that she had to hold back her emotions while performing onstage because "so many memories flood back". She once cried during a rehearsal when she performed the song Don't Say Goodbye, which was written by Sanmao and Li Tai-Hsiang.

"I think many people, either readers of Sanmao or not, will love this theaterical space they enter - it's not quite like any other show," says Chyi.

"It's not only about music but also the life story of Sanmao. In that case, the audience comes in and watches something like a traditional story on stage told through music."