Singer Jolin Tsai (left) and actress Kuei Ya-lei. (Photo courtesy of Warner Music)

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) Jolin Tsai, one of Taiwan's top pop singers, released the full music video for her song "We're All Different, Yet the Same" that tells the emotional story of a lesbian couple and the complications they face after 30 years together.

Claiming to be based on a true story, the 4 minute, 13 second video now on Tsai's official YouTube channel stars 70-year-old actress Kuei Ya-lei, whose character is unable to sign her significant other's hospital papers to allow an emergency surgery because she is not a legal spouse or family member.

Asked about her relationship to the patient, she hesitates before saying: "We're friends. Good friends."

As her partner passes away, Kuei's character encounters her lover's younger self, played by 34-year-old Tsai, who takes her back to her youth.



In the past, Tsai's character and a younger incarnation of Kuei's, played by 38-year-old actress Ruby Lin, walk down the aisle wearing white wedding gowns and tie the knot to a cheering crowd.

They exchange rings and a kiss -- which Tsai has said is her first on-screen kiss with anyone, male or female.

The video ends with Kuei, tears in her eyes as she sits next to an empty bed. Asked by a nurse about her relations to the deceased, she says: "She is my wife."

The video is a high profile endorsement of same-sex marriage that comes at a time when the issue is being hotly debated in Taiwan.

A draft bill that would legalize same-sex marriage and allow married gay couples to adopt children cleared a first reading in the Legislative Yuan last year, but since then its progress has stalled, largely due to opposition from religious groups.

(By Christie Chen)
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