Gosh I wish I'd been at the Ukulele Prom ! Maybe it will go down in Proms history as the fun-est Prom ever. Thousands of uptight English letting their hair down, glorying in gorgeous kitsch ! Read what Intermezzo says here She has wonderful pictures, really conveys the atmosphere. Just reading about this Prom brightens my day.
For Hawaii we have to thank the ukulele, the slide guitar, Elvis, Monoi Melt, Hawaiian shirts and Sun Yat Sen, founder of the Chinese Republic. So how about this clip from a 1951 Cantonese movie. The singer is wearing a Chinese dress and her admirer fake "traditional garb". But it's a send up ! The admirer is comedian Leung Sing Por. And they mix Chinese and Hawaiian and hot cha cha !!!! The smooth dude says "Miss Lee, you sing so well, my heart is all jumbled up!" But she goes out with the old guy instead. "C'mon, Ah King", he says "Let's go party". I've just had an email, saying ukuleles were introduced to Hawaii by the Portuguese. By the time Hawaii was serrled by foreigners, there weren't that many white Portuguese around, so chances are it was Macau people who went there together with the first Chinese. Nearly all the migrants to Hawaii were from the Tongshan area around Macau, which was the source of coolie labour) So Macau figures again !
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