Children of Troubled Times : not just history

Yuan Muzhi

Children of  Troubled Times (風雲兒女, 风云儿女) or more "children of the thunderstorm". It was a seminal film of its time,  galvanizing support for the war of resistance to the Japanese invasion.  The theme song, The March of the Volunteers, became so popular that it was heard everywhere, and eventually became the national anthem.  The composer Nie Er (聶耳) was a composer and musician, who died aged only 23 in a swimming accident while he was visiting his brother in Japan (war didn't stop Chinese intellectuals from learning about Japan).  When the film was released, in May 1935, Nie Er was still alive. He drowned in July that year. The film describes the awakening of social and political consciousness. It's not an entirely "historic" document, whatever your politics.  Nuts to the notion that Chinese people didn't need politics, which was an argument used to suppress democracy. 

It's also interesting because the star was Yuan Muzhi(袁牧之), matinee idol,actor, writer, director an intellectual. and director. He made Street Angel (馬路天使, 1937), perhaps the best known Chinese movie of the period in the west, which launched the career of singer Zhou Xuan. It's much more than a love story ! Please read my analysis of it here).  In Children of Troubled Times the opening credits roll with the March of the Volunteers playing, then a sudden discordant flashback to Shanghai, in darkness. Upper middle class domesticity : a rich man's daughter, Shi Yanshi, is playing the piano. Bored, she moves to the window where she looks into the next door apartment, where two men live : Xin Baihua (Yuan Muzhi) and Liang Zhifu (Gu Menghe). Both are refugees (though rich) from the North West, which the Japanese invaded in 1931. A folk song is heardfrom afar. The singer is Ah Fung, a poor girl, who lives with her elderly mother. They're refugees too.  Xin notates her song, but is attracted to Shi, whose portrait he sketches.Still, he looks after the welfare of Ah Feng, out of kindness. Xin goes to a glitzy nightclub, where he meets Shi, in evening dress, smoking. Her makeup's wild : drawn on eyebrows, high fashion then but on her like a caricature from Beijing operas. His friend Liang, however, is involved with the political underground, as is Ah Fung who gets an education and gets involved with student politics.  When she doesn't turn up at school, Xin goes out looking for her, but she's gone. Ah Fung sneaks back into Liang's apartment, which has been ransacked. He's gone - arrested by the police. As she leaves she steps on a painting of a phoenix which had been on the wall.
Meanwhile, Xin and Shi have married, enjoying a honeymoon on the coast in a fancy hotel.  Xin, though, is restless, following news of the civil unrest around them. They go to the theatre. In the first act dancers enact a strange tale where a man beats a woman down, but she rises back up and stabs him. Then a woman dressed in Lederhosen sings in front of an alpine landscape. Xin recognizes her - it's Ah Fung!  She visits his home in Shangahi, to learn that he's chosen a very different life. Xin gets a message that his friend Liang has fled abroad. At the port, the ship has already left.  Shi finds Xin, sitting on the shore, looking out to sea, looking desolate. A primitive goatcart wends its way up a steep hill. Ah Fung has returned to the North East, and sees her grandfather once more.  Images of the Great Wall and marching armies : self explanatory.  Back in Shanghai, Xin's increasingly restless. A letter arrives, a last farewell from Liang, now so far away. More images of war, bombardments, fleeing refugees. But where is Liang ? In the North East, partisans are building a fire.  Liang spots the picture of the phoenix and knows that Ah Fung must be near. Sure enough, there she is, with her grandad.  The Japanese mount an attack, but the partisans fight back, and the film ends as it began with The March of the Volunteers.  "Rise up! Rise up! Rise up!...march on! march on!" I'm sorry I don't get all of the levels, eg word plays, because I don't speak Mandarin and none of the prints I've seen have any kind of subtitles.

Filial Piety - The Philosophy Song

In these divided times when it feels like the world is in a tailspin of self destruction, everyone screaming at everyone else, I'm revisiting other  times of upheaval. Tian Lun (天倫} aka The Song of China, or The Heavens) was made in Shanghai in 1935, but as cinema, it's old fashioned, even for its times. But that's part of its charm. It's a silent movie with recorded soundtrack - no dialoque, just solo Chinese instruments with the odd live sound effect. The music was written for the film by Huang Tsu (黄自) (1904-1938), born in Shanghai, who studied western composition at Yale. In the mid 1920's he wrote In Memoriam, the first large scale orchestral piece by a Chinese composer.  He also set up the first all-Chinese orchestra in Shanghai in 1935,  professional orchestras formerly having been dominated by foreigners, who sometimes weren't academically trained.  Most films in China were made exclusively by Chinese for Chinese audiences, but the producers of this film put special emphasis on this and mentioned it in the English language intertitles. The orchestra used was the Wei-chung-lo Orchestra, an early Chinese-instrument orchestra.  This is interesting, because it shows how different intrumental colours and changing rhythms can be used to highlight the action, yet still return to the song theme from time to time.

As so often in the progressive years after the May Fourth Movement, intellectuals and artists worked closely together on the principle that modernization and reform could be achieved through education which included popular entertainment. Huang's music for this film was so iconic that it has lived on, in many incarnations. It's called The Philosophy Song (天倫歌) made famous in a contemprary recording by Lang Yixiu (郎毓秀)(1918-2012).  Enjoy the video below ! (photos are of a different writer of the period and his descendants)   The "philosophy" here means the philosophy expressed in the film. Basic Confucian values - "Grant all children a place in your heart and regard aged as your own" : Values that should shape public life and governance as well as family relationships. "For more than three thousand years" the introduction states, "filial piety has remained the dominant force in China's history and culture".  That's why the Communists hated Confucian thinking,  and many now hate those values, too, but when applied correctly, they still remind us that humilty and basic human kindness matter in this world.

In the opening scene an old herdsman attends his goats in the countryside. Cut to the 1890's in South China, where a rich young dude, who's been abroad, is rushing home on a stallion. Just in time, he gets to his father's deathbed. "May your children live to honour you as you have honoured me", says the old man. "If children must travel, they should travel towards their parents" (ie towards virtue),  Fast forward to the 1920's. The son, played by Zheng Junli (鄭君里), who remained a famous star,  and his wife have grown old, but they're still looking after babies - this time, their grandson, whose parents are too busy partying and going out.  Photo above shows the grandson reading to grandfather - they're very close. Reminds me so much of my own father and my son, which is why I needed to watch the movie again  The little lad likes playing in the fields, making music with a bamboo flute, as the goats gambol around him. The image is universal, though he's not a goatherd, and it shows how the boy connects to society.

Grandfather's big birthday comes up, so the family celebrate with a banquet, "I know you don't like ostentation" says the worldly wise son, "but if we impress guests, it'll help us get ahead". Grandad's not fooled : he knows it will be an excuse for drinking, gambling and waste.  Sure enough, a city guest spots grandad's youngest daughter, who's all dressed up for the occasion, and attempts to seduce her.  In honour of his own father's birthday, Grandfather has set up an orphanage, where he and his wife personally help look after the kids.   The worldly son and his wife head off to Shanghai, taking the grandson. Grandfather's youngest daughter pines for her boyfriend and wants to elope to the city. Then Grandfather becomes ill, not expected to survive.  The kids in the orphanage stand vigil.  But lo! Grandson, now an upright young man, returns, and Grandfather is restored. The school bell rings and the old man tells the kids how blessed he's been to see so many of them grow iup, study and make something of their lives. "But now I am old, I can serve you no longer". As The Philosophy Song starts out, the old man announces that Grandson is taking on the mission. Profligate Son, daughter in law and youngest daughter (now married with a kid of her own), have returned to the countryside. Forgiveness is irrelevant : Love is what brings the family together.  Sure, there's lots wrong with filial values but without kindness, we're nothing.

Under Hong Kong's Roof - madness in life, madness in opera

Under Hong Kong's Roof 香港屋簷下. On the surface, a family tragedy, but beneath the surface. "Under Hong Kong's roof",  sinister forces are brewing.  This film, from 1964, is one of Ng Chor Fan's (吳楚帆 ) masterpieces, in which he portrays the mental disintegration of a good man. It's also an allegory, a commentary on the "golden" years of Hong Kong when everything seemed perfect as long as you were cocooned from reality by privilege. As so often in Cantonese movies of the period,  it begins with shots of the city - the  central business district, its skyscrapers like fortresses of power.  Ng Chor Fan plays Chu Wai Yan, a businessman.  A luxury banquet has been arranged  to announce the engagement of Chu's daughter (Mui Kam Fung 苗金鳳 ) to Willy, the son of Tong Po Fat, who was once Chu's assistant but now an even more powerful businessman. The party is in fact a summit meeting of the rich.  The men are dressed in white tuxedos, the ladies bejewelled.  But as Yan Yan and her fiancé enter, the band is playing loud and discordant Chinese music. Something's not right here but no-one notices, even though the entertainment for the evening is a western-style dance band playing soothing tunes.

The other businessmen are gossiping. Though Tong and Chu go back to when they were both young, Tong's a dodgy character, and Chu's position is dodgy.  Chu's invited Mr Hong, a mutual a friend from youth, to the horror ofTong, since Hong is poor and old fashioned (a reminder that not everyone prospers). As Hong enters, the Chinese band appears again, also unnoticed. Somehow, couples are dancing....  Hong warns Chu that Tong is up to something bad but Chu doesn't believe it. Mysteriously, the guest of honour, Mr Yeung, the richest guy of all, doesn't turn up. Ominous. Suddenly, the glamorous singer of the band seems to be singing Cantonese opera. She looks her normal self but her voice becomes masculine, demonic, threatening death.

The banks have foreclosed on Mr Chu and his guarantors, Tong and banker Yeung aren't backing him up.  No matter how he begs, Chu is on his own.  Overnight, he loses his business and home.. The servants have to go. Many have worked for the family for years. "You can't swim back to your native village", says Chu, offering them money. But they demur, from a sense of loyalty.  The bailiffs arrive.  The furniture gets auctioned. An old oil painting, a portrait of Mr Chu, comes up for sale. It's shabby. No-one can understand why there's a sudden bidding war between a poor woman  (Mrs Lai, aka Tai Sum, ie "elder aunt", played by Lee Yuet ching 李月清) and a young merchant navy officer, Chiu Chung. Chiu was taken in by Chu when he was orpaned as a child. The old woman seems to know this, so she gives him the painting, and tells him where the Chu family  have moved to — a crumbling hovel in a squatter settlement.  Chiu Chung is shocked to see Chu, now dressed in traditional underclothes.  Chu smiles as if he's happy. "Eat a bowl of rice, turn it upside down". (a proverb). He recounts the story behind the painting. Years ago, he took pity on a vagrant who came begging for food. He never saw the man again but a few years later, the painting arrived.  Chu understood what the painting meant,to himself and to the man who painted it. Mrs Lai knows the story, too,which is why she spent thousands bidding for it. Who is she ? She says she's just an itinerant worker, moving from place to place but in this story, she's a force of unconditional goodness.

Willy Tong arrives at the shack to end the engagement. "This place is like a pigsty, it smells and you can't even reach it by car!" Yan Yan collapses. She confesses that she's pregnant.  Willy says it's Mr Chu's fault in the first place for pushing his daughter to marry money. Maddened with grief, Chu picks up a stick to beat Willy (who escapes with his chauffeur) and in the process, falls over and smashes his head. Chu's wife has a seizure.  Both are in hospital, but Mrs Chu dies of a heart attack.  Young Mr Chiu confronts the Tong family and gets beaten up by their thugs.  But he's the one who gets arrested ! When Mr Chu comes home, head bandaged, it's clear that his wounds go much deeper. He acts out scenes from an imaginary Cantonese opera, making dramatic gestures, swinging a stick like a sword, singing madly.  He runs into the main street where he goes berserk, smashing the fish tanks outside a restaurant. This, too, is a symbol on several different levels. Chu gets arrested and put into a psychiatric hospital. He doesn't recognize his kids, but mumbles the phrase "eat rice from a bowl, then turn it over".  Yan Yan gets evicted form the sqautter hut. She tries to kill herself, but miraculously Mrs Lai appears and stops her, slapping her in the face.  "Consider your dead mother, your sick father, your young siblings  and your unborn child!", she says, "what right do you have to put yourself above them !" A concept that might not mean much in the west but matters in traditional values.

Yan Yan goes into labour. At the same time Willy Tong and new girfriend go speeding in a sports car which crashes. Mrs Lai takesYan Yan, her baby and siblings into her home.  "You are our guardian angel".   So Yan Yan gets a job, singing in a nightclub - an interesting detail, since it was in a nightclub where her Dad had his first psychotic delusion.  Seaman Chiu tracks her down, orders Chinese tea - not alcohol - and asks to see her "You're crazy", says the waiter, "she doesn't talk to customers".  Chiu visits Mrs Lai's home in a squatter village, where all the neighbours crowd in, looking.  The younger kids have started school again, and Mr Chu is at last well enough to go home.  Again Mrs Lai intervenes, she says that Yan Yan and Mr Chiu should be "like ox and cow". What's that mean, say the kids.  Mr Chiu's been offered a management job on land paying $700, a fortune in those days. But all's not well, yet. The baby is called "Tong Tong" ie "sweetie" but as Yan Yan says, his past is as bitter as bitter gourd.  Yan Yan thinks no-one will marry a fallen woman, but Mr Chiu proposes. He's carried the engagement ring around with him for years. Suddenly, though the baby diappears.  He's been kidnapped by the Tong family, whose son survived the car crash but can't have children. the Tongs think they can get away with it since Yan Yan is "just a bargirl".  They announce the child as their own, though people gossip.  Mr Chu breaks into the announcement party, re-enacting the mania in which he becomes a character from opera, screaming, shouting and throwing things (see top photo) The Chus are ejected, returning home in a thunderstorm, crying for the lost child. Yet again Mrs Lai appears, the baby hidden under her coat. "If they can steal the child, I can steal it back!" . This time, the Tongs won't win. Mr Tong's been arrested for major fraud.  Mr Chu bursts out laughing.  "Who's crazy now" he says, "let's fill our bowls and eat again".

The May Fourth Movement 100 years on

May Fourth 1919 - a key date in modern Chinese history.   Though a Republic was declared in 1911 on relatively modern and progressive lines, any change in the largest nation in the world takes time, and China was emerging from very difficult conditions indeed.  The May Fourth Movement was an umbrella for several different forces for social change - political, intellectual, cultural, and so on.  It also marked a change in perspective. Earlier reformers assumed that help would come from the West and Japan. Accordingly, China supported the Allies in the 1914-1918 war. Instead, German colonies in China were handed over to Japan.  The Unequal Treaties from the years of the Opium wars were retained, giving foreign nations extraterritorial rights on Chinese soil.  The May Fourth Movement  shows the change has to come from within, through education and ideals.  To mark the centenary of the May Fourth Movement I have been re reading the classic  Chow Tse Tung's The May Fourth Movement : Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Harvard 1960)   At the time the book transformed Chinese historiography.  Fifty years ago I studied it as an undergraduate. Since then so many more cataclysmic changes : the transition from past to future in a country this big and diverse cannot happen overnight.
Please also see my analysis of The Romance of a Fruit Pedlar, 掷果缘, 1922, one of the earliest Chinese movies, cinema being one of the tools modernizers favoured for reaching mass audiences (many of whom might be barely literate)  It's a lot more than comedy !   One of the many fruits of the May Fourth Movement !  Please read my piece HERE

  Romance of the Fruit Pedlar : stairs that go up can  be reversed and slide down

Everlasting Love 天長地久

A classic of Cantonese cinema - Everlasting Love 天長地久, starring screen idols Hung Sin Nui (紅線女 ) and Ng Chor Fan (吳楚帆). What's the secret of its enduring appeal ?  It premiered in 1955 at a time of unprecedented social change, when traditional assumptions were being challenged by new ideas.  This  film is more than a love story : it deals with fundamental human values in difficult times. The print may be aging but its message is relevant today.

A train crosses countryside that is now  mega city.  Trains carried millions out of China into Hong Kong. The poorest of the poor though - came by boat from the Guangzhou delta or simply walked. Mui Ga Lei (played by Hung Sin Nui) is a country girl but not a peasant : her qipao is old fashioned but modest.  Her father's died so she's come to Hong Kong to find her kinsman, who's a caretaker in a fancy western-style restaurant with uniformed doormen and sophisticated clientele.  She's out of place. The restaurant is managed by  Chan Sai Wah (played by Ng Chor Fan). in his fancy western suit, he looks the part but his authority is constantly undermined. He can't even order new curtains without approval from the owner, Patriarch Yan.  The reason Chan has his job is that Old Mr Yan wanted a successor but his own son was neither competent : so he arranged that his daughter should marry someone capable, effectively adopting good stock into the family : the family unit is what counts, not the individual. Though Chan and his wife have a son,  their marriage is a disaster, both desperately bitter.  Because Chan's mother and sister have no income of their own, they live in the Yan family mansion. They "need tea, have tea, need water have water" as extended family. But like Mr Chan, they are dependent on those with money and power.  Old Mr Yan think's he's doing the Chans a favour by arranging for her to marry a rich man. He can't comprehend that she might object. Chan's sister wants to move out, even if that means living in a bed space in a tenement, but her mother refuses : it would damage her son's social status.


Yan Junior is the company accountant, though he's work shy and scheming.  He offers Miss Mui a job as secretary though she knows nothing about working in an office. He takes her round town to get a modern haircut and fancy western clothes.  Her kinsman warns her that things might not be as easy as they seem.   Miss Mui sees that Mr Chan wanders in the restaurant gardens, looking stressed.  Hung Sin Nui's voice had a soft tremolo, like a caress, so she could express tenderness while saying simple things. You can hear why it's balm for Chan's troubled soul.  Yan Junior invites Miss Mui for dinner, but it's in a hotel bedroom. She runs away, so he tells Mrs Chan that her husband's been seen with another woman. "I want a divorce!" she screams, but her father says no.  Miss Mui gets fired and makes a scene in the restaurant since she thought Chan was widowed.  Mr Chan's mother dies, a suicide, and his sister runs away. Scandal after scandal !  In the office, Chan has $20,000 but can't put it in the safe because Yan Junior's got the combination and has gone out.  He's had enough. He wants to run away.  When Miss Mui sees him off, they decide, on the spur of the monent to elope, with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

They take the ferry to Macau, as millions did then. Vintage shots !  Panoramas of the city when it was a small, sleepy hamlet. Fishing junks in the inner harbour, and the outer harbour before the bay was reclaimed.  They check into a hotel which was new then and was still there til not so long ago. They visit scenic spots like the facade of St Paul's and the statue of Colonel Mesquita killing Chinese people in China. That's gone, which is maybe just as well.  Hung Sin Nui sings the song which made this film immortal.  In real life, she was a Cantonese opera singer who could elide lines so they dipped and swooped gracefully.
The idyll doesn't last : Yan Junior arrives demanding the $20,000. Chan said he was owed that for all the years his pay was witheld by his wife, but he returns it all but what he's spent. Chan and Mui now move to a shared house in a tenement in a shabby old part of town. But their housemates are friendly, everyone chips together.  Chan's job offers fall through because news of what happened in Hong Kong has filtered through.  He pounds the streets, increasingly desperate.  Mui becomes pregnant but this adds to his distress : how will he support a wife and child ? "We love each other. As long as we have hands and feet, we will survive" she says.  He's reduced to a job as a tout grabbing ferry passengers to hotels. He makes nothing "You have to grab and fight or you can't live!" screams the boss. Mui falls and has a miscarriage. As she lies in bed, Mrs Chan and her lawyer arrive from Hong Kong.  When Mrs Chan sees Mr Chan, now wearing Chinese working class clothes, she sneers.  She wants a divorce with damages and sole custody of the son. He gives in: he has no choice. Years pass. Mui gets a job in a factory - great shots of early industrial conditiions - while Chan helps the women in the kitchen.  He's humiliated. But she says, if society doesn't treat us well, we care about each other.  "We dreamed" he says, of "Hang Fuk,Fai Lok" (happiness and prosperity) but where has it all gone ? "As long as we stick together", she says "we can make things around us better even if we cabn't change te world". .  

In those days, food was bought each day from the market, wrapped in newspaper. One day, Chan reads the news. His son has been appointed new manager of Old Mr Yan's businesses.  He wants to return to Hong Kong "My son will look after us". But she won't go.  If she goes with him,he might not find the happiness he seeks.  He promises to send for her when he's rich again, but she tells him that wealth was never part of their bargain, just love. This time he takes the ferry, he travels alone.

In the Yan mansion, everyone's partying,  everything glitters., Chan, in peasant clothes, unshaven, looks in and sees his son feted by all.  But he can't go in.  What if he jinxes his son's succcess ? Suddenly, Miss Mui's kinsman greets him. He's remembered. But Chan disappears into the darkness.  Back in Macau in the tenement neigbourhood, he finds that Miss Mui has moved away.   She's left a letter : "I can't give you the happiness you need".  He walks through narrow alleyways and shares bed space in a doss house.  He's sick and has no money. Even from this he gets evicted because he can't pay. Now homeless he paces the streets, picking up cigarette butts. Then he sees a poster for a Cantonese Opera - the epitome of Cantonese culture. Miss Mui has become an opera star ! As he stands gazing, she spots him and takes him back into her dressing room.  Over the years she's worked hard and has travelled all round doing shows.  He can barely speak "I'm useless", he says, "You were right to leave me". "But from now on we can be together again," she says, "and be happy". Since he hasn't eaten for days, she goes to order food. She's gone just a moment but he has run away again, unable to face being a burden on her. She runs out of the theatre, chasing his shadow as it retreats in the distance.

In real life, Hung Sin Nui's career as a star in Hong Kong ended when she returned to Guangzhou in 1956 with her then husband Ma Tze Tsang to set up a Cantonese opera institute in the capital of Cantonese culture. He died in 1964. She was caught up in the Cultural Revolution, denounced as a class enemy by her own daughter, but lived to be 88.  As for Ng Chor Fan, he was the doyen of Cantonese cinema , not just as actor but organizer, keeping the industry together under the Japanese occupation. His first wife was a beauty and movie star, but couldn't cope with wartime conditions and died young. It's not too hard to see where the themes in this movie come from.

15 BILLION views in 6 weeks - The Story of Yanxi Palace

Fifteen BILLION view between 19th July and 1 September,  and half a billion on one day alone (August 12th). Phenomenal viewing figures by any standard for The Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧攻略).  Viewing figures like that should be major news, since they reflect a mass market untapped by current media marketing models.  Yet in the west, barely a mention. Which says plenty about the global market for the arts, and about current west-centric business and political assumptions.  It's compulsive viewing.  I've watched all 70 episodes (45 minutes each) and want to start all over again to catch more detail.  And I don't usually like these kind of sagas and rarely watch TV at all. 
The Story of Yanxi Palace is an extravagant historical saga set in the Forbidden City in Beijing during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, a period that out-baroques the baroque and makes even Louis XIV look modest in comparison.  It tells the story of a girl who enters imperial service as a maid and works her way up to becoming de facto Empress. A rags to riches story without precedent,  particularly cogent since it's based more or less on a true story.   Moreover, the heroine, Wei Yinglou (Jinyan Wu), is a ferociously strong personality despite her demure appearance. So much for the idea that Asian women are meek.  There always were lots of strong women in Chinese history, despite patriarchal values.  Although the Emperor is kingpin in the Forbidden City where no other men can remain at night, the drama predicates around the women in the palace, most of them feisty characters in their own ways, competing to survive.  Like the women in the palace, you have to keep alert at all times : the plot moves so fast, with so many sub plots that you're mesmerized. Every episode ends on a cliff hanger.

You're also riveted by the sheer visual richness of the set - elaborate reconstructions of the imperial palace, every inch covered with antiques (or rather very good replicas). Even the slop buckets are cloisonné, and the porcelain in the cha wan (tea cups) is so fine that light shines through them. Best of all the embroidery, created in the workshops that supply the ongoing maintenance needs of the imperial palaces.  Please watch part of the making of documentary here   Since the plot predicates on embroiderers, this is no minor detail, but a metaphor for dedication, patience and attention to detail.   Politics, like embroidery, involves skill. The Qianlong Emperor's father had numerous sons, but  chose him to succeed in recognition of his mental discipline and courage.  A country the size of China isn't easy to rule.  The Emperor's younger brother fools around, "entitled" by privilege”: his weaknesses get him in the end. Yinglou falls in love with Fuca Fuheng,  kid brother of the Fuca Empress, the Emperor's first wife, and he with her, but they can't marry.  He's aristocratic, she's low level Bannerman family.  In any case,  duty comes before love.   He leads the Emperor's armies in the south and eventually dies in service of the country (while also sacrificing himself to save Yinglou, by then an Imperial Concubine and untouchable).  Yinglou's rise to power stems from much the same reason ; not deviousness so much as being more  altruistic than the other concubines. She thinks oif oithers than herself, saving the Fuca Empress's portrait from a fire, and sacricing her own health trying to save the Step Empress's son.  Always a moral, even in made for TV entertainment. Mental exercise for viewers, too.  TV need not be mindless.

The  dialogue is in Mandarin, though it's not impossible to follow if you understand Cantonese. Considering that 19% of the world's population lives in China,  and that many millions around the world can follow it too, the issue of translation is moot.  With an internal market that size, the series doesn't depend on English language audiences.  It has been dubbed in Cantonese, Malay, and Indian sub continent languages, but Mandarin speakers say that it's quite literary, so some translations might not convey the full effect.  In any case some knowledge of Chinese culture and history does make a difference.  Tiny details, for example, like the toddler running round the palace, whose carers can't keep up with him "Fifteenth son !" they call. Just any wilful kid?  The Emperor's fifteenth son was Yinglou's child, who would one day become the Jiajing Emperor though they don't tell you that in the story.  English subtitles do exist but they're not very helpful.  But The Story of Yangzi Palace is such an event in itself that it's sure to be rebroadcast and issued on DVD, presumably with translations and context explained.  Hopefully,  media marketers, economists and politicians will wake up and smell the coffee. Or rather, the scent of tea.

Autumn comes to Purple Myrtle Garden

For the Mid-Autumn Festival  and the full moon tonight, Autumn comes to the Purple Myrtle Garden  (紫薇園的秋天) (Tse Mei Yuen Chau Tien) another classic of Cantonese cinema, which was released to coincide with the Festival in 1958.  People celebrate with parties, viewing the moon, eating mooncakes, and playing with lanterns. Partly it's the prospect of winter drawing near when light grows dim. But the festival is very much about family values, especially in difficult times.  The film depicts the Kok family, who live in a Republic era villa  with huge gardens. Hence the name "Purple Myrtle Garden" , lagerstomea, which is beautiful, but fragile.  The house is full of books and antiques. The Koks are old money but privilege has come at a price. When the patriarch died suddenly decades before, his widow took over the business, multiplying the fortune.  She still rules with an iron fist, controlling the destinies of her children and grandchildren, as well as the money.  The matriarch's son is spineless, though good-natured, he and his wife always praying.. (Buddhists).  Effectively, the younger  generation Koks are trapped in a kind of psychic limbo. Eldest son Kok Chung-si (Ng Chor Fan) plays the violin and paints oils. Eldest daughter Kok Fung-yee (Wong Man-lei) plays the piano. No-one really works. Kok Hok-si (Cheung Wood-yau)  goes to the office but "only signs cheques". He and second sister Kok Mok-sau (Yung Siu-yee) go out as often as they can, to escape.

Into this limbo arrives Miss Yiu Ling-yam(Pak Yin) hired to tutor the youngest grandchild, Yik-si, who can't go to school because grandmother says he's poorly.  Grandmother decides everything.  Miss Yiu notices something's wrong.  Family members eat alone in their rooms, and don't communicate.  Left to her own devices, she wanders in the garden and overhears the sound of a violin coming from a tower : it's Chung-si playing, all alone. Hok-si and Mok-sau tell Miss Yiu the background. "Purple Myrtle" was their father's first wife, who was driven out of the family by the matriarch.  So Chung-si and Fung-yee, left motherless and abused, developed problems.  At a gathering, the matriarch (played by veteran star Lai Cheuk-cheuk) comes to visit and bullies each member of the family in turn.  "What's this about you attempting suicide?" she screams at Fung Yee.  Fung-yee was married briefly but her husband died.  "In this family" snarls the matriach, "no-one comes back home whining".  (traditionally, women stayed with their married families). That night Fung-yee makes another suicide attempt, but is stopped in time.  It turns out that she's still in love with a man the matriach  disliked, so she was forced into her tragic marriage).  

When the Mid-Autumn Festival comes, Hok-si and Miss Yiu organize a party in the garden, like normal families do.  "Why won't you join us", Miss Yiu asks Chung-si. "it's not me that chooses unhappiness, but sadness which chooses me", he answers.  "When you paint", she says, "you can change the colours", ergo, you can change your life.   Lanterns are lit, and fireworks. the sound track switches from Elgar and Mendelssohn to a polka and then a waltz and then a jitterbug - Mok-sau's "modern" and likes dancing.  (see photo above)  In the shadows, Chung-si watches. Shyly, he asks Mis Yiu out, in a ltter. If she wants to go, she should turn on the lamp in her room. She does, and he can't believe his luck.  Howeber, he overhears his brother Hok-si ask her out as well.  (see photo) So he pretends he can't go, and should instead go with Hok-si who is more fun.  Too noble for his own good.  Meanwhile, Fung-yee sneaks out at night. Hok-si, Miss Yiu and Mok-sau follow. (Bizarrely the film now shows a street I grew up in, not the country villa used for the other location shoots).  Fung yee has gone to find her lost love, Pang Ching-lok, but can't face ringing his doorbell.  So Mok-sau alerts him, but Fung-Yee has run away. Hok-si confronts his father, but his father says that the matriarch's will cannot be challenged. "Kok ka pei gui" ie Kok family protocol or values)   Mr Pang finds Fung yee and asks her to elope with him, but she's absorbed the family's negative mindset and won't.

A thunderstorm descends but cannot drown out the music Fung yee is playing, which resounds tnroughout the mansion.  She locks her door so no-one can enter, then climbs on the parapet in yet another suicide attempt.  Chung-si climbs over the balconies to hold her back, and she's saved, but he collapses - he has TB.  Now at last, Chung-si is decisive : he asks Miss Yiu to marry him. "when I'm well, we can leave Tse Mei Yuen and start a new life."  If only. Mr Pang returns from the Philippines  and this time, Fung-yee agrees to go with him.  But the matriarch's spell is not yet broken. She comes back, orders the servants out and scolds the family. "So you are the Miss Yiu who has changed things here!" "No, says Miss Yiu, daring to answer back "They are changing things for themselves"  "Who has let Mr Pang in " the old lady cries. "Me" says Fung-yee's father. "Times have changed".  The matriarch forces Fung-yee to read the inscriptions that set out the family protocols from way back.  Chung-si speaks out, too and the old lady goes ballistic. "You are a bastard!"  As she raises her stick to hit him, his father, at last, intervenes.  The spell is broken.

Winter sets in, but is it too late ? "I will not see spring" says Chung-si.  The family goes down to wave Fung-yee and Mr Pang on their way. But when they go up again, Chung-si is dead.   "You've been a breath of air to this house", says his brother to Miss Yiu, "but this house has not been good to you."   Soon after, Miss Yiu is packed to leave, but as she walks past Chung-si's door, she hears the sound of his violin. She walks into the empty room. the plants on the verandah are dead, the violin in  its case. She takes the painting he made of the tower in the garden, and asks if she can have it, to "remember Tse Mei Yuen in its autumn".  As she is driven off, Hok-si tells her that, if ever she should return, there will be someone waiting. Although this is a film ostensibly about emotional manipulation and the way those who are abused internalize the mistreatment, the real meaning liues deeper. From the late 19th century there was a whole literary genre dealing withhow China responded to change after 2000 years of feudal tradition.   Unequal Treaties were the matriach writ large : control and manipulation made possible because the "family" could not assert itself.  Westernization itself is not the problem - the Koks enjoy western classical music and art.  But people need to change on their own terms, as Miss Yiu tells the old lady.  The second generation (Mum and Dad) go along with what's happening because they don't question the feudal system, but there's a rift in the third generation where the older siblings are mistreated, while the young ones are beginning to understand what's going on.  This film is beautifully made, very literary and elegaic, further making the connection between literature and social commentary, which would not have been lost on audiences aware of the context. 

The Song of the Phoenix : artistic integrity in tricky times

 

The Song of the Phoenix (2016)(百鸟朝凤) was the last film completed by Wu Tian Ming (吳天明), one of the seminal figures in modern Chinese cinema. Although the film is titled "The Song of the Phoenix" for western release, a more accurate translation of the title would be "A Hundred Birds and One Phoenix",which is more literary and also reflects what the film is about : the imperative of integrity, in art.  The film is a lovingly observed evocation of traditional rural life in  North China in times of change. Although the script is based on a novel by Xiao Jiang Hong, the name of the young apprentce is Yu Tian Meng (游天鸣) not so far different from Wu Tian Ming, who was exiled after the Tian An Men massacres, but allowed to return after the later reforms. "A Hundred Birds and One Phoenix " also reflects the aesthetic of the souna, the ancient blown instrument played by Old Master Jiao San Yie, who learned from many generations of masters before him.  The souna evokes the sounds of Nature, especially the cries of birds in the fields, reedbeds and mountains in the area, and thus has cosmological significance.  Thus its use in communal occasions, such as weddings and funerals, as well ss private reflection.

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A father and son, from ther "Earth" village trudge up to Jiao San Yie's house in "Water" village. The father wants his son to learn the souna, but the Master isn't impressed, and the boy doesn't want to stay.  Father beats son in frustration. Son is furious, but comforts father when he falls and is hurt. Later, the Master says that was the moment he decided to take the boy on, since his actions displayed emotional depth and strength of character.  The Master makes the boy suck water up a long reed.  This trains lungs and mouth muscles, but it's also mental discipline.  Learning also involves living: helping in the fields, visiting family, marvelling at things like fireflies.  After many months the younger apprentice Lan Yu gets to actually play the souna, but Tian Meng doesn't. Dejected he returns home and overhears his father talking proudly of him, so he goes back to the Master. Eventually he starts to play, too. 

Part of the training means observing Nature, listening and learning from wild birds, imitating their songs on different sized souna.  Eventually the boys are able to follow the master's troupe, and learn the cultural context. At a rich man's funeral, the Master's eight man band is hired, but the master won't play the Song of the Phoenix for any price. it's only for persons of exceptional moral value, who are not necessarily the rich and powerful. At last the Master decides to appoint his successor.  before the assembled villagers, he explains.  In twenty years, he's trained many good players but technical skills are not enough.  A souna master must have the ability to move people : it is responsibility and heritage.  He holds up the golden souna handed down from master to master for six generations. It's more than 300 years old.  Then he hands his legacy to Tian Meng who's so shocked he can barely take it in.    Poor Lan Yu, who was technically the better player.  Artistry can't be measured by technique. Lan Yu later understands that Tian Meng got the accolade because he was a more determined personality. 

Tian Meng takes over the business of the troupe, leading the other (older) players.  They do a gig at the wedding of Tian Meng's schoolfriend, who's struck it rich.  The Master recounts days when the troupe would be given gifts like wine, and ceremonial chairs  But Tian Meng knows his hosts weren't interested in the music, only in money. Times are changing. Tian Meng's band plays at another wedding, where the family's so rich they hire a western band, electric guitar and pop singer. Tian Meng, supported by the Master, retaliates by playing a souna tune, but the western band drowns them out with the Radetsky March.  The local wide boys beat up the souna players and smash the Master's ancient souna.   there's no work now for traditional bands, and the players have gone on to other jobs. Even Tian Meng's mother scolds him and tells him to get a proper job.  Chief Dou of Fire Village dies . Though deaf in life, he wanted a souna band.  The Master shames some of the old troupe to return, because the dead elder was a war hero and good man, and starts to play the Song of the Phoenix, but stops because he's unwell. 

The Master has lung cancer, but it's too advanced to be treated.   People from the government want Tian Meng to go to Xian to record souna music for posterity. Coughing in pain, the Master insists that Tian Meng do so. So Tian Meng heads to the city and meets Lan Yu, who's now a construction worker, married to Tian Meng's sister.  Life's easier in town, but Tian Meng hears a lone souna player, begging for tips, and knows what he has to do.  When Tian Meng goes back, the Master is dead, buried in a mound grave.  Now, Tian Meng plays the Song of the Phoenix, the sound of the souna singing out from the grave site, over the mountain, into the valley and river which the Old Master had loved so dearly.   No-one is there to listen, apart from the Master's faithful dog (who used to carry meals to him as he worked in the fields) An incredibly moving performance.  The eulogy isn't just for the master but honours the whole souna heritage and the culture behind it. 

Seven Little Fooks

Seven Little Fooks (七小福)  a reference to folklore tales about seven kids who bring good luck.  In this case, a group of boys being trained in Beijing opera.  But they are refugee kids in a community of exiles : in the south, their northern origins don't mean much. Gradually they grow up and find work in Hong Kong kung fu movies. This is a film about their teacher, Master Yu Zhangzong, struggling to maintain his art in a world that doesn't care.  An exquistely filmed movie, sensitive to changing social nuances. Essential viewing, even for those who know only kung fu, since Chinese opera is the root from which martial arts grew. To understand kung fu, and Chinese culture itself, you need to know the world of Chinese opera. But this is also a very personal story, based on real people and real memories.  Clue : the eldest boy is nicknamed "Three Hairs". Translate that as Sammo and realize it's Sammo Hung who still carries his nickname though he's famous today. And who is "Big Nose" ? The now ubiquitous Jackie Chan, a bigger star than many in Hollywood.  In the movie Master Yu is played by the adult Sammo Hung,  who has won many awards, but must treasure this, since he's portraying the man who shaped him.  So Seven Little Fooks, (directed in 1988 by Alex Law Kai chui) is about real people, caught up in an era of unprecedented change. Evocative music by Lowell Lo Koon-ting.

It's December 1st,1962, when much of Hong Kong was stilll pre-war tenement, houses built on terraces, where people share communal spaces, like the neighbour, a tailor, who works in the yard and can't stand the sound of the kids singing.  A new boy arrives.  "Can I do cartwheels all day and not study?" he asks. "Then I'll sign for ten years!", he squeaks. His mother's crying,  but it's best for him, though the contract she seals with her thumb print (she's illiterate) is severe. If kids die in training, no questions asked.  That was the traditional way.  Notice the kid's name is Chan Kong-sang, which means Chan "Born in Hong Kong", marking his parents brief respite after 20 years of struggle in war-torn China.  He's now Jackie Chan.  And so the kids learn tthe basics of Beijing opera, as much physical fitness and gymnastics as opera in the western sense. That's why they neeed to start young to be flexible.  The school is very old style. The kids live communal and have shaved heads like kids in the North used to do. The local kids mock them, singing a rude song which the subtitles don't translate ("baldies, baldies, butter up your butts"). The kids give a performance but Big Nose fell asleep. The audience walks out "They've gone home to the radio" scolds Master Yu - the radio and big theatres being where top quality operas were done : small troupes can't compete.  So they get beaten with canes.  Mrs Chan comes to bathe the kids - no plumbing - and knows he's been beaten. But he says "Don't cry". Opera school is tough but the kids think they're freer than the ones in regular school, chanting by rote.   When Master Yu goes out the boys march into town to collect charity rice. On their way back they clash with the fancy kids and there's a brawl.   The taunt "Four eye'd boys, blind as turtles!" (meaning kids with glasses). Ponder that detail, it's important.  Wandering far from home, they need to get back by bus, but haven't any money so they con the driver and later escape without paying.  Watch them use their opera athletics to escape from the top deck !

Meanwhile Master Yu and his friend Uncle Wah chat in a teahouse. They trained together as boys themselves, in Beijing. "Rain or snow, we'd get up early and train". For what ?  Few make it big in opera. Wah works as a stuntman and stand-in for stars.  Bruises and broken ribs "Thirty years of good luck, thirty years of bad" quotes master Yu. "And then you're dead" says Uncle Wah. To cheer him, Master Wu starts singing, in the middle of the tea house, and Uncle Wah  gets his dream, to sing again, for a public.  When Master Yu gets home, the Cantonese tailor confronts him because  the opera boys punched his kid.  Master Yu holds his ground and defends his kids. Tailor and Opera master swap insults : scholars are too weak to work, too proud to beg : actors are prostitutes.  Another witty retort not in the subtiles "Chicken piss!". But when the Lunar New Year comes, they all celebrate together. 

Gradually the boys grow up, doing shows in proper cinemas. They also discover girls. Big Nose tries to impress by rotating a pot on his head, but modern girls are more interested in guitar bands.  One day, the leader of a Cantonese female troupe asks for help, since Beijing boys are much better at gymnastics. Master Yu doesn't have modern social skills either. He wants to buy the female troupe leader a "western" birthday cake, but none of the traditional bakers do that. He has to travel all round town until he finds one. Alas, the inscription says "Happy 70th, Grandad!. So Master Yu can't read!  It's extremely bad luck, since the Grandad it was baked for died that morning..... Master Yu isn't the only one  not up with the times. The Tailor can't understand modern fashion. His son "borrows" for Big Nose  the fancy togs his Dad's made for western customers and the two go out together. But the girl prefers the nerdy tailor's son who can "sing Beatles" as the girl's kid brother says. "You Beijing opera types no-one wants". Big Nose goes back, dejected but he's missed a show. Sammo substituted for him, but Master Yu beats him for covering up Big Nose's disobedience and kicks him out of the troupe. Sinc it's been his life, he has nowhere to go.

But business isn't going well and the troupe is dissolved.  Sammo reappears crestfallen and is  welcomed by Uncle Wah.  Master Yu goes to Uncle Wah's movie studio to get work for the boys.  He's forced to cut up a group photo so their heads can go on the register. Uncle Wah, who has been working as a stuntman for years, is getting old and has too many accidents.  He blows his last chance and suddenly goes insane, climbing up into the roof space in the studio, mad with grief, re-enacting opera scenes. An amazing scene. Master Yu climbs up and starts to sing an aria from The Emperor and the Concubine, where the Emperor has lost his,kingdom, but his concubine remains loyal.   For a moment, Master Yu and Uncle Wah are back to be stars again, singing together. Uncvle Wah thinks he's an opera star again. then he's taken away in an ambulance.

Master Yu calls his boys together. He's spent 40 years in opera. Success or not, he's given it full committment.   The school is closed, the house is being demolished and the boys are starting out onn their own paths. so now he'll retire, abroad. He releases the tortoise he's kept for seven years to hold up his bed, feeding and watering it . Its back is strong and it it still knows how to walk.   Master Yu boards the ship, that's taking him away, forever.  "You persevered 40 years and so will we" says Big Nose. "Sammo look after them !" the master's last command.  When they're gone he looks at the gift they've left. A white paper fan with what look like scribbles. But when the folds are aligned the squiggles spell out 七小福, Seven Siu Fooks.  Below a photo of Master Yu who lived to a grand old age and his boys, now grown men.

PLenty moire on this site about Chinese movies, Chinese oopera and music, especially Cantonese. THis ius the only site in Englishwhich does these subjects from a wider social perspective.

Sad songs of the Li People

黎歌 - Song of the Li People (also known as Farewell Song)  - an award winning film from 2011, which honours ethnic diversity in China.  The first scene is straight ethnology, shot from real life.  An elderly Li woman in traditional dress sings a traditional song.  The film then cuts to the sound of a man singiung a traditional call, which echoes across mist covered mountains and rivers   How beautiful that scenery is ! The Li people inhabit an autonomous region around Guangxi and Hainan on the tropical coast of south west China.  Although they are believed to have migrated from further east in ancicent times, they have a distinct language and culture.  To this day, there are just under 2 million , though many, like others in China, have migrated to larger cities. This movie is thus a record of Li culture and of social change.  Though the pace is sedate, that allows lots of music and shots of scenery, which are very much part of the story - beautiful cinematography.

A small boat putters along the river  It's operated by A Dong, a village youth. Though it's the prefered form of transport for the locals, the outside world is not so far away.  Danmei scrapes a living selling tack to tourists  but she's such a good singer of traditional Li song that she's sought out by Lao He, an ethnomusicologist. Life in the village isn't easy and many villagers have already gone to work in the city. Danmei is reluctant. "In Guangzhou", she says, people "despise those who can't speak Cantonese".  Rather topical. Danmei uses a laptop to look up Guanzhou , but her friend, who's lived there and grown hard, says "No matter how nice it is, it's not our place". Nonetheless, Danmei and A Dong plan to elope and look for work.  They haven't enough money but he buys her an "expensive" dress in the nearby small town.

In the big city, things aren't much easier. Lao He's song and dance ensemble has funding problems.  Should they stick to traditional styles or adapt  to popular tastes ? Would selling records raise income ? To cover recording, Lao He invests his savings on the stock market but loses everything.  The Ensemble gives a concert for a factory, all the workers lined up in polite attendance. The boss makes Danmei an offer : he'll finance the troupe if they do what he wants to market them.  So they get gigs in glamourous hotels, but with audiences who don't really care. They're dispirited, but what can they do ?  The rich man offers to make Danmei "queen of Li song" making records in Beijing for the mass market. She wants them produced by ensemble member Qianhong,  who is talented but impractical - he spends all his free time playing computer games in games arcades. He's reduced to singing pop songs in nightclubs.  The ensemble's gradual disintegration is played out against a sensitive portrayal of the city - shops selling "Coconut King" local cigarettes, buildings planned for ventilation in a hot climate without air conditioning, the ensemble's living quarters with pot plants in the alleyway.  A Dong, who has followed Danmei all along phones her but her line's busy.  Danmei stands with Lao He on  a beach, looking out to the ocean. They're very far from the Li River.  Lao He's moving to Beijing, as far as you can get from Li country. Danmei takes up the rich man's offer and runs his "cultural company". In the last scene, she's being chauffeured in a fancy car along a freeway somewhere on the Guangxi coast.  A beautiful film, made by the Guangxi/Hainan Film Production Studios. Fantastic music, too. The film has Chinese and English subtitles. But if you spoeak Manadrin, an extra bonus ! As the closing credits start, there's a series of interviews with Li musicians. 

If you like this, you might like Frühlingsglaube the movie 立春 where a singer loves schubert so much that she wants to dedicate herself to art. Things don't work out so easily, but she finds her vocation in another way. 

Bunny Girl Lin Dai

Lin Dai 林黛, forever young and cherished.

Lin Dai was loved because she was much more than an actress. She was a symbol of the hopes of her era. When she died, it was as though those dreams were shattered. Lin Dai's father was a powerful politician in Guangxi, a province with a tradition of fiercely independent reformist leaders. A very few year later, the demographic upheaval reversed, and millions fled the Communists.  Everyone was a refugee of some kind. A whole nation with subliminal psychic trauma. In the west, it's hard for people to understand.  Hong Kong boomed, thanks to the influx of people, money and expertise from the North, transforming the city from quiet bywater to metropolis.  Chinese cinema boomed, too, serving the worldwide diaspora. Lin Dai was an icon of the optimism of the time - progressive thinking, despite on-going struggle.  She was a "modern girl" but even more so, a girl whose freshness and innocence symbolized something even more eternal.  So when she died, aged only 29, it was as if the lights went out all over  the world.  Please read my piece Lin Dai Remembered here and also numerous other articles on Chinese cinema, culture, history etc. 

Rouge 1988 revisted, a study in time

Rouge 胭脂扣, one of the great films of the Cantonese cinema renaissance, much praised but also much misunderstood.  Rouge is remarkable, a meditation on timelessness and fluidity. The heroine slips out of one time period into another, literally haunting her old haunts.  To appreciate this film, it's almost essential to understand the background, and the language. The English translation skims the surface.  Non-Cantonese speakers are left wondering where's the kung fu pace and violence. But that's the whole point.  Rouge is poetry, like an ancient  classical tale. Like The Peony Pavilion, for example, that 16th century masterpiece where lovers defy death to be together. (Please read my work on The Peony Pavilion as kunqu opera.)  But how are western audiences to grasp this film without knowing the background? Or even the younger generation, intent on denying heritage?  Chinese film is every bit as good as European or Japanese cinema. So a film as full of cultural references as Rouge needs context, and historical background.

Rouge starts in a fancy tea house, such as existed in Shek Tong Sui, once the red-light district of Hong Kong.  It's not a brothel per se, though services are provided.  Essential reading, Virgil Ho's book :Understanding Canton : Rethinking popular culture in the Republican Period,  Even those familiar with the period will be taken aback by the period detail. Customers are called "Twelfth Master " or even "Seventeenth Master". Families were big then, and, as the heroine says later "daughters don't count".   In this situation, the terms mean something different.  Luxuriate in the period detail in the set and costumes -  proper furniture of the period, not "antique" at the time, though it would be now. Screens with panels of gaudy coloured glass remind us that this isn't a place where scholars hang out.  Oval mirrors add a touch of "westerness". showing how "modern" the clientele thought they were.  And the girls! Glittering like artificial butterflies,heavily made up in ornate cheong sams that nice girls wouldn't wear.

Ru Fa (Blossom), who's only just started working, falls for Twelfth Master.They romp about, smoking opium,which was legal in Hong Kong until 1947.  He has dreams of becoming an opera star, she has dreams of getting married.  Oddly enough, his mother (who has a past) is willing enough, but his Dad isn't keen.  The Chan's home, upper middle class, though not rich, is also shown in period detail. Homes like that still intact in the late 60's and 70's. So how are the lovers to stay together?

Cut to modern Hong Kong, in the 1980's. A newspaper office, desks piled up with hard copy - no computers then. Though this was reality when the film was made, only thirty years later "modern" has itself become antique.  The sections of the office are divided by low wooden panels.  Yuen Ting's working late. His long-term girlfriend Chu's gone home, having grabbed a gift he's given her - new shoes (hidden meaning). In walks an elegant woman who wants to place an ad in the newspaper to find someone.  She's like a vision,in ornate qipao, her face painted, her lips scarlet with old-fashioned rouge. Even stranger, she doesn't know about money and speaks in stilted, archaic style.  It turns out that he lives in Shek Tong Sui, so she follows him.  She asks strange questions about the area - where is a famous restaurant? Closed years ago, now a convenience store.  She likes Cantonese opera, mentioning long-dead stars she used to listen to.  She's never heard of Chan Po Chu, mega movie star of the 60's and 70's.  Then she mentions that she was 23 when she died.  She's a ghost!

Back in his apartment, everything is unfamiliar to her. He has a fridge, he drinks Coke ("foreign Wong Lo Kot", he explains. a famous brand oif herbal tea marketed since the 19th century.  Girlfriend Chu pops by. She gets a shock when she realizes Ru Fa doesn't wear a bra.   The two women are complete opposites, Ru Fa wan and miserable, Chu modern and down to earth.  She wears oversize jumpers to hide her figure, unlike Ru Fa, whose business was allure.

Ru Fa is searching for Twelfth Master,with whom she committed suicide fifty years before. They'd planned to meet on the Other Side,but he's nowhere to be found. So Yuan Ting and Chu use their journalism skills to track him down. They use land lines, not mobiles - another inadvertent antique touch, reminding us that what is now will not be a few short years along the line.  Eventually someone remembers the Chan family. Twelfth Master didn't die, which is why he can't be traced in the afterlife.  Yuan goes to a film set where a movie about the past is being made.  Twelfth Master is no star. He's a beggar, who pees on his shoes, his dreams of glory gone.  Ru Fa looks on him in disgust.  She hands him the rouge pot he gave her long ago, reminding him of their pact to be together.   He calls her name, in disbelief.  Out of the fog of his present, a glimpse of a long forgotten past. "Ru Fa !Ru Fa! Don't leave me!" he calls, but she's gone.  

The stars are Anita Mui (Ru Fa) and Leslie Cheung (Twelfth Master)   Fifteen years after Rouge was made, both were dead, within a few months of each other, she of cancer, he a suicide, which in itself is pretty ironic.  Watching the film now is a much creepier experience than when it was new. The film was directed by Stanley Kwan, based on a novel by Lilian Lee Pik-wa.  Yuan Ting was played by Alex Man Chi-leung and Chu by Emily Chu Bo-yee.  In another episode of time within time, connecting opera with the HK film industry, Patrick Tse Yin makes an appearance as a patron of the tea house. Another irony ! Tse Yin was a megastar, from the early 1950's. He didn't need to make cameos in his (relatively) old age, so his presence adds another touch of timelessness. 

Doming Lam - Hong Kong Music Series, St John's Smith Square

Doming Lam, from SCMP

Hong Kong music, and indeed most modern Chinese music, might be nowhere were it not for Doming Lam ( 林樂培), who features in the Hong Kong Music Series, the biggest celebration of Hong Kong classical music ever held in Britain.  Hong Kong is a dynamic, thriving and vibrant city whose cultural life reflects the cosmopolitan creativity that makes the place flourish, despite all odds. In in the west, people only know movies, and don't realize just how much more there is in Hong Kong arts. The Hong Kong Music Series presents five productions, four concerts and one opera, at various central venues in London from 7th to 28th July.  More details HERE

Doming Lam was born in Macau in August 1926. He studied in Toronto and Los Angeles (with Miklós Rózsa). Returning to Hong Kong in 1964, he soon became a leading figure, composing, conducting and promoting music in a city where performance is highly regarded.  With his engaging personality, he's a good communicator, almost a household name, which is more than can be said about many serious composers.  Maintaining an international presence, he's a Member of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) . He also has a section in Grove. Photo at left shows Doming Lam in  his  youth when he compered a popular classical music radio show. The keynote concert in the Hong Kong Music Series will be held at St John's Smith Square on 7 July (book HERE)   Titled  "Music Interflow", the programme  illustrates the dialogue between western and Chinese music.  Doming Lam's Three Night Songs of Li Bai  will be a highlight. It's a short piece for solo voice and piano, written in 1957, but marks a significant thread in Lam's development.

Li Bai, who lived in the Tang period, was a scholarly poet who lived in solitude, eschewing worldly power.   Many of his poems dwell on Nature, specifically the moon.  He often wrote about wine, but drunkenness provided cover for the expression of deep emotion.  In traditional Chinese society, the scholar gentry were a distinct class.. Although many had careers in public service, they didn't necessarily have power or wealth, but had moral and intellectual authority.  Chinese classical music reflects these cultural values: music for contemplation and private edification.   Effectively, a chamber music ethos.  In the 19th century, Chinese audiences embraced western orchestral music. Conservatories were set up in Beijing and Shanghai. Read more HERE about Xian Xing Hai and  HERE about Ma Sicong, two important composers from the same southern delta region that Doming Lam comes from.  Guangdong culture is very distinctive: even the dialect is based on nine tones, difficult for non-native born to master.  The advent of large, western style orchestras stimulated the growth of large ensembles for Chinese music, generating a whole new genre.  Doming Lam writes music for western and Chinese orchestras, as well as synthesizing both forms anew.  He also writes large scale choral works. Read HERE for a list of his works, with links to scores and recordings.

Clarence Mak

The concert at St John's Smith Square on 7/7 includes works by Clarence  Mak, Lui Man Shing,  Tsui Wai-lam, Mailina Tsui and Chan Man Tat, music based on Chinese aesthetics, cognizant of western influence. The programme also includes works by Britten, Quilter, Bridge and Delius.  See the connections?  Chamber music and song - refined music for reflective individuals   Conducted by Lo King Man, the performers play western and Chinese instruments. The singers are Colette Lam and mezzo Carol Lin, who will also be singing in the opera Datong ; the Chinese Utopia at the Richmond Theatre on 27th and 28th July. Book HERE.  I'll write more later about the opera, and about the concert with Chinese opera in the Hong Kong Music Series.  Both deserve more time and space !  Besides, it's not easy to come to Chinese music, even modern Chinese music, without understanding the background and unique values.  Because the English-speaking world is west-oriented, it helps to understand alternative perspectives.  There is so much to discover!   To find out more, please follow the labels below to Chinese music, Chinese opera, Chinese movies, Chinese culture and history. 

Cold Nights - a refugee saga

Cold Nights (寒夜) a novel from 1947 by Ba Chin (巴金) (1909-2005) describes the impact of the biggest mass migration in modern history, when tens of millions of  refugees trekked across China, refusing to remain under Japanese occupation, a saga of human endurance that needs to be appreciated in the west.  Ba Chin's famous trilogy Family, Spring and Autumn (1933-40) is a classic of modern Chinese literature, confronting the injustices of traditional feudal society.  Given the background, Cold Nights  is equally panoramic, though the family in this case is small.  Wong Man Suen  and Tsang Shu San are modern, progressive-thinking intellectuals who went to university and might have had careers ahead, had the war not intervened. Cold Nights is even bleaker than the Family Trilogy since it doesn't conclude with hope. Though Cold Nights is set in Chongqing, the seat of Free China, it was made into a Cantonese movie in 1955 by a cast and crew who were themselves refugees, who suffered similar traumas first hand.  Not at all a typical "war movie".  Tsang Shu San is played by Pak Yin, (1920-1987) while Wong is played by Ng Chor Fan (1910-1993) who in real life was the leader of the refugee film community exiled from Hong Kong. 

The film begins with an air raid, sirens screaming, people running terrified through crowed streets, shells dropping all round. Chongqing was subject to the most severe aerial bombardment, not surpassed until Germany and Japan were flattened a few years later, and the targets were civilian.  Wong Man Suen realizes that the bombs have hit his home, and rushes home to find the house empty.  Hundreds have been killed, but luckily his mother and son have escaped.  A flashback to the past : a much younger Wong wakes, alone in bed. A letter arrives. It's from his wife Shu San. After seven years of marriage, she's leaving him.  He thinks back still earlier, when he, she and their friends Tang Pak Ching and Mok Man Ying were college students, both couples deeply in love. They graduated, but while Wong was buying a wedding ring for Shu San, the city of Hangzhou was bombed. In wartime conditions, it took them months to travel back to Wong's home. Their son was born en route.  But Wong's mother was furious. Wong phones his wife at the bank where she works.  They meet in a smart café, where the windows are taped up for safety in bomb blasts.  "I'll have tea" he asks, "I'll have coffee" says she. The reason she's leaving is the way his mother has treated her.  "And you", she adds "have been ground down by her, too".  In the soundtrack we hear the song On the Songhua River, which refers to war, refugees and social disruption (Read more about the song here)

Wong meets up with his old university friend, Tang Pak Ching, also a refugee. Tang's wife had a miscarriage but couldn't get to hospital when the streets were blocked in an air raid. "She held my hand and cried my name", he sobs, And then she died. "This war, it's so cruel". The four college friends from former days are now three. Wong starts drinking. Shu Shan is disgusted that he's fallen so low.  She carries him home, though, but his mother blames her. In his delirium, Wong cries "I love you, Shu San, don't leave me". He's becoming ill (tuberculosis). She loves him, too, so she stays but his mother is worse than ever.  Shu Shan's still working at the bank - she's the breadwinner - and her boss wants her to move with him to Lanchow.  She tells him no, but Wong, not realizing that the boss has ulterior motives, urges her to go.  He goes back to his old office, but his colleagues treat him as a pariah because he's infectious. "But we've been friends five years" he cries. A friend arrives with some money his friends have raised as a gift. But he's been fired by the boss.  "In wartime, that's how things are" explains the friend.  But mother flies in a rage. Wong, in his grief, blames himself. He loves Shu San but has failed her. He's also failed his mum, who put him through school and looks after him and his child.

Wong gives Shu San a wedding ring - as he wanted to do years earlier, before things went wrong.  Ironically, she's leaving in the morning. She's brought a huge sum of money for medical bills, which she's got from her boss . She's resolved to move, though her heart is not in it.  She tells Wong it's only a short separation but he knows better. ""I will return, in a year, or two, or three, but I will return". "And I will wait", he adds. In the dawn, they part. They look at their child, sleeping beside grandma. "Tell her I don't hold a grudge". A tear rolls from the old mother's eyes.

Although it's cold and Wong is sick, he goes out, to the café where he and Shu San had been together. "I'll have tea" he tells the waiter "and a coffee, for her".  But there's no-one there. The Songhua River song is heard again, quietly.  Another air raid. We see fighter planes  anti-aircraft guns, wardens and refugees.  Wong sees his old friend Tang Pak Ching in the crowd, but his friend cries "Tang Pak Ching is dead". His mind has gone, maddened by grief.  Bombs rain down and Tang is killed before Wong's eyes.  Eventually, the newspapers announce, the war is over.  A big parade in the streets, with lanterns, drums, firecrackers  and a lion dance.  The procession passes Wong's house but by now he is so sick he's almost delirious.  He gasps "Shu San" and collapses.

A rickshaw arrives. Shu San has come home.  But a neighbour tells her that Wong died, on 3rd September - the day Peace was declared.  The neighbourhood buried him locally.  Shu San sits at Wong's grave sobbing. She's worn his ring all the time she was away "Why didn't you wait for me ?". It's now the 100th day since Wong's death, so grandmother and child have returned to the grave for ceremonies.  Forgiveness: all three will return to the native village.

New Life for an Old Pagoda

For Mother's Day NOT ! The Immortality Pagoda (長生塔) a Cantonese film from 1955, with a feminist message so strong that it still shocks.  In a not so distant past, Yuet Mei (Pak Yin) is happily married to Ping (Cheung Wood Yau)  eldest son of the Cheng household. Her mother Chan ka Lai lai (Senior Mother of Chan family) (Man Lee) comes to visit unexpectedly. In the courtyard, there's a pomegranate tree, which Ping planted. "Please stay with us until the fruits come", he asks mother-in-law.  A cryptic clue - pomegranates symbolize fertility.  Mrs Chan says nothing, but she's on the verge of a breakdown.  She has no sons, and her husband has deserted her for a "Wu lei Tsing" - fox spirit - an insulting term which shows how badly she feels about the concubine who has supplanted her at home, and borne sons.  Since Pak Yin hasn't had children after many years of marriage, her mother worries about her. "Ping loves me" says the daughter. But it's not up to them. That night, the Cheng family throw a big dinner party to welcome their visitor, but when she hears the elders discuss the importance of sons, she cracks up and starts screaming. Scandalous breach of manners, painful to witness even today! So Mrs Chan cannot stay in the main house and is exiled to an outhouse, because mental illness was a stigma.

Pak Yin is pregnant. The whole clan celebrates because having children means the continuation of family and all that represents.  Lo Tai Yeh leads everyone out to view the Pagoda, the "Cheung Sang Tap", which brought prosperity to the clan after a necromancer from far away Kwangsi told them to build it.  The pagoda used in the film is the Ping Shan pagoda, built in the 14th century, to harness good fung shui. It 's a listed monument, now fully restored.  Real pagodas were solid affairs. like this one, built to last. They aren't places of worship like western churches, but operate to channel the forces of nature, like ley lines.

When Pak Yin's mother hears her daughter is pregnant she resolves to return home. It's Ching Ming, a festival where people sweep graves, to honour their ancestors. The old lady is thus acknowledging her place in the system of continuing generations, while also respecting the future.  She's made clothes for the new baby but doesn't want to bring bad luck by being sick in her daughter's home.  Because the pregnancy isn't going well, the mother understands why it's bad luck to see her daughter.  She takes her leave, weeping, while her daughter sleeps, knowing they will not meet again in this world.   Wonderful acting, yet again, from Wong Man Lee who played the mother in Parent's Heart with Ma Tse Tsang, which I wrote about here.

Things go wrong with the birth, and the midwife can't handle things. A herbal doctor prescribes a drug that might kill the mother but save the child, Ping and his father fight: wives can be replaced, says the old man. No, says the son. Alas the baby is a girl. Why the "bad luck"   The Old Man blames the daughter in law and infant. He tries to revive the fung shui in the pagoda by burning offerings, but his brother loses the money gambling. Brother gets his son to take the blame, sending him away, even though he's just got married.  The bride gets blamed though no-one's told her why.   Two miserable women in the household now, Mei the eldest son's wife who cannot have more children and  Yee So, the bride of second  uncle in the hierarchy, who may never conceive, since news arrives that the bridegroom has been killed in an accident.. No prospect of sons.  The future of the Cheng clan lies in the balance.  The old man orders Ping to take a concubine but the son refuses. Ping goes away on business,

Mad with grief, Yee So (played by Mui Yee),  walks out of the Cheng gardens, filled with spring blossom, and hangs herself in the pagoda. Serious bad fung shui.  Mei (Pak Yin) finds the body and faints. The LoTai Yeh tells Ping that his wife is dead and that he must remarry. Ping burns offerngs at what he thinks is Mei's grave, but the sound of insane laughter rings out. The truth must be told. Mei isn't dead. She's been imprisoned in the pagoda and has gone raving mad.  Ping enters the dilapidated pagoda and tries to save Mei, but she doesn't recognize him. She climbs further up the pagoda,. The Old Grandfather arrives, with men and torches., but Ping refuses to leave Mei. She falls, and he carries her body out, defying his father. The old system with its rigid superstitions has caused too much tragedy. Ping sails away in a junk to a new, unknown future. The pagoda is seen against the skyline. Maybe the "immortality" it represents means new life, elsewhere.

The film is shot with great detail - architecture, costumes and plants, and has an excellent soundtrack (traditional Chinese music).  The outside shots of the pagoda were done on site, but the internal shots in a studio.  My father used to take us to Ping Shan, where we visited the real life pagoda, which in those days was still remote in a fung shui position, separated from the village by fields and canals.  One evening, at dusk, bats flew out as we approached. Nowadays, it's cleaned up and restored as a heritage site, in the centre of the new, prosperous city around it.  Perhaps the movie was right !   Heritage is people, not material objects in themselves.  We learn from the past and retain the good, exorcising the bad. But if we don't learn, we might make the same mistakes.