GREEN ISLAND SERENADE - 綠島小夜曲

After the war and the precipitous retreat to Taiwan, Mandarin language songs entered a plaintive and regret-filled phase, expressed by romantic imagery, recollection of other times, and a profound sense of distance and separation.

The brashness and zesty vulgarity of the Shanghai years seemed forgotten, supplanted by something more introspective. It was a period of quieting down, and melodies became slower, even calmer.


A good representation of that tendency is found in a golden oldie from the mid-fifties:


"This verdant island, like a boat adrift in moonlight..."



[Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHQaUCsq0YM.]


綠島小夜曲

這綠島像一隻船, 在月夜裏搖啊搖
姑娘呀, 你也在我的心海裏飄啊飄
讓我的歌聲隨那微風, 吹開了你的窗簾
讓我的衷曲隨那流水, 不斷地向你傾訴
椰子樹的長影, 掩不住我的情意
明媚的月光, 更照亮了我的心
這綠島的夜已經這樣沉靜
姑娘喲, 你為什麽還是默默無語。


The recording above is not from that period, however. The singer is Vienna Teng (史逸欣), a California native born in the same year that I returned to the States. At present she is a young adult, and let us leave it at that. It is not diplomatic to speak overmuch of a woman's age, and in the case of people who wrinkle far less than Caucasians it may be somewhat pointless in any case.
Given that this song is timeless, and her rendition quite as evocative as earlier versions by other artists, mention of years misses the context.

It is a very sweet song. Far too slow for Cantonese speakers.
And Mandarin, spoken with a good accent, can be lovely.


For people entirely unconnected with Chinese political ferment from a generation ago, the lyrics can be enjoyed for their own sake. But an echoing of classical themes never-the-less must suggest an exile both involuntary and sharply bitter. Note particularly in that regard the intense hues and the palm trees that the lyrics mention; powerful visual codes for the far-southern marches of antiquity.

You hear the song today. Automatically you think of Tang and Sung.
And scholars dismissed and sent away, to wither among the gibbons.





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