A SECOND SPRING BELONGS TO US

Years before I started watching Cantonese movies, I saw Mandarin-language films. There was something magical about the actors and actresses then, other-worldly.

Many of the movies showed a time and place long gone, entirely unrecoverable.

Yet seeing them on screen brought them briefly back to life.

Among the many talented performers, several names stand out.
One of them being Dong Pei-pei (董佩佩).

Think of a voice like melting honey.


好花不常開
Born in 1928 on the mainland, fled to Hong Kong in 1949. She became famous for songs such as 玫瑰良緣 ('the perfect match for the rose') and 第二春 ('second-time spring'). By the time of her death in 1976 or 1978 her star had faded, and her cause of death is not known.

She also sang in Suzhou dialect.
Not available on youtube.


Here's a song I had not heard before.

兩個世界－董佩佩，楊光


[SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GipAuJBbNIk.]

The next song is definitely typical of a different time and place; a simple romantic duet, with visuals which make clear that neither person is familiar with twerking or modern Hollywood style.


上山坡－董佩佩，楊光


[SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMw97oWrMmU.]


All of this came back because yesterday evening, while riding the bus home from Chinatown with fresh home-made wontons and a bag of yauchoi, I had the misfortune of sitting behind some young office-wallah with headphones. Remarkably cheap headphones. Many of the other passengers got to "enjoy" his musical taste, which, primarily, consisted of rap in which the 'F' word prominently featured.
F this, F that, effing F and F to the F.
Uncouth, and illiterate.


I'm sure that the popular songs of the forties and fifties also expressed the keenly felt frustrations of their audience. But those may have been much more civil frustrations.




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