SILENCE IS GOLDEN

There are times when one wonders whether Andy Lau (劉德華 'lau tak waa') has lost his marbles. If he ever had any. Make no mistake, the man is a star performer, but his artistic judgement is seriously fragile, such as in the return concert where he had scantily-clad girlie poos dancing all jumpy and jiggly-wiggly with giant lollipops on stage, in the song "stupid boy' (笨小孩 'pan siu hoi').
As "art", it stank. As entertainment it hurt the eyes.
His audience was rapt with adoration.

The problem with karaoke is that when no one is singing, strange shiznit shows up on screen. Andy Lau is responsible for some almighty strange shiznit, and could be called the master of the genre.
The song where his back-up dancers are sex-gargoyles, or the atomic fat boy white doll performance, are truly bizarre stage numbers.


沉默是金
Cham Mak Si Kam

When the four young fellows left, I asked Jenny to put on Leslie Cheung (張國榮 'jeung gwok wing') instead. A remarkable actor, a good singer, and the kind of man one would like to know, or like to be.


Here is Leslie Cheung with Sam Hui (許冠傑 'heui gun git') in one of their best known duets. It's a rather beautiful piece.

張國榮，許冠傑 — 沉默是金

[Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGAyrHQR9lg.]

Leslie died in 2003. As Jenny at the bar said, a very handsome man. Boyish, sweet looking, memorable. Truly an actor everybody loved.


The lyrics to the song, written by Sam Hui, are below.


沉默是金

夜風凜凜  獨回望舊事前塵
是以往的我  充滿怒憤
誣告與指責  積壓著滿肚氣不憤
對謠言反應  甚為著緊

受了教訓 得了書經的指引
現已看得透  不再自困
但覺有分數  不再像以往那般笨
抹淚痕輕快笑著行

冥冥中都早註定你富或貧
是錯永不對  真永是真
任你怎說  安守我本份
始終相信 沈默係金

是非有公理 慎言莫冒犯別人
遇上冷風雨  休太認真
自信滿心裡  休理會諷刺與質問
笑罵由人  灑脫地做人

[repeat stanzas two, three, four.]

少年人  灑脫地做人
繼續行  灑脫地做人


The song, by the way, is from 1988.
It was a hit in that year.
Deservedly.



Note: The astute reader will have noticed that the first character of the name of the song is different above the video from what's shown in the video as the title. 沉 ('cham') versus 沈 ('cham'). Same number of strokes, same pronunciation, and almost exactly the same meaning.
So it's not an important distinction.




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