Monday, February 06, 2023

IT'S GETTING UP ROSES

Because I bought my alarm clock in Chinatown, it was probably inevitable that one of the tunes it starts playing at the set time is 'Rose, rose, I love you'. Which was a cheerful song made popular in Hong Kong during the forties, sung by Yao Lee (姚莉). In Mandarin. The clock plays an electronic instrumental version.
玫瑰玫瑰我愛你


It was used in the movie "The World of Suzie Wong". Which I have never watched. A white man meets an Asian flower and somehow finds redemption while being a white knight. That's not a theme that counts for much for me. A better theme would be "white man learns to cuss from his perky Cantonese American accountant. Who keeps the dumb bastard from being thrown in jail for clumsy white collar crimes".

Or: Chinese American woman refuses to go out for coffee with sexually frustrated aspiring punk rock musician. They part ways and never see each other again.
He finally gets therapy, she lives happily ever after.
The end.

Cantonese girl in San Francisco starts ultimately successful business.
Snappy Caucasian car salesman sells her a BMW.
Both of them have pet dogs.

The wonderful world of Wikipedia eventual brings up, persuant thereto, the television series Hong Kong.

This passage stands out:
Hong Kong was set in the then British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. Taylor portrayed Glenn Evans, a U.S. journalist who worked in the exotic Far Eastern city. His search for stories led him into encounters with smugglers, murderers, drug peddlers, and mysterious women who would disappear behind beaded curtains.
End quote.

Aha! I'll go out on a limb here and say that crap like this may account for the popularity of beaded curtains in the old days. People were desperate for mysterious women!

Or, for the distaff side, mysterious men. Perky young fellows like William Holden, gaily singing about roses. In a mysterious way.

I do not possess a beaded curtain.
In case were you wondering.
I am self-contained.

Roses.



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