Teresa Teng observation: Sad Songs and Chinese

Below is an excerpt from my email with a friend...


Hmmm, the more I contemplate about what you said (Teresa Teng's songs being sad), the more I realize:

Absolutely!


Back then, a few generations or thousands of years ago, the lyrics did convey the Chinese women's latent emotion:

1. Trapped in a loveless situation (often not their choice marriage), they long to get out. So they rely on songs to feel someone truly "gets them". The sorrows of often being "alone", worrying about how things would improve, love ones' return... and the price of fruits and vegetables, in-laws, what's on TV...


2. Before they were married off to elevate the family social status, they might have someone whom they truly love. But they cannot say anything in their presence, except pretending nothing is wrong (watch An Affair to Remember by Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr sometime; lots of tissues, cry baby, happy ending though--one of the most romantic movies ever made, remade, referred to, by Sleepless in Seattle). But these women have to subtly wonder aloud, "When would you return?"

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1xvny_teresa-teng-live-in-japan-acapella_music

(wait 40 seconds after she thanks everyone alive, and with the last name Chan--that's 500 million people, she begins singing "unplugged"; very common in Chinese singing--to best feel that purity, all naturalle. Also note she ends her dialogue with a very quick and soft "Xie Xie", Thanks, right before starting her first line, acknowledging the pre-applause.). It's like Juliet Roberts thanking Richard Gere first, before their first real date--outcome irrelevant, in Pretty Woman. Sweet!

That is the He Ri Jun Zai Lai (when day gentle-person again return?) that we talked about. (Bonus material: This is her signature song to thank the Taiwanese troops, fighting Chinese communinists. Her 2nd given name, by chance, is also "Jun", Teng Li Jun, hence creating the parallel that the troops asking her back, "when would you come back to see us again, Jun?". She is the epitome of all these young men' loved girls at home..)


Long story short: Asian women were deprived, and relegated to songs, teas, and Mahjong to contemplate their plights.


And men? They were just pissed off being trapped at an unfulfilling unsatisfied job, like building the Great Wall, where they can die any time and become the wall--that wild animals can pee on, for thousands of years.

It's good to be the Emperor! 1 billion pissed off people! And hence 5,000 years of civil revolutions... So so, SAD!


Oh, as you fall asleep, or when you wake up from all these useless info, my Teresa Teng 101 lecture is held every Wed night, in a movie theatre in Paris, likely a noodle place. Come back again!


Speaking of which, I do long to see you again (cue Teresa's sad music), but I don't dare to ask you so blatantly. It's also kind of weird--since I am the one leaving. But I am so trapped in this loveless tourist jungle by Abbesses metro, where I am making happy, all these strangers around me, who don't even understand me... Or those Spaniards, or Italians...

So please (I am thinking aloud to the crescent moon, at night, alone in this high tower), do let me know when you would have a break to meet again, in Paris, or Milan. Then I can stop hearing these sappy Teresa Teng songs, and my iPod is not even on!