Prince of Broadcasters

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Prince of Broadcasters Cultural Dynamics and Ethics in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong Xiaojue Wang Rutgers University Voice of the Chinese Dream in post-pandemic popular culture Voices through the Years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYC1cgutMSM In the Mood for Love Dir. Wong Kar-wai, 2000 In the Mood for Love Mr. Chan requests Zhou Xuan’s ”Blooming Years” on the radio for his wife on her birthday. Clip: radio music show https://youtu.be/9E1SkCF-wrU Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) Zhou Xuan (1920-1957) Wong Kar-wai “Postwar Hong Kong was an era of radio.” Interview in Southern Metropolis Daily (Nanfang dushibao), 2002. Radio Hong Kong Radio Rediffusion In 1949, Radio Rediffusion (RDF) was launched in Hong Kong as a branch station of British Rediffusion broadcasting company Hong Kong Comme rcial Radio In 1959, Hong Kong Commercial Radio (CRHK) began broadcasting Vacuum tube radio set 1950s, Hong Kong news, current affairs, “sky fiction” (airwaves novels), radio drama, and a variety of music programs Radio Rediffusion (RDF) in Singapore 3688 Royston Tan, 2015 Radio Rediffusion Singapore Lee Dai Soh (1913-1989) popular Singapore storyteller Li Wo and the sky fiction May Flowe rs in the Rain directed Qin Jian, 1960 November 27, 1956 Rediffusion Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang 1920-1995) grew up in the Shanghai International Settlement attended Hong Kong University in early 1940s contributed to Shanghai English language journals (The Twentieth Century), writing film reviews moved from the mainland to Hong Kong in 1952 moved to the US in 1955 and lived a reclusive life, until her death in 1995 Romances 1944 Written on water 1944 “the best and most important writer in Chinese today” C. T .Hsia, A His to ry of Mode rn Chine s e Fiction 1917–1957 (Indiana University Press; Third edition, 1999) Long Live the Missis 1947 Father Takes a Bride 1963 The Greatest Wedding on Earth,1962 dir. Wang Tianlin; scree nwrite r, Eilee n Chang The Greatest Wedding on Earth,1962 Listening to the radio show Peiming working at the typewriter mother vs. radio as the mediator Peiming on the phone Radio, Media, Cultural Dynamics.
Recommended publications
  • Electric Shadows PK
    ELECTRIC SHADOWS A Film by Xiao Jiang 95 Minutes, Color, 2004 35mm, 1:1.85, Dolby SR In Mandarin w/English Subtitles FIRST RUN FEATURES The Film Center Building 630 Ninth Ave. #1213 New York, NY 10036 (212) 243-0600 Fax (212) 989-7649 Website: www.firstrunfeatures.com Email: [email protected] ELECTRIC SHADOWS A film by Xiao Jiang Short Synopsis: From one of China's newest voices in cinema and new wave of young female directors comes this charming and heartwarming tale of a small town cinema and the lifelong influence it had on a young boy and young girl who grew up with the big screen in that small town...and years later meet by chance under unusual circumstances in Beijing. Long Synopsis: Beijing, present. Mao Dabing (‘Great Soldier’ Mao) has a job delivering bottled water but lives for his nights at the movies. One sunny evening after work he’s racing to the movie theatre on his bike when he crashes into a pile of bricks in an alleyway. As he’s picking himself up, a young woman who saw the incident picks up a brick and hits him on the head... He awakens in the hospital with his head bandaged. The police tell him that he’s lost his job, and that his ex-boss expects him to pay for the wrecked bicycle. By chance he sees the young woman who hit him and angrily remonstrates with her. But she seems not to hear him, and hands him her apartment keys and a note asking him to feed her fish.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    introduction The disembodied voices of bygone songstresses course through the soundscapes of many recent Chinese films that evoke the cultural past. In a mode of retro- spection, these films pay tribute to a figure who, although rarely encountered today, once loomed large in the visual and acoustic spaces of popu lar music and cinema. The audience is invited to remember the familiar voices and tunes that circulated in these erstwhile spaces. For instance, in a film by the Hong Kong director Wong Kar- wai set in the 1960s, In the Mood for Love, a traveling businessman dedicates a song on the radio to his wife on her birthday.1 Along with the wife we listen to “Hua yang de nianhua” (“The Blooming Years”), crooned by Zhou Xuan, one of China’s most beloved singers of pop music. The song was originally featured in a Hong Kong production of 1947, All- Consuming Love, which cast Zhou in the role of a self- sacrificing songstress.2 Set in Shang- hai during the years of the Japa nese occupation, the story of All- Consuming Love centers on the plight of Zhou’s character, who is forced to obtain a job as a nightclub singer to support herself and her enfeebled mother-in- law after her husband leaves home to join the resis tance. “The Blooming Years” refers to these recent politi cal events in a tone of wistful regret, expressing the home- sickness of the exile who yearns for the best years of her life: “Suddenly this orphan island is overshadowed by miseries and sorrows, miseries and sorrows; ah, my lovely country, when can I run into your arms again?”3
    [Show full text]
  • A Transcultural Musical Genreâ•Žs Role in Heterogeneous Community
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Wellesley College Wellesley College Wellesley College Digital Scholarship and Archive Student Library Research Awards Archives 2014 Yellow Music: A Transcultural Musical Genre’s Role in Heterogeneous Community Unification Anita Li Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.wellesley.edu/library_awards Recommended Citation Li, Anita, "Yellow Music: A Transcultural Musical Genre’s Role in Heterogeneous Community Unification" (2014). Student Library Research Awards. Paper 6. http://repository.wellesley.edu/library_awards/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Archives at Wellesley College Digital Scholarship and Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Library Research Awards by an authorized administrator of Wellesley College Digital Scholarship and Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Yellow Music: A Transcultural Musical Genre’s Role in Heterogeneous Community Unification Anita Li Music 225-Global Pop, Professor Tamar Barzel Wellesley College May, 2013 Note: The author would like to thank Professor Barzel for helping her throughout the semester through office hour meetings and detailed assignment comments. Yellow Music Anita Li As the earliest form of contemporary Chinese popular music, yellow music was a hybrid musical genre of American jazz, Hollywood film music, and Chinese folk music. Originated in Shanghai, China in the late 1920s, it instigated the golden Chinese Jazz age during the pre- communism interwar period. Yellow music was one of the most evocative music genre in the country’s history, but was rarely studied by music scholars. At the time, the genre was criticized by the republic government and nationalists as “decadent sounds” that were associated with pornography and were “capable of seducing citizens away from the pressing tasks of nation- building and anti-imperialist resistance” (Jones 2001, p.8).
    [Show full text]
  • Teresa Teng by David B
    Asian Visual and Performing Arts, Part I Prodigy of Taiwan, Diva of Asia: Teresa Teng By David B. gordon Teresa Teng in a late-1970s photoshoot in Japan, where her “cuteness” was especially central to her image. Source: http://tiny.cc/khuwk. eresa Teng (1953–1995) is the best-known and most beloved singer music—the backup orchestrations in particular will seem dated to many— in the history of modern East Asia. Born on the island of Taiwan the encounter with her and her fans’ emotions can provide them with a fresh, soon after it became the seat of the anti-Communist Republic of vital angle on a period that directly shaped the East Asia of today. TChina (ROC), Teresa quickly emerged as a Mandarin pop sensation among overseas Chinese. In her early twenties, she proceeded to take Japan MODEST ORIGINS Teresa Teng was born into a “mainlander” family by storm as a surpassing singer of pensive Japanese ballads. By the end of the in Taiwan in 1953. This means that her parents hailed from mainland China, 1970s, in turn, her fame had spread far into the People’s Republic of China which until 1949 had been ruled by the Nationalist Party. Teresa’s father, (PRC), where her careful renderings of ‘30s Shanghai classics made her a Deng Xuwei, had been a military officer for the Nationalist regime, fleeing to symbol of their society’s movement away from Cultural Revolution-era rad- Taiwan with his family when that regime collapsed on the mainland. By the icalism and toward an appreciation of everyday pleasures for tens of millions time Teresa was born, Taiwan had spent several years as a remote outpost of of Chinese.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Xu Xu's Ghost Love and Its Three Film Adaptations THESIS
    Allegories and Appropriations of the ―Ghost‖: A Study of Xu Xu‘s Ghost Love and Its Three Film Adaptations THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Qin Chen Graduate Program in East Asian Languages and Literatures The Ohio State University 2010 Master's Examination Committee: Kirk Denton, Advisor Patricia Sieber Copyright by Qin Chen 2010 Abstract This thesis is a comparative study of Xu Xu‘s (1908-1980) novella Ghost Love (1937) and three film adaptations made in 1941, 1956 and 1995. As one of the most popular writers during the Republican period, Xu Xu is famous for fiction characterized by a cosmopolitan atmosphere, exoticism, and recounting fantastic encounters. Ghost Love, his first well-known work, presents the traditional narrative of ―a man encountering a female ghost,‖ but also embodies serious psychological, philosophical, and even political meanings. The approach applied to this thesis is semiotic and focuses on how each text reflects the particular reality and ethos of its time. In other words, in analyzing how Xu‘s original text and the three film adaptations present the same ―ghost story,‖ as well as different allegories hidden behind their appropriations of the image of the ―ghost,‖ the thesis seeks to broaden our understanding of the history, society, and culture of some eventful periods in twentieth-century China—prewar Shanghai (Chapter 1), wartime Shanghai (Chapter 2), post-war Hong Kong (Chapter 3) and post-Mao mainland (Chapter 4). ii Dedication To my parents and my husband, Zhang Boying iii Acknowledgments This thesis owes a good deal to the DEALL teachers and mentors who have taught and helped me during the past two years at The Ohio State University, particularly my advisor, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Accordion in Twentieth-Century China A
    AN UNTOLD STORY: THE ACCORDION IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MUSIC AUGUST 2004 By Yin YeeKwan Thesis Committee: Frederick Lau, Chairperson Ricardo D. Trimillos Fred Blake ©Copyright2004 by YinYeeKwan iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My 2002 and 2003 fieldwork in the People's Republic ofChina was funded by The Arts and Sciences Grant from the University ofHawai'i at Manoa (UHM). I am grateful for the generous support. I am also greatly indebted to the accordionists and others I interviewed during this past year in Hong Kong, China, Phoenix City, and Hawai'i: Christie Adams, Chau Puyin, Carmel Lee Kama, 1 Lee Chee Wah, Li Cong, Ren Shirong, Sito Chaohan, Shi Zhenming, Tian Liantao, Wang Biyun, Wang Shusheng, Wang Xiaoping, Yang Wentao, Zhang Gaoping, and Zhang Ziqiang. Their help made it possible to finish this thesis. The directors ofthe accordion factories in China, Wang Tongfang and Wu Rende, also provided significant help. Writing a thesis is not the work ofonly one person. Without the help offriends during the past years, I could not have obtained those materials that were invaluable for writings ofthis thesis. I would like to acknowledge their help here: Chen Linqun, Chen Yingshi, Cheng Wai Tao, Luo Minghui, Wong Chi Chiu, Wang Jianxin, Yang Minkang, and Zhang Zhentao. Two others, Lee Chinghuei and Kaoru provided me with accordion materials from Japan. I am grateful for the guidance and advice ofmy committee members: Professors Frederick Lau, Ricardo D.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Musicals
    Singing in Electric Shadows: A Survey of Chinese Musicals © Shaoyi Sun & Chuan Shi (The original article was published in Roger Garcia ed. Asia Sings! A Survey of Asian Musical Films . Udine: Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche, 2006) The art of telling stories and expressing emotions through songs and dances in China dates back at least to three millennia ago when the last king of the Shang dynasty (1766-1050 BC), according to Chinese historical documents, indulged in an excessive lifestyle in which music, dance, and wine drinking played a crucial role. Despite this long tradition, the birth of the so-called “musical film” in China, a new performing art that has its roots in Broadway musicals and takes shape with the release of Warner Brothers’ The Jazz Singer in 1927, can only be arguably traced back to 1935, when director Yuan Muzhi (1909-1978) experimented the genre with his film Metropolitan Sights (Dushi fengguang). Furthermore, the Chinese musical, if there is such a term, differs greatly from the Hollywood musical, at least in its early stage. First of all, if excluding films recording Peking operas and various kinds of local operas (a handy example would be The Dingjun Mountain [ Dingjun shan , 1905], attributed as the first film China has ever made), referred to as “Xiqupian” (films based on Chinese operas) in Chinese, it is quite hard to identify an early Chinese film that fits the definition of the Hollywood musical with the characteristics of “all-talking, all-singing, and all-dancing.” Early Chinese “musicals” are marked by interpolated songs, but with little dancing sequences.
    [Show full text]
  • Counterfeiting China: Japanese Orientalist Pop Songs, 1931-1945
    Counterfeiting China: Japanese Orientalist Pop Songs, 1931-1945 Michael K. Bourdaghs (East Asian Languages & Civilizations) EthNoise! Workshop ROUGH WORKING DRAFT: NOT FOR CITATION OR CIRCULATION Li Xianglan or Ri Kōran (Yamaguchi Yoshiko), the Japanese singer/actress who infamously “passed” for Chinese in wartime mass culture, is perhaps best remembered for her role in the 1940 film, Shina no yoru (China nights). Her embodiment in that movie and others of Japanese fantasies about the ideal Chinese woman render her into a fascinating case study of Asian-originated forms of mass-culture Orientalism, one that helped produce the structure of feelings needed to support Japanese expansionism during the 1930s and 40s. Desires that could not be summoned up domestically could still be solicited via her supposed foreignness. As an early review of the film noted, its hackneyed plot sustained interest only because of the exotic setting. “For example, if the sailors’ hotel in Shanghai or the Manchurian location shots were replaced by a Tokyo apartment or Inogashira Park [in suburban Tokyo], it would be so puerile we couldn’t bear to watch it.”1 At the same time, the film presented the fantasy of a China that desired Japan. As Yiman Wang has argued, Ri Kōran’s act of passing “conjoined Japan’s pan-Asian entertainment and imperialism,” thereby playing “a crucial role in the 1 Review of “Shina no Yoru,” Kinema Junpō 721 (11 July 1940), 57. All translations of Japanese-language materials here are my own, except where otherwise noted. Asian personal names are given with family name first, personal name(s) second.
    [Show full text]
  • An Introduction to Cantonpop
    An Introduction to Cantonese Pops (Updated version) Dr Helan Yang (Learning and teaching materials for teachers’ reference) Teachers may make reference to the book “Reading Cantonese Songs: The Voice of Hong Kong Through Vicissitudes”《粵語歌曲解讀:蛻變中的香港聲音》 written by Yu Siu Wah and Helan Yang Historical Overview The Origin of Cantonese Pops It is commonly held that Cantonese Pops (known as Cantopop1) emerged in the 50’s, but it is more likely that Cantonese songs with newly composed tunes and lyrics had already come into existence in Hong Kong as early as the 30’s. For example, the song《壽仔去拍 拖》with Cantonese lyrics intercalated with English words featured in an album released by New Moon Records Ltd (新月唱片) in 1930 was already emblematic of Hong Kong culture. The strophic structure of the lyrics and its reflection on life’s reality are similar to that of the ‘Humorous Songs’ (諧趣歌曲) of the 50’s and 60’s. According to Lu Kam (魯金), an expert on Hong Kong folk heritage, the two songs “Sleep Well My Baby”《兒安眠》and “The Miss Who Couldn’t Care Less”《風流小姐》featured in the singer Li Qi Nian’s (李綺 年) album released by New Moon Records in 1935 have new tunes and new lyrics, and can be regarded as the predecessor of Cantonese Pops. The early Cantonese Pops did not have a uniformed nomenclature. The Cantonese albums of the 50’s were released under the various names of ‘Dancing Songs’ (跳舞歌曲), ‘Dancing Cantonese Operatic Songs’ (跳舞粵曲), ‘Cantonese Modern Songs’ (粵語時代 曲), ‘Cantonese Ditties’ (粵語小曲) and ‘Modern Cantonese Operatic Songs’ (時代粵曲).
    [Show full text]
  • Hong Kong Cantopop
    Hong Kong Cantopop A Concise History Yiu-Wai Chu Hong Kong University Press The University of Hong Kong Pokfulam Road Hong Kong www.hkupress.org © 2017 Hong Kong University Press ISBN 978-988-8390-57-1 (Hardback) ISBN 978-988-8390-58-8 (Paperback) All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed and bound by Hang Tai Printing Co., Ltd. in Hong Kong, China Contents Acknowledgments viii A Note on Romanization x Chapter One Introduction 1 Chapter Two Days of Being Marginalized: The 1950s to the Early 1970s 21 Chapter Three The Rise of Cantopop: The Mid- to Late 1970s 40 Chapter Four An Age of Glory: The 1980s 69 Chapter Five The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: The 1990s 105 Chapter Six After the Fall: The New Millennium 145 Chapter Seven Epilogue: Cantopop in the Age of China 184 Appendix Chronology of Major Events 197 Selected Bibliography 218 Index 226 1 Introduction “Every generation has its own voice,” claimed James Wong 黃霑, the late god- father of Cantopop, in his doctoral thesis on the development of Cantopop.1 The English term “Cantopop”—Cantonese popular songs—did not come into existence until the 1970s, when Billboard correspondent Hans Ebert used it “to describe the locally produced popular music in Hong Kong” in 1978.2 Per James Wong’s remark—which was adapted from the well-known saying of the Qing dynasty master of Chinese culture, Wang Guowei 王國維: “Every dynasty has its own representative form of literature”3 —Cantopop is a musical form from and the voice of contemporary Hong Kong.
    [Show full text]
  • Cinematic Hong Kong of Wong Kar-Wai
    CINEMATIC HONG KONG OF WONG KAR-WAI by HAIHONG LI ABSTRACT In order to promote an understanding of the centrality of space and the intimate relationship between space and identity in Wong Kar-wai’s films, this dissertation examines the director’s construction of cinematic space and the characters’ sense of who they are in relation to Hong Kong in his six films Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, 2046, As Tears Go by, Chungking Express, and Fallen Angels. The investigation of Wong’s use of cinematic space involves the analysis of his selection of location and strategic employment of the mise-en-scène, camera angles, lenses, lighting, and music, which constitute his fictional world. It is my assertion that Wong’s construction of Hong Kong in these films responds to the formation and transformation of identity and showcases the impact of colonialism, modernization, decolonization, globalization, and postmodern culture upon the lives of Hong Kong inhabitants. INDEX WORDS: Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, Cinematic space, Identity CINEMATIC HONG KONG OF WONG KAR-WAI by HAIHONG LI B.A., Fu Zhou University, China, 2000 M.A., Truman State University, 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2012 © 2012 Haihong Li All Rights Reserved CINEMATIC HONG KONG OF WONG KAR-WAI by HAIHONG LI Major Professor: Hyangsoon Yi Committee: Richard Neupert Ronald Bogue Masaki Mori Karim Traore Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Hyangsoon Yi, who helped me develop research skills and understanding of the subject during the completion of the project.
    [Show full text]
  • M. Vr / 6 CHINESE LEFTIST URBAN FILMS of the 1930S THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texa
    37? mi m. vr/6 CHINESE LEFTIST URBAN FILMS OF THE 1930s THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Xin He, B. A. Denton, Texas August, 1998 He, Xin., Chinese Leftist Urban Films of the 1930s. Master of Arts (Radio, TV, and Film), August 1998,91 pp., works cited, 24 titles. This thesis explores the films produced by leftist filmmakers of the 1930s which reflect the contemporary urban life in Shanghai. The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter I introduces the historical and cu tural background from which the leftist urban film movement emerged, together with a brief summary of Chinese cinema history before 1930. Chapter II discusses the factors that triggered the leftist film movement - why individual dramatists and the film producers chose this style under the influence of leftist ideology. Chapter HI discusses the themes and characteristics of leftist films. Chapter IV analyzes two representative films, Crossroads and Street Angel. A summary chapter explores the possible legacy of leftist films of the 1930s for present-day Chinese cinema. 37? mi m. vr/6 CHINESE LEFTIST URBAN FILMS OF THE 1930s THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Xin He, B. A. Denton, Texas August, 1998 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter I. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 1 Significance of study Related literature Historical background Cultural background Brief history of Chinese cinema before 1930 II.
    [Show full text]