Hacking the Good Days...
If there is only one track of song that you can choose as your favourite, what would that be?
There are many people who have asked this questions, and I was also told that it is almost impossible for any music lover to come up with only one. Incidentally I was chatting with Blackdown (who would be playing at Fabric this Sunday) about Chinese music, and how they incorporated Chinese Zither into their music, check out ‘the bits’. (love them btw, and tracks are available for purchase here)
Of course I have more than one favourite tracks, but the most symbolically important track of mine is probably liangzhu – ‘the Butterfly Lover’ [1],
The Butterfly Lovers or Liang Zhu is a Chinese legend about the tragic romance between two lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, from whom the name of the legend is known in Chinese (梁山伯與祝英台, pinyin: Liáng Shānbó yǔ Zhù Yīngtái, often abbreviated as “梁祝”, Liáng-Zhù). The legend is sometimes regarded as the Chinese equivalent to Romeo and Juliet.
I bag to differ that The Butterfly Lovers is equivalent to Romeo and Juliet per se – I’m sure the latter one has its own appeal, but The Butterfly Lovers is about how a young woman, being disguised by her family as a boy so that she could go to school, fell in love with a lower class young man. Not only it touches on gender and class, the struggle between being true to your heart or to your obligations, it also relates to the audience by gently revealing Chinese way of how love unfolds – very subtle but yet powerful – ultimately tragic, and supremely timeless.
It is in this context [2],
The legend had been adapted into traditional Chinese opera in several local varieties, as Liang Zhu in Yue opera (also called Shaoxing opera, not to be confused with Cantonese opera) and In the Shade of the Willow (柳蔭記, Liǔyìn Jì) in Sichuan opera. The Shaoxing opera version was made into a colour motion picture in the 1950s ([2]) in the PRC. The filming by the Ministry of Culture and the East China Military and Political Commission took place in Zhu’s legendary home town of Shangyu.
Thanks for Baidu search, the track can be downloaded here (25 minutes long).
What is this Chinese fascination about butterfly? Perhaps is only when we become butterfly, we are truly free?
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Cathy,
I also love this music, and whenever I listen to it it reminds me of the days I spent in Hangzhou. At one of the evenings I sat at the westIake and read a book about Chuang Tzu, I’m sure you know his famous parable:
“Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly, I awoke, and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming that I am now a man.”
U
You picked up the hidden message of this post – I’m a huge fan of ZhuangXi (well everyone seems to spell his name differently), and that’s what I meant by Chinese fascination about butterfly.
When we are not sure whether we are us dreaming of the butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming as a man, nothing becomes important or unbearable, isn’t it?
Thanks for the beautiful quote.
hoho, my fave too, cuz it’s the only piece I can play on my piano~~
You play piano? And belly dance?
You talented!