That's All Folks — Zai Jian!

From the 1968 Cathay film Song of Our Family (extant but not available on DVD)

It's not without teary eyes that I announce the end of this blog. The past two and a half years have been full of discovery and gratification. But it's time for me to move on to other domains.

I'd like to give a big thanks to all of my friends and readers. Your comments and messages definitely kept me going during my moments of fatigue.

I have several unfinished posts that I'm determined to complete before I totally exit the Web, so keep an eye out for them sometime in the coming months of 2011.

Best wishes to all of you for a fruitful new year — whatever that might be!

Now let me bid adieu with a lilting island tune by Chang Loo from the 1956 film Who Isn't Romantic, directed by the late Wong Tin Lam and starring Soft Film favorita Chung Ching and veteran actor Kenneth Tsang in one of his first roles.

"Hu-La-La-Yi" ((LISTEN))

Chang Loo (1932-2009): Rest in Peace

I just learned over the weekend that Hong Kong singer Chang Loo recently passed away. A vivacious performer, she was always pushing the boundaries of Chinese popular music with her interpretations of the latest sounds from around the world (from Hank Williams and Patsy Cline to Japanese enka and Hawaiian hula).

In tribute to her remarkable career, here is her 1963 song 打魚忙 ("Busy Fishing"?), which — if my own babelfishing is to be trusted — was based on a 1960 song by Nikkatsu action star and enka singer Kobayashi Akira that was in turn based on a traditional Hokkaido fishing song.

"Jambalaya" by Chang Loo

Chang Loo, circa 1950s
(from The Age of Shanghainese Pops: 1930-1970)

Chinese pop music has always developed hand in hand with Chinese cinema, so I hope you don't mind if I occasionally indulge in a musical tangent or two. Recently I was listening to a Chang Loo CD that I picked up a few years ago and was really digging her song "小癩痳" (sorry, I don't know the English translation). The back of the CD case indicated that it was a cover version of "Jambalaya". Now, I'd eaten the dish before when I was in New Orleans, but I'd never heard the song. So, I was surprised to discover that it was a big hit in the early 1950s, originally recorded by none other than Hank Williams, and has been extensively covered throughout the years by artists ranging from Brenda Lee to The Carpenters.

There couldn't have been a Chinese singer more appropriate than Chang Loo to record this "creole" song. Influenced by Hawaiian, Japanese, Latin, and Western styles, Chang Loo epitomized the global vogue for all things cosmopolitan. According to an interview excerpted in The Age of Shanghainese Pops, it was Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda who inspired her to take up singing.

At 15 and 16 I was in Shanghai and had just left school. I liked music and in movies I happened to come across Carmen Miranda, a Brazilian singer - definitely the wild kind. In Shanghai we rarely had fruits, but she had fruits on her hat, a really big hat (with all those fruits). And the way she swung and wriggled, with very little clothes on. That kind of tropical allure, (as I watched) I just thought she was a goddess, and wanted to see more of it. She gave me a lot of inspiration, and it was then that I felt that foreign people were so open, so energetic. It made me feel that singing was a very enjoyable thing.

Without further ado, here is Chang Loo cooking up some tasty jambalaya, Hong Kong-style.

小癩痳 ("Jambalaya") by Chang Loo
(play song)

References
The Age of Shanghainese Pops: 1930-1970 by Wong Kee Chee