Millennium Concert of Legacy

It was a relaxing Saturday afternoon concert at the GuoGuang Opera House (國光劇場), featuring many talented performing artists on a typhoon day. Taiwan Music Center organized a free concert to music lovers and connoisseurs of the folk art of talking and singing in the past century in Taiwan.

The Millennium Concert of Legacy (傳唱千古情音樂會) was divided into three parts, Voice of Formosa(寶島之聲), Theatrical Music(戲曲音樂), and Innovation of Traditional Music(傳統元素新創作). Voice of Formosa includes Hakka singer of Lai Bi-shia, Taiwanese narrative singer of Yang Shiu-chin, and Lileh of Taiwan-Burun Tribe. Theatrical Music includes Nanguan, Beiguan, Bangzi Opera, Peking Opera, Taiwanese Opera.

As it was the first time for me to visit the GuoGuang Opera house, I arrived one hour in advance to get familiar with the surroundings. I visited the Taipei City Library Mucha branch and I bought two summer hats in the nearby market. Toastmaster Kate and I met for lunch at a cozy coffeehouse before the concert.

After the concert, Kate and I waited at the gate eagerly to send our regards to the performers. When Kate introduced Ms. Liao, Chun-chi, the Taiwanese Opera singer to us. At the age of 76, Ms. Liao looked elegant and poised. She has been devoted to the heritage of Taiwanese Opera since her retirement.

I grew up with Taiwanese opera and Peking opera on TV in my childhood. I watched Peking opera with my parents. I watched Taiwanese opera with my brothers and sisters. I couldn't wait to see Yang Li-hua (楊麗花) playing heroic man squashing evil and romatic man with the sweethearts in the love scenes.

Taiwan is a small island of many ethnic groups, Taiwanese, Mainlanders from all over China, Hakka, aboriginal people. The mix and match of languages and cultures provided a rich array of elements for artists to create their works of amazing voices and for people to enjoy the versatile and colorful lives.

Achieving Greatness Together

In order to break a leg at China Toastmasters Club's 26th Anniversary Party, golden ladies have been practicing cha cha diligently for the past week. This evening, we stood tall on stage, wowed the audience with our performance. In the admiring eyes of a full house of Toastmasters and friends, we won the reputation as the Taiwanese version of Spicy Girls.

To be honest, the reason why I was eager to attend China's 26th anniversary party was simply because of Toastmaster Jo Shih's authentic Indonesian cuisine for dinner. In addition, I could of course listen to the keynote speech of Toastmaster George Yen, the 2nd International Vice President; show support to Toastmaster Mike Yang, the incumbent D67 District Governor, and to cheer up the golden lady Toastmaster Trini Ding, the Master of the Installation Ceremony.

The cha cha dance was proposed by Toastmaster Irene Chen. It was a popular Thai song KOO GUD by Bird ThongChai McIntyre. The Grasshoppers from Hong Kong adapted the melody and made the Broken Hearts Club a hit in Taiwan two decades ago. Toastmaster Kate Hsu proposed we wore the fashionable outfits, long tees, leggings, big frame glasses and accessories. I made a few changes in movements, formation, position in our group dance of five golden ladies.

A joy shared was a joy doubled. During our cha cha performance, all toastmasters and friends from the floor stood up to support us by clapping hands to echo the rhythm of the music. It was a joyful moment of two minutes and fifty-three seconds. The group dancing not only burned the extra calories in our bodies, but it also increased the endophines and norepinephrines in our brains to make us feel good and positive about ourselves.

During the intermission, many toastmasters complimented our cool performance and the golden ladies Toastmasters spirit. Some toastmasters extended invitation to us to perform at their Toastmasters clubs activites. Toastmaster Michelle Liu was excited to accept all invitations for golden ladies to excell on STAGE. At our golden age, golden ladies need nothing, but stage to perpetuate our golden memories.

It is my hope that one day all Toastmasters clubs meetings in District 67 can reserve five minutes for dancing exercise before the first half of the meeting starts and after the second half meeting resumes. Ten minutes group dancing would lift up the Toastmasters spirit, facilitate the learning capacity, and strengthen the solidarity. In Toastmasters, we live for greatness. In Toastmasters, we achieve greatness together!

My Fair Lady

I didn't really know how excited Eliza Doolittle was when she spoke to the Edison cylinder phonograph at Professor Henry Higgins’s studio till today. I knew it now, because of the experiment with Edison cylinder phonograph at the Central Libray this afternoon, June 12th.

After I sent the mp3 of my voice on an antique Edison cylinder phonograph to golden ladies toastmasters, Toastmaster Trini Ding wrote, "Principal Lin said you are the most courageous one. He didn't know that you are an adventurous person. It reminds me of the movie "My fair Lady". The sound effect is awesome. You sang very well. I believe all the audience was impressed."

At 1:30PM, I visited the exhibition of Retrospective of Studies on Taiwanese Traditional Music at the Central Library. When I saw the antique phonograph and listened to the Viennese waltz, I felt like dancing. At 1:50PM, I walked into the lecture hall, I was amazed at many antique phonographs and hundreds of phonograph records displayed on the table, including the first record of Enrico Caruso a century ago.

Being a historian, Pincipal Lin of Kan Nan High School of Commerce and Indsutry was passionate about his collections of phonographs and records. He talked about the joy whenever he listend to the old records of different times. He brought back the people in the history to life from the records. After he demonstrated the voice representation by antique phonograph, he asked for volunteers from the floor, I raised up my hand without hesitation! How would I miss the once-in-a-lifetime chance?

Due to the length of the waxed cyclinder, Principal told me to experiment for no more than one minute. I thought about O Sole Mio in Italian at first, but I decided to sing Mei Lanfang's most popular Peking opera Susan Under Arrest. It was an exciting experience singing Peking opera to a funnel, I could listen to the echo of my voice as I moved my head closer to the funnel.

【流水】
蘇三離了洪桐縣
將身來在大街前
未曾開言我心內慘
過往的君子聽我言
哪一位去往南京轉
與我那三郎把信傳
言說蘇三把命斷
來生變犬馬我當報還

It was a perfect experiment. I finished the recording in one minute and won a big round of applause from the floor. When Principal Lin played the record, I felt like being transcended to the old Shanghai city in the early 20th century. Only I wish I could have sung better, when Principal Lin told me that he would save the record!

When I got home, my husband read the mp3 of my voice on Goldwave, some waves were beyond the upper limite. He suggested that I should keep a distance from the funnel to have the best acoustic effect. Now I need to do some research on sound wave in physics 101 to calculate the distance.

Of course, I was most thrilled to ask Toastmaster Kate Hsu if I could apply for the apprenticeship with Master Baojiu Mei, the song of Mei Langfan. Toastmaster Kate Hsu complimented that my singing of Chinese Opera was improved. She was happy to see more friends help promote the Chinese opera.

I'm determined to improve my singing skills of Peking opera. I look forward to another chance to document my voice on Edison cylinder phonograph in the future. I'm sure I shall do better next time, only if there is a next time! Who knows, maybe golden ladies can produce a musical play of "My Fair Lady" with an authentic phonograph in the future! It's going to be very challenging to learn the English dialects, though!