Shanghai Girls

I'm getting excited about the coming concert of Chinese classic songs at Cardinal Tien Hospital in Hsin-tien Wednesday morning, January 11th. Why is that? I'm one of the singers and I'm the person in charge of the whole event, from arranging the program to making the accompanying powerpoint presentation.

Starting from August last year, I began the weekly singing class at Lady of Providence Community College in Hsin-tien Thursday afternoons. For the past three months, I was eager to attend the three hours class to listen to Professor Wu's beautiful voice interpreting classic Chinese songs, I had a great time listening to Professor Wu talking about the best old times of the music and entertaining world in Shanghai--the Paris in the Orient.

The moment I saw "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See on the book shelf of new arrivals at Taipei Library, I couldn't wait to borrow it to leaf through the entire book to know more about the old and mysterious Shanghai. Shanghai Girls takes place between 1937 and 1957. The era belongs to my mother!

I was amazed at Lisa's broad and extenstive knowledge and research work about the Chinese tradition, life, culture, and languages. I like Shanghai Girls for another reason, Lisa used the Wade-Giles system of transliteration for Chinese words in Shanghai Girls, which is more familar than Pinying to people in Taiwan, to baby boomers of my age (born in 1955) in Taiwan, to be exact.

The dress rehearsal was a success this afternoon. All participants took turns to sing on stage. Every singer was lifted up to break a leg at the New Year Concert at Cardial Tien Hospital in Hsin-tien Wednesday morning. Just come join us to have fun!