Zhou Xuan

lately i'd been taken w/ the music of two chinese singers from the 40s w/out ever actually hearing their voices (thanks to gary lucas's cd "the edge of heaven". . . worth checking out). this evening my brother and i trekked through the blizzard into chinatown in search of any cds by Zhou Xuan or Bai Guang. i needed andy's fluent mandarin to explain exactly what i was looking for, because i couldn't count on clerks recognizing the englishized version of these singers' names. the first place we found was just closing and didn't have anything. but the second place, pnm music, at the corner of elizabeth and bayard had both. success! i'm listening to them right now and dancing around a bit. the arrangements are for small orchestras, and a lot of them were originally featured in films. the melodies are slightly westernized, but of course i can't understand what they're singing about, and there's not a trace of english on the cd sleeve. the voices are beautiful.

here's a bit of information i found concerning Zhou Xuan:

Chow Hsuan,She is a most famous and greatest
singer and actress in China!

She was born in 1918 at the province of Jiangsu.
When she was child,she was adopted Chow's family.
cause,her true parent was very poor.
And she moved to Shanghai .When she was 12years
old,she was into small music school .and 1931,She
entered one of the big music and theatrical company
call "Bright Moon company".that made by famous
composer who' name Li Jin Hui.
After that she sung at radio,and made up one of ten
famous singer in Shanghai.and she called "Golden Voice"
1937,she played the leading part of the movie "Street
Angel" and promptly made up top actress.
Every audience took prisoner by her voice and acting.
She played many movies and released many records.
All of that are hit.In her life she play over 30 movies
and sing over 200 songs. Always she was a top star.
Next her golden year was late of 40's.
She appeared 5 or more movies and released many
new hit songs!
Someone said that time's her is not good.But I think
that is mistake.the latter half of 40's.She play with
happy feeling and everybody saw her and happy!
But her private life was not necessarily happy.
Divorce two times, mentally sick. and much more
suffering.But every fan loved her always.
and unfortunately, she die 1957 in Shanghai!

But I think that was happy for her.
Why?cause that after few years, hard years came to CHINA.Maybe little red armis put the guilt her
.If she was in a financial crisis...
Of course death is sad, but when she die she believe New morning has come...
but in fact...so I think this kind of things.
sorry