Thursday, November 12, 2015

[Music] Roman Tam -- Wandering Merrily in the World

Poster for The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung (1984)



 Barbara Yung


1. Chinese Quotation of the Day:


曹植 (192 - 232 CE)


<< 蟬賦 >> (節錄)

實澹泊而寡欲兮,獨怡樂而長吟。

聲皦皦而彌厲兮,似貞士之介心。


2. Wandering Merrily in the World ("笑踏河山") is the theme song of the 1984 Hong Kong TVB television drama The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung ("楚留香之蝙蝠傳奇").

"Chor Lau Heung" is the name of a fictional character in the martial art novels by the author Gu Long (1938 - 1985).

According to Wikipedia, there are 8 novels by Gu Long with Chor Lau Heung as the main character.

I have read all the novels by Gu Long including these eight -- mostly while I was in secondary school in the 1970s.

Also according to Wikipedia, 16 movies, 8 TV series, a computer game, and a musical were adapted from these 8 novels.

The movies and TV series were produced mainly in Taiwan and Hong Kong where Gu Long lived.

To my surprise, the musical was performed by the famous Star Troupe of the Takarazuka Revue of Japan in 2013 in both Taiwan and Japan.

Being a former Japanese colony, Taiwan still has a lot of cultural ties with Japan.


3. Wandering Merrily in the World (1984) has a Taoist sentiment and it is among my favorite songs.

The original singer of this song is Roman Tam.

It is with disappointment that I can find only 1 instance of this song by Roman Tam in YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu_T_9ZIV5w

The quality of this video is not too good.

There used to be many copies of this song in YouTube, but Hong Kong's TVB has been asserting it's copyrights and those copies have disappeared.

I think this asserting of copyrights in YouTube is a bad business move on the part of TVB.

Due to the deteriorating TV environment in Hong Kong, TVB's viewership has been shrinking at an alarming rate.

Allowing old songs to appear in YouTube is one way to maintain presence and remind viewers that TVB is still there.


4. Wandering Merrily in the World (1984) by the lead actress of The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung, the late Barbara Yung (1959 - 1985):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJigSEfj5qo

Barbara Yung was among my TV idols of that period.


5. The Lyrics in Traditional Chinese:


笑踏河山 -- 羅文

隨緣披髮獨行   未嘗鏡染塵
淡然看世事似浮雲   隨風去無痕

* 何妨花氣襲人   願憑天指引
任由過去事再莫尋   留情意不惹恨

# 對酒狂歌   一劍獨往   何愁露寒侵鬢
人生百感   輕舟掠過   萬里白雪洗我心
啊...啊...啊...
踏河山輕帶笑我獨行   如逝水若行雲

Repeat *, #

踏河山輕帶笑我獨行   如逝水若行雲


6. The Lyrics in Simplified Chinese:


笑踏河山 -- 罗文

随缘披发独行   未尝镜染尘
淡然看世事似浮云   随风去无痕

* 何妨花气袭人   愿凭天指引
任由过去事再莫寻   留情意不惹恨

# 对酒狂歌   一剑独往   何愁露寒侵鬓
人生百感   轻舟掠过   万里白雪洗我心
啊...啊...啊...
踏河山轻带笑我独行   如逝水若行云

Repeat *, #

踏河山轻带笑我独行   如逝水若行云


7. Names, Words and Phrases:

Barbara Yung (Traditional Chinese: 翁美玲; Simplified Chinese: 翁美玲).

Chor Lau Heung (Traditional: 楚留香; Simplified: 楚留香).

Gu Long (Traditional: 古龍; Simplified: 古龙).

Roman Tam (Traditional: 羅文; Simplified: 罗文).

Star Troupe (Traditional: 星組; Simplified: 星组).

Takarazuka Revue (Traditional: 寶塚歌劇團; Simplified: 宝塚歌剧团).


References:

"Wuxia", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxia
(accessed 2015-11-12).

"曹植", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E6%9B%B9%E6%A4%8D
(accessed 2015-11-12).

"古龍", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E5%8F%A4%E9%BE%99
(accessed 2015-11-12).

"楚留香", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E6%A5%9A%E7%95%99%E9%A6%99
(accessed 2015-11-12).

"楚留香之蝙蝠傳奇 (電視劇)", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E6%A5%9A%E7%95%99%E9%A6%99%E4%B9%8B%E8%9D%99%E8%9D%A0%E5%82%B3%E5%A5%87_%28%E9%9B%BB%E8%A6%96%E5%8A%87%29
(accessed 2015-11-12).

End.