During the early 1980s, before the likes of Su Rei exploded on the Taiwanese music scene, female singers were mostly soft and gentle. Some were downright “feeble”. In the 1970s, however, Mandarin pop was dominated by the powerful voices of Feng Fei Fei, Teresa Teng and the not so well known Xiao Li Zhu 蕭孋珠, officially spelled Shiao Lih Ju.
Shiao rose to fame after singing the theme songs of many popular films based on Chiung Yao’s 琼瑶 novels, like 一帘幽梦 Fantasies Behind the Pearly Curtain (1975), 处处闻啼鸟 Everywhere Birds Are Singing (1978), and 踩在夕阳里 Love Under a Rosy Sky (1979). In the mid-1980s, she moved to Singapore, where she sang the theme song for the Singaporean historical drama 盗日英雄传 The Sword and the Song (1986) based on the legend of Song Dynasty hero, Yue Fei.
踩在夕陽裡 left a very strong impression on my teenage years. The music was so haunting and lyrics simple and down to earth. Ironically, my young mind was curious and immature, constantly dreaming and exploring. Another one of my favourites was 青色山脉.
At the age of 16, I moved from Queenstown to Telok Blangah. With my new home surrounded by hills which often got enshrouded by mists on rainy days, this song blended into my pensive moods, gazing out of the window. I’ve always mistaken 處處聞啼鳥 to be a song sung by Feng Fei Fei.
Having said that, I must say that Shiao sounded so unusually “refined” in 處處聞啼鳥. Frankly, I don’t remember watching any of the Qiong Yao movies mentioned above. As Liu Jia Chang once said, the trashy movies were soon forgotten but the songs became classics. He was willing to write theme songs for trashy movies as they gave him the break he needed.
While Shiao’s powerful voice is probably no longer fashionable these days, she had a powerful effect on the dreams, romances and sad realities of many young people growing up during that time.
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