This blog is dedicated to one of my favourite singers of all time, Zhou Xuan.
Zhou Xuan was China's most famous singer and actress during the period of Japanese occupation of China.
Forever Smiling (Yung Yuen Di Wei Xiao) by Zhou Xuan is one of my favourite song.
It send chills down my spine everytime I listen to it.
It is a love song fill with optimism and hope for tomorrow, although it is written during turbulent times.
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ReplyDeleteFrom the wikipedia
ReplyDeleteZhou Xuan was a popular Chinese singer and film actress. By the 1940s, she had become one of the Seven great singing stars[1]. She is probably the most well-known of the seven, as she had a concurrent movie career until 1953.
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
2 Career
3 Death
4 Adaptations
4.1 Biography controversy
4.2 TV
5 Movie Credits
6 References
7 External links
[edit] Biography
Zhou was born Su Pu (蘇璞) and was separated from her natural parents at a young age, and was raised by adoptive parents. She spent her entire life searching for her biological parents and her parentage was never established until after her death.[2] At 13 she took Zhou Xuan as her stage name, 'Xuan', which means beautiful jade in Chinese.
[edit] Career
Zhou started acting in 1935, but she achieved stardom in 1937 in Street Angel, when director Yuan Muzhi cast her as one of the leads as a singing girl.
"Golden Voice" was Zhou's nickname to commend her singing talents after a singing competition in Shanghai, where she came in second[1]. Zhou rapidly became the most famous and marketable popular singer in the gramophone era up to her death, singing many famous tunes from her own movies. Her frail but eminently musical voice captured the hearts of millions of Chinese of her time.
After introducing "Nights of Shanghai" (夜上海), Zhou returned to Shanghai. She spent the next few years in and out of mental institutions owing to frequent breakdowns. Through the years, Zhou led a complicated and unhappy life marked by her failed marriages, illegitimate children and suicide attempts.
Having made a total of 43 movies. Her favourite film was always Street Angel (馬路天使). This contained two theme songs: "Four Seasons Song" (四季歌) and "The Wandering Songstress" (天涯歌女) which enjoyed long-lasting popularity.
[edit] Death
In 1957 she passed away in Shanghai in a mental asylum during the Anti-Rightist Movement[3]. There is the possibility that the cause of death was encephalitis following a nervous breakdown at the age of only 39.
Zhou Xuan survived with 2 sons, Zhou Wen[4] and Zhou Wei, from different fathers. According to Zhou Wen's biography, the younger son, Zhou Wei, was from the father Tang Di (唐棣), while the father of Zhou Wen was unknown. Zhou Wei currently lives in Toronto as a musician in TTC subways.[5][6]
[edit] Adaptations
Audio samples of Zhou Xuan
Nights of Shanghai (夜上海)
A 1940s shidaiqu mandopop arrangement by Zhou Xuan.
Problems playing the files? See media help.
To this day, Zhou Xuan's songs still remain a staple in many Golden Oldies collections in Mandarin popular music.
There have been 2 biographies written by Zhou Xuan's surviving family members. The book My Mother Zhou Xuan (我的媽媽周璇) was written by Zhou Wei and his wife Chang Jing (常晶); while a later book, Zhou Xuan Diary (周璇日記), was written by Zhou Wen.
[edit] Biography controversy
After Zhou Wen's biography was published, Zhou Wei accused Zhou Wen for altering Zhou Xuan's diary and copying the contents in an attempt to mislead readers into distorting the image of Zhou Xuan. The rebuttal also revealed that Zhou Wen had hated Zhou Wei since their young age. Zhou Wen was sent to adoption after birth, followed by alleged dark influences. Zhou Wei then legally inherited Zhou Xuan's wealth over Zhou Wen.[7]
[edit] TV
An adaptation of the life of Zhou Xuan was TVB's Song Bird (天涯歌女) in 1989, starring Nadia Chan as Zhou Xuan and Leon Lai as her lover. In this series, Xuan's songs were re-written in Cantonese, sung by her in solo. In duets, she sang with him in the serial while (under the limits of Crown Records) Deric Wan replaced Lai's vocals in the soundtrack album.[citation needed]
Another adaptation, based on Zhou Wei's biography, is China serial titled Zhou Xuan (周璇), starring Cecilia Cheung. This version of the story was accused by Zhou Wei as false representation of Zhou Xuan, and damaged the reputation of Zhou family.[8]
[edit] Movie Credits
狂歡之夜 (1935)
Street Angel (馬路天使, 1937)
西廂記 (1940)
孟麗君 (1940)
夜店 (1947)
長相思 (1947)
清宮秘史 (1948)
花外流鶯 (1948)
歌女之歌 (1948)
莫負青春 (1949)
花街 (1950)
[edit] References
^ a b Baidu. "Baidu." Bai Guang. Retrieved on 2007-04-28.
^ ent tom.com
^ Atkins, Taylor. [2003] (2003) Jazz Planet. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1578066093
^ 周璇两儿子爆出几十年恩怨纠葛(图)
^ 越洋连线专访周璇次子周伟：真实的周璇 (图)
^ “地铁王子”---周璇之子在加拿大
^ Zhuo Wei (2004-07-09). 周璇两子为何结怨半生 几十年恩怨纠葛后的秘密. netandtv.com.
^ 张淳 (2006-03-28). 张柏芝版“周璇”面目全非 周家后人三大不满. Xinhua News.
[edit] External links
Zhou Xuan at China's Movie Database
Zhou Xuan at the Internet Movie Database
Zhou Xuan at the Chinese Movie Database
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Xuan"
http://www.eatingchinese.org/zhouxuan/zhouxuan.html
ReplyDeleteCheck out the above site, if you want to listen to zhou xuan's songs.
Biography for
ReplyDeleteXuan Zhou
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Date of Birth
1 August 1918, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China
Date of Death
22 September 1957, Shanghai, China
Mini Biography
Legendary Chinese actress and singer Zhou Xuan was born on 1 August (year of birth uncertain as either 1918 or 1920) in Jiangsu province, China and originally named Su Pu.
At 3, she was sold by her uncle (by deceit) to the Wang family and thereafter her name changed to Wang Xiaohong. Later she was sent to a Zhou family, and there her name again changed to adopt the new family name. The then Ms. Zhou Xiaohong joined the Mingyue singing troupe in 1932 (when she was around 12 or 13 years of age) where she adopted the stage name "Zhou Xuan" (Xuan meaning "beautiful jade" in Chinese). She started singing on radio and at 14 was selected as the second most popular female singer in China. She soon earned the nickname as "The Golden Voice".
In 1936, she starred in the movie Malu tianshi (1937)(Street Angel) which would bring her to fame. In the movie, she played a singer and sang what would become 2 of her most popular hits, "The Four Season Song"(Si Ji Ge)and "The Wandering Female Singer"(Tian Ya Ge Nu). She then began to earn a reputation both as an actress and a singer. And went on to make a total of 43 movies in her lifetime.
Reportedly, by her own confession, despite the many movies she acted in, she was unhappy with most of them. Her favorite remained her role in the "Angel". Other major works include, "Recall To Jiangnan", "Night Inn" and "The Secret History of the Qing Dynasty" (info on movie titles from China Radio International).
Her love life however was disappointing. She first married musician/composer Yan Hua and it ended after 8 years in 1941. However, she continued making stage, radio and film appearances during this time, in a total of 16 films between 1939 - 1941.
In 1946, after World War II she moved to Hong Kong to star in "Recall To Jiangnan" in which she played the roles of two different women at the same time. One an innocent country girl, the other a spoiled party-going girl.
From here on, her popularity increased and soon went beyond China and to South East Asia.
Around this time or shortly before, Zhou Xuan met Zhu Huaide, a cloth merchant and lived together in Hong Kong. When she became pregnant and thought of marriage, she began to realize that Zhu was insincere and announced their separation in the press.
She returned to the newly established People's Republic Of China in 1950 to star in "The Peaceful Pigeon", her last movie (one which she would never complete).
Later in Shanghai, she gave birth to her first son, Zhou Min.
Then came the third man in her life -- the art designer for "The Peaceful Pigeon". The love affair ended with her heart broken, and another son, Zhou Wei.
Thereafter, she suffered a nervous breakdown, and was regularly admitted to hospitals and mental institutions. She died on 22 September 1957, officially due to brain encephalitis.
Her songs remain popular to this day and have been remade by many other singers including greats like Taiwanese Queen of Love Songs, Cai Qin, the late Teresa Teng and the late Anita Mui.
Zhou Xuan is estimated to have recorded over 200 songs (114 of them for the movies) and was one of the first Chinese singers to sing with a microphone.
Several of her evergreen songs include "Shanghai Night"(Yeh Shanghai) and "When Will You Come Again" (He Ri Jun Zai Lai).
Her second son Zhou Wei has written a book, "Zhou Xuan's Diary", where he provided insights into the legendary singer's life which many didn't know.
In June 2004, Hong Kong director Kar Wai Wong announced he has planned a movie biographing this wonderfully talented actress and singer. Award-winning Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung and Chinese actress Jie Dong have been cast in the starring roles as the elder and younger Zhou Xuan respectively.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Lim Kong Jin
Zhou Xuan: a sad but brilliant legacy
ReplyDeleteF. Scott Fitzgerald famously once said that "there are no second acts in life." He was speaking of American life, but for China's top film actress of the late 1930s and 1940s, as well as its most popular singer during much of that era, there appear to have been three: Act 1 was desperate and Act 3 sad, but Act 2 was glorious. Zhou Xuan 周旋 (1918 — 1957) was born Su Pu in Changzhou, Jiangsu in 1918 (some sources say 1920). Her impoverished family soon sold her to a procurer, who placed her in a brothel, to be trained as a courtesan. But when she was 2 or 3, a Shanghai couple named Zhou saw her and were so charmed by the little girl that they adopted her, giving their daughter the name Zhou Xiaohong. Her actual birthdate is unknown, and her adoptive parents once stated in an interview that even they did not know her exact age.
She displayed exceptional vocal promise at an early age, and her family had the means to get her some formal training to go with her talent. In 1931, she joined Li Jinhui's Ming Yue 明月 (Bright Moon) Society, a Shanghai musical company. In her first performance, the 13-year-old sang a song called "The Glory of a Nation," one line of which was ""Contend with the enemy on the battlefield."
Her performance of this song was so well received by audiences that troupe director Li Jinhui changed her stage name to Zhou Xuan (Xuan meaning "contend" or "deal with"). Soon after, Zhou Xuan took second place in a singing competition in Shanghai, and soon rose to become China's top pop vocalist, dubbed by press and public as "the Golden Throat." After acting in several movies in the 1930s, including a star-making role in 1937's "Street Angels," opposite Zhao Dan, she joined the Guohua Film Company in 1938, going on to star in nearly 20 feature films for that company.
At the same time her film career was flourishing, Zhou Xuan was China's top female vocalist in the 1930s. Among her biggest hits were "Nighttime Shanghai," "When Will My Gentleman Return," "Songstress at the Ends of the Earth," "Fishing Family's Daughter," "A Lovely Morning," "Song of Four Seasons" and "Smiling Forever." Several of these were the title songs of major motion pictures. There was a modern connection in the 1993 U.S. production, "Joy Luck Club": when the college girl and the playboy enter the 1930s night club together, the song playing in the background is "Song of Four Seasons."
In 1943, Zhou Xuan joined the China Film Company, Ltd., starring in such films as "Daughter of a Fishing Family," and "A Dream of Red Mansions." After World War II, she moved to Hong Kong, where she had the lead in such popular films as "An All-Consuming Love," "We Each Have Our Strong Points," "Memories of the South" and "Secrets of the Forbidden City," and acted one of the leads in the Wenhua Film Company's classic "Night Inn," a Chinese version of Gorky's "The Lower Depths." But her personal life was unhappy: she was exploited by others, especially the men in her life. She was married twice: her first husband was composer Yan Hua, who wrote many of her songs, the couple divorcing after eight years of marriage. She later lived with Hong Kong businessman Zhu Huaide, who dumped her when she became pregnant and mentioned marriage. In 1950, she returned to Shanghai to play the lead in a movie to be titled "Bird of Peace," and during the filming began a relationship with the film's art director, but again was left pregnant and abandoned. This sent her over the edge: she suffered a breakdown which ended the film project. She never performed again, and spent the rest of her life in and out of institutions. Zhou Xuan died of encephalitis in Shanghai, 22 September 1957.
Zhou Xuan's story has provided the material for several dramatic treatments of her life. A 1982 Hong Kong theatrical release featured mainland actress Shen Danping in the role of a 1930s singer clearly based on Zhou Xuan. The film's Chinese title was "Nighttime Shanghai," the same as Zhou's 1930s hit song, but the film's English release title was "A Lady From Shanghai." In 1987, a Taiwan TV channel aired a miniseries titled "Yidai Gehou" (Song Queen of a Generation), featuring Pan Yingzi as Zhou Xuan, and Jiang Houren in the role of Zhu Huaide (called Zhu Feibai in the series). In 1989, HKTV broadcast a miniseries called "Songstress at the Ends of the Earth," again after a Zhou Xuan hit song. In this production, Chen Songling was Zhou Xuan, and Li Ming was her composer/husband Yan Hua. In 2005, a stage musical based on her life was presented in Beijing.
Filmography
1935:
A Beauty's Kindness
1936:
100 Precious Pictures
A Girl Incarnate
Xi Lin Gate
Candles of the Night
1937:
Street Angels
Spring is Everywhere
Goddess of Wealth
1938:
Three Stars Beside the Moon
1939:
Meng Jiangnü
Li Sanniang
A New Hell
Seven Important Days
Dong Xiaowan
1940:
Three Smiles
Meng Lijun
The Amorous History of Su San
Tale of the West Chamber
Dark Heaven
Songstress at the Ends of the Earth
1941:
Broken Dreams on Mount Guan
Concubine Mei
Darkest Night
The Communicators
Annoying Spring Scenery
1943:
The Fishing Family's Daughter
1944:
Cry of the Birds
A Dream of Red Mansions
1945:
Happy Marriage
1946:
An All-Consuming Love
We Each Have Our Strong Points
1947:
Don't Rely on Youth
Song of the Songstress
Flowers Drain the Oriole
Memories of the South
Night Inn
1948:
Secrets of the Forbidden City
Zhou Xuan left a diary, which was published by the Chiangjiang Press of Wuhan in 2003, and edited by her elder son Zhou Min.
A good selection of Zhou Xuan's recordings are on the web.
Zhou Xuan is No.15 on Hong Kong's Avenue of Stars.