Well I think I'm lucky to have this one, a classic mandapop (华语流行音乐) album titled "Shanghai Lounge Divas", featuring great female mandapop singers performing legendary songs. Listening to each song, it makes me feel like I'm walking back to 1930, sitting on my comfy couch in a cozy living room, listening to this kind of songs from gramophone. LOL yeah, I can even imagine my grandma enjoying a cup of tea and listening to the songs from gramophone. And one more thing, she wears cheongsam!
So here I am sitting and enjoying lovely tunes of mandapop. My favorite picks from the album are Zhou Xuan's Eternal Smile (永遠的微笑), Grace Chang's I Want Your Love (我要你的愛), Pan Xiu-Qiong's Lover's Tears (情人的眼淚), Ou-Yang Fei-ying's Shangrila (香格里拉), Yao Lee's The Spring Breeze Kisses My Face (春風吻上我的瞼), and Gu Mei's Along The River of Love (相思河畔). Those are my favorite songs which I often play in my music player. I often play these songs in bedtime, makes me sleep faster. The characteristics of mandapop distinguish itself from other genres. So talking about mandapop, particularly the songs performed in era of 1930 we can identify obvious characteristics which build the songs. They still use traditional Chinese musical instrument like pipa, even though the song is arranged in western style. The string section arrangement is usually melodic (and for example please search for Cai Qin's Lover's Tears).
It's kind of rare, finding classic albums like this one. I'm so happy having one and I think this is how I respect and appreciate Chinese music. Since I'm a Chinese descendant, so I (still) have to respect Chinese culture. Mandapop belongs to Chinese culture, and it will be always.
