Tse Wei ( Zi Wei ) Green Island Serenade 紫薇-綠島小夜曲 1961

Happy Chinese Valentine's Day !! ( albeit a day late) What better way of celebrating it than with the Green Island Serenade, a love story set in the romantic island of Taiwan. Yesterday, Feb 22, 2016 saw the 2000 year old Lantern Festival in China. It is the final day of China's New Year celebrations, and marks the coming of spring, with hundreds of lanterns sent up into the sky to represent longer daylight hours and the light from the full moon.

In Ancient China, it served as the equivalent of Valentine's Day in the West, since the celebrations were one of the few days when unmarried ladies were allowed to freely leave the house. It has now somewhat lost its romantic connotations in some parts of China. According to legend, Emperor Hangmindi saw that Buddhist monks would light lanterns on the 15th day of the Chinese year to show respect to the Buddha. Now the lanterns often symbolise letting go of their owners' past selves as well as symbolise good luck.

Zi Wei was born on November 13, 1930 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, Taiwan, and died of cancer on March 4, 1989. Her real name was Hu Heng. She first came to public attention in on March 26, 1953 when she sang "Evening Primrose" on "Jazz" (People Radio) Taiwan's first live radio music program She was married to a soldier and had two children, and decided to make a career in music to help support her family. She chose Zi Wei as her stage name after the Crape Turtle which is the principle star in the oldest Chinese Astrology – the Zi Wei Dou Shu. Regular radio broadcasts followed her successful debut. Her sweet, clear, articulated voice soon made her the first Taiwanese singing star to receive international acclaim.

This is Zi Wei's second recording of Green Island Serenade following her original one in 1958 ( which you can also find at this channel) This one is from her 1961 LP on Four Seas Records. It was composed by Zhou Rampling in 1954 with lyrics by Yang Zhengzhuan. Pan Yingjie (潘英傑) or Gao Yudang have also been credited with writing the lyrics. The lyrics describe a young man's remembrance of his beloved young girl. Political meanings have been given to the lyrics because the actual Green Island lies of the southern coast of Taiwan, and was a place of confinement for political prisioners. So the lyrics were thought by some to imply the homesickness of the prisioners as they looked up at the moon, and remembered their homeland and families across the sea.

The song first became popular in the Philippines, then became popular in Taiwan itself in the early 1960s. Before then, because of political unrest, it had been prohibited by some authorities from being sung! The song was adapted into Cantonese as "The Light of Friendship" (友誼之光), sung by Maria Cordero, for the 1987 film Prison on Fire.

Mandarin Lyrics
這綠島像一隻船 在月夜裡搖呀搖
姑娘喲妳也在我的 心海裏飄呀飄
讓我的歌聲隨那微風 吹開了你的窗簾
讓我的衷情隨那流水 不斷地向妳傾訴
椰子樹的長影 掩不住我的情意
明媚的月光 更照亮了我的心
這綠島的夜已經 這樣沉靜
姑娘喲妳為什麼 還是默默無語
English Translation ( which appears at several websites – thank you)
This green island, is like a boat meandering through the moonlight.
Darling, you are floating in the ocean of my heart.
Let the melody of my song follow the breeze, blowing through your curtains.
Let my love go with the flowing water, serenading you.
The coconut tree's long shadow cannot hide my gentle love.
The clear bright moonlight brightens my heart.
This green island night appears so peaceful.
Darling, why are you still silent?