Memories of another era
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| The 2014 White Collar Boxing in Beijing |
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| Club plans annual party in vintage style |
"Shanghai was glamorous in different ways back then. It was famous for its nightlife and banks, whereas now it's very modern. I remember the first time I traveled to the US after the "cultural revolution". When I returned to China, everything looked drab and gray, even people's facial expressions.
"A couple of years ago I went back to San Francisco and it seemed gray. Shanghai has become very colorful.
"The novelist Mao Dun used three words to describe Shanghai – light, energy, heat -- and I think that best portrays it (Mao's novel Midnight is set in the city during the 1920s and 1930s). The glamour of a metropolis like this is always best represented at night.
"My father's song captured the tempo of the city at that time, but when they took it to the West they sped it up, because they still considered it too slow. It has a Chinese melody but a jazz-based rhythm.
"My father wrote real love songs that have stood the test of time. But a lot of what I hear now sounds like empty words and slogans. The songs are only popular for a few weeks. We’ve lost the ability to produce cultural classics.
"It's important that both The Butterfly Lovers and my father's song came out of Shanghai: Beautiful flowers need rich and fertile soil."
