LISTEN TO THE SONG BY SHIRLEY --Sep 29, 2005

I will go to see the mountains in Zhang Jia Jie National Park in the early morning the day after tomorrow, so, I will have no time enough to record a new song for you. So, I would like to offer you another song that I had sung at the same time last year and hope it still can bring you a smile...

--Shirley Yiping Zhang
Fri, Sep 29, 2006
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Hi, friends, it is near the Chinese National Day (Oct.1) and also one of the most important Chinese national holiday.

Do you know?   Five years ago, after I needed not work over time in my holidays as I had done in the first 8 years after I came to Shenzhen City -- the most morden and has the fastest speed. I started my individual travel in the holiday, I went to Europe in 2000 and went to Dalian in 2002. I went to LiJian, Dali, Kunming in Yunan, and Guili, Yang Suo, Longjin in Guangxi in 2004. This year, instead of visiting Australia as my original plan, I will go back to visit my parents in Wuxi City City that is near Shanghai and Suzhou by the Tai Lake -- the biggest fresh water lake in China.

I was assigned to the beautiful city and I was chose to be a classical and language and literature assistant and I spent my first 9 years after graduated from the university and became a principal lecturer in a local college. Every morning, I had a running or recited my classical poems, essays or rose my bicycle by the lake. The Tai Lake was an important part of my life and I loved its water, its fish and shrimps and also its beautiful landscapes... Wu Xi City, the water city by the Tai Lake is my third hometown and it often makes me think of Venice. Maybe for the special feeling to the city, I painted my first landscape picture ( My 7th Gouache painting) as a water city.

In my opinions, if we say that the beautiful of the Hangzhou and Suzhou is from the manpower, then the beautiful of Wuxi is from the nature, the great Tai Lake.
I love Wu Xi and the Tai Lake. I appreciate and miss my parents, friends, former colleagues and my former home by the Lake. So, as soon as I think that I will go back the beautiful city and re-see the beautiful Tai Lake that I have left from it for 12 years, a happy, excited and a light sad emotion will come into my heart... :-)

So, this weekend, before I start my trip, I would like to introduce and sing a Jiang Su folk song for you -- the Beautiful Tai Lake. To help you know how the Tai Lake looks like and how the people love and appreciate it...


MAIN MEANING OF THE SONG
LISTEN TO THE SONG BY SHIRLEY:

The Tai Lake is beautiful,
the Tai Lake is beautiful,
the most beautiful is its water.
There are white sails on the water,
there are red water chestnuts in the water,
the reed is green by the water
the fish and shrimp are fat under the water.
The lake water weaves out the irrigation system,
the sweet smell from rice and fruit are flying around of the lake.
The Tai Lake is beautiful,
The Tai Lake is beautiful.

The Tai Lake is beautiful,
the Tai Lake is beautiful.
the most beautiful is its water.
The red flags are fleshing the green waves,
the spring wind is flowing over the lake,
the water is the wine of the plenteous harvest,
the lake is the jasper glass.   
they are filled by deep feelings and love,
we give it to the country to return it’s love as the spring sun to us
The Tai Lake is beautiful,
The Tai Lake is beautiful.


CHINESE PRONUCIATION
LISTEN TO THE SONG BY SHIRLEY:
Tai2 hu2 mei3,
tai2 hu2 mei3,
mei3 jiu4 mei3 zai4 tai4 hu2 shiu3.
hu2 shang4 you3 bai2 fan1 a,
shui3 xia4 you3 hong2 lian2 na,
shui3 bian1 lu2 wei3 qing1,
shui3 di3 yu2 xia1 fei2.
hu2 shui3 zhi1 chu1 guan4 gai4 wang3,
dao4 xiang1 guo3 xiang1 rao4 hu2 fei1.
ai -- hai-- yao--
tai4 hu2 mei3 ya,
tai4 hu2 mei3.

Tai2 hu2 mei3,
tai2 hu2 mei3,
mei3 jiu4 mei3 zai4 tai4 hu2 shiu3.
hong2 qi2 ying43 liu42 bo1 a,
chun1 feng1 hu2 mian4 chui1 na,
shui3 shi4 feng1 shou1 jiu3,
hu2 shi4 bi4 yu4 bei1.
zhuang1 man3 shi1 qing2 cheng2 man3 ai4,
peng3 gei3 zu3 guo2 bao4 zhun1 hui1.
ai -- hai-- yao--
tai4 hu2 mei3 ya,
tai4 hu2 mei3.

I am thinking, all of us have our hometowns or the second or third hometowns. What is your houmetown? What is your   favorite song that admires your hometown?

I really hope this song will make you feel some difference from the other folk songs and help you to improve your Chinese listening comprehension...

If you have any questions, comments and suggestions, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn, you are welcomed.

--Shirley Yiping Zhang
Written/Recorded it on Thur.,Sep 22, 2005
Editerd it on Sun., Sep 25, 2005