Fish Stalls in the Pearl River Delta

Ni hao.

This part of Weirdo is dedicated to sharing a big box of Cantonese Opera cassettes that I hauled in from the sidewalk. Why Cantonese Opera? Ask the sidewalk.

Some of these cassettes are pre-recorded & some aren't. Some feature opera stars from the 60s & 70s. Some are recordings of live performances that took place in my local Chinatown. A few are pop records that have nothing to do with opera. Some are even recordings of amateur opera performers learning their craft.

So you'll get a pic & a downloadable file on an entirely irregular basis, roughly once a month. I don't read Mandarin or Cantonese, so if you have comments or information of whatever kind I'd be most grateful & would love to post it here. Also, if you hear/see something here you really like, I do run a store, so make me an offer & maybe I'll sell it to you.

Updates to this page will be noted in the Weirdo email list & you can subscribe to an RSS feed, just like a blog, by pressing the button:


#45-Well, after 45 tapes and almost 4 years, I've finally gotten all the goodies out of the box I picked off the sidewalk oh so long ago. Here's one last pop tape for you. Maybe next month this time I'll come up with a suprise?




Side 1
Side 2



#44-Couldn't quite figure out the name of the opera for this one, but it stars Yam Kim Fai & Hung Sin Nui together. It's probably late 50s, and was repressed on this cassette in 1979 by the Mee Shing Record Company (who also did plenty of 78s & 45s). A short one, & seems likely that it's live and not from a film.




Side 1
Side 2



#43-Hong Xian-Nu (or Hung Sin Nui in Cantonese) grew up in Tai Hom village, a town where the film industry thrived during the 1950s (in the 1980s & 90s it became a squatter shantytown & was eventually demolished). Xian Nu learned the art of singing from her aunt & became an actress at age 15 when a famous actor spotted her & made her his leading lady. She joined a proper opera troupe in 1955 when she was about 30. This is a compilation of some of her best known roles, recorded between 1962-78. She formed a troupe of her own (named Hongdou), trained many singers of later generations, and has a star on the Hong Kong walk of fame. She passed away in 2009, but not before lending her voice to an animated Cantonese opera. Tracklisting: Zhao Jun Goes Out of the Frontier, In Praise of Lichee, Self-Affection in the Locked Room, The Autumn Moon, The Beating of the Chamber Maiden, The Goddess of the Sea, Wind From the East, Lady Cui Yin.





Side 1
Side 2



#42-From 1959, here's 'The Moonlight and Pipa of the Borderland', directed by Chu Kei & starring Yam Kim Fai, Lam Kar Sing & mostly Fong Yim Fun. Fong Yim Fun was known as 'queen of the female principles'. She starred in movies that showed women of the 50s in ethical quandries & her vocals were so distinctive that singing like her became it's own style with her name attached. She gave up her career to be married in 1959. The label which issued this tape in 1976 (as part of something they called their 'Precious Urn' series) still exists as a cd store in Hong Kong today. They even have a really crude website at www.manchinet.com. This tape was one with loads of problems & needed much coaxing & repair. So you get some excerpts with dropouts. Worth it to hear Fong's pure trills though.




Side 1
Side 2



#41-Released on February 18th, 1959, Yam Kim Fai & Bak Sheut Sin star in the movie 'The Purple Hairpin'. Also starring Leung Sing Bo & So Siu Tong. Directed by Lee Tit (who directed a 2nd version in color in 1977). A scholar picks up a purple hairpin dropped by a pretty girl, and when he returns it to her, they fall for each other. The minute they're married, he is sent off to the army. The girl waits for her new husband to return for 3 years, and during that time she has no income, so she has to sell her jewlery. The last thing she sells is the hairpin. The army returns, and her soldier has raised in rank until the general insists that the soldier marry his own daughter. The sold hairpin is even used in deceit by the villainous general to make the soldier think that his wife has left him. Luckily, the wife and a big politician (who is honest) show up at the wedding banquet, tell everyone the truth, and disaster is averted just in time. Lots of offstage singing, oohs from the crowd, a great couple of growly monologues from Leung Sing Bo, and lovely nasal singing & drums crashing as usual.




Side 1
Side 2



#40-And tah-dah, some digging turned up Volume 1, the companion to #39. I love the way the microphone is placed at one side of the stage. It makes the performance quite dynamic & allows actors to fade off or comment long distance.




Side 1
Side 2



#39-Yam Kim Fai, Bak Sheut Sin, Leung Sing Bor (who was the chairman of the Cantonese Opera union in Hong Kong during the late 60s, & whose kids all became actors), & Lang Chi Bak all perform, but no idea which opera it is. However, I did discover today that tape #21 below is known as 'The Flower Princess'. This one's the 2nd tape of a double set. Hope to dig up the 1st volume soon, as it's a virtuoso whirlwind.




Side 1
Side 2


#38-No information gained from matching up Hanzi characters this time out, but man alive those drums sound amazing. Odd drop outs when one of the singers is especially far away from the microphone, but otherwise a peach. A reissue from 1989.




Side 1
Side 2


#37-Very 80s big-hall sound to go with the purple packaging, but the percussion is clear & varied & performances are impressive.




Side 1
Side 2


#36-This one has an issue date of 1980-1. Sounds are quite a bit older, as it features Yam Kim Fai, who retired in 1972. Pretty sure that's her usual duet partner Bak Sheut-sin with her there on the cover. Yam Kim Fai was known for playing male roles & this one seems to be a star-crossed love story, fairly free of percussion. Yam is also on tapes #14, #12 & #2 below. On Fung Hang Records, who also issued #24 below.




Side 1
Side 2


#35-Ah, that most unloved of all formats, the cassette bootleg. Pro printed tape, but the sound is clearly dubbed. And the cover is just a blurry photo, printed on kodak paper, cut out with scissors & curled to fit inside the cassette case. Issued by the Mei Ying Trading Co.




Side 1
Side 2


#34-A rather folky/countrified tape (at least in my estimation of what would count as such), with a solo male voice & slower, more subtle accompaniment. On Tien Shing Records, which existed from at least the early 60s until the mid 90s & may well still. Their office was on Portland Street in the Mon Kok neighborhood, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Just a block away from the famed porn district, and smack in the middle of the the most densely populated, urbanized spot on the planet.




Side 1
Side 2


#33-The female lead here is a bit swishy for my taste, but the gent who sings is fantastic. He can even do a Jello Biafra vibrato! Percussion is also top shelf. Not very trashy, but they have expert control & can rev up to amazing speeds before stopping on a dime.




Side 1
Side 2


#32-Female/male duet. I like the particularly baritone, relatively unscratchy string sound in the accompaniment on this one. The melody written for the male voice also has a few interesting chromatic twists. Date is probably relatively recent, as the percussion doesn't completely blow the needles to the red, and the lady singer has definitely listened to some radio pop. Hear how her voice turns breathier whenever she isn't belting some pentatonic run that scrapes against the ceiling? The pheasant feathers & Dai Kow pennants in the costumes probably indicate a Mo play.




Side 1
Side 2


#31-Going solely on the graphic style of the tape, and that little thumbs-up logo on the cover art, I'm estimating this to date from the late 70s. A relatively low key one, but it sure is swell.




Side 1
Side 2


#30-Roll up your water sleeves & get downloading. Yay for this page's 30th entry/2.5th anniversary. Male lead on this one does a great Grover impression now & again. And the drum bashing is fervent & plentiful.




Side 1
Side 2


#29-Lovely lady from #14 makes a reappearance. She's got quite the helium balloon inside her neck here. Not bad.




Side 1
Side 2


#28-This one's still opera on the inside, even if the outside looks like a pop record. No male lead though, just the constant shrieking of our lovely cover girl, and some trashy percussion.




Side 1
Side 2


#27-Horrid sound with plenty of dropouts. Still, musically, this is the best tape I've heard in quite a while, with tons of great whooping vocals by the female character that jackknife up & down all over the place. I also like the occasional awkward pause whenever they switch scenes. And it has a date: 1975.




Side 1
Side 2


#26-Did what I could to soup up the sound this time around, as it was a bit muffled from long bouts of sitting in somebody's glove compartment on hot days. Luckily, whiney voices can cut through such thick fog.




Side 1
Side 2


#25-Lovely lady from #18 comes back for a 2nd visit, and while this tape's short, it's a wonderful one. Canary swoops of female vocals that're quite light & only have a touch of twang. When the drums come in for an epic fight scene, they fall all over each other like it's the end of days. Cover is printed on over-the-counter photo paper, for reasons unknown.




Side 1
Side 2


#24-This one was a really pleasant surprise. A tape from 1981 with mostly female vocals, high & clear... well, for Cantonese Opera anyhow. Still sounds like she's holding her nose compared to anything you'd hear on the radio. The big surprise was all the sound effects during the exposition: rain, a wolf, a horse, and even a lion. This tape was issued on Fung Hang Records, who've been around since the mid 60s (check out this beauty), and are still in existence today at www.funghang.com. And yeah, in case you were wondering, they have Cantonese opera on V-disc.




Side 1
Side 2


#23-Here's a contemporary/revival opera from 1993. It's more pastoral than some of the earlier tapes here, and the drummers are long gone. But the costumes are even more elaborate, and to my surprise, there's still plenty of high, nasal singing, & it remains quite perfectly annoying.




Side 1
Side 2


#22-Did some digging, and came up with the companion tape to #20. A little more male-singer exposition here than on that one, but still has what I think of as a "classic" sound. Probably a Mun play, but that's just a guess from the gentleman's hat on the cover.



Side 1
Side 2


#21-This tape is an excerpt from a very long opera ('The Flower Princess', written in 1957) that stretches across 4 cassettes (if I find the other 3, they'll go up too- apparently there's a big suicide at the end so I hope to find tape 4!). There's still some call & response between the clackety gong sections & the scratchy ehru/gaohu ones here, but there's a lot more marching cymbals than usual. Relatively solemn, & would make a great soundtrack to, oh say, the Macy's parade.




Side 1
Side 2


#20-This tape needed a couple rounds of repair, but it was definitely worth having those tiny little screws & shreds of scotch tape everywhere. Just listen to the variety of percussion & the whiney men & ladies. A graceful, yet still demoniac performance.




Side 1
Side 2


#19-Ah, finally one with a date! And that date is 1983. Don't be put off, for although the squeals are squeakier & a bit less nasal than they might've been in the late 50s, Cantonese opera is a conserative, well-codified style. So we're still talking about something that sounds like banging trash cans together compared to say, a Cyndi Lauper record. Or even a Minutemen record. Increased recording quality means you can hear every detail of the wobbling gaohu.




Side 1
Side 2


#18-Poppy & smooth compared to some of our entries, but of course that still means it's whiney as hell compared to, well, everything else. Also just a bit of tape gargle on side 2, but repairs fixed most of the troubles.




Side 1
Side 2


#17-A friendly one that's not too screechy. Probably mid-60s.




Side 1
Side 2


#16-Figured it was time for another non-opera tape this week, but the one I chose turned out to be riddled with what I like to think of as 'PBS disease'. Sadly, it was polite & meant for consumption by nice people, none of whom have any business bringing their ears around here. I dipped into the pile again & whoah-ho! Came up with a real whiney winner on the 2nd try.




Side 1
Side 2


#15.5-For you masochists in the crowd, here's a chunk of the reject.




Side 1


#15-An early 70s performance, if you ask me. Not a ton of gaohu & pipa, but oh those cymbals. Touch of funk in there, even.




Side 1
Side 2


#14-This one's a bit more of a soap opera, with some spectacular acting that wipes the floor with most oscar winners. You won't need to understand a word to catch on to the anger, crying, tension, blowhardiness, pain, indifference to pain, etc. of the characters. Not quite so much "music" per se as bumpers between theatrical scenes, but there's, of course, a loud cymbal crash punctuating the end of every single sentence.




Side 1
Side 2


#13-Here's a fine female duet, most likely from the mid 60s [note, I later decided it's more like late 70s], with pretty clear sound (at least until the age of the tape made the reels start squealing like a couple of hungry puppies). A great example of soprano versus contralto female singing and how each can squeak or just sing straight depending on the emotional content of the opera. And yeah, there's some fine clanging cymbals too.




Side 1
Side 2


#12-Oof it's been way too long since I put a new cassette up here! I have my excuses, but thanks for being patient. The interspersion of songs & skits here makes me think the date here is probably around the late 60s/early 70s. That is to say, after the worldwide explosion of 'Hair' & the 'King & I'. Matter of fact, this production style really reminds me of all those Spanish soap operas I used to watch passing time on lazy summer afternoons. Odd pauses, surreal expositions, slick production equipment used by people without much experience on it, etc. Not a super wild one, but fun nonetheless.




Side 1
Side 2


#11-Takes a while for those whacked cymbal crashes to kick in on this one, but once they do, they're quite out of control. The male lead also has one of the reediest whines I've heard yet. No clue why someone would write 'Old Testament' on the inside cover, but like they say at Xmas time, there's gotta be some reason for the season.





Side 1
Side 2


#10-Been too long since I put up new tapes here, so today you get two. 1st is an oddity. Date on the cover art says 1973, but I don't believe it for a second. Everything I hear points to about 1987. The voices are impressively nasal & cartooney, and the squeaky soprano lady really lets fly a couple of times, but the synthstruments take a little getting used to. Some weird echo in a couple of places too.



Side 1
Side 2


#9- Time for another pop record & this one's got some really slinky numbers & extravagant arrangements. Thought I recognized one tune & sat on this tape for a week to see if I could remember where I'd heard it before. But the train's gotta keep a-rollin', so now it's up to you instead.




Side 1
Side 2


#8- This one has a date of 1972. The songs are in shorter chunks & the performances are a little less loose. No less agressive though, with some wonderful drum solos that sound like free metal, & plenty of my favorite; unholy whining.




Side 1
Side 2


#7- I think this one's my fave so far. Stellar vocal performances from the growling male lead, whining supporting male, & the squeaky lady who shows up near the end of side one. Best of all, the drummer is a real ham, slamming his trash can lids around right next to the mike every chance he gets.




Side 1
Side 2


#6- Couple of notes about this one. First off, the male lead is obviously a broadly comic underdog & sounds like he's having a heckuva fine time here, especially at the beginning. Really reminds me of Buddy Hackett's chinese waiter. This tape, unfortunately, was quite damaged, so you get excerpts from the best sounding sections. You also get an excerpt from the worst sounding section (which could just as well be an LAFMS or musique concrete record), because I'm here to offer you a full range of entertainment value.




Side 1, excerpt 1
Side 1, excerpt 2
Side 2, excerpt 1
Side 2, excerpt 2
Side 1, garbled


#5- A beaut! Love the strangled feline femme vocals here.




Side 1
Side 2


#4- This tape needed repair, so the sound is slightly muddy. Worth it though, as there are some great gushes of drum & cymbal overload.




Side 1
Side 2


#3- So here's an amateur opera performance of more recent vintage. Late 70s maybe? Side one especially, is as sleepy & easy as an old chair. A good contrast for some of the wild ones to come.



Side 1
Side 2


#2- Okay, now to the meat of this series: hysterical women interrupted by boingy cymbal crashes, screeching gaoho, & loads of pancake makeup. I think it likely from the cover info that this one was recorded in '53 & reissued in '77.





Side 1
Side 2


#1- Let's warm up with a nice pop record. Fans of the 'Asian Takeaways' compilation should be most pleased with this one. I especially like the ooga-booga native american number on side 1.




Side 1
Side 2


Updates to this page will be noted in the Weirdo email list & you can subscribe to an RSS feed, just like a blog, by pressing the button: