“Alone Up the West Chamber” – a Chor Lau Heung 1984 MV

"Alone Up the West Chamber" Chor Lau Heung 1984 MV (Du Shang Xi Lou with Pinyin) from Icha74 on Vimeo.

Since I listened to Teresa Teng’s rendition of Li Yu’s “Du Shang Xi Lou” (“Alone Up the West Chamber”), I’ve always wanted to make this MV. I just finished it, and I hope it touches many MB/CLH fans. The story is about Song Siu Ching reminiscing on her love story with Chor Lau Heung after he took her hairpin and left her in the Palace. I found the theme of Du Shang Xi Lou befitting her loneliness upon Chor tai-gor’s departure.

Du Shang Xi Lou is part of Li Yu’s poem titled "Grief" (哀思 ai si), which in itself is the segment of "Happy reunion" (相見歡 xiang jian huan). The late, angelic Teresa sang Du Shang Xi Lou as part of her Dandan Youqing (Light Exquisite Feeling) album.  If you’re a fan of Teresa Teng, or just found out about her angelic voice, you should listen to this album.

The original lyric is from this site, while the English translation is from HKships4TeresaTeng2’s YouTube video of Dandan Youqing (Light Exquisite Feeling). The Pinyin lyrics are combined from the two sites. The English translation is below the break. Click here for my previous fanfiction on this theme. 

The poems in Chor Lau Heung 1984

Chor tai-gor reciting the last line of 'Tale of the Magpie Bridge' (ep 13)

Ancient series are usually peppered with poems. The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung 1984 was not an exception. I could only recall three four poems from the CLH 1984, but I really like them hence I post them here. The full text of the poems can be found at the end of this post. My favourite is definitely the Tale of the Magpie Bridge, first recited by Koh A Lam (Sharon Yang) in front of Wu Tit Fa in ep 11. Later in ep 13, Wu asked Chor tai-gor about that poem, and Chor recited a part of it for Wu’s benefit. Chor Lau Heung did look pensieve though when he recited the last line (“Eternal love shall withstand the time apart”), which made me think that he was thinking of Song Siu Ching for just a few seconds there.

Tale of the Magpie Bridge is part of a famous ancient Chinese story called the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd, dated back to over 2,600 years ago, around the time of the Han Dynasty. The story involved Zhinu (the weaver girl, or the star Vega) and Niulang (the cowherd, the star Altair) whose starcrossed love made them banished such that each of them live in another side of the Silver River (the Milky Way). Once a year (7th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar), magpies would form a bridge between the two lovers such that they could meet for one day.

Below is the few lines of the Tale of the Magpie Bridge Chor Lau Heung recited in ep 13.