The Archival Queen Files

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海闊天空 - Beyond

Hoi Fut Tin Hung - Beyond

Boundless and Unrestrained* - Beyond

* 海闊天空 is an idiom that literally means “wide ocean and empty skies”.

[ancientpeoples]

Women in Ancient China

Women’s roles in  family and society

Ancient Chinese women were subordinate to men for most of their lives. First she would obey her father, and after marriage she answered to her husband. According to K’ung Fu-tze, also known as Confucius, a woman’s duty was to look after her husband, sons and the other men in her life. As such, her greatest duty was to have a son. That didn’t mean that she shouldn’t respected: her role as mother and mother-in-law was very important and she should be honoured by her offspring. In their old age, women were often respected by their families as the oldest living member, especially if they survived their husbands.

Marriage was an arranged affair that was set up in such a way that both families would profit from the union. The bride’s family would provide her with a dowry. Because of this, the father of the bride always had the last say in who his daughter married; the girl in question wouldn’t have any input in this, regardless of whether she was a noble or a peasant girl.

Women could be sold by their male relatives for a variety of reasons, though this usually happened in the lower classes. If there had been a bad harvest, a peasant could sell his daughter to get the rest of the family through the winter. It was also possible for a father to sell his youngest daughter after marrying off her other sisters; multiple dowries could, in the case of the working class, get rather expensive or unaffordable. The women sold this way would usually end up in brothels.

Education and occupation

Because of the subservience of women, education was mostly out of the question. Daughters of nobles could be literate, but this was, especially in early Imperial China, more an exception than a rule. Their occupations were centred around home and hearth: from cooking and cleaning to nurturing the children. Weaving, spinning and sewing were common, home-based occupations for women of the working class. Their husbands would sell the products as additional income for the household. Some farmer’s wives helped their spouses on the fields.

There were of course, less savoury professions such as prostitution. The bulk of these girls were your regular, run-of-the-mill prostitutes who had to give their bodies to whoever paid the price. Talented girls could end up becoming a courtesan, a Yiji. As a Yiji, the woman would not often engage in sex trade, but was instead a songstress, poetess, dancer and companion in one. Rich and influential men often had favourite courtesans, and sometimes such a man would buy the lady in question free and take her as concubine or even a wife (in ancient China, men of standing were allowed to have more wives).

Women’s dress and makeup

The prevalent mode of clothing for millennia was the Hanfu, or silk robe, in use for both men and women alike, but with some difference in composition of garments for each gender. Each dynasty would develop its own style of Hanfu. For women, a Hanfu was made up out of a qun or qang, a skirt; yi, an open cross-collar garment; ru, an open cross-collar shirt; and the shan, an open cross-collar jacket that was worn over the yi. There were women-specific styles as well, such as the quju version of the shenyi, which was a mode of dress in use mostly in the pre-Shang periods (before the second millennium B.C.). The quju had wider sleeves than the male zhiju, a longer, pointed lapel, and had a curved hem.

The Hanfus of the upper class could be as elaborate as their rank in society allowed, with ornaments of jade or precious metal hanging from the sashes of the garment. Working class women wore less elaborate versions of the Hanfu, or, if they were doing manual labour, might have preferred loose trousers and simple open cross-collar jackets. These women aren’t likely to have worn makeup, though it’s not possible to say for certain. The makeup trends that were in vogue among daughters and wives of the nobility were mostly focussed on the eyebrows: there are quite a few legends wherein the Emperor or another man of high standing falls in love with a lady because of her elegant eyebrows.

Apart from painstakingly painting their eyebrows in blueish black (a practice that had many different styles, each with its own name), Chinese women applied foundation for a smooth, pale look and reddened their lips and their cheeks. Dimples were enhanced or painted on, and often a flower ornament was painted on the forehead, between the eyebrows. Legend goes that a princess once fell asleep under a cherry tree, and when she woke up a blossom had fallen on her forehead. The princess and the ladies of the court were so taken by this, that they started painting the flower patterns on their skin.

That most infamous beauty practice of China, foot binding or chanzu, had not yet gained widespread use in antiquity. The exact origins are unknown, but it is thought that it originated with the dancers of the early Song dynasty, around 960 A.D. 

[taqfiles-blog]

It's strange because I was just having a conversation with my mother about how some of Confucius' teachings were just disguised misogyny. Now, Lao Tzu was a whole different story.     

[kellymagovern]

Anita Mui (1963-2003).

[taqfiles-blog]

51 years on and still celebrating her as a heroine and the Queen of Cantopop. 

[taqfiles-blog]

It's that time of the week again-- time for a flashback Friday! This is one of my favorite male/female duets from the 1992 Jade Singers Anniversary. TAQ's two cents:

"You have a pair of gentle eyes." Sandy's eyes... yeah. She knows it. 

No real chemistry between Kenny and Elaine. But still, a nice try. Elaine was fairly pitchy here but hey, live performance!

The ultimate fake slap from Vivian. They were obviously enjoying this.

Sally's face expression is funny because she's almost surprized by how good she sounded. Almost. 

The clip can be found here, although I didn't bother trimming the end of it this time. The overrun (from about the 5 minute mark) is a medley of some old TV theme songs by female artists including anyone from Faye Wong (at that time when she was known as Shirley Wong) to Rosanne Lui.

Watch what you want to, but most of all, enjoy! 

[snoopbloggyblogg-deactivated201]

Lily Li

[taqfiles-blog]

Probably one of the most overlooked and undervalued actresses in TVB's book today. But still, at least I can live off memories and nostalgia.

[chinoisamour]

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A young Brigitte Lin.

All is forgiven when you are a beautiful woman.

[snoopbloggyblogg-deactivated201]

Bow Sim Mark and her son, Donnie Yen.

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This is just... wow. 

[hkctvdramas]

Line Walker (使徒行者), EP13

Ah Ting suspects that Bao Seed slept with On Lam.

[taqfiles-blog]

Heck, I'm no fan of Charmaine and/or Raymond, but damn this was pretty funny. Actually, praise the scriptwriters - a drama with humor!

[snoopbloggyblogg-deactivated201]

What bothers me the most is the decline of action stuntmen in Hong Kong. Due to the common accessibility of CGI in recent years no one does real action or real stunts like we used to film back in the Eighties. It’s kind of unwise, in my opinion, as you can never outgun Hollywood in terms of CGI technology but real action and stunts were always our forte, our winning streak. The action scenes in Full Alert are all real, and we shot them secretly without a shooting permit, right in the street. After my filming hiatus, I was reunited with my fellow stuntmen who all showed up with gray hair—many disappeared and are unreachable now. There are absolutely no newcomers. The new kids in the field play a different game now, they all rely on CG very heavily, and you’ve gotta admit that CGI is way different from an authentic action stunt. In Hong Kong film’s heyday, we made a brand name for our authentic, cutting edge action sequences — we were selling the sense of realism and the feeling of genuine danger, not computer graphics.

- film director, Ringo Lam (2014)

I really feel for this guy, man. I really do. And for the record, I heavily dislike CGI in action films. But apparently, I'm not the only one lamenting the loss of great talent in martial arts films.  

[taqfiles-blog]

Theme song from the series I'm currently watching: <Blood of Good and Evil>. I missed this series the first time round (hello VHS). Anyhoo, super nice harmonies from Anita Mui and Andy Hui. 

And if you're wondering, I'm around the part where Deric Wan drives his car off a cliff and Maggie Siu gets pissed off/relieved that he did so but survived. Actually, I'm sitting here thinking, "Damn. Maggie Siu still looked good with a bowl cut." Kitty was pretty too. And Deric, well... you know how it goes. There's a reason why I haven't changed my banner. 

[gloriousyears]

Forever young, forever beautiful, and forever loved…

Happy 58th Birthday, our dear Leslie Gorgor!

[taqfiles-blog]

A belated well-wishing from me! Late, but never forgotten!

[squishybubble]

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Just finished watching this series not too long ago, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was so unassuming with its view of daily life that I wasn't expecting anything more...

Strange, really. 

[taqfiles-blog]

Playlist Time: Priscilla Chan

Again, sorry for the long break. Three words: health was bad. Anyhoot, enough about that. Let’s go through the playlist I put together for Priscilla Chan (not Mark Zuckerberg’s wife, the pretty-faced HK singer from the 80’s that graced the stage). On with the show!

Thousands of Songs

Probably the song that Priscilla is most well-known by and the one that left such a great impact on her fans. After all, it was her farewell song and what I consider the B-side to Anita Mui's <Song of the Sunset>. I'd probably be as daring to say that Priscilla's version is more popular internationally, but that's just a hunch. Her clear vocals truly get a chance to shine in this track and she got a chance to say, 'Don't forget about me' to the audience. 

It was still however, a sad day for the entertainment industry when she bowed out because there were only two queens at the time: Priscilla Chan and Anita Mui. These two were unrivaled at the time, and it's pretty evident why. The queens that were to follow only claimed their rightful thrones after Priscilla left the stage (as a semi-related sidenote: I'm also going to be putting a playlist together for them too, so stay tuned!).

Snow

Although Priscilla had left the spotlight to focus on her studies, she did end up coming back on recording breaks. <Snow> was the product of one of them. This catchy tune, adapted from a Japanese track instantly became a karaoke staple because her voice was very much suited to it. Sure, there's the high vocal parts where she seems like she's straining and the winged-men in the music video, but hey, a classic in the karaoke bars nonetheless.  

Foolish Girl 

One of my favorite Priscilla songs, adapted from a very melodic Spanish track. The story goes like this: man is playing you yet you, the foolish woman, cling to him like he's gold. Foolish, indeed. And yes, that's Heavenly King, Aaron Kwok as the player in the music video. I personally prefer this live version she did in 95 though, because I feel her voice matured somewhat.

Window of Love

This is actually a really tough song to sing. And like its namesake, it seems transparent and simple but it really isn't. Sandy Lamb (Jerry Lamb's older sister, not the diva Sandy Lam) admitted this during an interview with Priscilla. It's a simple and slow melody but requires such great vocal control. 

Dancing Street

Shall we dance 80's style? Gone are the days of those super catchy, upbeat get on up and dance songs. Now it's all dub and bass. This is from the '86 live broadcast during the RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs. Doesn't Priscilla look so young? I'm thinking the stylist was trying to match the vitality of the song by making Priscilla seem very youthful and girly for the show.  

Night Flight

I’m leaving on a jetplane, don’t know when I’ll be back again. This is pretty much that same song, but with a more elegant, nocturnal melody for fancypants ears. Her voice is simply beautiful in the dead of the night.  

Greed, greed, greed

Let’s just hog everything, why don’t we? Why not. Close down the whole street because I’m dancing on it! It’s mine! And there goes that girly pop look again. On another note, does anybody think that Kandy from the duo Sugar Club looks a little like Priscilla? She actually did an informal cover of this song here.

Flower Shop 

A very pleasant sounding song. It's actually very unassuming in that it's verses are seemingly mundane - almost dull. But I think that's the beauty of it. The song is based on a yearning for normality and content. The chorus hook: "Even if everything is mundane, at least she is loved."

Teahouse 

This is one of those slow jams where she croons. Yes, croons. It's really quite sentimental. I'm quite sentimental too, in that I miss those smooth, old crooner-type of songs. Sigh.  

Fading Promise 

Out of all the tracks here, this is probably the one that's the most Chinese-sounding. A lot of Priscilla's tracks were almost covers of foreign pop songs. It's extremely unfortunate that no one really sings or produces songs like these anymore. I understand the technical difficulty, but if they could do it then, I'm sure someone could squeeze it out now.

So there’s that! I was actually sitting on the fence about whether to put some duets here, but decided against it. You can just check out the commentary and the tracks here. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed holding my hand and taking a walk through a part of Priscilla’s songbook. Do you have a favorite? 

As I said before, I’ll be mixing it up for Heavenly Queens in future so stay tuned for that!

-TAQ

[taqfiles-blog]

Review: Never Dance Alone aka. M Club

So... hey folks! Sorry for the long (and unintentional) hiatus. As you may recall, my health was dragging me down and I decided to work on getting myself a-okay before jumping back into the whole posting thing. My posts in genral tend to be very long and this is going to stick to that very informal tradition.

Let's start! My very first TV series review. Well, not actually if you go to my Dramawiki page and count those one-liner "reviews" on my recommended watching list. But my first official TV series review on the blog. Guess there's a first for everything. I actually had this all composed in my head and I've been meaning to get it down on virtual paper ever since the series started.

Anyway, I just wanted to sidetrack a little and talk a bit about the actress likeness between the childhood/teenage/80's stars and the housewife/adult/present stars. I'm going to do a rundown of the characters and my personal thoughts on how well each actress played who.

I found this promotional picture of the actual adult stars when they were teenagers and the younger version actresses. Compare their likeness. I don't actually know most of the younger version actresses names, so I'll probably come back and update this later.

Mo Siu-Sze (Carman Lee): Now at first I didn't think that the actress for young Mo Siu-Sze actually looked at all like Carman Lee. But then the promotional picture says otherwise. Old Mo Siu-Sze was beaten into submission by her mother-in-law's harsh words and eventually became the person she didn't want to become. And young Mo Siu-Sze obviously had a lot more vivacity within her at some point. Don't actually know what there is to compare here.

It's a little strange because I was just watching the '95 version of Return of the Condor Heroes and I actually think this role suited Carman a lot more than Dragon Girl. She's aged well.

Yung Dan-Dan (Flora Chan): Actually out of all the younger version actresses, she looked the most like her grown-up character in-show. Where exactly did they find this girl? The physical likeness is quite uncanny.

Jenny (Angie Cheong): And people, we have a clear winner. It wasn't so much that the younger actress looked like Jenny, it was more that she acted like her - speech, mannerisms, behavior. Even Angie Cheong said the way she acted reminded her of her former self.

I was also catching up with the Journey to the West series and it was pretty easy to spot Angie. Her voice hasn't changed all that much, and well, she doesn't really look all that different either.

Akina/Fat Choi (Gloria Yip): Candy did pretty okay for someone who isn't a bona-fide actress. Her Fat Choi impression was believable. And yes, that is Gloria Yip. Yes. Girl Asura from the 80's-90's era. Now you may be like, "Really?!" Yes, really. In my opinion, her voice is still the same and she's still got that babyface, so it's not like I found it all that alarming.

Yuen Siu-Chau/Siu Ji Ja (Fennie Yuen): My first impression of the Super Girl member was that she didn't really remind me of Fennie Yuen. But then the story became more apparent with the whole 'I'm so guilty about losing Julie's baby that I ought to keep my mouth shut' thing.

Julie (Loretta Lee): This was kind of like what I thought of Yuen Siu-Chau, but then her character was supposed to have done a complete 180, so you couldn't really pull that many similarities going on between young Julie and middle-aged Julie. But Loretta Chu with her tagline - LOLOLOL! Ahem, ahem.

Cydni (Elvina Kong): Apparently she was supposed to be that ditzy dancer girl who never gave up on her dreams. I guess young Cyndi did okay. There really wasn't that much depth to her character other than that.

What I liked:

- Electic soundtrack: C'mon guys! It's like so 80's and this is obviously a nostalgia blog. Though it didn't really feature any Leslie songs (since one of the producers was Eric Tsang and is obviously friends with Alan Tam). I liked how they highlighted that fan-rivalry between the Alan and Leslie camps though.

- Theme song: Yes. I actually like the melody and lyrics of the theme song, minus Mag Lam's nasal tones and Shirley Kwan's fading vocals. I think it encompasses the whole spirit of the show, hence theme song. That being said, there are plenty of strange theme songs or songs that have absolutely no connection with the drama that it's being tagged onto. So at least they got the 'theme' part of the song right.

- The dancing: Some of the dance moves were pretty funny with the whole cleaning the windows and mopping the floor thing.

- Julie's tagline: "I'm here now. Where are you?" It's pretty funny (and realistic) how they highlighted how something said could easily become an online trend.

- The realism: Let's just say I know someone who has to deal with a mother-in-law from hell. My family actually had one of those moments where we were watching and was like... this is like my aunt. Yes. It's true. The crazy mother-in-law coming to hog her son and run the wife down like a servant. We actually call her Mo Siu-Sze and she laughs about it now.

- I will survive: You got no man? No money? It's okay! You'll be fine if you've got your sisters.

- Don't talk and walk: On the cellphone, that is. Of course, I didn't feel all that happy that they had to actually kill of one of the Lawrences just to get this message across, but they probably had to. Don't text and walk either.

- Luke's cougar-seeking friend: I'm sorry, I don't actually remember his name but I know he was one half of that rap duo (Longfu?). He provided some pretty comical and lighthearted moments and occasionally inappropriate humor to the show. You can tell I'm a comedy person.

What I didn't like:

- You need a man: Yes, I know. It's a conflicting statement. Although Miss Fat Choi eventually got over her crapbag husband and Yuen Siu-Chau over her crappy affair, there was still a period in the show where the females were clawing onto the males. It's pretty obvious why I didn't like that. And though Mo Siu-Sze didn't actually end up with Alan, she still had a man (albeit a very short man with a high-pitched voice) give her an opportunity at the end.

- The dancing: I'm talking about the awkward dance moves they had to do. But then again, you couldn't really blame the actresses since only a few had actually done some sort of dancing before.

- Wong Hor: Well, I didn't like her character from about the start of the show to about halfway. You know the just another angsty teenager thing gets worn down a little too much. But then she actually redeems herself somewhat, so I guess I can overlook that.

- Luke: Why? It's not that Steven Cheung did a bad job acting in this role. I just thought that Luke as a character in the show was largely redundant. It was like a made-up, insert here role. If they had removed him, I don't think it would have largely affected anything. He doesn't exactly do a lot here. The only thing I really remember was when Carrie threw a bag at him and when he said, "Gay is OK." But honestly, anyone could've said that.

- TVB ending: The dreaded happily ever after TVB ending. I don't think it was a specific to this show, though. We've all sat through and noticed this particular kind of ending cropping up since the millenia. It probably has something to do with management.

My TAQ-e review: Guilty pleasure. Not a stellar series and not a horrible one. I know I shouldn't really like it all that much because most of it is pretty trivial, but it's fun. There was a little bit of a chase factor going on for me and I found myself still watching (normally, I'll drop a series if I find nothing sticks). Fans of the comeback actresses would probably want to take a peek too.

[taqfiles-blog]

I meant to post this months ago with moving GIFs and all, but then my immune system had a string of events to deal with that left me weak. And I thought it'd be easier to show you the video link, so I broke the rules again. Snipped, clipped and diced.

But yes, it's throwback anniversary time! '93 version.

And silverberrythief, you're the best.

Anyway, two cents commentary:

Hahahaha. That part when Anita calls for a sexy member from the girls' team and Sandra Ng steps out. "Don't scare me, brother!" Failing that, she makes another appearance. Heheh.

LOLOL. Jacky. You're the man. That last part: "That was fun, Dad!" Indeed. We like it Mickey Mouse style.

Cally did a pretty good job with the Peking Opera style. Of course, the original singer of 'Lady' was standing right behind her.

Leon Lai was pretending to be deaf by the way. Or was he?

[taqfiles-blog]

I just wanted to say: "Sorry. I love you."

My health hasn't been great (that's obviously an understatement) but I'm going to be posting a few more things soon.

[taqfiles-blog]

This little thingymabob from the '93 Jade Singers Anniversary. It's a duet between Cally Kwong and Leon Lai. Everything was pretty much ad-libbed, so you get a lot of awkward moments and chemistry happening on stage. The pair 'em up and see how they go also featured some other kings and queens, but I just wanted to poke fun at this couple.

Cally sure looks pretty fine and elegant in that dress.

Cally: Catch me Leon! Or not. LOL.

Wow. Leon's hand in the face act was not very well-received. It's funny how Cally flinches TWICE when Leon tries to pat her face like "No no, it's okay. No REALLY!"

When all else fails, just proceed to wave your arms in the air like a madman Leon style.

Well at least they ended it good and they came together at the end and actually looked and acted like a couple.

Segment here, people.