Shanghai Serenade
|
The lights turned dimmer and dimmer, illumination only to be replaced by the glowing candles on each dining table. The glitzy crystal ball on the ceiling started to twirl, in a tandem to the swings of the old ceiling fan, and beckoned the starry spots to float in this dark oak woods of Shanghai eatery.
|
A young cabaret diva, dressed in qi-pao (a traditional Chinese short silk dress) with sparkling sequins, stepped forward slowly to a microphone in the stage also commanded by a three-men band at behind.
The musical beat and melody was only nostalgic and ravishing, as if heard from an old radio. Softly and alluringly, we heard this legendary great song from Teresa Teng's "Small Town Story":
There are many stories in a small town
Full of joy and happiness
Life is truly beautiful
Everything is already here.
We were harked back to Shanghai's heydays of the 1930s, amidst scenes of opulence, glamour and romance, so electric and fascinating........
Yes, she came along from dream, young and beautiful and strong with life, like a flame in a sunshine. She moved with a slow grace of energy like a blossoming, red-flowered bush in motion. She was also ruddy, strong, with a certain crude, passionate quiescence and a hawthorn robustness.
I was now truly in a caroling, savoring and relishing tone of this mellifluous serenade as if sunken in a sweetie story.
|