"Green Island Serenade" (; also known as "Serenade of Green Island") is a
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
classic song composed in 1954 by Chow Lan-ping (). It was composed for the soundtrack for a film. It was later performed by Zi Wei (紫薇) and became a hit song among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. The lyrics of this song were probably written by either Pan Ying-chieh () or Gao Yudang.
Background and meaning
The song has been caught in a decades-long dispute over authorship and intent. This song has often been associated with a political meaning, for the real
Green Island was used as a place of exile for
political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
s from the late 1940s during the
single party
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
rule of
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
's
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
(Chinese Nationalist Party). It was claimed that a prisoner there named Gao Yudang wrote the song with Wang Bo-wen while they were prisoners there. Pan Ying-chieh, a professional musician, also claimed to have written the lyrics with Chow Lan-ping composing the music for a movie soundtrack. He claimed that the Green Island in the title means Taiwan itself, and that the original intent of the song was a description of unrequited romantic love. Pan's daughter later claimed that he wrote the lyrics originally as an expression of love for one of his students whom he later married.
Recordings
The song was written in 1954 and a recording of the song was made in the late 1950s by Zi Wei (
紫薇). It was performed as a slow romantic ballad accompanied by orchestral strings, a style that was popular in that period. The song first became popular in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, spreading to other Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, then became popular in Taiwan itself in the early 1960s. The song is notable as one of the earliest songs from a Taiwan-based singer to achieve widespread popularity among other overseas Chinese communities.
The song has since been covered by many singers. A cover version of this song appears as a
hidden track
In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...
on
Vienna Teng
Cynthia Yih Shih (born October 3, 1978, Saratoga, California), better known by her stage name Vienna Teng, is an American pianist and singer-songwriter who was based in Detroit, Michigan and now lives in Washington, DC. Teng has released five s ...
's second album, ''
Warm Strangers
''Warm Strangers'' is singer-songwriter Vienna Teng's second album.
Track listing
#Feather Moon – 4:06
#Harbor – 4:24
#Hope on Fire – 4:26
#Shine – 2:39
#Mission Street – 4:32
#My Medea – 4:09
#Shasta (Carrie's Song) – 3:29
#Home ...
'' (2004). The song was adapted into multiple Cantonese versions, including a notable rendition "The Light of Friendship" (友誼之光), sung by
Maria Cordero
Maria Cordero, MH (), nicknamed Fat Mama (), is a singer, actress, TV Host and DJ from Hong Kong. She grew up in Hong Kong. She also has her own cooking show, Maria's Kitchen (肥媽私房菜) on Cable TV. Her fans nicknamed her "Fat Mama" (肥 ...
, for the 1987 film ''
Prison on Fire''.
Although many people believed that
Teresa Teng
Teng Li-Chun (; 29 January 1953 – 8 May 1995), commonly known as Teresa Teng, was a Taiwanese singer, actress, musician and philanthropist. Referred to by some as " Asia's eternal queen of pop," Teng became a cultural icon for her contributio ...
had made this song famous, there is no evidence that Teresa Teng had sung this song.
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Chinese songs
Mandarin-language songs
1954 songs