The Sixth Singing Contest

第六屆國慶盃歌唱比賽初賽

What?! A singing competition... sure ...there was no harm to step out of my own cocoon and tried something new. For whatever reasons, my program delayed by two hours. By the time my glory moment came, I was already half frozen and very hungry.

There were lots of interesting very young people and quite a few of them seemed to know each other from other competitions before. Some people even came with their parents and/or friends. It was like having a family gathering to witness their little ones growing up.

Talking about kids, my primary school was full of country pumpkins like me. We all had outdoor looked and unruly short hair with a wrinkly school uniform on. Despite all these, I also loved music! I once asked my mom for piano lessons. In replied, she said something about the rats at home might finish the piano well before I could finish my learning. I was confused by her comment, was it a yes or no?! Although I never had a chance to fire up my career with music at all, nevertheless I had done other things which were far more interesting than just music in my life. <<MyTravel>>

Internal Exchange Program II. 曲蔓地

内部交流 II

《曲蔓地》was a famous Xinjiang folk song and originally, it was a girl's name. But here, it referred to a flower's name which was the most beautiful specie of roses. The music was lively and warm, typically showing the Xinjiang Uygur folk style. The song expressed the yearning for love, the love of working hard, to live in peace and enjoy the music of good wishes.

I managed to complete the song without any hiccup, but sure, I needed to focus more on my singing skills! 

One could find many versions of this song from the internet, but the one I liked most was sung by Dilber Yunus. She was born in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur, Autonomous Region, China and she was a lyric soprano with coloratura technique. You could get to know her more here: Dilber Yunus. I liked her voice and the way she handled the song. She made the singing so easy and relax. How did she do that?!

曲蔓地 (Qu Man Di)

What did the bee say to the flower? Hello, honey!

Learning to sing or not?!

I was very nervous when singing solo in any occasion. I knew my weak point and I was not born to be in show business. So I need to find more opportunity to sing. I needed to master the kills and practise everyday until I was comfortable with my own voice. Well, with a bit of luck, I would get there one day.

The songs that I had been learning so far:

花非花 (Flower in the mist) 

瑪依拉 (XinJiang folk song) 

追尋 (Searching)  

Person 1: It must be terrible for an opera singer to realize that he can never sing again.
Person 2: Yes, but it's much more terrible if he doesn't realize it.

Let's go to the Hong Kong Coliseum, Final...

香港體育館（紅館）

Well, well, well, finally we were the last 10 in Hong Kong Coliseum inthe competition. I was so happy to be there on the stage. We put on our best evening dress this time, again, we looked great! Unfortunately, Yim Pei and I had to stand on the side. We were just so TALL that we deserved to be on the side! It was a problem when you were tall and there was nothing much one could do, right?! You could spot us in the front row on the left hand side. How did we do in the end? The fact that nobody thrown any egg to us and we must be doing fine, although we managed not to win any prize this time! All in all, we had fun together and it was a wonderful experience. I loved to be on that stage in that arena again.

I'll be back....

我的中國心 (My Chinese Heart)

火把節的夜晚 (Torch night)

我要上紅館--合唱團邀請賽(精華片段A-D)

News:

Hong Kong Celebrations Association

僑友之窗

大公報

China Review News Network (中國評論新聞網)

Liason Office of the CentralPeople's Government in the Hong Kong S.A.R (中央政府駐港聯絡辦)

Yuehai Nongken Educated Youth Website (粵海農墾知青會)

Choir Invitational Tournament, second round

我要上紅館-合唱團邀請賽準決賽
亞洲電視大埔總台

We hardly had any rest yesterday and today we were on the stage in ATV Headquarters again. I was so overjoyed that I slept soundly last night! Then again, who would complain about this busy schedule? We sang the same songs today, but only fifteen of us has left in this competition now. We wanted to give a new image to the audience as well as the judges, we changed to a new set of costume... the long dark blue dress. It sounded like a uniform for the nuns, but when we came out, we looked great!!

Didn't I tell that we would be back one day?!

Torch Festival Night Semifinals (火把節的夜晚準決賽)

喜訊 高校聯的喜訊
Sian Tar People 先达人

Qiao YouQiao You香港僑界社團聯會 

Choir Invitational Tournament, first round

亞洲電視大埔總台我要上紅館-合唱團邀請賽初賽

As part of the celebration of Hong Kong returned to China for 17 years, some organisations invited 30 local chorus groups to join this competition in ATV Headquarter. We were so happy that we were one of the lucky 30. However, we only had around a month to prepare for that. So as usual, we practised very hard. Thanks to our conductor Mr. Zheng and our group leader, Lu Wei. We managed to get on the stage and performed well enough to get us through that far. It was the first time we sang in ATV Headquarter and it was kind of cool. Well, we would be back for more, one day!

We picked the following songs for our competition:

The original song, My Chinese Heart (我的中國心) was composed by a very famous Hong Kong songwriter, advertisers, writers and media creators called Huang Zhan(黄霑). Since then, there have been many different versions of the same song created for the chorus groups. The one that we had been using for this competition was created by our conductor Mr. Zheng in 1986 and it was the best version! Of course, you had to trust my integrity for that!

The other song was called Torch night (火把節的夜晚). It consisted a few semi notes which were much more difficult to sing the melodies correctly. Nevertheless, we made it to the second round. 

The relevant news to this happy occasion: 

廣東新聞網
大公報
文匯報
中國新聞網

Singing in a community group

After the crash course of music theory at home and joined a group for singing therapy as the Loudspeaker, I was ready to improve my basic skill further. I signed up a singing group in my home town in the Yuen Long City Hall (元朗大會堂). Our teacher, Ms Chiu was graduated in The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (香港演藝學院) and she was ever so patient with us. She had to be very accommodating since most of the 35 singers-wanted-to-be are beginners. We had chances to sing in front of the others and it was a very good training for me. 

My singing teacher had a good voice and you could judge by yourself from these songs.  趙老師

Where did the music teacher leave her keys?
In the piano!