lovers' tears

Tsai Chin in《青梅竹馬》(Taipei Story; 1985) by Edward Yang

because i'd rather give folks flowers while they're still around, here's celebrating 蔡琴 Tsai Chin, the legendary Taiwanese songstress and sometimes actress. my favourite film role of hers is in《青梅竹馬》(Taipei Story; 1985) by the late 楊德昌 Edward Yang, who she married soon after its filming. in this overlooked, atmospheric portrait of a childhood romance crumbling amidst capitalism, Tsai plays the quintessential career woman, held back by her past while forging ahead in the brave new world of New Taipei (and New Taiwanese Cinema). her perfectly coiffed, wavy hairdo threatening to come undone in the rooftop wind, those '80s sunglasses and spectacles alternately obscuring and highlighting her bad-luck mole, that disaffected look on her face, suppressing horrible fears, as she stares out of another office window...perfection.

today i got hung up on one of Tsai Chin's classic songs,《情人的眼泪》(Lovers' Tears), particularly the live version above. from at least 14 years ago, she prefaces it by sharing that this song still evokes deep emotions in her, so much so that she often skips performing it. but the feeling from singing it is addictive.

it's a deceptively simple number, as so many of the best songs go. just three verses, four lines each, with a coda, repeated twice, like a distilled, haunting poem.《情人的眼泪》, of course, is about the end of love, like most sentimental Chinese music. but what makes it stand out is the special resonance and vibrato in her voice (cinematically best captured in that scene in Infernal Affairs): she possesses a rare range of voice that could go up to Teresa Teng–like high sweetness, but blossoms in the lower contralto region, where she extends Chinese vowels (韵母) and makes them sing, plumbing the depths of sorrow.

in each verse, "Lovers' Tears" employs the rhetorical question: from "为什么要对你掉眼泪?" (Why should I shed tears for you?), repeated twice, to "你怎舍得说再会?" (How could you bear to say goodbye?), the latter even more pitying as parting comes when "Spring flowers are in bloom" (春花正开). the answer to each question is so painfully obvious, the departed lover's obliviousness, blindness, uncaringness stings: respectively, "你难道不明白为了爱?" (Don't you understand it's for love?) and, finally, a plea: "你不要忘了我情深深如海" (Don't forget my deep love, as deep as the sea).

it's funny typing out the English translations of the lyrics: they seem so trite, so sappy. but maybe that's one of the marks of a great singer: selling sap, making it true. (there's also an overwhelmingly sentimental quality to modern Chinese-language creations that's all but unavoidable.) i also love how, unlike many singers who'd rather hide these "flaws", Tsai uses the scraping, guttural quality of her bottom register and the ragged sound of her breath (around the 5'39" mark) for further emotional resonance.

listening to Tsai Chin on and off over the years, i treasure most her quality of singing as if holding back tears. in her pregnant pauses, artful vibrato, and her high, climatic drama, her voice—beautifully aged over the years—reminds me that, like this song, "只有那有情人眼泪最珍贵 / 一颗颗眼泪都是爱都是爱" (Only a lover's tears are precious / Every single tear is love, all love).