The Wandering Songstress - Huang Xiao Jun

天涯歌女 is a classic and an evergreen. It was first performed in 1937 by tragic songstress Zhou Xuan (周旋)who passed away at 39 in an asylum. Numerous big names have covered it including Yamaguchi Yoshiko known as Shirley Yamaguchi in Hollywood productions and Li Xiang Lan （李香兰）in Chinese movies. In the several decades that followed, almost every singer who sings in Chinese has either recorded or performed it in concerts, most notable of all, Teresa Teng.
This version is by Huang Xiao Jun, 黄晓君，a Chinese Malaysian singer who, as a high school student, won the hearts of many and was promoted by her record company as 歌坛才女 - Prodigy of the Recording Industry. She was studious and she always made sure she pronuounced all her lyricss in perfect Mandarin, bringing a Chinese Dictionary with her to the Recording studios all the time. In the 70's, she topped the local charts easily with each release.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• The
• wandering
• songstress
• 天涯歌女
• Huang
• Xiao
• Jun
• 黄晓君Malaysian
• Chinese
• Singer马来西亚华人歌手
• Mandarin
• Oldies
• 华语老歌

[fluffycatears]

An asylum?! That´s horrible.

[canaanoptical]

Yes, hers was a tragic life indeed. You can find articles about her in Wikipedia in both the Chinese and English versions. Her story has been made into movies and various TV series. Her son who is in his fifties, sometimes comments about those shows.

[chungfui3000]

i think u got the wrong person dude... the one ur refering to is deng xiao jun...

[canaanoptical]

Chungfui3000, you can find all that info in wikipedia, both the Chinese and English versions.

Huang Xiao Jun is a Malaysian singer, no longer active now in the entertainment industry.

Deng Li Jun was a Taiwanese singer, also referred to in English as Teresa Teng (January 29, 1953 May 8, 1995.)

Zhou Xuan was born in mainland China. (August 1, 1918 - September 22, 1957) Zhou is the subject of many movies and TV series.

Her songs are covered by many singers, including Deng and Huang.

[khmerkic]

I don't understand what you say about asylum. I truly hope you were not being negative toward anyone. Being an educated and a proud American, I have travelled the world, including the Netherlands.

This video deserves to be rated a 5 Star video because Jeremy did such a great job compiling and uploading this for sharing the well-loved singer's talent who's an all-time famous artist.

[canaanoptical]

Dear friend, it was nothing negative. The original singer, Zhou Xuan lived from (August 1, 1918 - September 22, 1957.) She died in an asylum. Teresa's mom, like many Chinese mothers all over the world loved her songs and taught the little girl these songs which are now classics! My mom and sisters, in fact, almost our whole family like Zhou's records!

[Tiberiotertio]

I like this song very much even though I am not very familiar with Chinese songs. This version is nice, but thinking of Tang Wei´s version in the movie Lust & Caution I find her version more pleasing. Guess I prefer acapella on this particular song. But nice to see the lyrics, as it gives a good idea how words are pronounced, where as when you only see them written one might pronounce them differantly. Chinese is a difficult language! Thanks for uploading!

[bren5209]

I wonder what would all these characters be doing now if they live their life to old age..Such as Teresa Teng, Bruce Lee, JFK, Marilyn Monroe and others..

[khmerkic]

Friend, Thank you so much for taking the time to explain. I feel empathetic for such tragic loss.

[kindface]

I remember listening to her songs in my early teenage years. I sometimes wonder if Teresa Teng's dominance has somewhat curtailed the careers of quite a few other singers of the 70s. About a year ago, I had the good fortune to catch Fung Feifei in Genting and she belted out for 3 non-stop hours. Such is the quality of the artists of TT's days. The "singers" of today, especially those in HK are just rubbish by comparison.