different interpretations

Look at this sentence in my previous post:
" I only found one huadan who had removed her costume but still with make-up on."
After publishing the post I realized that people could interpret this sentence in different ways. 

What does it mean to you, 1 or 2 ?
Does it mean ....
1. Except for this huadan, the other huadans were still in their costumes and with make-up on.
2. Except for this huadan, the other huadans had removed their costumes and make-up.

However, if you look at the context of the post, No. 2 is my intended meaning.

So, there are occasions when what we say are misunderstood by others. 

I found 2 nice photos of the Zhejiang Wu opera stars who performed in Singapore last week ...

楼胜

巫文玲

中国浙江婺剧团莅新演出

马伟绞, 董国建, 巫文玲, 祝巧莉, 陈美兰老师

楼胜, 周宏伟  

周宏伟, 陈兴顺

周宏伟, 楼胜, 马伟绞 with two members of the KAPTF's working committee for the show.

Outside the theatre, a little 'pandemonium' ...

This was the cause of the pandemonium - the 3 shengs, especially Lou Sheng (centre).
浙江婺剧团三生 : 周宏伟, 楼胜, 马伟绞

马伟绞, 楼胜, 周宏伟

The huadans didn't come down to let us take photos. So I went backstage to take a look. I only found one huadan who had removed her costume but still with make-up on.

More photos at Facebook Cantonese opera

紅顏不薄命 - 鄭佩佩, 李麗華

Looking at the stars in the old movie magazines, I wondered about their lives and how they look like in recent years. So I looked up two of them - Cheng Pei Pei and Lee Li Hua.

Both were born in Shanghai, LLH in 1924 and CPP in 1946. They have a successful career and quite a blissful married life although Pei Pei had a divorce in her later years. They have emigrated to the US.

Cheng Pei Pei

Lee Li Hua

Learning a lesson the hard way

I witnessed a traffic accident two days ago.

It was afternoon. I was driving along Circuit Road. The traffic lights at a pedestrian crossing turned red. I stopped at the right lane. Another car has also stopped at the left lane.

Then a vehicle went past on my left, the centre lane, and past the traffic lights. Apparently the driver didn't slow down and probably he was not paying enough attention to the road.

At that moment, a few metres from the pedestrain crossing, a cyclist rode carelessly across the road. So you can imagine what happened next. There was a loud bang; the vehicle had rammed into the cyclist. The cyclist was thrown down and lay in the middle of the road. The driver and two pedestrains went to help the cyclist.

The cyclist should have been more careful. Hope he and the driver learned their lessons.

Unfortunately, sometimes we learn our lessons the hard way.

Old movie magazines

While looking for wells I also found some old Chinese movie magazines. Do you still have any of these magazines in your possession?

Three of these actresses died young; they killed themselves. I guess most of the others have retired from show business and are leading a peaceful and leisurely life.

not the right thing to do

It was last Saturday afternoon at the junction of Mattar Road and Aljunied Road. The traffic lights turned red. The bus travelling along Mattar Road stopped at the centre lane in Mattar Road. It was going to turn right into Aljunied Road. I was at the left lane, next to the bus. I was going to turn left into Aljunied Road.

Then the front door of the bus opened. A man in shorts and singlet and carrying plastic bags clambered down the steps, walked in front of my car and onto the pavement. He was brown-skinned and elderly but not very old.

I was wondering how come the bus driver allowed him to go down.

Maybe he had good intentions, but if the man fell or an accident happened, the bus driver would be in trouble.

A beautiful Village well

村井 (cun jing) means village well. I was using the Chinese characters to seach for images of well. I used Yahoo to search. I thought it would show some pictures of well in villages in China. However, the search did not show any well. Instead there were scores of pictures of a Japanese actress. She is Village well beautiful tree.



This is the original picture before I pasted the well in the picture below on it. The picture was taken from a Hong Kong website.

And this was the well in my old kampong. My sister took this photo.

many children

Did you read the news about a couple with 6 children and their income is only about $1500. The children get aids from their schools and the family gets support from some agencies and kind-hearted people.

Nowadays it is rare to have big families with many children. However, several decades back it was different. During my childhood we lived in a kampong consisting of attap and zinc-roofed houses. Many of my neighbours had 4 or more children. My parents had 4.

In past years I have met a few of these children when I went back to the temple in the area during the second month of the lunar new year to watch the street opera there.

There was a well near my house and sometimes you would see housewives there washing clothes using the well water or children bathing.

This is not an original photo. I pasted the well there. What do you think was there in the original photo?

Cantonese songs concert

Last Saturday I attended a Cantonese operatic songs concert presented by the Qiu Yong Ji Music Studio.

I would say the performers sang well and some sang very well. According to the compere, for one of the singers it was her first time singing on stage. There were also a few who are veterans.

One of the two comperes sang a song which she did very well. The other compere also can sing very well but she didn't sing that night.

The audience were appreciative; very few left before the end of the concert.

Not all the performers are in the photo.


Qiu Yong Ji, lao shi and ochestra leader ...