The other day when I came back home, my sister-in-law told me excitedly that Ivy Ling Po was singing in a variety show in TV. Ivy Ling Po (inset) is a former Asian movie queen, very famous especially for singing Huangmei opera (黃梅戲 or 黃梅調, Huángméixì or Huángméidiào). This form of opera is said to have originated as a form of rural folk song and dance that has been in existence for the last 200 years or so. The music is performed with a pitch that hits high and stays high for the duration of the song and it is unique in the sense that it does not sound like the typical rhythmic Chinese opera. Ivy Ling Po used to dub for others until Shaw famous director Li Han Hsiang discovered her and cast her as Liang Shan Po, a male scholar, in the movie Love Eterne which also starred Betty Loh Ti as Chu Ying Tai, the female lead. The 1963 Hong Kong made movie about an ill-fated lovers who upon death transformed into a pair of butterflies was a mega hit, breaking all records in Taiwan and Ivy Ling Po became a big name even till this day. ..
Here's Ling Po talking about the making of Love Eterne...
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