
Chinese: 
"Independence in publishing, freedom in writing, translation across borders, with reading to free the spirit."
Welcome to my channel, "Voices under the Sun". This is Christine Sun, from Melbourne, Australia.
Let's listen to today's theme song.
"Days Without a Cigeratte

English: 
"Independence in publishing, freedom in writing, translation across borders, with reading to free the spirit."
Hello, welcome to my channel, "Voices under the Sun". This is Christine Sun, from Melbourne, Australia.
Let's listen to today's theme song.
"Days Without a Cigarette", lyrics by Wang Dan, composition and performance by Tom Chang, arrangement by Chen Zhi-Yuan.
In memory of all who were killed, injured, traumatised and forever affected by the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.
Days without a cigarette.

English: 
"Independence in publishing, freedom in writing, translation across borders, with reading to free the spirit"
Welcome to my channel, "Voices under the Sun". This is Christine Sun, from Melbourne, Australia.
Let's listen to today's theme song.
"Days Without a Cigarette", lyrics by Wang Dan, composition & performance by Tom Chang, arrangement by Chen Zhi-Yuan.
In memory of all who died, injured, traumatised and forever affected by the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.
Days without a cigarette.

English: 
There have been days without a cigarette, without me being by your side.
But, in my mind, I have always thought of you as the one and only.
You are the only hope I have left.
As darkness falls, my journey cannot last until the dawn.
My yearnings, every one of them is forever paved along the streets of this dull town.
There are no more blue birds flying in the sky.
You're not used to this, are you?
This is "Days Without a Cigarette", a song that is censored in China, especially in the month of June,

English: 
There have been days without a cigarette, without me being by your side.
In my heart, I have always thought of you as my one and only.
You are my only hope left.
As darkness falls, my journey cannot last until the dawn.
My yearnings, each one of them is forever paved along the streets of this dull town.
There are no more blue birds flying in the sky.
You are not used to this, are you?
"Days Without a Cigarette" is censored in China, especially in the month of June.

English: 
This is because the lyricist, Wang Dan, was one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
To respect the copyright owners, a link is provided below for those who want to liten to the whole song.
Image: Tom Chang (1966-1997), Taiwanese singer and music producer.
Tom Chang was one of my favourite singers.
He was known for his high and clear vocals.
It always reminds me of the big blue sky, without even a single cloud to distract you.
He was very serious while singing.
But when he laughed, he was just a friendly boy from the neighbourhood with confidence and dreams.
He once said that one should always strive to pursue and then present one's best.
That's how his music and life inspired numerous people from my generation.
Unfortunately, Chang died young, in a car crash. He was only 31.

English: 
because the lyrics are written by Wang Dan, one of the student leaders in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
To respect the copyright owners, a link is provided below for those who want to listen to the whole song.
Image: Tom Chang (1966-1997), Taiwanese singer and music producer.
Tom Chang was one of my favourite singers.
He was known for his high but crystal clear vocals,
which reminds me of the blue sky without a single cloud to distract you.
He was very serious while singing.
But when he smiled, he's just a friendly boy from the neighbourhood, full of confidence and dreams.
He once said, one should always strive to pursue and then present one's best.
That's how his music and life inspired so many in the Chinese World.
Unfortunately, Tom Chang died in a car crash in Taiwan. He was only 31.

English: 
A reminder: If/When you drive, please be careful. No alcohol. No drugs. Do not use your mobile phone.
Take care of yourself for those who love you.
To mention "Days Without a Cigarette" is NOT to encourage you to start/keep smoking.
Instead, my focus is on the sentence to come,
which goes,
"Without any cigarette, you can still strike a match."
Talking about matches, their invention and development is a very interesting story.
The matches we use today are relatively safe, having separated the burnable chemicals on the match tip from the striking surface on the sides of the matchbox.
These were introduced in the 1850s.
Western-style safety matches arrived in China in the late 19th century.
They are called "automatic fire" around Shanghai. Others refer to them as "Western fire" or "foreign fire".
In Taiwanese dialect they are called "foreigner's fire".
In Australia, the State Library Victoria recently held a very interesting exhibition

English: 
A reminder: If/When you drive, please always be careful. No alcohol. No drugs. Hands off your mobile phone.
Please do not break the hearts of those who love you.
With "Days Without a Cigarette", my intention is NOT to encourage you to start/keep smoking.
Instead, I want to focus on the next sentence in the song's lyrics,
which goes,
"Even if there's no cigarette, you can still strike a match."
Talking about matches, their invention and improvement in design is a very interesting story.
The matches we use today are relatively safe, having separated the red phosphorus on the match heads from the striking surface on the sides of their box,
a design introduced in the late 1850s.
Western-style safety matches arrived in China in the late 19th century.
These are called "automatic fire" around Shanghai. Others call them "Western fire" or "foreign fire".
In Taiwanese dialect they are called "foreigner's fire".
In Australia, the State Library Victoria in Melbourne recently held an interesting exhibition

English: 
on the evolution of a figure called "Miss Redhead" on a popular matchbox label.
"Miss Redhead" is well known across Australia because we all use matches everyday.
She first appeared in 1947.
Her hair is red, probably because red phosphorus is used on the match tip.
If yellow or white phosphorus had been used, then she probably would have been blond or even silver-haired.
A link is provided below, to an article titled "Evolution of a fiery redhead"
on the State Library Victoria's website.
The evolution of the design of "Miss Redhead" is fascinating.
As time went by, her hairstyle varied considerably.
So did the shape of her face and her expressions.
At times she looked cute. At other times she was witty.
Even her hats highlighted the fashion trends of different eras.
Here I have got a pack of matches from the kitchen.
The current design was introduced in 1975.
One pack of this contains 10 matchboxes, each with 45 matches.

English: 
on the design and evolution of "Miss Redhead" on a popular matchbox label.
"Miss Redhead" is a common household name in Australia because we all use matches everyday.
She first appeared in 1947
She's red-headed because the safety match is red-tipped, using red phosphorus.
If yellow or white phosphorus had been used, then I guess she would have been blond or even silver-headed.
There is a link below, to an article titled "Evolution of a fiery redhead" on the State Library Victoria's website.
Please go and read the lovely story.
The evolution of the design is fascinating.
"Miss Redhead" changed her hairstyle along with the fashion of the times.
The shape of her face and her expression also changed.
Sometimes she's cute. At other times she's witty.
Even the hats she wore show the particular fashion trends of different eras.
I found a pack of safety matches in the kitchen.
This design was introduced in 1975.
Each pack contains 10 match boxes, each with 45 matches inside.

English: 
And here is what a match box looks like.
This exhibition on the design of a matchbox label reminds me of something.
Although many Western and Chinese literary works feature matches as a theme,
hardly any of them focus on matchboxes.
At the moment, I can only think of Taiwanese author Sanmao's "Red Dust".
This is a film script, the only one she had ever written in her life.
It was made into a movie in 1990.
The female protagonist, "Shen Shao-Hua", is played by Taiwanese actress Brigitte Lin.
Shen's love interest, "Zhang Neng-Cai", is played by Taiwanese actor Qin Han.
Shen's best friend, "Yue-Feng", is played by Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung.
"Red Dust" is set in Shanghai in the mid to late 1940s.
At the end of the Chinese Civil War, the country's economy fluctuated as a result of political chaos.
It eventually collapsed.
Let me read a bit of the film script, to help you understand the background.

English: 
Here is what a matchbox looks like.
This exhibition on the evolution of "Miss Redhead" reminds me that
many Western and Chinese literary works feature matches as a theme.
But not many of them mention matchboxes.
At the moment, I can only think of Taiwanese author Sanmao's "Red Dust".
This is a film script, the only one she had ever written in her life.
It was made into a movie in 1990.
The female protagonist Shen Shao-Hua was played by Taiwanese actress Brigitte Lin.
Shen's love interested Zhang Neng-Cai was played by Taiwanese actor Qin Han.
Shen's best friend Yue-Feng was played by Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung.
"Red Dust" is set in Shanghai in the late 1940s.
At the end of the Chinese Civil War, the country's economy rapidly deteriorated due to political chaos.
It eventually collaposed.
Let me read a bit of the film script, to help you understand the background.

English: 
(Reading) "At the time, the cost of living was changing from one hour to the next.
"People no longer believed in banknotes. They only trusted Silver Dollars and gold.
"Previously, one could exchange 1 Silver Dollar with 80,000 'Golden Certificates', the official currency issued in August 1948.
"Now, even with 1 million 'Golden Certificates', you could hardly get yourself a single Silver Dollar.
"In order to reassure the people and to stabilise the economic situation, the government announced that
"people were now allowed to convert their banknotes -- which were now rapidly losing their values -- to GOLD
"at a handful of banks approved by the authorities.
"This announcement quickly drew tens of thousands of people to these banks.
"A certain number of people were said to have been trampled to death in the crowds."
This is the background. Now we examine the details.
(Reading) "Yue-Feng and her boyfriend were also waiting in the crowd.

English: 
"People were tightly bunched together, like twenty cans of sardines squished into one.
"Each was forced to hold onto the shoulders of the person before them.
"In a struggle to keep their faces from being pressed flat against the bodies of others,
"they all turned their faces to the same direction (toward the camera), in order to breathe."
"That pathetic bunch of people! They looked like they had long accepted their fate.
"All of them fixed their eyes on the bank.
"Some had big bundles dangling from their arms. Others dragged small suitcases.
"Still others carried cardboard boxes or had containers of all shapes and sizes between their feet.
"While desperately holding onto the person before them, they also had to mind their belongings.
"A man here lost his hat, unable to pick it up. A woman there only had one shoe left.
"Someone else was squished so hard, he could only grimace in pain.
"Another appeared to have fainted over the shoulders of the person before him.
"Unable to control themselves, waves of people were rushed forward and then backward.
"As the waves came and gone, people yelled out of fear of being swamped and smothered...

English: 
"Yue-Feng and her boyfriend struggled in the crowd.
"With his arms around her waist, she held onto the person before her for dear life.
"Squished and squashed, they kept their eyes on the bank in front of them.
"Between the two of them was a tied bag made of cloth.
"Suddenly a voice yelled out,
"'No more! No more conversion today! The bank's closed! We can't do it any more!'
"Having lost hope, people dispersed slowly, in misery.
"Yue-Feng and her boyfriend stood there numbly.
"Like those around them, they had no idea what to do."
Against this background, Shao-Hua and Yue-Feng rented a tiny room together.
In order to earn a living, they worked late into the night under an oil lamp,
assembling matchboxes.
I quote the film script:

English: 
(Reading) "All the raw materials were stored in a big cardboard box on the floor.
"On the table were piles and piles of tiny matchboxes.
"It was late. Outside it was pitch dark.
"Yue-Feng turned on the light to quickly count the number of matchboxes assembled.
"As soon as the counting was done, the light was off.
"Yue-Feng did the counting while mumbling to herself:
"'OK, 580 in total. We've earned enough money to buy half an egg.
"'No matter, let's keep working. When the dawn comes - whoa! - we'll have 30 million matchboxes.
"'That won't be enough to buy 10 grains of rice.'"
Indeed, now as in the past, when the times are bad, it is every man for his own.
"One removes the snow in front of his door while ignoring the frost on other people's roof."

English: 
It reminds me of a famous fairy tale,
"The Little Match Girl" by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.
Let's look at an illustration that Scottish artist Anne Anderson did in 1926 for this story.
In this story, the Little Match Girl was cold and starving on the streets.
Everyone else was happily preparing for Christmas celebrations.
She could only light the matches and try to warm herself with the tiny flames.
In those flames she could almost see a Christmas tree and a luxurious, delicious meal,
and her grandmother who had long passed away.
Having used up all her matches, the Little Match Girl froze to death.
The next morning, people found her body that was frozen solid.

English: 
Perhaps they would heave a sigh, shake their heads, and shed some tears.
But they all had to get on with their lives.
Tragedies like this were soon left behind and forgotten.
We return to matches.
These appear In Canadian author Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale".
Here I have the book in English.
Published in 1985, it was made into a TV series in 2017, one that captured the world's imagination.
Let's look at the cover of a new edition, and an image from the TV series.
"The Handmaid's Tale" describes a dystopian society

English: 
where the environment is so polluted that people have lost their capacity to reproduce.
Only a handful of women can still carry and give birth to healthy babies. So they become tools.
Only those families with power and wealth can be assigned a handmaid.
Worse, each handmaid only has three chances to become pregnant.
If she produces a healthy baby, then it belongs to the family she's assigned to.
She is then assigned to a new family, to endure forced sex and pregnancy, to keep producing babies, like a hen.
On the other hand, if she fails to become impregnated by the husbands of three families in a row,
then she will be either exiled or forced to work as a public prostitute.
The protagonist of this book is one such handmaid.
In the family she's assigned to, the wife desperately wants a child.
Doubting her husband's capacity to impregnate the handmaid,
she decides to bribe the woman, getting her to mate with the family's driver.
The price is a cigarette and one single match to light it.

English: 
In such an environment, where everything is monitored and controlled by the government,
even a cigarette and a match can be rare luxury items.
In this book, all handmaids are dressed in long red robes.
They wear white, wide habits, like the nuns in the past.
Every inch of their bodies is covered.
Because they are the government's tools, no commoners can touch them.
They cannot try to escape or resist their fate. Otherwise, they will be punished by beating or electrocution.
Anyone trying to fight against such tyrannical rule will be either killed or exiled.
When "The Handmaid's Tale" was made into a TV series, the story becomes so realistic, it is scary.
Such a future is not only horrible but also possible. It is soul-crushing.

English: 
Later, when I read the book in English, I find the writing to be shockingly beautiful.
As the protagonist reveals her story,
I see the soul of a woman who is treated as a tool, her feeling of helplessness and hopelessness,
her sense of confusion and emptiness,
and her continued struggle to maintain her dignity as a human being, no matter what.
Let's look at the cover of the book's first edition.
It reminds me of George Orwell's "1984", where the Big Brother is always watching you.
Difference is, in "The Handmaid's Tale", the Big Brother is not only watching you.
He is also constantly using you and manipulating you.
Image: Cover of the first edition of "The Handmaid's Tale".
Let's return to matches.
A Chinese saying goes, "Water can carry your boat, but it can also tip it over and drown you."
The same goes with matches.
We can light a fire to keep ourselves warm, to cook food, to forge steel as weapons.

English: 
We can also light a fire to burn off anything and everything we no long need, cannot accept, or refuse to tolerate.
The first emperor in ancient China ordered all the books be burned.
During the Second World War, Nazi Germany also burned all the Jewish books in order to destroy the faith and culture of the Jews.
In the aforementioned "The Handmaid's Tale",
the government wants to keep the people ignorant in order to control their thoughts and actions.
Not only are all the books and magazines burned, but the government also controls all media and communications channels.
A similar dystopian society is found in U.S. author Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451".
This classic sci-fi novel was published in 1953.
Let's look at the cover of its first edition.

English: 
Image: Cover of the first edition of "Fahrenheit 451".
In this book, people have no freedom.
Reading and possession of books are banned.
The job of the so-called "firemen" is not to fight fires, but to burn books.
451 degrees in Fahrenheit is approximately 233 degrees in Celsius, the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns
"Fahrenheit 451" was made into a movie in 1966.
I watched the 2018 remake, and proceeded to buy the book.
As the book is yet to arrive in my letterbox, I can only show you a movie poster.
Image: Poster of movie "Fahrenheit 451" (2018).
In this book, there is a group of people in exile, whose job is to defend books with their life.

English: 
Each person memorises a book, the whole book and nothing but the book,
so that a book goes truly out of print when the person memorising it dies.
Later, these people find a way to edit the content of the books into a bird's DNA.
As long as the bird survives, it can fly away, out of its cage, over all barriers and across all borders.
In the future, it will mate and reproduce, passing on its DNA to future generations and keeping whatever is left of human civilisation alive.
While watching this movie, I already knew it depicts a dystopian society where books are banned and burned.
So I paid specific attention to any book mentioned in the movie.
I am yet to have a chance to compare the movie with the book.
However, any book and any quotation of a book that is mentioned in the movie should have a reason to be there.
It should serve as the director's way to communicate with the audience.
i.e. It is not there to take up space or waste time.
For this reason, when I discovered one of such people in exile in the movie,

English: 
who spends her precious life memorising and defending the famous "Little Red Book",
i.e. "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung",
I found it to be truly amazing.
Perhaps, in their attempt to include at least one famous book from each of the countries and cultures around the world,
the director and his team chose this book to represent China and the Chinese culture.
As the people in exile battle against the government's troops in the movie,
this particular person tells the protagonist to hurry up and finish his job.
She suddenly quotes from the book,
"Revolution is not a party!"
Seeing this, I nearly fell off my seat, laughing.
Using this quote at this moment, in this particular movie, is truly awesome.
I should wrap up this episode here.
It remains my hope that you'll have many good books to read, and you enjoy reading good books.
A final reminder: There's a famous saying that goes,

English: 
"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."
Many believe this was said by Ray Bradbury, author of the aforementioned "Fahrenheit 451".
In fact, it is Joseph Brodsky, a Jewish-Russian poet who was exiled to America in 1972, who said it.
Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987.
He was praised "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity".
He was further praised as the only modern Russian poet whose body of work has been honoured as being classic.
I think Brodsky's poetry deserves to be read by all who like burning and banning books,
as well as by those who want to control the thoughts, words and actions of others.
OK, that concludes my episode today.
Thank you for watching my channel, "Voices under the Sun". See you next week.

English: 
Thank you! Please "like", "subscribe", or leave a comment! I'll definitely respond!
