The Legend of The Next Lives of the Butterfly Lovers

The Butterfly Lovers (or The Love Story of Liang Shang-Bo and Zhu Ying-Tai) is a popular Chinese tale set in the ancient China. The tragic tale could be considered as the Chinese version of "Romeo and Juliet". The tale takes such a significant place in Chinese literature and culture that the Chinese have considered to submit it to the World Heritage.

Set in the picturesque town of Hangzhou, the only daughter (Ying-Tai) of a rich provincial lord disguised herself as a boy in order to go into higher education where she met Shang-Bo, a talented hard-working, but poor scholar. Neveretheless she fellin love with him. Not long after they met, she was ordered to return home because her parents decided to marry her into a rich family. It was then that she confessed to Shang-Bo of her love for him.

In spite of her declaration, Ying-Tai was forced home to wait for the day of her marriage with the rich man, whilst Shang-Bo went to the capital city to sit his exams.

Later, Shang-Bo received a post as a provincial officer and went to YingTai's family to propose marriage, but was harshly turned down because of his poor family background. Shang-Bo died in the misery for his love for Ying-Tai, and Ying-Tai was still made to follow the engagement her parents made for her. On the day when she was sent to the wedding ceremony, her carriage passed by Shang-Bo's tomb. She went down from her carriage to pay her tribute to Shang-Bo, a request she made to her parents. As she knelt in front of his tomb, the tomb opened and she stepped in...

Ying-Tai disappeared, and onlookers only saw two butterflies flying out of the tomb. It was said that they were Shang-Bo and Ying-Tai, freed from the bounds of tradition.

So why am I suddenly telling Chinese tales? One reason is because I recently discovered a very interesting musical from Hong Kong, called "The Legend of The Next Lives Of The Butterfly Lovers". It's not just the musical that surprised me, but the main singer / producer of the show, Denise Ho (also known as HOCC in Hong Kong), also.

The concept of the musical is rather interesting - the story takes place in modern time, and the two main characters have both been reincarnated and their paths cross again, except this time Shang-Bo becomes a guy called "Rolls", and Ying-Tai becomes another guy called "Royce". The musical follows the theme of the original tale - the confusion of the characters' sexuality, except this time it deals with the subject of homosexuality.

What draws my attention to the musical is some of the rather brilliant songs in there, as well as the superb live performance from Denise Ho (between the studio album and the live recording of the musical, I must admit the latter is even better). This musical has earned Denise at least three chart-toppers, and the lyrics by Wyman Wong have been very well-written - some of the songs tell their own stories, eg "Rolls. Royce" is already a story on its own (This is the MTV from the studio album version):



The first few lines of the rather powerful lyrics in "Becoming A Butterfly" have already sent me close to tears a few times - the literal translation is "There's no flower in front of the grave. Let me brush aside the soil and let the tears plant in it. Long-buried in it it's you, why didn't you even utter a word before leaving me? Please answer...":



"Coffee In A Soda Bottle" is the third hit from the musical:



To get an idea of the talent of Denise Ho, you really have to watch the live version on DVD to appreciate her singing. Not many singers in Hong Kong can sing live well, but Denise is one exception. And it's brave of her to cover one of Tat Ming Pair's classics "Forbidden Colour" - not easy to match the quality of the original version, but I think in a way she has actually taken the song one step further and made it even better than the original.

Denise Ho has been around in the Hong Kong music scene for 8 years, and I must say that I have not paid any attention on her music until now. This musical has shown the incredible amount of hard work she has put into it, and it has not gone wasted. With some more good songs in future, she could well be following the footsteps of her mentor, Anita Mui, to become a mega-star - certainly she has the talent to do so... whether her luck will take her there remains to be seen.