Dou Wun (1910-1979) is considered the last master of Deishui Naamyam (southern tone) in Hong Kong. In the 1950s, he performed naamyam, sometimes an impromptu with references to current affairs, at Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). In 1972, Dou’s programme was put to a halt alongside the decline of other traditional cultural programmes at RTHK. The audience took delight in his artistry, appreciating the way he played the paiban with his left hand and guzheng with his right, whilst singing simultaneously.

In 1974, the Goethe-Institut invited Dou to perform Sorrow Of The Traveller, Mourning for My Lady, etc. In 1975, Bell Yung, Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh, recorded 16 numbers of Dou’s naamyam singing at a teahouse. Dou also performed at the Hong Kong City Hall and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Since Dou died in 1979, deishui naamyam has become a legend.

Banyan

The style of narrative song called Banyan was performed exclusively in the brothels of Hong Kong a century ago, where blind singers were hired to entertain the prostitutes and their “johns” with risqué stories. Using slangy, racy, and sometimes lewd expressions, many of which were unacceptable in mainstream society, these songs disappeared after Hong Kong banned brothels in 1935. In his youth the blind singer Dou Wun (1910-1979) made a good living by singing in brothels, as well as in opium dens and teahouses. Professor Bell Yung met Dou and recorded 40+ hours of his singing in 1975, including two Banyan songs, one of which is presented here. You can enjoy both the original historical recording and a version as interpreted by Zuni Icosahedron.     

The Lovers’ Squabble, also called Rotten Big Ass after the name of the protagonist, is his first person telling of himself as down on his luck after spending all his fortune on a prostitute. He seeks out this former lover to borrow some money but ends up being beaten up by her thuggish new lover. Along the way he encounters various characters including Big Uncle Cook, a boat woman, a courtesan singer on the Pearl River, and Auntie Fat Mama, as well as his former lover and the thug. Dou shows off his many vocal colors, regional accents, and varied vocabulary, as well as Banyan’s lively melody and the bowed string instrument with which he accompanies himself, while portraying characters and a tragic-comic slice of life from a world that has long since disappeared.