Wen Bie - Who is the biggest peasant ?

December 8th, 2007 by Vinnie

It’s weekend again and that means Chinese take away for most Dutchies. Getting some great fusion food according to the Dutch and serving disgusting crap according to the Chinese behind the desk. The Dutch make jokes about the Chinese, laughing at their dialect and so forth, while the serving Chinese consider these Dutch as ‘always broke peasants’. Totally forgetting their own rural Chinese background.

So that brings me to the following: who is the biggest peasant?

What better way to start investigating the matter is to listen at modern popular folk songs? Compare the language and degree of Hosmosness.

For the case I have chosen a perfect song that is not only suitable to compare the West to the East. It is also an interesting song because it is made in China and then copied abroad, normally it is the other way around.

Anyway the song:

Wen Bie (cover Take me to your Heart)
by Jacky Cheung (1993):

Lyrics in Mandarin (Pinyin):
qian chen wang shi cheng yun yan xiao shi zai bi chi yan qian
jiu lian shuo guo le zai jian ye kan bu jian ni you ai yuan
gei wo de yi qie ni bu guo shi zai fu yan
ni xiao de yue wu xie wo jiu hui ai ni ai de geng kuang ye

wo he ni wen bie zai wu ren de jie
rang feng chi xiao wo bu neng ju jie
wo he ni wen bie zai kuang luan de ye
wo de xin deng zhe ying jie shang bei

This song recently became popular again when it was sang by the famous Andy Lau:

Than a typical European Hosmos band MLTR came up with their version:

Take Me To Your Heart
by MLTR

Now to make a judgement, please listen to the lyrics in the clip and compare it with the translation of the lyrics of the original Chinese version:

The dusty past becomes a cloud of smoke, scattering before our eyes
Even though we’ve said goodbye, I can’t see any of your sadness
Everything you’ve given me, it’s all been a routine
When you laugh so sweetly, I love you even more wildly

Wanting to give you nostalgia is like a kite with a broken string
It can’t fly into your world, and won’t warm your line of sight
I can already see, this play is a tragedy
There’s no happy ending, I’m still hiding in your dreams

I must say that the Chinese language and lyrics are far more sophisticated. Anyway this western version of the song was like it’s Chinese predecessors again a huge hit in China and Korea:

China:
MLTR & Hu Yanbin (Take me to your heart)

Korea:
Jeong Hyungrok (Chris) - Take me to your heart

Take Me To Your Heart - MLTR & Hyesung

I forgot the argument somewhere in the middle of the post…heck…