Listen to Shirley Singing the Song in Chinese Dec 18, 2011 in Beijing


This song is the theme song of a famous Chinese movie The Young people in Our Village -- Wo Men Cun Li De Nian Qing Ren that was produced by Changchun Film Studio and be directed by Ma Feng in 1959.

It described how a group of young people in the Apricot Flower Village helped the village to shak off the poverty and backwardness via blasting a cliff to bring the water into their own village to build a water and electricity station.

This movie made a daring attempt to allow two boys loved a girl at the same time. Its strong idealism and Shānxi local color caused many urban young people looking forward to a countryside life in 50's.

Maybe for almost all my classmates who are in the landscape class in Chinese National Academy of Arts have been to Taihang Mountains and many people enjoy painting them in the classrooms often; or maybe for I enjoy the lyrics in my bone -- if a person has a high aspiration, then he or she will not get older; plus for I love the orotund tones so that as soon as I read this song, I would like to learn to sing it.

Note: Both of Shānxi and Shǎnxi are written in same Chinese pinyin, but, one's tone is 1 or be expressed as -, the other's is 3 or v.

-- Shānxi keeps its original form
-- Shǎnxi should be written as Shannxi.

Shǎnxi's capital is Xian and Shānxi's capital is Taiyuan.

Their Chinese character are:
山西： Shānxi -- Shanxi
陕西： Shǎnxi -- Shannxi

I learned this song and translated it into English first time in 2006, I will try to re-translate it and to sing it in English some day later.

Main Meaning of the Poem

People said that
there is a wonderful scene in Shanxi,
the soil is fat,
the water is beautiful,
the corn is sweet-smell.
It is Taihang mountain on the left,
It is Lǚliang mountain on the right.
When you stand on the high place to see up,
you can see the water from Fen River
is singing to flow by my little village.

Apricot flowers are blooming
in the Apricot Village,
We are just at the golden ages,
the young boys do not dare to stand
hundreds' hard work,
the young girls can embroider
ten thousand's flowers.
We will not get older
for we have dreams always.
You see the grandmothers with white hair,
when they are straight their wastes,
they are just like only 17 or 18 years old... :-)

You can clink any Chinese Character below to see its Chinese pinyin, meaning and    pronunciation, also, you can follow the links to enter the New Chinese Board and follow me to read it in Chinese

Chinese Characters & Pronunciation:

人说山西好风光 -- Ren shuo Shanxi hao fengguang，
地肥水美五谷香 -- di fei shui mei wugu xian。
左手一指太行山 -- zuoshou yi zhi Taihang Shan,
右手一指 是 吕 梁 -- youshou yi zhi shi Lǚlian。
站在那高处 -- zhan zai na gaochu
望上一望 -- wang shang yi wang,
你看那汾河的水呀 -- ni kan na Fenhe de shui ya,
哗啦啦啦地流过 -- hua la la de liu guo
我的小村旁 -- wo de xiao cun pang。

杏花村里开杏花 -- xing hua cun li kai xing hua,
儿女正当好年华 -- er nǚ zheng dang hao nian hua。
男儿不怕千般苦 -- nan er bu pa qian ban ku,
女儿能锈万种花 -- nǚ er neng xiu wang zhong hua。
人 有 那 志 气 永 不 老 -- ren you na zhiqi qong bu lao，
你看那 白发的婆婆 -- ni kan na baifa de po po,
挺起那腰板 -- ting qi na yao ban
也 象十七八 -- ye xiang shi qi ba。


If you have any questions, comments and suggestions, please write to info@ebridge.cn , or shirley@ebridge.cn, You are welcomed.   

--Shirley Yiping Zhang
Written, Translated, Sang And Recorded on Feb 18, 2006/Dec 18, 2011