native songs, songs I would have sung to my children

Many of Liang Wern Fook's songs contain water. Especially the ones I like. In my secondary school someone who has a lot to say about anything could be mocked as "having ink water" (literal translation from Mandarin). But I don't mean this about Liang Wern Fook's songs.

"Time flows by like a stream and nothing remains the same.
But friendship is a stream that flows forever."

These are sentiments from a very popular LWF song. Sounds a little cheesy in English, but in Chinese the idealism and hints of poetry shine through.

Another song goes:

"I am water and I come from the hills . . .
Dark clouds fill the sky, from North to South to East to West.
Nobody knows where I am.

Gently I descend back to the earth, filling fog and rain.
I am the droplets that land in your heart, in the core of you."

And in a more recent piece where LWF wrote the Chinese lyrics for a song that was composed in Japan:

"Eyes which have shed tears can see more clearly.
And it is a blessing to think of someone with tears in one's eyes."

Italian poets speak of inspiration coming to them as they walk by rivers and streams. In these xinyao (Singaporean Chinese ballads) there is nothing spelt out about the water of composition and the water of lyricism. Water is simply the element of emotions and ideals. The songs are not self-conscious; they were written to be sung, to be recorded, to be played, and to be heard. Perhaps this explains their appeal and the way they weave their way into memories, becoming part of one's life. I am grateful that I got to listen and to sing many of these songs during my teenage years. And they made me see Chinese in a new light.

Like me, many staunch fans will go through their old collection of tapes after hearing some of the songs in the Theatre Practice musical based on LWF's songs (sold out performances this time round, but they say there will be a production again in 2009).