CHANG SIAO YING

POST 1

張小英

三個夢

Lyrics [雁萍]歌

第一个梦里 你像抹朝霞

可爱又迷人 转 飘渺又婆娑

我想追寻你 追寻来 - 作伴

万里迢迢关山难 我想忘却你未语悲先发音

醒来时 不禁泪满腮 泣无声空惆怅魁

...

第二个梦里 你像茉莉花

馥香又秀丽网 清逸又多娇

我想追寻你 追寻来 - 作伴

喧蝶舞闹嚷嚷 我想忘却你 未语双双

醒来时 不禁五更寒 肠欲断直彷徨

...

第三个梦里 你像轮明

彩又无私 晶莹又圣洁

我想追寻你 追寻来 - 作伴

天长路远魂飞苦 我想忘却你未语梦惊醒

愿上苍 断梦能再续 莫令人催心肝

Hi there

This is only a temporary blog for a singing sensation from Singapore, Miss Chang Siao Ying. The purpose is to gather as much information about this golden voice as possible. Hopefully, a web page (probably an unofficial site first) can then be created specially for her. If anyone knows any accurate information about Ms Chang Siao Ying, do feel free to email me for updates or corrections at threedreams60708090@yahoo.com.sg Thanking you in advance.

.......

Chang Siao Ying came in first as the champion of the Rediffusion's Talentime (Singing contest) probably in the late 60s. She is a petite Chinese lady (parental origins from Shanghai, China) but she has a great golden voice which few can measure up to. Not long after winning the Talentime and after sighing a record contract, a song was especially written for her and it was called Three Dreams (三個夢 San Ke Mung) . The latter song was featured in her very first album entitled Three Dreams (Off Bit N A Go Go - in English).Later she also popularised a song entitled Beloved One (心上 人 Sin Sun Re). Another song entitled A Small Umbrella (一把小雨傘 Ee Pa Xiao Yu San) was another hit that Chang Siao Ying popularised. That number was translated from a Japanese original. Many years later it was re-popularised again but the lyrics and titles were changed. The credit of this well-known song somehow did not go to Chang Siao Ying. It was further transalted into a Hokkien song. After her very first album, she also recorded at least two albums of songs with Polydor. One entitled in English as Panorama of Atami (热海的风光). The other was titled Lady Below the Moon (月姑娘).

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At one time she was first accompanied by the band, Travellers. Some years later she switched to The Stylers which was more popular in the far east then. She was still under the label of Prinstar (Denon) Records and at least once a week, promotion of her latest then record would be broadcasted via the ever popular Rediffusion in the late evening between 1800 hrs to 1900 hrs. Her diction-perfect, crystal clear, golden voice could be heard almost from house to house and block to block. It was a delight to hear her sing because she sung with so much of energy and feelings in each song. If the song was lively, her expression would uplift you to high spirits. If the song was a sad number, one could hear her throaty depressed expressions. How appropriate, how sentimental. In the early 70s, black and white TV were the in-thing and not many families could afford to own a TV. Nevertheless, the then RTS (Radio Televison of Singapore) had a programme called Hua Yuen Liang Seow where our international famous comedians Wang Sar & Ye Fung played the comperes. This was a show that was scheduled on every Friday evening and Chang Siao Ying, due to her popularity, appeared in almost every other third Friday, belting out her latest hits. It was around this era that the Chinese pops went A-go-go, Cha Cha, soft Rock and so forth.

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Following her two well-received hits, there were not many original songs written for her. Meanwhile, copyright issues were not a legal matter at that era, hence it was rather common of one singer doing a cover version of a number sung by the original singer. This was where she did a lot of cover versions like

. Tonight, The Rain Is Misty (今夜雨蒙蒙 Cin Ye Yu Mo Mo)

. Tonight You Are Not By My Side (今夜身邊沒有你 Cin Ye Sen Bie Mei You Ne )

. Sweet, Sweet lady (甜甜的姑娘 Tian Tian De Ku Liang)

. Round Moon, Great Flowers (月圆花好 Ye Yuen Hua How)

and many more. Similarly, other foreign artistes like Yu Ya, Teresa Teng, Yang Siao Ping, Li Ya Ping, Francis Yip, and others were gaining their popularity here. This was like in the 70s. Again, these artistes did cover versions of each other's songs too mostly under the label of Life Records. Not wavering, Chang Siao Ying held on firm to the fort of her label. She popularised alot of hits by cutting the albums way before the official launch of the original versions. Hence, she was an apple in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.

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On at least one occassion, she performed live together with her look-a-like, Ling Ying and one of the songs she recorded live was San Nan San Pei Zhou Ee We (山南山北走一回 Walk North & South of The Hill Once). Ling Ying, with some resemblence of Chang Siao Ying was also contracted into the same label and became rather popular. Ling Ying was more into translated songs like Funny Funny, Beautiful Sunday, etc. Her voice was weaker though she has the looks. Chang Siao Ying also did some of Ling Ying's translated songs and I must say the result was rather better. Not long, Ling Ying for some personal reasons, stepped down from the scene. Another look-a-like was Miss Chang Siew Ying who is the very own sister of Chang Siao Ying. Chang Siew Ying recorded at least one album but also disappeared not long later. Looks like Chang Siao Ying was rather open-minded about the look-a-likes but they somehow failed to match her versatility. Third was someone who sounded pretty like Chang Siao Ying and she is from Malaysia. She is no other then, Miss Wang Siao Chiun who was blessed with a good music band back up. They sounded alike in terms of style but Wang Siao Chiun has a weaker vocal. Wang popularised a then great song, Beloved Friend (Cing Ai De Pun You) which went up the billboard for a couple of weeks. It was written specially for her. Much later, Chang Siao Ying, upon request sang that same song and she sang it so fantastically well !

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Amongst all these, Chang Siao Ying and another Singapore's favourite, Miss Lena Lim (Zhu Chiun) were invited to guest appear in one of the Taiwanese musical movies. Besides the two of them, the movie featured a few Taiwan hot favourites like Yang Siao Ping, Li Ya Ping (she sang Wake Up, Lei Mo Na), Si Siew Lan and others. Chang Siao Ying belted out two songs and one of which was Tonight's Rain Is Misty (Cing Ye Yu Mong Mong 今夜雨蒙蒙) where she gracefully sang with an umbrella. It was such an achievement and an honour for Singapore. Meanwhile, her record sales was soaring well all over South East Asia including Indonesia.

......

She also attempted singing in English upon a request. That album had a classic cover of Chang Siao Ying and her title sound was Rythm Of The Rain. At that time, Tracy Wang (Yin Yin) came into the scene and captured alot of Chinese fans with her first English debut. That stirred alot of other Chinese pop stars to sing in English too. Not lacking behind, Chang Siao Ying did likewise. Though it was not at all too good, it was a hip attempt of that time.

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Of course, it was much later, some listeners classified her cruelly as off-beat or copy-cat without the least recognition of the fact that she was one of the evergreen trees that stretched Singapore's branches within Singapore and beyond. She even cut several albums in Cantonese and in Hong Kong where Canto pops were influencing Singapore to a large extent. Her Cantonese hits were rather classic in nature but probably due to strong market competition and lack of influencial promotions in Hong Kong, she stopped doing the Cantonese numbers much later. Apart from the norms, she beautifully did several Chinese New Year's hits which till today, nobody could do this well. She re-did old Chinese New Year classics like

. Gong Xi Fa Cai (original by Ge Lan, Grace Chang)

. Welcome Spring Flowers (迎春花 Yin Choon Hwa originally by Chang Loo)

. Returning to Spring (大地回春 Da Di Wui Choon originally Wu Ying Ying)

. Cong Xi Gong Xi (恭喜恭喜 original by You Li)

and some more. Her voice injected the spirit of splendour and goodness for each New Year. A journalist ever mentioned that when it came to listening to Chinese New Year songs, it was a must to listen to Chang Siao Ying's numbers.

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Many years passed and it was possibly during the early 80s where she crossed label to Form Records and humbly submitted her vocal training to a very well-known and acclaimed Chinese pop composer, Mr Onn Cin Ci and if my facts were right, he is the father of the ever beautiful Judy Onn who resides presently in Japan and a great Chinese pop star that made it to Japan. Under Form Records, Chang Siao Ying re-recorded, probably for the third time, Three Dreams (三個夢) and the Beloved One (心上人). Here, the music was much better and string instruments were used to back her up her quality voice. The result was grand and classic. Each album was near perfection. She continued to do popular and latest hits yet not forgetting to venture into oldies backdating to the 50s onwards. So versatile. She was the very first artiste in Singapore to have her special night programme produced by then the Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS 8) there after Maggie Teng and the rest followed. Mind you, she was then a mother of several kids yet a popular house-hold name that so far very, very few songbirds could do. Her family is important to her but she did not neglect her singing bud. Some of her beautiful songs recorded while in Form Records like :-

. March's Rain (三月里的小雨)

. Shepherd's Song (牧羊曲)

. Guide You Along The Bridge (伴你走银河) - This is one of the originals written for her

and many more

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Alot of information on her were not recollected here hence I really could not mention any further from here on. But I kind of remembered her last album with Form Records (which was where her contract expired and this company closed few years back from this date) rather well. She did a fantastic version of several Cantonese-translated-to-Mandarin songs. These numbers were from Hong Kong. In it she also did translated versions of some Japanese pops and also a very popular English translated hit (by our very local Tokyo Square) called Within You I Remain. One of her cantonese translated songs, Shu Liu Ni Liu (original by Paula Tsui) went up the billboard for several weeks. It may be her last album with Form Records but it was a great achievement. So fantastic ! This was in the 90s. Also under this label, she could claimed two originals written specially for her and boy was she good. So melodiously she sang and so beautifully expressed, she did. This last album cover is as above.

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After leaving Forms Records, she set up her own recording company called Yao Sheng and cut a few records under that label. Of all the songs she recorded under her own label, one was a recollection of A Small Umbrella (Ee Pa Xiao Yu San) which she popularised when she first started singing. She still sounded great. She always delivered her songs well. Another old hit entitled Wei Tou Wan Yi Wan (Turn Around To Take A Look) and it was absolutely well sung by her. She definitely sang better than the original ! What was lacking in this label was the music again. It was like back to the 70s and this was the 90s where orchestral backing and instrumental backing were so much the in thing. It was around this time that she gradually retired from the pop scene here.

.......

She is someone who was daring enough to venture into the odds and for more than 20 years, she was very consistent as an artiste and hardly any Chinese pop artiste could last that long which perhaps few refused to acknowledge or admit. But I believe, she remained glorious in the hearts of many of her fans. O how I wish she could do a live concert for all those who craved for her sweet golden voice.

.......

Quite recently, a MediaCorp programme tried to dig out all the old artistes of Singapore and tried inviting her to the programme. Honestly Media Corp didn't seem to put in much efforts to present her to the viewers. They chose artistes like Lin Siao, Maggie Teng, Wang Li, Poon Sau Kheng and others but one never seemed to hear their attempt in approaching Chang Siao Ying. By the time they did invite her, she was busy with her son's wedding and she has 5 children but I remembered she left nice words as .... let the past become a beautiful memory....(...讓過去成為一個美好的回憶...) then a clip of her singing of the Three Dreams was broadcasted. So little was promoted for her by Media Corp, how disappointing but nonetheless, none could deny her wonderful glorious singing and we hope to see her on the stage once again .... Siao Ying .... we will support you always. Her Prinstar recorded numbers are available in CDs salesable in Malaysia and in Bugis Street and Chinatown of Singapore. However they are under a different label.

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P/S if anyone of you has her records or CDs or tapes recorded under Forms Records label, kindly let me know because I cannot find them at all. Thank you.

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20 September 2008 UPDATE

Hi there, sorry I have been absent for a long, long while. Thousand apologies. While I am off this blog, I never forget about our dear song bird here. Off and on, I was also on the look out for more of her LPs and information about her. Quite disappointed with the progress I am making but still I don't give up. I actually managed to contact a Mr Lee who wanted to sell her FORM label LPs at S$ 50.00 each. The price is not really an issue. Problem is, I could not get someone to download the LPs into a CD unless I turn to a professional for help and that really can cost a bomb. That again is not the issue - it is the copyright matter. Mr Lee was saying that in Singapore, one can re-produce an album only after 15 years following a collection. I don't think her FORM Lps have reached that 15 years as yet. Boy, how I wish someone has them and do a personal duplication for me. Then I don't have a gram player. So at last, my friends and I sat on the issue for a while with lots of work committment in between. Ya, call this procrastination. Finally, when I decided to take up the offer, Mr Lee said the LPs were already sold to someone else. Handphone number given. So I SMSed him but no reply. Mr Lee then advised that I must call and I have not got the time to do so as yet. May do so some time later. Hopefully, it is not a wild goose chase.

Nonetheless, I still hope that Miss Chang or those who are related to her or know her, will let her know she still has some fans around and that we hope she will throw a come-back concert. I will definitely watch her sing !

Lately I have found some more pictures of some of her hard-to-find LPs in this site

http://www.pbase.com/sid_presley/image/87995782

Here we go ...

Do take a peep and you will be surprised that she ever cut such LPs and the songs were not you and me would be familiar with. She is indeed a diva of her time. Like the above LP. Title song is 'Missing you below the moonlight'. Her fame song, Beloved One is also in this LP. Another catchy number is Wife Going Back to Her Mum's Place. A translated song is so well-sung by her entitled 'Who Will Wear My Heart Feels For Me?'

Here is another of her LP entitled ' When Will The Wind Of Spring Come ?' Not really her original number but well presented.

Now, this one here is really interesting. I bet you very few ever came across this collection. Title song is 'Three Times Love'. I don't even know how the song goes. Probably recorded in the 60s and guess what, under the Polydor label. Must be something then. Other main songs are 'You Don't Know Me', 'Not Going Home Today' (original singer is probably Miss Yao Su Rong from Taiwan) and 'Dream Seeker'.

Look at this ! Title song is 'Beloved BaBi Doll'. Now this song is really catchy, hip at that time (60s/70s) and so so popular. A dancing number and extremely well sung and popularised by Chang Siao Ying. One could hear it so oftenly played over Rediffuion. Fantastic ! LP is under Hala Hala. I like this album. Well done Miss Chang !

Goodness, another rare LP under a label that is hardly heard before, Precious Urn. Title of the album is 'De Da De' Problem of love. I do have problems trying to get this album, that's for sure !

Look ! Look ! A very 60s' collection ! Ttile is 'Ever Since I Know You'. Again under label Precious Urn. Funny hairdo but this was the in fashion.

Here, another Prinstar label collection entitled 'Kiss of an angel' which is a movie track song. The Stylers was the accompanying band. It really beats me the numbers of albums one could find of hers and even more. I really hope she will do a concert soon. Still waiting.

I promise to update you guys as much as I can. Take care for the time being and do contact me. Do give me time to respond which can be weeks later.
Ciao.

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November 2008 is drawing near. Soon 2009 will arrive. It is about time, Chinese New Year songs should be recorded. I have in mind, at least about, 5 songs to suggest to Miss Chang to record since she is very good in singing Chinese New Years song. How I wish there is a way to contact her directly.
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In a Chinese U magazine, a columinist Miss Guan Xue Mei wrote an article about this local diva Chang Siao Ying.

Miss Guan came up with her very own publication which includes local Singapore singers. The inspiration to write about the Singapore singers was actually encouraged and inspired by her readers and supporters whom she is very grateful to. With her 40 years of entertainment experience in Singapore plus her working experience in a recording company, Miss Guan has quite a bit to mention here.

Together with some friends from the like circle, Miss Guan found there are several local artistes worth mentioning. She proudly mentioned that the first artiste/singer to talk about is none other but Chang Siao Ying. The main reason was that Chang Siao Ying's records/albums sold the best in Singapore ! (Bravo!) Next , Miss Guan and Chang Siao Ying are good friends for more than 30 years and they spent more than 10 yrs working together in the local scene.

Chang Siao Ying has silently left the entertainment scene since about 30 years back till now. In the midst of this period, Chang and Guan are still in very good touch. Though they don't meet as regularly, but they do meet at least a few times e a year.

Presently, Chang Siao Ying is already a grand mother and a great grand mother ! 10 years is like a day, as the saying goes. Chang Siao Ying has not changed. She is still jovial and happy-going.

Miss Guan recalled those days when she (Guan) was working in Tong Aik Records. She bumped into Chang Siao Ying very often. It was like a daily affair. Besides working in the same company, both Chang and Guan would go to the movies and shopping together. When Chang Siao Ying had to perform abroad, Miss Guan would accompany her (Chang) .

In those days, Chang Siao Ying was really the Queen or Diva of albums ! After cutting an album before distribution, a logistic count of the number of albums must be done. Uneven or incorrect album distribution to the various record shops and outlets meant problems later on.

During that time, Chang Siao Ying become extremely popular for at least 16 to 17 years. At that time, she cut countless albums but she had never accepted paid performances for the 7th month hungry ghost festival.

Chang Siao Ying valued her singing forte very seriously. Many 7th month hungry ghost festival organisers approached her to sing, Chang Siao Ying would turn all of them down. She even turned down literal invitations of her time.

Talking about performance, Chang Siao Ying ever brought an earth-quake like performance in Malaysia. Miss Guan was with Chang Siao Ying then. For days both of them stood during Chang's performance and Miss Guan then seriously realised how popular and well-accepted was Chang Siao Ying in Malaysia.

Miss Guan also acquired valuable knowledge whilst accompany Chang Siao Ying during her (Chang's) overseas performances. For instance when Chang Siao Ying went to Thailand to perform, Her Royal Highness, the Queen of Thailand, came to meet up with Chang Siao Ying !!! Miss Guan was also given the royal opportunity to meet the Queen of Thailand.

For exactly 20 years, Chang Siao Ying was in great popularity in the local scene. Till the 80s, Chang Siao Ying stopped recording albums and performing.

Updated on 25 September 2010

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If you log on Chang Siao Ying in Youtube, you will probably discover some very worthy and valuable finds on Chang Siao Ying. There are just too many of them hence I really cannot provide all the links here. But there is a very interesting telephone interview with Chang Siao Ying conducted by a local media in 1989. It is in Mandarin. Please log on the links below, it is in 2 parts ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo8H8EZa_tg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWP2ulZf4-Q

When I have time, I will translate the interview into English for all of you. Please give me time.

25 Sep 2010

Part 1 of the interview (1989)

Compere A : Siow ying jie ah, it is so difficult to look for you. I have a listener who asked me , "Hey, in your program, can you interview Chang Siao Ying ? " I said we have tried contacting her but she has shifted and did not give us her new home contact. I could not locate her at all. So I announced over the radio that whoever has Chang Siao Ying’s contact please call the radio station. Thereafter, several listeners called and one could provide Chang Siao Ying’s brother contact. Some said they know that Chang Siao Ying is staying here and there and so on. Finally, this search announcement reached the ears of Chang Siao Ying. She personally contacted us which we really appreciate it very much.
Compere B : Honestly speaking, I know Chang Siao Ying for many many years. That time, during the finals of a Rediffusion singing contest that she won the top prize.
Chang : Yes in 1965
Compere B : In the 60s
Chang : Ya in 1965
Compere B : Her winning number was He San Siang Si Ye (Love by the river)