Girls In The Garage? How Others View Our 60s Asian Lady Singers. Stereo-Typed Again?

Way back in 1999 on 13th February, an album of Singapore 60s English and Chinese pop songs were released. Many enthusiasts would have realised this but just in case... On this 13 track CD, we have an interesting selection that includes:

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1 Penny Lim & The Silverstones - Kung See, Kung See, Let's Be Happy 2 Rita Chao & The Quests - Hanky Panky 3 Lara & The Trailers - Sugar Town 4 Nancy Sit - Love Potion #9. 5 Rita Chao - Yummy, Yummy, Yummy *6 [unknown] - If You Ever Go 7 Naomi & The Boys - As Tears Go By 8 Naomi & The Boys - I'd Like to Know 9 Rita Chao & The Quests - How to Catch a Girl 10 Nancy Sit - Hanky Panky 11 Sakura & The Quests - My Boy Lollipop 12 Nancy Sit - Come Back When You Grow Up 13 Nancy Sit - Fever.

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*The Silver Strings & Shirley Nair. (check Comment by Steve Farram).

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

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Below is an article posted by Mack Hagood on February 22, 2004 09:24 pm by The Far Eastern Audio Review:

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"As Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation heads for the video stores and awards shows, some are having second thoughts about the film. Kiku Day's scathing indictment in the U.K.'s Guardian and other late reviews have held up the film's jokes about Japanese food, stature and English pronounciation as examples of anti-Asian racism.

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Coppola, who lived in Japan for a time, is probably taken aback that a film she intended as "a love letter to Tokyo" has been interpreted as racist. The key to the controversy is in the film's title: Lost in Translation is about the alienation, wonder and--yes--humor to be found at the limits of people's understanding of one another.

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The problem is, like her two protagonists, the director doesn't push those limits hard enough and little beside the wacky and exotic make it through the filter of her Western gaze. This isn't racism (it lacks the intent and cruelty that word implies), but it is a missed opportunity to see the Japanese on their own terms.

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Which brings me to The Girls in the Garage Vol. 9: Oriental Special. Again, the (somewhat unfortunate) title tells us a lot: This installment of the 60's girl rock series brings us wacky finds from the flea markets of Singapore.

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Compiler "Bradley Ghoulstein" is knocked out by the hilarity of what gets lost in the Chinese translation of Western pop, so the filter we get here is in the playlist, which is comprised almost entirely of familiar American songs. The goal here is a cool, funny addition to garage collections and on that level it works well.

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Rita Chao and the Quests' version of "Hanky Panky" (one of two versions on the CD) is brilliant. Greasy-dirty guitar tone, funky drumming and Rita's charming vocal delivery--complete with "R" and "L" mixing and implied lesbianism when she doesn't change the gender of "her baby" in the lyrics--all conspire to create the perfect party single.

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Nancy Sinatra's "Sugar Town" sounds great in Chinese by Lara and the Trailers; "Love Potion #9" fairs a little poorer in the shaky hands of Nancy Sit and her band. Yes, that's right... Nancy Sit, a Nancy Sinatra knock-off responsible, by the way, for the oh-my-god-it's-so-bad-turn-it-off-now second version of "Hanky Panky" on the disc. Cross-cultural weirdness abounds on this record and it's damn fun.

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Racist? I can't see how. Reductionist? That's a different story. Mr. Ghoulstein's liner notes seem to be made up of whatever he could glean from the album covers. Intrigued by their beautiful version of "As Tears Go By," I checked the notes for information on Naomi and the Boys and learned they were "Malaysian (Indonesian?)" with vocals "sung in almost perfect English... damn."
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A quarter of the tunes here belong to Nancy Sit, not because she's good, but because she's funny. But by far the best song is an original, Penny Lim and the Silverstone's "Kung See, Kung See, Let's Be Happy." The liner notes call it an "undescribably baffling masterpiece of New Year's (Chinese of course) bubblegum." I can't improve on that description. It's Chinese 60's pop on its own terms - incredibly weird and enjoyable. It opens Oriental Special and the rest of the CD pales in comparison.

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Lost in Translation and The Girls in the Garage Vol. 9 both view Asians through the filter of Western culture and divide them into two groups: hipsters who get it "right" and (much preferred!) amusing folks who don't. In either case, the Westerner is really looking at himself--whether it's the flattery of good imitation or a funhouse mirror.

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I don't condemn us for being this way--all cultures are self-obsessed, after all. But when we stick only to the safe confines of the Tokyo five-star hotel and the goofy Singaporean cover versions of our own songs, we miss out on true Asian originals and the chance to push beyond the limits that separate all of us different styles of human."

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Reference: http://www.fareastaudio.com/archives/04/02/the_girls_in_the_garage_vol_9_oriental_special_by_various.php

Image/article by: Mack Hagood who is currently completing his MA thesis in Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. He is creator and editor of the Far Eastern Audio Review. From: Folklore of East Asia Folklore Forum 38.1 (2008).

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Listen to the songs on You Tube. Do you have comments to make or do you have a copy of the CD and Bradley Ghoulstein's liner notes? Would be an interesting read.

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Read Andy's take on:
'Sayonara' 60s Music: American/Japanese Influence, Marlon Brando, James Mitchener, Irving Berlin, Miyoshi Umeki, Tracy Huang (Friday, 3rd July, 2009)

Friday, April 24, 2009
(3) Born Free HK Invasion Pop Song/Pop Movie