The History of Yamaguchi Yoshiko 山口淑子 also known as Li Xiang Lan 李香蘭 (Ri-Koran): Songs

I had thought of titling this page "It's the Music, stupid!", because the primary reason that fans love her is THE MUSIC. If you are not a music lover, other aspects of Yoshiko's career will seem contrived or false, especially if she's been reduced to "constructed movie star" or "pan-asian transnational shape-shifter" or some other popular scholarly jargon. You can pretty much gauge a scholar's response to her by how they feel about her music - and if the appreciation isn't there, be prepared for a negative drubbing of 'the object'. Yoshiko's singing goes straight to the heart and straight to the heart of the matter: how did she feel about being born at the crossroads of history? listen to her songs and she calls to you across time and place with the gentlest of answers

for a list of 127 songs by Yoshiko click here.

Minus the music in the 1950's, Yamaguchi might have been limited to your usual exotic-oriental movie-star roles: like wearing a tight-fitting cheongsam while waving a gun, or draped in a thin wet towel while stepping out of the proverbial Japanese bath of western dreams, or reduced to massaging a Caucasian co-star. Sadly, this is what happened to Yoshiko 'once the music stopped' and the grimy realty of 'film noir' and it's lurid malcontents took over in the 1950's. But enough of that.

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Now for the wonderful songs. So popular that they became the background music of people's lives throughout Asia and the Chinese/Asian diaspora: sung at gatherings, re-interpreted by young artists, and eventually becoming 'ever-green' standards of modern Chinese and Japanese music.

as an example of the ubiquity of her songs, exhibit #1 would have to be the hit movie "Crazy Rich Asians" which prominently features 2 of her 'signature' hits, one of which (in a reworked up-tempo version) opened the very movie itself:

this song is variously titled "Waiting For Your Return" or "When Will You Return" (in mandarin "He'ri jun zai lai")

her second featured song was "Evening Primrose" or "Ye Lai Xiang" which is the background music heard in the Princess Intan wedding scene, the original version sung by Yoshiko herself:

translated words of "Evening Primrose":

夜來香 translates roughly to Fragrance of the Night, Night Jasmine, Evening Primrose, or Tuberose
那南風吹來清涼
That south breeze blows in clear and cold
那夜鶯啼聲細唱
The nightingale sings quietly through the night
月下的花兒都入夢
The flowers under the moon are entering a dream
只有那夜來香
Only that night-fragrant flower
吐露著芬芳
Emit a beautiful fragrance
我愛這夜色茫茫
I love the view of the night
也愛這夜鶯歌唱
and also love the nightingale's singing
更愛那花一般的夢
And love even more the dreams of the flowers
擁抱著夜來香
And I embrace the night-fragrant flower
吻着夜來香
Kiss the night-fragrant flower
夜來香我為你歌唱
Night-fragrant flower, I sing for you
夜來香我為你思量
Night-fragrant flower, I think of you
啊我為你歌唱
Ah, I sing for you
我為你思量
And I think of you

Yoshiko sings Evening Primrose accompanied by piano in this 1950 live-concert:

In 1992, Yoshiko sings in a Shanghai alley with people who remember her and the song: 05:27 begin

in this next clip you hear Yoshiko's night-club version of Ye Lai Xiang and another beautiful song:

This next version of Ye Lai Xiang is (amazingly) performed by an American High School choir:

here's a version by the Hong Kong ensemble troupe organized by Wuhan University humanities Philharmonic Choir joint performance

and finally, probably the most famous 'cover' of Ye Lai Xiang, by the great Teresa Teng:

this is Teresa Teng's inimitable version of "When Will You Return":

(in China of 1985, they would "listen to Deng in the daytime, but listen to Teng in the evening").
Teresa's Chinese name is Deng Li Jun; tragically she passed away at the age of 40.

Yoshiko's Chinese version of "When will you return" (she also sang it in Japanese):

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Now a list of some of my favorite Li Xianglan songs.

My first choice is "Suzhou Nocturne" (Soshu Yakyoku) from the film "China Nights", composed by Ryoichi Hattori. Yoshiko says of the song "when I met Hattori later, he said "I wrote the best song I could for Ri Koran," and I was moved by this. Even now, when I think back, I feel a mixture of emotions: embarrassment about the movie and fondness for the music." The gentleness and feeling that Li Xianglan put into this love song transcends language and I like to think it was one of her best lullabies to the human race:

This song is one of the most harmonically complex songs to ever come out of Japan; the above 1953 version has never been equaled for it's beautiful orchestral chords and it's near perfect arrangement. Each interpretation by a different musician has a different chord structure.

the original slow film version:

In her early years, Li Xianglan sang it at a faster tempo, but the slower versions allow the flowering of more beautiful chords and transitions. A perfect example of this reduced tempo is her 1950 rendition (now there is a word which has been truly violated by modern Orwellian usage!), which you can hear on the 1950 Live Performance page here:

This link has 2 recently found pre-war versions of the song.

lastly, this gem 1960's version of Suzhou Serenade sung by Pan Wan Ching:

the last note of the song 'leaves you hanging' (ie, does not resolve the chord progression back to the root note). See the below chart, where the last note is a G (the 5th of the key chord of C). So the listener is left with a sweet nostalgic tension and the hope that this song of love will never end . . .

the simple version played by Aya Ueto in the 2006 Fuji TV story of Ri Koran's life:

below is a 1940's songsheet tableture, in any key you wish (the 5 is the 5th of the chord, a dot over the 3 means it is in the next octave)

Second choice is "If Only (we met before I married)" or "Too late".

To my ears, like a Chinese Ave Maria:

another earlier, slower version, just beautiful:

Third: the wonderful "Three Years" or "San Nian":

the "Selling Candy" song from her hit 1943 movie "Eternity" ("Wanshi Liufang"):

from the same movie, the "Quitting-Opium" song ("Jieyan ge"):

from her 1939 film "China Nights", the famous "Shina No Yoru" song:

the "Sayon's Bell" song from 1943 movie of the same name:

from her 1939 movie of same name, the White Orchid song:

Here is her beautiful "Moonlight on the River" with many of her pictures.

Nepenthe, or Forget Me Not:

this next song is "Moon over the Castle Ruins" or "Kojo no Tsuki". Yoshiko would sing this mournful Japanese song at the beginning of her many performances and it was one of her favorites:

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"Persian Bird" a delightful Russian song, from the little-seen 1943 movie "My Nightingale":

now for some "Manchuria Fun" with the best color photos:

herewith is one of Yoshiko's favorite songs, "Moon over the Castle Ruins", one of Japan's most beloved (and melancholy) songs:

one of my favorite 1950's songs, Yoshiko's big-band "Tokyo Serenade":

This song below is an example of (what to my ears sounds like) an ancient Chinese song, played with ancient Chinese instruments. The song is significant because it so clearly demonstrates what the above 'modern songs' were trying to accomplish with their modern western instruments, modern rhythms, and western chords. I think you can tell that even Li Xianglan was in unfamiliar sonic territory in this song:

For those people who want more detailed information on each individual song, this site lists 90 songs in all (but you'll need to translate it from Japanese).

Here's one of the best English language sources on the web for a short summary of Yoshiko's life-story and also has many songs of hers (some hard to find on YouTube!): But that's not all you get, there are links to all the "Seven Great Singing Stars" of China (great for listening to Li Xianglan's contemporaries). And then there's also a great summary of how Chinese music was brought into the 20th century by several famous music-composers. I don't know how Chris assembled all this information!

The Seven Singing Stars (Gong Qiuxia not in photo):

Since Gong Qiuxia (one of Li's great contemporaries) is not in the above photo, let her sing us the sweet "Missing Hometown":

Here are the two "Test Record" songs which were found just a few years ago and put on this CD (I think they are beautiful sad songs, recorded in 1944):