Written / Compiled and reported by the editorial team of MOOK Travel Life Network

Poetry often allows people to best appreciate the rhythm of words and music. Therefore, one of the performances at Hong Kong Week 2014, *The Poet’s Muse – Yu Guangzhong Poetry Concert*, presents the works accumulated over the years by Professor Yu Guangzhong, transformed into melodies to deliver delightful musical pieces for all music lovers.

Yu Guangzhong taught Chinese literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1974 to 1985. After settling in Kaohsiung, he taught at Sun Yat-sen University, where he is now an emeritus professor. Born in Nanjing in 1928, Yu Guangzhong has published over 60 books, including poetry collections, essays, criticism, and translations. His poetry is rich in emotion, and behind the words lies a profound harmony with music. His poems have been set to music by composers from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan—some evoking nostalgia for his homeland, others questioning the world; some capturing the tranquility of landscapes, and others reflecting on life. This concert will feature performances by renowned Hong Kong vocalists, including tenor David Quah, soprano Yan Yihua, mezzo-soprano Lau Wan, and bass-baritone Kwan Kit-ming. Pianist Kwok Pui-man will accompany, while veteran Taiwanese radio and TV host Xing Ziqing will recite selected poems by Yu Guangzhong with delicate expression.

The concert program features carefully selected songs composed over the past thirty years by musicians from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, based on Yu Guangzhong’s poems—ranging from classics to newly arranged pieces. In the elegant Songshan CiPi Performing Arts Center, words and music blend and converse seamlessly, offering the most poetic musical experience.The program includes a series of art songs such as *Tiptoe* (two versions), *Four Rhymes of Homesickness* (three versions), *Sunflowers*, *What Does the Rain Say?*, *The Night Watchman*, *Homesickness*, *The Answer*, *The Fortune-Telling Blind Man*, *You Smiled at Me Last Night*, *Firefly*, and *When I Am Dead*. To promote cultural exchange between Hong Kong and Taiwan, a new piece *Do You Want to Be a Mermaid?* by Taiwanese composer Chao Ching-wen has been specially commissioned, and will be performed by Taiwanese soprano Wang Wangshu, mezzo-soprano Chen Jue’an, and pianist Tsai Meng-tzu. Additionally, *Contradictory World*, composed by Professor Chan Wai-kwong from the Music Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, will have its world premiere at this concert.

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