If you have been to Hangzhou or consider travelling to Hangzhou, one of the most famous ancient cities of the world, you will love this Huangmei opera set in the Jin dynasty (265-420 AD).

This ancient “Romeo and Juliet” story is very well performed. The music is pleasing, and there are English subtitles.

Here is the basic plot line:  (total of 10 scenes)

Scene 1: Zhu Ying Tai convinced her parents to let her go to school.

A young lady going to school is a No-No in ancient China. A young 16-year-old girl from a wealthy family, Zhu Ying Tai, really wants to go to school. She was bored doing the normal things a girl was allowed to do, sing, dance, read poetry and do embroidery. So, she hatched a plan, pretended to be sick, then call on her parents, dressed as a man in her effort to convince them to send her to college at Hangzhou. Reluctantly, the parents agreed on the condition that she went in the guise of a man.

Scene 2. On the way to Hangzhou

As was the custom, she had a personal maid travelling with her. Along her journey to the school in Hangzhou (Wansong Academy), she met 17-year-old Liang Shan Bo who was attending the same school. They became sworn “brothers”.

Scene 3: Awkward yet tender moments at school.

In this scene, Ying Tai was sick at school and Liang Shanbo wanted to look after her. This caused some awkward moments as she did not want her gender discovered. The deep friendship between the two begin to grow.  In another scene, Liang Shanbo was amazed how Ying Tai was so good with needlework.

More….  They  studied for three years together. Over this period of time, they formed a strong friendship. Ying Tai gradually fell in love with Shan Bo who, being a bookworm, never did discover what she was despite coming across a couple of oddities. When she was summoned home by her father, Ying Tai revealed the truth to her headmaster’s wife. Ying Tai requested that she be the matchmaker for her and Shan Bo and gave her a jade pendant as a token to be handed to Shanbo.

Shan Bo walked with Ying Tai for 18 miles to send off his sworn brother. She tried several times to hint to him her identity during the journey but to no avail despite insulting him twice in her exacerbation with his denseness. Finally, she found a way and got his consent to matchmake him to her “twin sister”. She exhorted him to seek out his fiancee’ soon before they reluctantly took leave of each other at the pavilion where they first met. Upon returning to school, Shan Bo was restless and could not concentrate on his studies in the absence of his sworn brother. Seeing this, the headmaster’s wife told him about Ying Tai, gave him the jade pendant and bade him to go propose to her.

The joy of the reunion of the two came to naught when Ying Tai told Shan Bo he was three months too late. Her father had already betrothed her to the frivolous son of the powerful and wealthy Ma family. Shan Bo, who was already ailing, was deeply grieved. He returned home and his health steadily deteriorating until he became seriously ill.

Several days before her wedding day, he asked to see her again. When his servant returned instead with a token from her, it was the final blow. He sent his servant to Ying Tai with a last gift and died.

Ying Tai was stricken with sorrow and forced her father to come to a compromise: to allow her to visit Shan Bo’s tomb on the way to her betrothed home or she would not marry.

At the tomb, she swore her undying love for Shan Bo and that if they could not be together in life, she would rather be with him in death. A tornado sprang up and an earthquake split the tomb in two whereupon Ying Tai threw herself into it. The whipping winds covered the tomb with sand. When the winds died down, two butterflies were seen soon after, flitting away to the heavens.

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The Butterfly lovers is a very famous opera that dates back to ancient China Jin Dynasty. (265-420AD).  Two young students went to the Wansong Academy and fell in love.   Here is a photo of Wansong Academy.

Address: WanSong College, 92 WanSongLing Road | 万松岭路92号万松书院 |

Inside there are statues of the two lovers while studying at the academy.

To watch a movie on the Butterfly Lovers, click here.

If you are planning to visit Hangzhou, it is worth reading the story of the Butterfly Lovers.  I’ve watched it over and over, it is such a bittersweet story.

I felt like punching Liang Shanbo, how could he be so thick and not get the hints!

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• C:  Create
• C: Communicate
• D: Deliver
• V: Value
• T: Target Market (to the target segment)
• P:  Profitably

Your marketing strategy can be defined following this new mantra from Philip Kotler from the London Business Forum. This short little acronyms encompasses product management, brand management, customer management, open innovation, open technology, emotional connection, corporate social responsibility….

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Tim Wong from Chi Activate, was invited to be our graduation day speaker for our self-employment class, and he shared this poem:

This Don’t Quit presentation is based on a famous poem which was written many years ago. The author of this poem is unknown. Sadly, in recent years a number of people have claimed ownership of the poem and some have even claimed to have written it themselves!

Here is the original poem in it’s entirety:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

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I like to say that I am smart, but when it comes to anything mechanical or spatial, I am pretty hopeless.  That includes using the universal remote control.

Easy to say that there is the one remote to control the DVD player, cable TV box, the VCR and the television, yet if you slightly point the remote in the wrong direction, everything is messed up.

Once messed up, I give up!

Another problem I have with our current remote is that the buttons are too small, can’t see them in the dark.   Curious me always want to see synopsis of each TV episode using the INFO button, and get out using the EXIT button.  These buttons are small, so when I press them by feel, more often than not, I miss, and so POOF goes the setup.

So, it is with excitement that I anticipate the arrival of the Touchsquid Remote  Control Tablet, which solves this problem with easy to use touchscreen commands.

Like a Squid with ten tentacles, the touchsquid can control several gadgets with one touch.

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