首先是一个人，在努力做一个更好的人，然后是一个学着写字的人。

Listening to Denise Ho in the Last Days 1 "The Montreal"

Jan 10, 2023 (edited)

Fortunately, the high mood that day has not retreated today, let me play happily after all these years, and the neighborhood that returns to memory still deserves to face the blood drive when I set off

Yesterday I chatted with my friends about Denise Ho. I couldn't help but tell a lot about her and her work. On the way back, I thought, why not recommend the righteous person I admire and her works to everyone. So there is this one.

I was hesitant about what to recommend first. According to her most famous love song, it should be "Wood Grain"; if it is a song that has a greater influence on her political activities, it may be "Put Umbrellas"; if it sings for the LGBT community, it may be "Illuminati "" Rolls. Rice"; if it is her confession of personality, "There is a kind of person" should be suitable; she actually has a lot of three champion songs; there are more of my personal favorites... But I thought for a long time, or Decided to introduce "The Montreal" as the first song.

For many people who are not so familiar with He Yunshi, this song may be more unfamiliar than the other songs before it. Of course, she has been blocked by China for many years, and many friends may not have the chance to get familiar with He Yunshi at all, but have only vaguely heard of this name.

Denise Ho was born in Hong Kong in 1977 and immigrated to Montreal, Canada at the age of 11. At the age of 19, he participated in a singing competition and returned to Hong Kong. She became a disciple of her childhood idol, Anita Mui, and slowly made her way in the Hong Kong music scene. At first, she didn't go well, she was not valued by the company, and she didn't have her first solo EP until five years after her debut. But around 2007, with her impressive strength and excellent works, she finally became one of the first-line singers.

This song "The Floor" is written by Huang Weiwen and Yunshi He, which is full of her private memories and feelings.

 Forget that the snow is cold, forget that the road is so rich, and the house is farther than the impression. Forget that this is my room. Years asks a question about the memory of the neighborhood. Are there any urchins among the teenagers who have returned from home? I am sipping milkshakes with you and studying idol hair accessories. The participation form has been completed and I am about to go live gig

That day I was intoxicated and I went back to Guangzong Yaozu, but I worked hard and lived all these years. Are you guilty of being here? Have you ever loved but chased them or were they gradually filtered out? Did the high emotions that day have not retreated today? Let me play these to my heart’s content. Years go back to the neighborhood of memory Remind me how much homework I have done and what I have to start I really don’t forget Even on the way I occasionally feel depressed and grow up and then I am confused Looking back but there is moonlight woo~

Thinking of that intoxicated eyelid, it’s worth going on today, even if I’ve stumbled and survived all these years, I’m not guilty here, everyone I’ve ever loved has chased after brute force, and I’m not yet tired. That day’s high emotions were fortunately not backed down today. Let me play hard. After all these years, the neighborhood that has returned to memory still deserves to face the bloody drive at the time of departure

After years in Hong Kong, she returned to the place where she grew up as a teenager. I am used to the climate in Hong Kong, and I have forgotten what it feels like to snow, the streets I walked when I was young were so wide, and I don’t even remember what my parents looked like at the time. But she still clearly remembers learning to play the guitar and compose music for the first time here, fantasizing about becoming a singer, and looking forward to leaving here to make a big splash.

Did the boy who left Montreal with enthusiasm succeed? She has many commercially successful works, as well as works that fully express her self-pursuit and concern for social issues. She has held concerts in the Red Hall, won countless championship songs, won the top female singer and favorite female singer, has two stage plays, and was even nominated for the Golden Horse Award for Female Supporting Role by accident. In Hong Kong, she has her family, her best friend, her Rosemary. She is also very popular in mainland China and Taiwan. Denise Ho 14 years ago must have been a success!

12-14 years should be a watershed in her life. At the end of 2012, she officially came out in the gay parade in Hong Kong, becoming the first Chinese female star to come out publicly. In 2013, she launched the "Support Gays and Anti-Discrimination" campaign, which received widespread response. I believe many people remember the scene of Weibo stars responding one after another. She opposed the "political apathy" of Chinese celebrities' specific positions, and publicly supported the Sunflower Student Movement. In 2014, the conflict between Hong Kong and mainland intensified and turned into the Umbrella Revolution. She actively participated and was arrested on the front line of the sit-in. In the anti-extradition movement in 19 years, she joined and was arrested, lobbied at the UN Human Rights Council, and spoke at the hearing of the US Congress... Since coming out, she seems to no longer compromise for business achievements, and she has started to let go of what she believes in. Banned by the mainland, arrested many times by the Hong Kong government, splashed with paint in Taiwan, and withdrawn from the concert by sponsors... She never looked back. To this day, people in mainland China who don’t know Hong Kong’s music scene may call her a “sock spirit” when they mention her name, and those who often listen to Cantonese songs may shake their heads, “Why do you touch politics so I can’t hear the song?” People from other places may say First I thought she was a civil rights activist, and then I remembered that she used to be a singer. In fact, she is still singing, but she has been suppressed. Even renting a venue to work as a studio will be driven away under the pretext of canceling the contract. During the epidemic, he and his brother, one person and one keyboard, simply sang online to accompany the fans, but the barrage of abuse still came from time to time.

Did she ever regret her choice? I often think about it when I listen to "The Montreal". Just like the chorus repeatedly asking, after all these years of struggling and stumbling, standing in the place where I grew up, do I feel guilty and dare not face the self who started from here. I have also asked myself this question. Every time I think of my seventeen-year-old self, it is always difficult to explain to her my worldly compromises and wasted years. But I think that Denise Ho should have no regrets when facing her 17-year-old self.

"Have you let down your own blood?" Huang Weiwen also asked these questions in "To Me Ten Years Later". It was also a very good song, so that Huang Weiwen regarded it as the ending song of Concert YY, an exhibition of his works for decades since his debut. But in comparison, Denise Ho made "The Montreal" more soulful. This is a song that belongs to her, and it also belongs to everyone who has lived up to the sincerity of childhood and would rather be bruised and bruised for his own persistence.

This is one of my favorite versions. The 18-year-old He Yunshi has lost the starlight and bright fire cooking oil when she was popular. When she returned to her Montreal, with a simple piano accompaniment, she dedicated this song to Montreal and her friends who live here. . She couldn't continue singing several times, and finally finished singing in tears amidst the supportive chorus of fans. She couldn't help choking up when she sang "forget this is my room", "but I stumbled and survived all these years", "remembering that intoxicated face today is worth suffering", but in the end she, "still deserves to face , a hot-blooded body at the time of departure."