20-11-19
We need heroes for history but we look up to legends in our real life to inspire——giving us a larger-than-life role model. Heroes made us feel like losers but legends transformed us into the second-best winners.
Antique expert Lisa Chung Lai Seung is a legend. Born in 1953, she came from an extremely poor family where 6 kids got no clothes to wear during babyhood. She was lovely and could sing sweetly at the age of 2. Her father decided to get her out and hit the streets by ‘busking’. She did not really enjoy singing but was taken to sing from street to street. The main reason was that they needed the change donations from passersby to make a living.
For a Chinese family, making a living is not so important as education. At the age of 7, Lisa was sent to school although the family would face an income crisis. Her father and she could only do ‘busking’ at night markets in the evening. In the 60s, people in Hong Kong were strong. When a family could share the last crust of bread at suppertime, it was already the best of luck.
At about 13, Lisa talked to her father. She decided not to study and started her professional singing career. She could no longer ignore the family’s serious financial needs. After winning the 2nd runner-up in a singing contest, she performed in 3 places: nightclubs, cabarets and television. For her, singing was just about making a living and ‘work-life balance’ was a term which she never heard of. Singing and dancing on 5 to 6 occasions a day was a common thing recognized by all poor singers in those years.
Lisa said, “In nightclubs, people liked dance songs and cha-cha-cha was the most popular music. In cabarets, the audience tended to be professional listeners and we must baffle all our skills. On television, our performances should be for family amusements.” She paused, “In the 70s, many earned only several hundred Hong Kong dollars a month but I could make several thousand dollars. The energy that I had put out came back to hit me as a windfall. I earned but did not spend. During the day, I learnt to make my own show gowns to save money.”
I questioned, “Why have you become an antique expert since the 80s?” Lisa lost in her thoughts, “It must have been fate. I met a good man in 1980 when I was 27. He was an artist. His father and he were both art collectors and antique connoisseurs. My husband started to teach me fine art, art restoration and antique sales. I wanted to free myself and be a kite at that time——throwing myself into the sky. I wished art would bring back a new life, a new career, a new hobby or at least a new environment. I had been singing for 25 years and enough was enough. Up to now, there are still people asking me to sing. Well, I would sing for charity events. I could express myself emotionally better when I am singing. So, I want to keep singing for that simple purpose only. Money is the temptation that I can resist.”
I asked, “What happened to the singing scene in the 80s and 90s?” Lisa sat back and pondered, “People in Hong Kong became more westernized. Apart from the Chinese-style nightclubs and cabarets, Hong Kong began to have bars and cocktail lounges. Filipino bands became popular. Traditional theatres like Lee Theatre in Causeway Bay were turned into venues for mini concerts. Finally, the government in the 80s built stadiums like Hong Kong Coliseum for big concerts. Singing has become more and more a large-scale business operated side by side with the phonographic industry. The secret to a good morning for me now is to watch the sunrise of young singers with an open heart. My past belongs to the sunset.”
The chat with Lisa Chung is a very encouraging lesson. She embraced the pain that she experienced at the start of a race. At the end, this incredible lady of iron thrives on the challenges of her life.
This article can also be found at the following sites:
