Modern Cao Chuns

MY GROUP of good friends in Miri often gather to have some sisterly chats....usually for any reason you can think of since most of us are retired and children have flown the nest.


With Christmas gone and the end of the year approaching I got to think that many of my friends share similarities with Wang Chao Chun ( a Han Dynasty beauty who was part of a peace treaty between the Chinese and the Mongols). She was a concubine in the Han Palace but the Huangti had never seen her (probably he had thousands of concubines) as her portrait was tainted by the corrupt artist. When she was selected to be sent to the Mongols the Emperor was dumbfounded by her beauty. But it was too late. And she was sent on her way to the far north amidst the snow.

How many of our women have in fact married into unknown fates and had made fantastic contributions to their husbands' countries...like Ruth in the Bible when she went home with Naomi..."Your people will be my people...and your country will be my country". Ruth became the ancestress of Jesus after she married Boaz as part of her fate when she and Naomi came to live in her late husband's land.

In the cold of the winter I think of the fates of such women who today have to struggle for the sake of their children and members of their extended family. May be Wang Chao Chun's song would open your eyes to such feminine sacrifices....

Clap clap...for my good friends...May 2012 bring joy and peace to all of us......

Often we celebrate each other's birthdays when they seem to be forgotten.....

Lin Dai in her role as Wang Chao Chun....the long suffering concubine who loved the hard hearted Emperor

Enjoy the music and reflect on how women have played their roles in our country and beyond!!