Song without voice: the power of the vendors song in  Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing?

Goh, Yen-Lin

Abstract

There is hardly any forum pertaining to India-Japan relations without a reference to India’s Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? (1983), portraying a retired soldier after WWII who makes his living by collecting empty wine bottles, caused an immediate sensation and was nominated for 11 Golden Horse Awards. Not being able to speak, he substitutes the vendor’s cry of the five Taiwanese syllables jiu gan tan buei bo? (any wine bottles for sale?) with a five-note tune played on a trumpet. This tune, which echoes throughout the entire film, quickly permeated Taiwanese consciousness. This paper examines the multifunctional role of this simple motif, a descent of three neighboring pentatonic pitches. Acting at first as the vendor’s voice to collect bottles, this motif later becomes a way to cheer up and communicate with Mei, the abandoned baby girl he found. It soon symbolizes Mei’s pain, humiliation (her schoolmates sing it to tease her), and desire to escape from poverty. It also represents the hardships and drinking problems of postwar society, parents’ unconditional love, death, and agony of remorse. Mei ironically becomes a famous singer and is unable to visit Papa even when he passes away. Only in great sorrow can she sing his tune arranged to a song, the very theme song of the soundtrack that most Taiwanese are now familiar with. Today this vendor’s song helps to define Taiwanese identity in relation to the postwar period.

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