Inspiration Words: Keep and Moon
I had begged Mom to let me stay home instead of going to Conghua (tsohng hwah), a suburb of my city, during the Spring Festival holiday. I know the whole family is supposed to get together for the most important holiday of the year, but sometimes I wish we could stay at home instead. Getting here was not bad, but I know that going home, the traffic will be horrible. Besides that, fifteen people crammed into a villa with nothing to do just didn’t sound like that much fun. I think Mom was about to let me stay home, but then she mentioned that the villa has a KTV. She knows my weakness, and she knew I would come if there was a KTV. I wouldn’t be surprised if she chose this villa just because she knew the KTV would convince me to come.
Now ten people are crowded into this large KTV style room, and I love the vibes. This is what Spring Festival should be like. The minute we arrived this afternoon, I headed straight towards the karaoke machine to see what songs they had, and I was impressed with their selection. They have enough to keep everyone happy. We could sing all night if we wanted to.
On the way here, my sister and I scrolled through TikTok videos on our phones, Mom napped in the front seat, and Dad stared at the road as he drove. A few minutes into the drive, he tried to roll down the window so he could smoke, but we complained because it was pretty chilly outside. Other than that, the only sounds were the clicks of my sister’s and my fake fingernails on the screens of our phones. But here in the KTV room, it’s like our family comes alive. My dad’s second-oldest sister (we call her “Second Aunt” because of her order in the family) is here along with two uncles and all of their families. Grandma and Grandpa are coming with First Aunt tomorrow.
My sister and one other cousin are somewhere else in the villa, probably watching videos together, but pretty much everyone else is here in the KTV room.
We’ve already been here for an hour, and the song list is so long that adding songs now is pretty much hopeless. My younger cousin is in college now, and he is suddenly super interested in English songs. He’s done two already. After the second one, he passed the mic along and plopped down on the couch beside me.
“What’s with the sudden interest in English?” I asked.
“Oh, you know, it’s just pretty fun to learn.” He pulled out his phone like he was trying to ignore me, but I wasn’t gonna stand for that.
“Ha, don’t think you can fool me! There’s probably a girl in your English class that you want to impress when you go back to school after the holiday, right?” I tried to grab his phone.
He didn’t look up as he held the phone out of my reach. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, silly.”
“Then let me see your messages. I bet you’re getting ready to send her that video my dad took of you right now!”
He locked his phone with a click we didn’t hear in the loud room and stuck it in his pocket. I felt like this action alone fully answered my question, and I smirked, “You can’t keep secrets from me!”
Just then, my second aunt stood up as the familiar violin intro began to one of Teresa Teng’s (tuhng) classics. We all stopped talking and watched. Teresa Teng was super famous in the 70s and 80s, but we all agreed that my second aunt’s voice was better.
She stood in front of the TV with the microphone near her mouth, but she looked around at us when she started singing, “You ask me how deep my love is . . .” At least four of us pulled out our phones to take videos, and she smiled as she reached the most famous line, “The moon represents my heart (Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin, yoo-eh lee-ahng die bee-ow woh duh sseen).” We exploded into applause as the last note faded.
My second aunt loved singing this song, and we never got tired of hearing it. Of course, the song doesn’t have anything to do with Spring Festival, but for me, each time I hear that song, I’m taken back to Spring Festivals in the past. I enjoy singing songs too, but this, right here—being with family and listening to my second aunt’s beautiful voice— was the reason I loved KTV.