merela
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Registered: 04-2004
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 1725
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TW-drama: 《八兩金》8 "oz" Gold (8/24/09-9/28/09)
This 26-episode Taiwanese drama (the title song is in Taiwanese) will replace Silent Tears next week. It stars quintessential Taiwanese leading actors and actresses. It should be an interesting drama.
I translated the gold measuring unit, liang, 兩 into "oz", but how much a 兩 weighs, here is the conversion:
1 jing 斤 = 16 liang 兩
1 jing 斤 = 600 g
So 1 liang 兩 = 600 g divide by 16
The title name 《八兩金》8 "oz" Gold refers to the prize-winning tea mix that the lead actress' husband invented. Once I learn the official English title from LA18, I will edit it.
Episode summary (in Chinese):
http://www.tvmao.com/episode/BaLiangJin-16912/0/
The story's setting is Taiwan's northern business district (Da Dao Tseng 大稻埕) at the turn of the century, at the peak of Ching dynasty. It is about a tea merchant and his family. The tea merchant has a son in-law who can mix the best tea (think of winemakers who mix different grapes to create a great wine). But because another pirate-turned-merchant got jealous of the tea merchant's business, he decided to have his competition killed. The daughter of the tea merchant survived the attack and this is her story of survival and revenge.
On a side note, that pirate-turned-merchant character is a bit like my paternal grandmother's father. He traveled back and forth between China and Taiwan in his youth. In his old age, he settled in Da Dao Tseng and was a very wealthy man. My great-grandfather was a well-known tea merchant in Da Dao Tseng 大稻埕 and he had 4 daughters (he never had a son that he publicly acknowledged, not that he didn't tried because my aunts suspected that he had an illegitimate son with a maid). My grandmother was his 2nd daughter. My grandfather carried on my great-grandfather's business and continued the tea business all the way until WWII.
My ancestral home is still in Da Dao Tseng 大稻埕 and the area is full of nostalgia and old Taiwanese families. Unfortunately, many of the old homes built in the 1800s were torn down to make way for highrise buildings. The Taipei government didn't think to preserve some of the old, historic buildings, even if they did, the people who inherited great historic homes would have them demolished and torn down so they can benefit from the profits of constructing modern buildings.
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Darn! I just saw a preview of this show and it's dubbed into Mandarin. I was hoping to listen to some genuine Taiwanese dialogue.
Last edited by merela, 9/29/2009, 11:07 am
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8/20/2009, 6:00 pm
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Las Vegas Vacations