UNCLE NG COMES TO AMERICA 伍伯來金山

Chinese Narrative Songs of Immigration and love 台山木魚歌選

by Bell Yung & Eleanor S. Yung  (Editors)

This multimedia publication on narrative songs from southern China brings together audio recordings, documentary video, song texts and their English translation, as well as introductory essays.

The songs, recorded in the early 1990s in New York City by the Asian American Arts Centre, were sung by Ng Sheung Chi, or Uncle Ng, of Toisan County (Taishan in Mandarin) in the Pearl River Delta. A farmer all his life but also a superb singer of a type of narrative folksong called muk’yu (“wooden fish”), Ng immigrated to New York in 1979 at the age of 69, and continued to sing his beloved muk’yu songs, on Chinatown street corners, in neighborhood parks, in community centers, and anywhere else, with or without an audience. The original recordings and the video documentary form part of the Asian American Arts Centre's work to collect, document, and exhibit community arts, preserve Uncle Ng’s artistry and capture precious moments of his singing and ruminations about his life and music. The publication is a testimony of Uncle Ng not only as a singer of unheralded folk music in its pristine form, but also of his contributions to the Chinese American community in New York City. 

伍伯（伍尚熾）原籍廣東省台山縣錦被村，務農出 生，幼年即善唱木魚，在家鄉人人樂聽，個個愛 戴。他 69 歲時（1979年）移民紐約，閒居無事， 經常在唐人街的公園、街頭、老人院等處唱木魚娛 己娛人，為僑居紐約的眾多台山人帶來鄉音。紐約 市的亞美藝術中心熱衷於搜集、保存、推廣、和研 究美國亞裔居民的藝術，深感伍伯的木魚歌內容豐 富，音樂性強，除了有其獨特的民間文學和音樂價 值外，更見證了南中國珠江三角州的歷史、文化、 和社會。且伍伯演唱造詣精深，是中國民間藝術家 的佼佼者；但後繼無人，木魚歌因社會變遷而即將 成絕響。藝術中心遂於1989年開始把伍伯的木魚歌 全部錄音，更以他為主題拍攝電影記錄片一套，使 伍伯的音、容得以流傳於世。本書收集伍伯木魚歌 八首，包括早年華人在美國掘金的血淚故事“金山 論”，伍伯自作木魚歌“伍伯來金山”，和著名口傳 方言文學“第八才子書花箋記”中三章。書中附 有八首木魚歌的原錄音光碟和電影記錄片光碟，全 部漢語歌詞和英語翻譯，及三篇介紹木魚和伍伯的 英語文章。