Shanghai 1943

Sung by: Jay Chou

Composed by: Jay Chou

Lyrics: Fong Man Shan

The yellowed Spring Festival couplets are still on the wall, and I can vaguely see a few words that say "peace for many years to come."

In the rice bowl of the old house, which I haven't been back to, grandpa wrote a full one in Regular Script

The golden kudzu crawls all over the carved doors and windows. Time has slowed down, the old neighborhoods

Small alleys, a faint melancholy belonging to that era of white walls and black tiles

Disappearing old times, nineteen forty-three

The fragments of looking back, there is some frost

Old turntables, the old suitcases

The iron box full of postcards hides a piece of rose petals

Golden kudzu climbs over carved doors and windows.

Time has slowed down, the old neighborhoods

Small alleys, a faint melancholy belonging to that era of white walls and black tiles

Disappearing old times, nineteen ninety-four-three

The fragments of the look back, there is some frost

Old turntables, the old suitcases

The tin box full of postcards hides a piece of rose petals

Expanded:

"Shanghai Nineteen Forty-Three" was included on Jay Chou's album Vantage Point, released on September 14, 2001, in which he wrote the song "Shanghai Nineteen Forty-Three". The song is based on the story of Taiwanese veterans who long for their parents, and is also the ending song of the 20-episode television series "Ugly Girls".

Fang had a reason for choosing the year 1943 as the backdrop for his story: in 1943, there were many veterans in Taiwan's military dependents' villages, and after they fled to Taiwan due to the war, they were separated from their parents for several decades until they finally returned to the mainland when family visits were opened, though their parents may have long since disappeared.

When they return home, they can only rely on the yellowed old photos to see the glowing faces of their parents when they were in love, and the time when they were active on the Shanghai Bund, or look at the old walls and tiles of their homes to find their lost memories. Fong was inspired by the old uncles in his family's village, and his experience of their loneliness and emotion.