English Composition 3

Professor: Fallows, R.J.

Student Su Shangwen

Draft 1

If there is one song that consoles my heart the most, it is definitely Southern Girl, a

Chinese song by Zhaolei. Specifically, the song describes how people drift away from

home and gives them emotional power by describing . Every time I play the song, I

have to stop my work and find a peaceful place, intensifying the sound to let the soft

song occupy my heart. By describing a story of how a southern Chinese girl moves to

northern China, it reflects the psychological conditions as well as the experience of

immigrants to big cities. I am also part of this group who has drifted away from home

and inspired by the song to insist on my path and preserve part of my dreams.

Zhaolei is a most popular folk singer and composer in China, who describes young

peoples lives in cities. He is skilled in depict the detailed experience of personal life

without adornedment. In his music we could not find complicated music

characteristics and fluncation, but he could relate listener with the story in the lyrics.

The southern girl is his successful early composition, in which simple repetition of

guitar go across all the song. Such simplicity in music offers an analogy of most

peoples ordinary lives and help listeners to focus on the stories and implicit

variations of emotion in the song and in themselves.

As the guitar plays smoothly and a child sings la la la, It creates an atmosphere of

peace and hope. The sound of kid represents the start the journey, since the kid

processes hope and face the world with all the possibility. It offers a analogy for the

sourthern girl who poesses simple dreams to come to the Beijing. At the start of the

story, Zhaolei sings, She always wears a flowered dress and stands on the roadside,
showing how young people be the best that they can be. In the context a flowered

dress is the best dress she owns and which could exemplify her personality and her

expectation. Stands on the roadsideand watching the flowing of cars signifies her

excitement in big cities and her expectation towards future. As one of many students

who travel thousands of miles to the U.S. for college, I had plenty of expectations and

dreams.(describe in detail and show connection). And since It was my first time

coming to US, I was amazed by anything I saw. The clusters of big cities aroused

millions of young people with their affluence and opportunities. She also misses home

at the start of story, as the lyrics say Whats in her graceful eyes? Thoughts of

sadness.

As time passes by, she gradually gets used to the environment, which we see when he

sings: Oh southern girl, are you used to the cold north autumn?. The new world is

full of opportunities for her, The days pass by just like those sleepless nights. She

chews a piece of gum and talks about (chatter)her dreams to the wall. In this lyrics,

the expectations and excitement occupy her mind so that she could not sleep. Even

without anyone to share with her dreams, she believes she would be successful and

devote to her work. (the dilemma already magnifies it selves in this period. The

enthusiasm still inspire her

However, the reality is never so sweet, since opportunities are hard to catch. After

experiences of failure, her sense of excitement and high expectations disappears:in

the blink of an eye the scents of flowers have flown away, the shadows have faded.

As her situation remains the same, the disappointment prevails: Yesterdays rain

dripped down her frail shoulders. The North day in the sky could not help her to find

her ways. For me, the troubles suddenly come and I found that things were not that
easy. Different education system, language and language are obstacles for me to

overcome, but I could not face them in some times. And for society in general,

fluency in immigration and status is decreasing by accumulation of capital and the

resulting high housing price and diversification of capital.

Southern girl, do you get used to coldness of Northern Autom? The climate is a

epitome of the the transition of environment. As the climate differs, it has huge impact

on our sensations and reminds us of many things. The form of question implicate the

ambivanlce of southern girl to environment of remincie of past of adaption to the

currency. I still remember the Spring festival in my freshman year. In my hometown,

winter is always cold and wet, the rain falling from grey sky. The dramatic transiton

from fall to winter remind people that a year passes by and we should But in south

California, the bright sunshine wake me in the morning as if I was in autum, and last

spring festival was several month ago. It was surreal, since I was supposed to stay

with family and have lots of traditional activities under the cold raining day. The sky

is bright and sunshine were inexcapable; I walked in the already familiar but

somehow looked new campus and realized I could not return to the past any more. So

I studied for the next midterm in the warm sunshine just like another day, and enjoyed

union with my friends. Just like the implication of Spring festival, it was a

commemoration of past and, more importantly, a encompassing of the future.

After tolerating her loneliness and frustrations, she finally gets used to the current

situation:She dries clothes in the courtyard under the sunlight, She tosses her head in

the breeze of passing seasons and consoles her life. The scene becomes peaceful and

normal without effort. (drying clothes in the courtyard is a most common daily life for

Chinese family. It does not mention job market or social events which are grounds for

dreams and achievemtn. She finally get used to her environment, in the price of giving
up part of her dreams, her ambitons. And for most students, for me who encompss

ambitons to come to us for college, life finally falls to the everyday lives. I thought

lives to be a war and I were to be solider fighting in different battles. But everyday

lives are reading books and doing writing assignment in the library, atendting the

routine social events and meeting with friends. That are how lives goes on and how

we approach our goals. Finally, she lived a tranquil life in the north. And I realize I

may not be super successful, but I can still enjoy the everyday lives and progress in

the accumulation of small effort.

In the end of the song she returns to her hometown and stays true to herself. Her

hometown embodies her initial dreams and meanings of life. The final achievement of

dreams represent peoples sweet memory of hometown However, for millions of

people who come to the big cities and devote spend their youth in them, they have to

stay. Although frustrations still exist, they could not give up the social and economic

capital they have accumulated and the could not deviate from the path toward modern

life. We would not have the simple dream as the song shows anymore. What

remains are complicated desires so we have to tolerate the endless progress of life.

(wanderer,drifter)