Happy birthday this 16th December to ...

dolorous_ett

the very nicest Sinologist I know! (Well, all right, the only Sinologist I know, but even if I knew lots more it would be hard to imagine that she wouldn't be one of the nicest. :D)

Lyrics: The last ones were from Sir Harry Lauder's I Love A Lassie, apparently written in 1905 (I actually have a mp3 of an old Edison cylinder recording of that, from 1908). Perhaps not surprisingly, no-one recognised it as a song they danced to as teenagers. :)

So, while Googling for a vaguely appropriate song for today I came across this one, which I haven't heard for years and had completely forgotten about:

Take a journey back in time
Leave the western world behind
Cross the mountains to Peking
Where the paper lanterns gently swing (1980s)