Amy Winehouse (Chop suey)

The moment when I heard the anchorwoman announcing Amy Winehouse’s death, I thought my ears and English had failed me. My doubt lasted until the newspaper confirmed me the truth.

I was surprised by the news, which is, on the other hand, not so surprising considering her life style. Her fight against drinking and drugs addiction was a public battle. I read a report online about her fear of joining the “27 club.” According to her former assistant, she once told him she had a feeling that she’s gonna die young.

When someone dies young, we’ll say he’s 英年早逝(Ying nian2 zao3 shi).  英年, one’s prime year; 早early; 逝die. These days as I’m listening to some of her songs, I have a regret that a voice like hers should be gone so early. Though we haven’t got an official confirmation about the cause of her death, I think it won’t be a wild guess to say it was related to her drinking and drugs addiction.

It’s really a waste to die so young, talented or not. But, would Amy Winehouse be Amy Winehouse without drinking or doing drugs? Was she still able to write those songs if sober? Was it that she was so much troubled emotionally that she had to resort to alcohol and drugs, or her addictions had given her inspiration 靈感(ling2 gan3) to write her works?

I’m not saying drugs and alcohol had helped create her songs, which is out of the reach of my lore. I’m just recalling some great poets or artists in the Chinese or Western history, who, like Amy, were known for their heavy drinking or bizarre behavior when creating their works.

I’ve mentioned poet Li-Bai 李白 in my previous writing Raise your glass in May. 陶淵明, Tao Yuanming, (365-427), who had created a Chinese version of Utopia in his 桃花源記(tao2 hwa yuan2 ji4), is another big drinker poet who often completed his work drunk. And in the Western world, poet Coleridge is said to have composed his “Kubla Khan” after taking opium 鴉片(ya pian4).

張旭, Zhong Shu, a prestigious calligrapher (658-747), was nicknamed 張顛(zhong dian), Nutcase Zhong, who would scream and scurry and write after drinking. His works were characterized with their wild and unpredictable style, which was called 狂草(kuang2 cao3), highly cursive script. 狂 means wild, whimsical or crazy. It is said that he had once dipped his hair into the pool of ink and wrote with his hair. No wonder he would be called張顛, but there is no denying that his calligraphy is extraordinary.

(From www.flickr.com/photos/kun1119/2473757958/)

酗酒(xu4 jiu3), addicted to drinking or嗑藥(ke4 yao4), doing durgs, certainly doesn’t equal to talent or creativity. People like Amy or陶淵明or張旭certainly know what alcohol or drugs would do to them. Somehow they chose to embrace them, or were they too weak to get rid of them? Did Amy prefer to live a fireworks-like life rather than a healthier and longer (but anonymous perhaps) one? Or was she simply too fragile and indulgent to escape from the doomed “27 curse?”

靈感=灵感

陶淵明=陶渊明

桃花源記=桃花源记

鴉片=鸦片

張顛=张颠

嗑藥=嗑药