Interviewing my mother, she gave me the song Red Bean by Faye Wong as her song of choice. While listening to this song, she told me it doesn’t have a very specific meaning to her, only that she finds the song to be beautiful and leaves you feeling warm on the inside. Red Bean is a ballad that is about a woman whose lover has left.

Interestingly enough, there is a Chinese Love Legend where a man is forced into battle, leaving behind his wife and children. The legend goes on about how the woman would sit beside a tree on a mountain, fruitlessly waiting for her love to return from battle. Crying every single day, she realized she began to cry blood, and those blood droplets ended up turning into red beans. Those red beans were then planted in the ground and grew into large trees producing even more red beans.

My mom also told me that red beans have big cultural significance when it comes to love. Red beans often symbolize faithfulness and love because of its hardness and heart shape. It’s color is similar to blood and it can be stored for very long time periods without rotting or fading color. The entirety of the song has a continuous “warm” tone to it, and I understand why she enjoys it so much. It is indeed a beautiful song once you get past the language barrier, and it has a “timeless” feel to it. At least, for Chinese people.

I only hesitate to recommend this song to other people because it’s in another language and because its a Ballad. I myself am already very accustomed to listening to songs in other languages like Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, German, etc. but for some people they might be turned off because they can’t understand it. It is a beautiful song once you understand the meaning behind the lyrics, but it is all a matter of taste.

The Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhDp_ktFcV0

Lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/hong_dou_red_bean_lyrics_faye_wong.html

Work Cited: Wong, Faye. “紅豆” (Hóngdòu) (Red Bean). Faye Wong. Rec. 1998. EMI, 1998. CD.