Word: ta
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Almost as soon as Guest Conductor Antal Dorati signaled for the first crashing ta-ta-ta-dah (from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5), then some muted lullaby music, the musicians began to look like small boys getting into a new game that was going to be fun. Most of the instruments got their chance to shine. Boomed the narrator, Nelson Olmsted: "First I invented the flute [deep blue solo]. Next, the oboe [etc.] . . . But that wasn't all I needed. I had to have -Sharps and flats and pizzicato, Molto Lento and staccato, Treble clef, ritard, repeat, Allegro...
Finally, all citizens would have to tighten belts, practice extreme thrift and frugality. Thundered Ta Kung Pao: "The rest of China is poor, but Shanghai looks wealthy. The rest of China lives a spare and simple life, but Shanghai indulges in luxury. The time has come for this abnormal situation to be corrected...
...Dying City. Despite Ta Rung Pao's complaint, Shanghai was well on the way to becoming an economic graveyard. Industrial production was down an estimated 50%, and still falling. "The Chin Chong Iron Works," read an item in the press, "is trying to sell electric fans for 30,000 jenminpiao each (about $12 U.S.), which is only sufficient to cover labor costs, but there are no buyers...
...years, ever since Insurance-Man C. V. (Neil) Starr bought two struggling sheets and merged them, the Evening Post and Mercury had been a lively landmark of the foreign community (at its peak, the Post sold 15,000 copies of its English edition, 200,000 of its Chinese edition Ta Mei Wan Pao). As early as 1932 Editor Gould warned against Japanese aggression and, when a made-in-Japan puppet Chinese regime took over Shanghai, the Post was bombed and ten Chinese staffers were assassinated; Editor
Shanghai's Garrison Commander Chen Ta-ching spoke bravely of making Shanghai "a second Stalingrad." Quietly and unannounced, Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek had briefly visited Shanghai, defiantly proclaimed his hope of "final victory" in three years. A long-gowned shopkeeper, standing in his deserted tobacco shop, read the Gimo's words, said sadly: "Mo-liao yi pao [his last salvo...