SYNOPSIS

Wearing a long dress like a painting, a white-rose-shaped big hair wig and a pair of twenty-centimeter high heel shoes, Madame Bilan de Linphel sings in a dim bar, her tears mixed with thick black eyelash hanging from the corners of her eyes, sometimes in a low voice and sometimes loudly, from Bai Guang (a famous female singer in the 1940s) to Yan Qiuxia (a descendant of Bai-school story-telling in Beijing dialect with drum accompaniment ), from the considerable advice of hecklers and admirers, to the acrid words and disdain of women sitting below the stage; from warm singing intoxicated with memories to desperate mad laughter, anger and scolding⋯ In this noisy environment, the stage belongs to her — the gorgeous, dignified, harsh, timid, vicious, snobbish, shy, unfortunate, charming, aggressive and inflexible Madame Bilan de Linphel!

Tailor is talkative. He often goes to the city’s gays strongholds — parks and bathhouses — to create stories, to meet by chance, flirt, make love, have dinner⋯ Tailor said he was born to love men.

In Tailor’s eyes, his parents are unfortunate; his childhood, lacking a sense of security, was rather dull.

After growing up, Tailor, dependent on the meager income he earned through making clothes, went to Guangzhou to realize his ideal: to be a popular “prostitute.” Indeed, he met some men deeply rooted in his heart — no matter in Beijing or Guangzhou — he was very young at that time.

He was once infected with syphilis, it was carelessness, and since then he began to recite the Heart Sutra⋯ Day after day, when he recited the sutra repeatedly until he almost forgot its contents and even naturally found it unbelievable, he felt some sense of security.

Tailor is talkative, he vividly emphasizes money and sex. He is still living so radiantly: in desire, in desperation.

The chatty Tailor is Madame Bilan de Linphel on the stage.