FM 88.7 MHz

Tonight, while watching YouTube, I came across a video from 15 years ago here. It was a recorded footage of Jin Haixin performing on CETV-1’s “Youth Forever” at the Xingguang Film and Television Park on June 20, 2009. The moment I heard it, it immediately took me back to the time when I used to listen to FM 88.7 MHz many, many years ago.

I remember when I was very young, probably in primary school and middle school, MP3 players were not yet popular. The most commonly used device at that time was the portable cassette player. Genuine cassette tapes were actually quite expensive back then, and even the pirated ones made it unrealistic to have so many favorite songs.

So the radio function on the portable cassette players became more commonly used, especially during quiet nights. FM 88.7 MHz was basically a music radio station back then, and I used to listen to it late at night. Today, when I heard Jin Haixin’s song “Fei Zou Le” from so many years ago, it instantly took me back to that time.

We didn’t have as many sources of entertainment back then, and not all the songs on this channel were good, but it was the feeling. I remember discovering Aska Yang’s song “Ji Mo Zai Chang Ge” (“Loneliness Sings”) from it. One autumn night, I opened the window, feeling the cool breeze outside, and could even hear the sound of crickets. With the chilly moonlight, as the song played, the whole world became quiet.

Apart from this channel, I remember the year when I had a car accident. Because of a fractured skull, my recovery was slow, and I had to lie in bed for a few months without being able to sit up. During that time, FM 105 MHz’s “Ling Wu Shenghuo” accompanied me every day. I heard many favorite songs and stories from it.

Nowadays, we have access to endless electronic resources, but I no longer have the patience to listen to a single channel all the time, to follow a certain person, or to wait patiently for a program that used to require a long wait.

Although I still like Jin Haixin a lot now, I like her song “Na Me Jiao Ao” (“So Proud”), her album “Gan Guan Shi Jie” (“Sensory World”), and her song “Wo Yao Zhao Dao Ni” (“I Want to Find You”) (I love this song). But I no longer have that feeling of walking on a street full of poplar trees, with her voice filling my headphones.

I hope I have the opportunity to relive the feeling of that era again.

It feels like there’s a new life trembling on every green leaf, the beautiful trees of this southern land

Jin Haixin’s songs:

• Medley - “Ba Er Duo Jiao Xing” + “You Mei You Yi Shou Ge Hui Rang Ni Xiang Qi Wo” + “Yule Tiankong” + “Wai Mian De Shi Jie” + “Gan Guan Xian Sheng” + “Na Me Jiao Ao”
• “Wo Yao Zhao Dao Ni”