From Wikipedia:
Zhou Xuan (August 1, 1918 - September 22, 1957) was a popular Chinese singer and film actress. By the 1940s, she had become one of China's seven great singing stars. She is probably the most well-known of the seven, as she had a concurrent movie career until 1953. Zhou was born Su Pu (蘇璞), but was separated from her natural parents at a young age and raised by adoptive parents. She spent her entire life searching for her biological parents but her parentage was never established until after her death. According to later family research, a relative who was an opium addict took her at the age of 3 to another city and sold her to a family named Wang, who named her Wang Xiaohong. She was later adopted by a family named Zhou, changing her name to Zhou Xiaohong. At the age of 13 she took Zhou Xuan as her stage name, 'Xuan' (璇) meaning beautiful jade in Chinese.
Cantopop actually means Cantonese Pop and was originally a hybrid of Western Pop, and other influences, with Cantonese Opera. While the original songs often featured traditional Chinese instruments, these have, mostly, been phased out and nowadays Cantopop is more like a wholesome version of Western Pop sung in the Cantonese language.
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Interesting ! I posted yesterday a recording of Zhou Xuan on my blog, devoted to old 78rpm records, the song is called 襟上一朵花, you can listen to it here : http://ceintsdebakelite.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/zhou-xuan/
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