Ye Liyi is 79 years old this year.
Every year around this time, she receives a check without fail—royalties from the record company for *Shanghai Beach*.
The amount wasn’t huge—nowhere near what top-tier celebrities earn. Yet this money was paid out continuously for 46 years, starting in the early 1980s, when she had just turned 30 and made “Shanghai Beach” a hit, and continuing until her seventies, when her temples had turned gray and she had long since faded from the public eye.
The reason is simple—when she signed the contract back then, it included a clause stating that as long as *Shanghai Beach* remained on the official distribution list, she would receive the corresponding royalties for fifty consecutive years.
When the TV series *Shanghai Beach* aired in 1980, its theme song of the same name spread across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan along with the show. From Hong Kong’s tea restaurants to the alleys and lanes of mainland China, this melody could be heard everywhere. Over the decades, spanning several generations, the song has never completely fallen out of popularity.
Some people have played it at weddings, while others have hummed it at farewell gatherings. Nowadays, many older adults sing this song at community centers, and there are still people around them who sing along.
Over the years, there have been many pop hits that enjoyed short-lived popularity—they’d be all the rage for a while and then fade into obscurity. Most creators who chase after popularity leave behind little of substance. Songs like “Shanghai Beach,” which have remained popular for four decades, have instead become a rarity.
To date, Ye Li-yi has earned millions of Hong Kong dollars in royalties from this song, and there are still four years left on her contract. As long as the track remains on the market, the money will keep coming in.
The lesson this illustrates is actually quite simple—there’s no need to rush after the small amounts of money right in front of you; something well-crafted with patience and dedication has a much longer lifespan than you might imagine.
This principle applies to your career, and it also applies to your daily life.
Do you also have an old object like this in your life—one that has withstood the test of time and holds a whole era within it?
