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Cantopop Songs on Emigration from Hong Kong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Joanna Ching-Yun Lee
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Extract

This article sketches the history of Hong Kong Cantopop songs, which directly address topics such as Hong Kong's political future and the ongoing emigration wave.2 The term “Cantorock” was first used by Billboard correspondent Hans Ebert in 1974, who noted the emergence of Hong Kong's own locally produced rock music. The “Cantorock” style was related to American and British rock of that period and characterized by electric guitars and heavy percussion. By 1978, the style of locally produced popular music in Hong Kong had become one similar to British-American soft-rock, as had Japanese pop music earlier, prompting Ebert to revise his description of such music to “Cantopop.” Cantopop subsequently evolved on its own in the 1980s, although it still borrowed musical elements and instrumentation from Western and Japanese popular music. The distinct Japanese influence on Cantopop is exemplified by quasi-pentatonic melodies and almost exclusively amorous lyrics. Some Cantopop songs are pop or rock versions of traditional Chinese folk tunes. Others are borrowed Western pop tunes set to new Cantonese lyrics.3 The market for Cantopop is not limited only to Hong Kong: it extends into Southeast Asian countries and Chinese urban areas in Europe and America (i.e., London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, etc.). The business of Cantopop has been lucrative since the late 1970s, when popular culture became subsumed under large-scale commercial enterprises in Hong Kong. During the 1980s, local television stations, film production companies, and the popular music industry flourished as Hong Kong became increasingly prosperous.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 24 , 1992 , pp. 14 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by the International Council for Traditional Music

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Footnotes

1

This paper was first presented in July 1991 at the 31st World Conference of the ICTM. It is the result of the author's research on pro-democracy Cantopop produced in Hong Kong. The content and critical observations here are related to an earlier article by the author, “All for Freedom: The Rise of Patriotic/Pro-democratic Popular Music in Hong Kong in Response to the Chinese Student Movement” in Rockin' the Boat: Mass Music and Mass Movements, ed. Reebee Garofalo (Boston: South End Press, 1992), 129-147. “All for Freedom” surveys the trend of political Cantopop from May 1989 to December 1990, while this article provides an up-to-date account on Cantopop on emigration specifically. For a selected list of Cantopop songs cited in this article, see Appendix.

References

Notes

2. Cantopop is the locally produced Cantonese popular music of Hong Kong.Google Scholar

3. Cantonese versions of songs such as “Nothing's gonna stop us now” (Miami Sound Machine), “True Blue” (Madonna), and “Nothing's gonna change my love for you” (Richard Marx) were chart-toppers in Hong Kong in the 1980s.Google Scholar

4. Except Radio Television Hong Kong which is government-owned, television, film, and popular music industries are all privately run in this laissez-faire economy.Google Scholar

5. Hong Kong consists of three distinct geographical areas: Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula, and the New Territories. Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula were permanently ceded to Britain in 1842 and 1860 respectively. However, the New Territories were leased to the British in 1898 for 99 years, therefore prompting the issue of sovereignty of Hong Kong after 1997. When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the new leaders announced that all unequal treaties signed by previous Chinese governments (Qing Dynasty and the nationalist Republic of China) were null and void. However, no political negotiations took place between Western powers and China for decades, while China was isolated from the rest of the Western world. In 1976, when the People's Republic of China was admitted into the United Nations, one of its first proclamations was that Hong Kong and Macau were matters of Chinese internal affairs.Google Scholar

6. Other than names that are anglicized, all Chinese names are spelled according to the pinyin system in this article.Google Scholar

7. See “All for Freedom: The Rise of Patriotic/Pro-democratic Popular Music in Hong Kong in Response to the Chinese Student Movement.” The “Concert for Democracy in China” raised US$1.9 million in a day.Google Scholar

8. As British Nationals (Overseas), Hong Kong citizens do not have the right of abode in the United Kingdom. See later discussion.Google Scholar

9. British negotiators postponed meetings of the Joint Liaison Group immediately after June 4, 1989 for almost a year.Google Scholar

10. Translated by Janet Mui-Fong Ng.Google Scholar

11. James Wong's album, “Hong Kong X'mas,” was marketed by EMI Hong Kong Ltd. in December 1989 and rereleased in December 1990.Google Scholar

12. The album cover of “Wander No More” features the skyline of Toronto, which is one of the most popular cities to which Hong Kong citizens emigrate.Google Scholar

13. This radio announcement is broadcast on Hong Kong public radios daily in order to inform potential boat people of the current law.Google Scholar

14. The population of Hong Kong in July 1991 was around 5.7 million.Google Scholar

15. “IDD” stands for “International Direct Dial.”Google Scholar

16. Yin Guang dropped out of the music scene in the 1970s. In 1990, he was invited by a small record company to sing again. Yin's manager is Armando Lai, the composerlibrettist of the first song discussed in this article, “1997.” Yin's musical style combines traditional singing with modern rock and latin rhythms and big band accompaniment.Google Scholar

17. The entire “Dreams of Hong Kong” project includes a music competition, pop concerts, youth projects, school activities, and an educational television series.Google Scholar

18. “This is Our Home” is sung by a chorus.Google Scholar

19. “Our Roots” was written by Taiwanese composer Angus Tung. A recent fundraising project which also highlighted the Chinese identity of Hong Kong people was the campaign to help the flood victims in China. A fund-raising music marathon was organized in July 1991, and the population of Hong Kong donated more than HK$800,000,000 (US$102,560,000) to the cause.Google Scholar

20. Translated by Janet Mui-Fong Ng.Google Scholar

21. Telephone interview with Ms. Tang by the author (November 1990).Google Scholar

22. This song was broadcast on the radio from June to July 1991. The projected release date of the album was mid-July 1991. Kinn's Ltd., the production company, did not release the album and ultimately folded in 1992. See Appendix.Google Scholar

23. The Chinese and British governments have recently run into difficulties in their negotiations regarding the transitional period up to 1997: the building of a new airport, plans for establishing a final court of appeal prior to 1997, the process of democratization of Hong Kong's political system, etc. The Basic Law is also open to different interpretations, and the Chinese authorities often differ from their British counterparts in their opinions.Google Scholar

24. In 1990-91, political parties and associations had been formally established, because the first direct elections for a small number of seats at the Hong Kong Legislative Council took place on September 15, 1991.Google Scholar

25. Jardine Matheson, one of the first British companies founded in Hong Kong, moved its headquarters to Bermuda in the late 1980s. In January 1991, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank announced that it was going to move its place of incorporation back to England.Google Scholar