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Hong Kong Cantopop: A Concise History
Cantopop was once the leading pop genre of pan-Chinese popular music around the world. In this pioneering study of Cantopop in English, Yiu-Wai Chu shows how the rise of Cantopop is related to the emergence of a Hong Kong identity and consciousness. Chu charts the fortune of this important genre of twentieth-century Chinese music from its humble, lower-class origins in the 1950s to its rise to a multimillion-dollar business in the mid-1990s. As the voice of Hong Kong, Cantopop has given generations of people born in the city a sense of belonging. It was only in the late 1990s, when transformations in the music industry, and more importantly, changes in the geopolitical situation of Hong Kong, that Cantopop showed signs of decline. As such, Hong Kong A Concise History is not only a brief history of Cantonese pop songs, but also of Hong Kong culture. The book concludes with a chapter on the eclipse of Cantopop by Mandapop (Mandarin popular music), and an analysis of the relevance of Cantopop to Hong Kong people in the age of a dominant China. Drawing extensively from Chinese-language sources, this work is a most informative introduction to Hong Kong popular music studies.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published May 2, 2017
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January 29, 2023
Some sentences are very repetitive. This book gives a rather concise overview of the development of Hong Kong Pop.
- 1978: The English term “Cantopop” came into existence, when Billboard correspondent Hans Ebert used it “to describe the locally produced popular music in Hong Kong”.
- 1930s, 40s: the main genre of entertainment of Hong Kong people was Cantonese opera. Parts of popular Cantonese operas would be extracted to form a shorter version known as a “ditty” 小曲 (“small song” in Chinese). Typically, songs in a Cantonese opera were 30 to 45 minutes long; even the shorter ones were more than 15 minutes and much longer than a popular song. In addition, the habit of listening to a popular song is arguably different from that of a Cantonese opera, so Cantonese operas did not appeal to the general public outside the opera house. Producers, therefore, would extract certain parts of a Cantonese opera to make a ditty, which could be considered an early version of Cantopop.
- 1950s: The special context of the 1950s—the assimilation of Cantonese culture and the urban cultures of Shanghai and other regions of the Mainland, the industrialization and commercialization of society, the growth of the postwar generation, etc.19—made Hong Kong a very good place for the generation of a unique, hybridized urban culture. The cultural industries, owing to their highly commercial operational logic, developed their local consciousness a bit more slowly than Hong Kong literature.
- 1960s: The 1960s in Hong Kong was a period of radical social and cultural changes. If Hong Kong was still dominated by its refugee mentality in the 1950s, it saw a rise of local awareness in the 1960s, thanks to changing demographics: By the late 1960s, “a postwar generation, which had only known Hong Kong as a home, reached adulthood, and a sense of Hong Kongese as an autonomous cultural identity began to emerge.” Briefly, as a repercussion of the riots over fare hikes on the Star Ferry in 1966, the 1967 riots began with a labor dispute in April 1967. It later turned into large-scale demonstrations with waves of bombing against British colonial rule. “The colonial government reacted to the riots by enhancing young people’s social integration and directing their energy into formal channels such as participation in government-sponsored social services.” In the aftermath of the riots, the Hong Kong government also designed a series of programs, such as Hong Kong Week and the Hong Kong Festival, with the aim of constructing a kind of local consciousness in order to curb the national and/or anticolonial sentiments of the post-1967 society. Concepts such as “civil identity” and “society” were widely disseminated in Hong Kong after the 1967 riots, and “a distinct Hong Kong identity first emerged in the 1970s.”
- 1970s: By the end of the 1960s, the rising popularity of Taiwanese popular songs in Hong Kong contributed, at least in part, to the recession of the first wave of band music. By the early 1970s, many popular bands had broken up, and members later continued their music careers as musicians in Chinese night clubs and hotels. There were still repercussions of band music, such as Wynners and New Topnotes. In the mid-1970s, the age of Cantopop arrived, bringing a paradigm shift to Hong Kong popular music. Arguably, the disbanding of The Wynners formally brought the curtain down on band music in Hong Kong. While there were scattered efforts by nonmainstream bands, many former band members turned to Cantopop in the late 1970s.
- 1974: cantopop had generally been considered a working-class pastime until the theme song of the Television Broadcasting Company (TVB) drama Romance between Tears and Smiles 《啼笑因緣》 became popular in 1974 and changed Hong Kong people’s impression about Cantopop. The theme song “Romance between Tears and Smiles” marked the dawn of an era in which Cantopop became the dominant genre of popular lyrics in Hong Kong. The year 1974 is generally agreed to be the watershed of the development of Cantopop, when the biased impression toward Cantopop was rectified by the unprecedented success of songs and singers such as Sam Hui, later known as the God of Cantopop.
- 1980s (the heyday): The collective anxiety of the Hong Kong people was effectively channeled by the catharsis provided by popular culture after 1974. History repeated itself in the 1980s. Due to the impasse between China and Britain during handover talks, the Hang Seng Index fell sharply in 1982 and hit bottom at 676 in December before it bounced back. But despite this, Hong Kong cultural industries continued to grow.
- 1990s: the best time and the worst time
- early 2000s: Dr. Wong hinted at the death of Cantopop in his doctoral thesis, and his own departure summed up controversies about the death of Cantopop: When did Hong Kong popular music die? Theories abound as to the death of Hong Kong pop songs delivered in the local language of Cantonese, or Cantopop. Some say it died when Hong Kong was handed over by the British to the Beijing authorities in 1997. Others say that it died along with its two international superstars, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, in 2003.
- Some relevant Mandopop history in Taiwan:
After the Kuomintang relocated to Taiwan after 1949, Mandarin became the official language there. As the government marginalized local dialects, Mandapop had a hold over Taiwanese popular songs. The Taiwanese wave continued into the 1970s when the theme songs of Chiung Yao’s 瓊瑤 style of wenyi pian (romantic melodrama) hit Hong Kong. You Ya 尤雅, Feng Fei Fei 鳳飛飛, Jenny Tseng 甄妮, and the legendary Teresa Teng 鄧麗君 gained popularity in Hong Kong. The Taiwanese wave on Cantopop was twofold. First, its attractiveness to the Hong Kong audience suppressed the development of Cantopop, keeping it within the periphery in the field of popular music. However, later it contributed a new impetus to Cantopop: cover versions and Mandapop created Cantopop singers such as Jenny Tseng, who later became the most popular female singer in Hong Kong in the early 1980s.
- 1978: The English term “Cantopop” came into existence, when Billboard correspondent Hans Ebert used it “to describe the locally produced popular music in Hong Kong”.
- 1930s, 40s: the main genre of entertainment of Hong Kong people was Cantonese opera. Parts of popular Cantonese operas would be extracted to form a shorter version known as a “ditty” 小曲 (“small song” in Chinese). Typically, songs in a Cantonese opera were 30 to 45 minutes long; even the shorter ones were more than 15 minutes and much longer than a popular song. In addition, the habit of listening to a popular song is arguably different from that of a Cantonese opera, so Cantonese operas did not appeal to the general public outside the opera house. Producers, therefore, would extract certain parts of a Cantonese opera to make a ditty, which could be considered an early version of Cantopop.
- 1950s: The special context of the 1950s—the assimilation of Cantonese culture and the urban cultures of Shanghai and other regions of the Mainland, the industrialization and commercialization of society, the growth of the postwar generation, etc.19—made Hong Kong a very good place for the generation of a unique, hybridized urban culture. The cultural industries, owing to their highly commercial operational logic, developed their local consciousness a bit more slowly than Hong Kong literature.
- 1960s: The 1960s in Hong Kong was a period of radical social and cultural changes. If Hong Kong was still dominated by its refugee mentality in the 1950s, it saw a rise of local awareness in the 1960s, thanks to changing demographics: By the late 1960s, “a postwar generation, which had only known Hong Kong as a home, reached adulthood, and a sense of Hong Kongese as an autonomous cultural identity began to emerge.” Briefly, as a repercussion of the riots over fare hikes on the Star Ferry in 1966, the 1967 riots began with a labor dispute in April 1967. It later turned into large-scale demonstrations with waves of bombing against British colonial rule. “The colonial government reacted to the riots by enhancing young people’s social integration and directing their energy into formal channels such as participation in government-sponsored social services.” In the aftermath of the riots, the Hong Kong government also designed a series of programs, such as Hong Kong Week and the Hong Kong Festival, with the aim of constructing a kind of local consciousness in order to curb the national and/or anticolonial sentiments of the post-1967 society. Concepts such as “civil identity” and “society” were widely disseminated in Hong Kong after the 1967 riots, and “a distinct Hong Kong identity first emerged in the 1970s.”
- 1970s: By the end of the 1960s, the rising popularity of Taiwanese popular songs in Hong Kong contributed, at least in part, to the recession of the first wave of band music. By the early 1970s, many popular bands had broken up, and members later continued their music careers as musicians in Chinese night clubs and hotels. There were still repercussions of band music, such as Wynners and New Topnotes. In the mid-1970s, the age of Cantopop arrived, bringing a paradigm shift to Hong Kong popular music. Arguably, the disbanding of The Wynners formally brought the curtain down on band music in Hong Kong. While there were scattered efforts by nonmainstream bands, many former band members turned to Cantopop in the late 1970s.
- 1974: cantopop had generally been considered a working-class pastime until the theme song of the Television Broadcasting Company (TVB) drama Romance between Tears and Smiles 《啼笑因緣》 became popular in 1974 and changed Hong Kong people’s impression about Cantopop. The theme song “Romance between Tears and Smiles” marked the dawn of an era in which Cantopop became the dominant genre of popular lyrics in Hong Kong. The year 1974 is generally agreed to be the watershed of the development of Cantopop, when the biased impression toward Cantopop was rectified by the unprecedented success of songs and singers such as Sam Hui, later known as the God of Cantopop.
- 1980s (the heyday): The collective anxiety of the Hong Kong people was effectively channeled by the catharsis provided by popular culture after 1974. History repeated itself in the 1980s. Due to the impasse between China and Britain during handover talks, the Hang Seng Index fell sharply in 1982 and hit bottom at 676 in December before it bounced back. But despite this, Hong Kong cultural industries continued to grow.
- 1990s: the best time and the worst time
- early 2000s: Dr. Wong hinted at the death of Cantopop in his doctoral thesis, and his own departure summed up controversies about the death of Cantopop: When did Hong Kong popular music die? Theories abound as to the death of Hong Kong pop songs delivered in the local language of Cantonese, or Cantopop. Some say it died when Hong Kong was handed over by the British to the Beijing authorities in 1997. Others say that it died along with its two international superstars, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, in 2003.
- Some relevant Mandopop history in Taiwan:
After the Kuomintang relocated to Taiwan after 1949, Mandarin became the official language there. As the government marginalized local dialects, Mandapop had a hold over Taiwanese popular songs. The Taiwanese wave continued into the 1970s when the theme songs of Chiung Yao’s 瓊瑤 style of wenyi pian (romantic melodrama) hit Hong Kong. You Ya 尤雅, Feng Fei Fei 鳳飛飛, Jenny Tseng 甄妮, and the legendary Teresa Teng 鄧麗君 gained popularity in Hong Kong. The Taiwanese wave on Cantopop was twofold. First, its attractiveness to the Hong Kong audience suppressed the development of Cantopop, keeping it within the periphery in the field of popular music. However, later it contributed a new impetus to Cantopop: cover versions and Mandapop created Cantopop singers such as Jenny Tseng, who later became the most popular female singer in Hong Kong in the early 1980s.
December 28, 2020
I wish I could give this book five stars, and, if quality scholarship were my sole criterion, I would give it exactly that rating. This book is a singular scholarly achievement; it is the first full-length volume in English to consider Cantopop in an academic light, advancing a theoretically incisive yet impressively lucid argument on why it fell into decline. The book's historical survey of the genre is written from the perspective of a man who is clearly deeply in love with the music. Readers looking for a beginning to an academic examination of Cantopop will find everything they need in this book, with its historical overview allowing a firm grasp of Cantopop's development and decline and its polemics offering a great place for discussion and debate to begin (and plenty of Yiu-Wai Chu's provocative arguments just beg to be debated). There's even a nifty timeline of Cantopop in the appendix which will surely be useful for any student of Hong Kong culture studies. Unfortunately, scholarship is not (and ought not to be) my sole criterion, and this book's failings in prose easily shatters any attempt to enjoy it. It's incredibly poorly written.
Case in point: "per se" is used incorrectly. Even if it was used correctly, its repeated use, along with other Latin terms which are ambiguous at best and can easily be replaced by simpler and less clumsy language, turn phrases into annoying cliches. Typos and inconsistent spellings create additional annoyances. Then, the paramount annoyance, repetitive and redundant prose, tops the heap and turns the reading experience into an utterly infuriating frustration.
Perhaps the book's repetition problem can be diagnosed as "awful peanut butter and jelly sandwich syndrome." Let me explain. Peanut butter tastes great (apologies to those with peanut allergies). When it's part of a well-made peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it tastes even better. But it would be foolish to assume that, because peanut butter tastes especially good, adding more peanut butter will only make the sandwich taste better. It would be a cook's folly to, using this false logic, slather on exorbitant amounts of peanut butter in a sandwich. Such a sandwich would overwhelm the jelly taste and fill the mouth with immobilizing amounts of peanut butter; few would deign to finish such a sandwich. Good sandwiches have peanut butter and jelly in measured moderation.
It seems to me that certain phrases sounded particularly strong to the author in the drafting process (the peanut butter of this book), so they were slathered on, just like a poorly made sandwich. For instance, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is used as a metaphor for Cantopop during the 90's. The author takes care to explain that he took it from Dickens and outlines the reasons why the description is apt. This is fine the first time, and the analogy even seems pretty smart. I then counted another three times the very same phrase is introduced and explained in just as much belabored detail, and that doesn't even consider the fact that it's used as the title of a chapter.
This isn't even the worst case of overwhelming peanut butter. Sometimes, entire passages repeat almost verbatim a few pages later.
I must reiterate that this is quite a shame. Yiu-Wai Chu is a prominent figure in Hong Kong culture studies, and his authoritative knowledge of the subject shows. My feelings are strictly mixed; if you have any interest in Cantopop, whether as a scholar or as a fan, and are looking for a book in English, you SHOULD get a copy of this book! Regardless of its major problems, the information it contains is still stellar and unprecedented in English. It's worth mentioning that most of the problems I mentioned can be fixed with studious copyediting, so who knows? Maybe we can get a second edition at some point which fixes all the prose issues to solidify the place this book ought to fill: an important and indispensable work for fans and scholars alike.
Case in point: "per se" is used incorrectly. Even if it was used correctly, its repeated use, along with other Latin terms which are ambiguous at best and can easily be replaced by simpler and less clumsy language, turn phrases into annoying cliches. Typos and inconsistent spellings create additional annoyances. Then, the paramount annoyance, repetitive and redundant prose, tops the heap and turns the reading experience into an utterly infuriating frustration.
Perhaps the book's repetition problem can be diagnosed as "awful peanut butter and jelly sandwich syndrome." Let me explain. Peanut butter tastes great (apologies to those with peanut allergies). When it's part of a well-made peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it tastes even better. But it would be foolish to assume that, because peanut butter tastes especially good, adding more peanut butter will only make the sandwich taste better. It would be a cook's folly to, using this false logic, slather on exorbitant amounts of peanut butter in a sandwich. Such a sandwich would overwhelm the jelly taste and fill the mouth with immobilizing amounts of peanut butter; few would deign to finish such a sandwich. Good sandwiches have peanut butter and jelly in measured moderation.
It seems to me that certain phrases sounded particularly strong to the author in the drafting process (the peanut butter of this book), so they were slathered on, just like a poorly made sandwich. For instance, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is used as a metaphor for Cantopop during the 90's. The author takes care to explain that he took it from Dickens and outlines the reasons why the description is apt. This is fine the first time, and the analogy even seems pretty smart. I then counted another three times the very same phrase is introduced and explained in just as much belabored detail, and that doesn't even consider the fact that it's used as the title of a chapter.
This isn't even the worst case of overwhelming peanut butter. Sometimes, entire passages repeat almost verbatim a few pages later.
I must reiterate that this is quite a shame. Yiu-Wai Chu is a prominent figure in Hong Kong culture studies, and his authoritative knowledge of the subject shows. My feelings are strictly mixed; if you have any interest in Cantopop, whether as a scholar or as a fan, and are looking for a book in English, you SHOULD get a copy of this book! Regardless of its major problems, the information it contains is still stellar and unprecedented in English. It's worth mentioning that most of the problems I mentioned can be fixed with studious copyediting, so who knows? Maybe we can get a second edition at some point which fixes all the prose issues to solidify the place this book ought to fill: an important and indispensable work for fans and scholars alike.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews