Hong Kong singer Denise Ho and democrats like her might fear China’s increasing control over their city would one day come to engulf all its sectors.
But the decline of one field – Cantopop, Ho’s specialty – can never be directly blamed on Beijing.
According to many observers, including James Wong, the late Cantopop titan famed for his inimitable lyrics and melodies who died in 2004, the genre was already in its last gasp at the turn of the century.
Wong foresaw the lack in talent and the limited market for Cantopop to endure as a musical phenomenon.
But what he must have failed to predict is that politics – referring to Beijing – would make a renaissance for Cantopop even harder to come by.
According to Ho, 39, before September 2014, when she threw her support behind the pro-democracy, anti-Beijing Occupy Central protest, 80 per cent of her income came from fans in mainland China.
Revealing the fact in a recent interview, the pop icon hinted that she had suffered a severe hit in her earnings after the Chinese media called for a boycott of pro-democracy Hong Kong artists like her.
“The arrows come from all sides,” said Ho.
Many so-called “localists” – mostly made up of young Hong Kongers – might believe a political fightback would keep Mandarin from overwhelming Cantonese as the dominant tongue of their city. Or, for that matter, preventing Mandopop from eclipsing Cantopop.
Yet, industry insiders have long charted the fall of Cantopop, viewing its rise in the late 20th century as a fluke brought about by the circumstances of the times.
Recently, more telltale signs have emerged that the genre may be a dying art.
Many observers have noted that none of the Hong Kong singers who participated in the gala singing contests held by Chinese television stations made it to the top positions.
Except Gloria Tang or G.E.M., who was actually born in Shanghai.
Hong Kong’s Joey Yung and Leo Ku, who have frequently snagged music awards in the past, made almost no ripple in the popular I Am A Singer reality show.
Apparently, it was because they were not adept at singing Mandarin songs, yet their Cantopop numbers had little appeal.
Interestingly, G.E.M. is seen as an outsider in Hong Kong after she shot to fame in China and appeared to have shifted her career focus there since.
Some Hong Kongers regret that Eason Chan, nicknamed the God of Songs II after Jacky Cheung, has refrained from pitting his singing prowess against that of the mainland dynamos.
“Perhaps he knows he won’t win because the ears of most Chinese now are not attuned to a Hong Kong voice,” wrote a Hong Kong netizen.
PAST GLORY
But it was not so long ago – less than two decades, according to some – that Cantopop and Hong Kong stars were all the rage not only in China, but also in Taiwan and South-east Asia.
In its heyday, Cantopop singers such as Sam Hui, Michael Kwan, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, Jacky Cheung, Kelly Chen and Eason Chan ruled the airwaves.
Some would even include mainlander Faye Wong, who indisputably helped prolong the glory of Cantopop with her soulful crooning of the dialect, which was groundbreaking and charming in the early 1990s.
“It was a time when the mainland and Taiwan were either closed or partially closed to the world,” wrote Wong in his academic thesis on the withering of Cantopop.
“Hong Kong, being the most prosperous, open and innovative of all the Chinese cities then, offered an exciting window to the world to all Chinese through its music,” he added.
Even mainland movies looking back at the 1990s would never miss using a Cantopop song or two as a mark of that time. But now Cantopop looks to be an endangered genre.
“Hong Kong’s golden age has passed – culturally and economically – as cities like Beijing and Shanghai have overtaken us,” said Lau Ching Chih, an expert on the Hong Kong music industry.
“Our audience pool is small, so how could we compare our music scene to a market of more than a billion people?” Professor Lau pointed out.
But not all is lost, with some proponents pointing out that indie Hong Kong artists who are not affiliated to any music company have proliferated in the Internet age.
Many of these modern singers experiment with new kinds of musical expressions and showcase an array of original sounds, be it through technology, instruments or song style.
Cantopop might be fragmented into finer niches now, but the taste has become more refined, said critics, as even veterans like Jacky Cheung is focused on jazz, which is what would immortalise his name, not Cantopop.
Perhaps Cantopop has fulfilled its historic role in opening the eyes of the Chinese music lovers, and it is time for it to discover what deeper possibilities it could offer other than catering to mass audiences.
After all, it is a domain that Beijing could never overrun, however pervasive its political and cultural control over Hong Kong would be.
Jody Chiang’s retirement ‘ended the best era of Minnan pop’
When Jody Chiang, now 55, delivered her finale at the last of her farewell concerts last year in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung city, some saw that as the final curtain call for Minnan pop.
That is certainly an exaggeration, for there are still many Taiwanese singers who are magnetic in the way they present songs composed in their native Minnan tongue or southern Fujian dialect.
One name is Wu Bai – only that he is identified more as a rock than a Minnan pop singer, unlike Chiang, who is called the Queen of Taiwanese Music.
Yet, it is undeniable that Minnan pop has already seen its boom days, especially when current hot names in Taiwan, such as Jay Chou and Jolin Tsai, are apparently not taken with the dialect-based genre.
That is not surprising, as Minnan pop has always had a rustic (and some would say tacky) image, which makes it an “uncool” choice to the youth.
It is often associated with the working class and the country folk, unlike Cantopop, which has an urban feel, its native soil being Hong Kong.
But before the influx of mainstream Western music genres such as R&B and hip hop into Taiwan, Minnan pop had struck a chord in many Taiwanese hearts, holding its ground against the more popular Mandopop.
But it did not have the flexibility to absorb new ingredients when Taiwan became completely open to the world in the 1990s.
Current pro-independence legislator Freddy Lim, 40, is an acclaimed heavy metal singer, but his Minnan compositions have too much political overtones to have a steady appeal in the market.
“Jody’s songs were unique because they transcended all the political divides of Taiwan and evoked the deepest sentiment of every one – be it a native or someone of mainland origin,” noted sociologist Lee Ming-tsung.
“Jody also gave the Minnan pop a Mandopop feel, widening its appeal to non-Taiwanese,” said a music arranger.
“Her retirement ended the best era of Minnan pop.”
larryteo@sph.com.sg
Get MyPaper for more stories.
