Hong Kong Pop

Pitch Yr Culture

2011-11-13T19:18:00.000+08:00

YanYan Pang (aka Tyger Feb) playing acoustic at the end of Pitch Yr Culture at Videotage last Friday night. Nice songs with interesting lyrics. If she is singing somewhere near you, please listen! Pitch Yr Culture is a good night out where people stand up and show their age by talking about a song for no longer than the length of the song. What's left on the screen is a song by The Descendants that was chosen by no less two presenters. Never heard of them before. I certainly have now.

Hardcore@Hidden Agenda

2011-10-09T19:25:00.000+08:00

This is Riz of King Lychee dialoging with fans at Hidden Agenda last night. Riz said that the difference between hardcore and metal is that in hardcore the audience gets to use the microphone. Here he is showing he is as good as his word. I am not a hardcore fan, but this was a great night at a great venue with Inner Core, Shepherds the Weak, This is Ammunition, Face Face, King Lychee, and all-the-way-from-the-Philippines, Badburn. Below, Marben Romero of Badburn, a nice guy who really knows how to look scary on stage, getting down with the audience. One day I'll work out how to take photos in the dark with an iPhone.

Tizzy Bac - Every Dog Has It's Lawn

2011-09-10T17:04:00.000+08:00

My favourite Taiwanese band, from their newish album Now playing, the tell tale heart. Not the best track on the album, but only one in English. More important, Tizzy Bac will play at KITEC Hong Kong on Sept 17, the first day of Taiwan Calling 2011. The adventurous hedgehog is looking forward to Echo on the 18th. Not cheap at HK$680, but you do get to see 18 bands.

New year songs banned in Singapore

2011-05-08T17:40:00.000+08:00

A curiosity bought on a recent trip to Singapore. This locally-produced EMI Regal disc of festive songs from 1971 looked innocent enough until I opened it up and found that it had once been owned by Radio Television Singapore. Side One swings along with Chinese versions of Xmas classics such as Silent Night and Jingle Bells, but turn the album over to listen to some Chinese New Year songs and things begin to get sinister. While four of the songs escaped the beady eye of the censors, Good Fortunes and A Happy New Year are clearly marked as "banned". Why? Much as I enjoy listening to banned songs, the pleasure is lost on me here, because neither I nor anyone I have asked has the slightest idea what could have caused offence or threatened to bring down the government of the day. Any ideas?

Koda Kumi sings in English

2011-04-22T19:37:00.000+08:00

Back to the article I am writing on Asian singers singing in English, here is Japanese megastar, Koda Kumi, with versions of her first two singles from 2000 that were released in the US. Not surprisingly,they didn't do very well. The Japanese versions had better music and better production - even if you don't understand Japanese, at least you can hear what she is singing.

The Blue Star Sisters

2011-04-14T22:02:00.001+08:00

Some records coming up that I bought on a recent trip to Singapore. The Blue Star Sisters - five Filipino sisters (?) who were popular in Hong Kong in the 60s. I am told this EP was recorded in Singapore, which is why I digitized it and gave it away - long story. But Not Goodbye is a Hong Kong original - thumbs up to shatinterry for posting it on YouTube (and the fascinating chat about 60s nightclubs and electric car racing!). No date on the record as usual, but it must be 1968 or 1969 as the original of As I Look came out in 1968. I am choosing As I Look as my favourite track, because I was once a big fan of The Rebel Rousers.

SNSD - then and now

2011-04-08T14:14:00.000+08:00

I have just written this about SNSD (aka Generation Girls in Korea, Siu Nui Si Doi in Hong Kong) in an academic paper on Asian artists who sing in English. "At a 2010 press conference for the Korean female pop group SNSD (who regularly issue English version of their Korean songs, and recently topped the Japanese Oricon sales chart with a single recorded in Japanese), Kim Young Min, CEO of the groups production company SM Entertainment, expressed his aim to “unify the Asian market and build it into the biggest market in the world”. The press release reported that SNSD want “to reach further out to their foreign fans all over Asia, and becoming fluent in foreign languages is essential to that goal”, and quoted group member Tiffany as saying that the group had “really focusing on the language these days, especially since we want to be able to connect with our foreign fans”.

Into The New World was their first single from 2007. Hoot is from 2010. The certainly have focused on their English, but somehow I wish they hadn't.

Drinking eggs

2011-04-03T18:57:00.000+08:00

Under the leadership of the adventurous hedgehog we have been visiting some of Hong Kong's oldest cafes and I have got in the habit of ordering anything on the menu with a raw egg in it. First, a bowl of 'pheonix egg custard' from China Cafe on Canton Road, Mongkok. Custard powder and hot water with a broken egg dropped in and the rest is up to you. It tastes, well, a lot like custard. Next, the same without custard from Diamond Cafe in Choi Hung estate (Picture below). Stir it up and add sugar and it tastes, well, a bit like custard.

Audrey Lily

2011-02-09T22:28:00.000+08:00

Another top class CD form the guys at Harbour Records, released last year but I have only got round to listening to it today. The sleeve notes are a bit cryptic so I had no idea who or what Audrey Lily is - until I came across this Time Out article and found out that she is, in fact, a person, who does pretty much everything with her voice, guitar and a computer. The Time Out writer has her down as Kid-A era Radiohead meets Cantopop, while Audrey herself says she grew up listening to Anita Mui and the Byrds. Before I read any of that, I was already hearing Faye Wong meets Joy Division. This is my favourite. Track 6 - 'inspired by My Little Airport' - watch the video and tell me if I'm wrong...

The Marshmallow Kisses - Ciao! Baby

2011-02-06T12:52:00.001+08:00

A really nice album from The Marshmallow Kisses. A long time in the making and worth the wait - indiepop.bossa nova.shibuyakei.french pop.60s.retro - yeah!

Btw, The Marshmallow Kisses are not the guys in this video, but they are playing the music!

Eason Chan Xmas song

2010-12-31T21:17:00.006+08:00

Before Xmas is just a memory... Eason Chan's Xmas single My Private Christmas and the adventurous hedgehog insists on the nice rabbit animation version. Below Eason having fun in Vancouver speaking British and Hong Kong English to Canadians. But this is concert man! 5.45 no music wtf?

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Hei Wong / Amino Shower

2010-12-27T15:22:00.003+08:00

This makes it ten, so I'll squeeze two into one. Hei Wong released his April the seventh CD this year and seems to performed most of it on YouTube. This is a song about MSN and Facebook. As YouTube video quality goes, it doesn't get much worse than this, but the sound quality is good and it's a nice song. And another song about Facebook by Amino Shower, who played a storming set at Hidden Agenda last night.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - 在草地上/JoyTrendySound

2010-12-27T15:04:00.002+08:00

Some happy metal from JoyTrendySound. Their CD has been a long time coming but worth the wait. 12 great tracks at just under 30 minutes means I can hear the whole CD on my way to work. And thanks for translating all the lyrics into English! This is a song called vegetables and its about surviving (on vegetables).

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Very Ape

2010-12-25T13:44:00.004+08:00

I want to post something from The Underground Compilation #3 that came out earlier this year, so here is Very Ape. Any band with a song called You are just ape and we are very ape has got to be worth listening to. Very Ape rip the house down live and just love making noise. Like they say, they are really very ape.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Ghost Style

2010-12-23T20:44:00.003+08:00

Ghost Style and DJ Weezy lightin' up the universe. What you gotta do when you gotta get it done / I'm the ET originate from the sun / I tap into the power and I drink from the source / I live in the now and I have no remorse. Let's live on the brighter side, yeah-er!

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - King Lychee

2010-12-18T20:15:00.004+08:00

King Lychee will never let you down... In Mandarin, Cantonese and English, CNHC. I guess it means China Hardcore. Not on CD as far as I know but you can download from their website.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Chet Lam

2010-12-18T11:26:00.004+08:00

We also interviewed Chet Lam about the time he released his English album, Camping. His second English album, Back To The Stars came out earlier this year. It's a concept album with every track written for a different character in The Little Prince, and incredibly popular book in Hong Kong. I'll probably be deported for saying I don't really get it, but the album works just as well without the concept and Chet shows he's probably the best English lyric writer in Hong Kong right now.

And here's a bilingual song that shows he can rock it up as well - Vancouver Skyline.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Fruitpunch

2010-12-15T22:57:00.006+08:00

A rocker from Fruitpunch, from their second CD, Wind And Sea. Release party at Hidden Agenda on 26 December. I remember interviewing these guys in a noisy corner of a shopping mall in Tsuen Wan around the time they made their first CD. That was for a book we are writing on multilingualism and Hong Kong popular music. Here's their second CD, where's our book?

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Corey Tam

2010-12-13T21:18:00.004+08:00

Corey Tam has come over from Toronto to play his guitar and sing his songs. This is him talking about himself and singing Champagne Eyes (around 1:20). Also wears a hat and plays electric, which sounds pretty good in his open air videos, but I'm picking this one because the recording is better.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Rachel Believes In Me

2010-12-12T21:34:00.005+08:00

Here's a band with an album, or at least with an album release party. Nice videos of Waiting and Old Songs. I'm choosing Old Songs, because I really like the double-track vocal. Rachel Believes In Me will also get me out of the house at last - they are on the bill at Fruitpunch's show at Hidden Agenda on 26th December.

Top Ten HK Indie 2010 - Kevin Kaho Tsui

2010-12-11T17:50:00.005+08:00

Not much on this blog since last year when I was whingeing about the lack of CDs on Time Out's best of HK indie list(and I still don't get out of the house enough). So I'll have a go myself this year and I'll stick to YouTube and see if I can get to ten.

This is Kevin Kaho Tsui. He came back from university in Manchester (yeah!) last year, he's a big fan of John Lennon, (I guess Dear Florence is a nod to Dear Prudence), and he likes making videos with his iPhone. Highlights of this one: Kevin strumming on a bench in Sha Tin and the girl with the stripy legs.

Kevin does covers too and I love his Telephone, which sent me to Lady Gaga at the Brit Awards. Really, I don't get Lady Gaga, but that performance is something worth watching.

Teabucks

2010-11-18T19:15:00.003+08:00

A place worth visiting in Chongqing. Lots of good tea and none of that horrible coffee stuff.

Fong Fong goes bowling

2010-11-07T21:42:00.002+08:00

Josephine Siao Fong Fong from 1967 singing a Cantonese version of Where is my heart from Moulin Rouge, transformed into a song about the joys of bowling. The lady beside her was Lydia Shum and the film was shot in the Brunswick Bowling Centre in the basement of Star House TST. Siao Fong Fong made a few English songs in the '60s, and her 2 EPs were the first I came across when I started collecting. This is one of many Fong Fong clips posted by webbinthe6os on Youtube. Great work!

Australia dairy

2010-10-31T22:31:00.004+08:00

The Australia Dairy in Parkes Street, Jordan, and this is what all these people are queuing for on a Sunday lunchtime....

Very tasty and the milk and egg puddings are good too, but this is not a place for a leisurely Sunday lunch. The egg on toast arrives within seconds of ordering it and the bill arrives seconds before you finish eating it, quickly followed by the people who are about to take your table. But, of course, that means that the queue moves pretty quickly too.

Cantonese opera in English

2010-06-24T22:44:00.004+08:00

Back to the grindstone after a great two-day conference on Asian popular music here in Hong Kong. My paper turned out to be about Cantonese opera as modern popular music in its day, which just made me realize how little I know about Cantonese opera. This is a clip I used at the end - the best part of the presentation by far. The one and only, late, great Sik Kok-sin being modern in a 1947 Hong Kong movie, New White Golden Dragon. Around 3:10 you will hear him speak a little English (translation courtesy of the adventurous hedgehog).

Sit: I am going out, prepare my clothes.
Servant: Which jacket do you want to wear?
Sit: Sportex.
Servant: Which shirt?
Sit: Man-hat-tan.
Servant: Which pairs of shoes?
Sit: Flor-sheim.
Servant: Which hat?
Sit: The light colour Hat-s-man.
Servant: Which cigarette case?
Sit: Ron-son.
Servant: Which kinds of cigarettes?
Sit: Big Capstan.
Servant: Which car?
Sit: Lin-coln.
Servant: Everything is ready, sir.

City Beat

2010-06-08T21:30:00.002+08:00

A while back, I mentioned that the likes of Metro - four gwailos singing in Cantonese - haven't been seen in Hong Kong since the days of City Beat. This is City Beat introducing their own video of Tolo Johnny, probably on Fizz Bizz in 1988. Tolo Johnny came out on their first album, which was interesting because side one had five Cantonese songs and side two had the same five songs in English. I believe City Beat never mixed languages in a song, but eventually they released most of their songs in both Cantonese and English versions. The guy you see introducing the video is John Laudon, who is the only one of the four still in Hong Kong, where he still works in the church and the music business. A year or so ago we did an interview with John, where he has a lot of interesting things to say about City Beat and singing in Cantonese.

Os Mutantes - Baby

2010-05-23T07:38:00.004+08:00

This is inspired by my favourite radio DJ, Vicky on WFMU's Do or DIY with People Like Us, who played an English version of Baby by Fantastic Plastic Machine on her first show of 2010. Like me, Vicky has a penchant for singers who use English as their second language. Here are the originals by Os Mutantes in Portuguese and English. Baby was written by Caetano Veloso (I believe he wrote both sets of lyrics) and both versions here are sung by Rita Lee.

The lyrics don't make much sense in either language because they were meant to be a parody of a certain kind of Brazilian middle class culture that was around at the time. The line It's time now to learn Portuguese... is a kind of mirror translation of Você precisa aprender inglês... (You need to learn English). There is an interesting New York Times article on Caetano Veloso's use of English on Caetano's website. It says that the Baby, baby, I love you that ends the song is a quote from Paul Anka's Diana, which is not exactly true because that line isn't in Diana. But I guess he quoted the melody.

Crazy Lion again

2010-05-21T14:06:00.003+08:00

The hedgehog adventurer emailed mouse from Crazy Lion with a few questions (which is what we do when we come across HK bands who write songs in English). Here's what he had to say...

Can you share your lyrics?
Sure. We got YouTube links on our Crazy Lion Facebook page. Lyrics are included in the descriptions on YouTube.

Crazy Lion posted both Cantonese and English songs, do you compose in both languages?
Yes, we compose in both languages. Mainly Cantonese and English, with some Mandarin also.

What are the reasons for writing lyrics in English or Cantonese?
Being a Hong Kong guy, Cantonese is my mother language and English is my second language.

Can you share the process of writing English songs?
By habit, I note the ideas like words, melodies and rhythm almost everyday. Those accumulated ideas from daily life and feelings can be used as rough works/elements of songs. Some songs come from free jamming. Sometimes we compose with the help of computers.

Why reggae?
I love reggae music and I am interested in the Rastafarianism behind it.

Why reggae? What a question! Crazy Lion play at Hidden Agenda in Kwun Tong on 17th and 24th June.

Thank you mouse, and now for a little Cantonese reggae.

Metro

2010-05-04T22:21:00.003+08:00

Here is something not seen since the days of City Beat - four gwailos singing in Cantonese. This is a cover of a Joey Yung song and, in fact, they start in English and then switch to Cantonese, which I believe City Beat never did.

It seems Metro used be The Dapper Dans of Main Street, a barbershop quartet performing at Hong Kong Disneyland. This doesn't necessarily mean there are now no Dapper Dans at Disneyland. It is more of a franchise performing at several parks, and even in different parts of the same park at the same time. There must be a name for that kind of group - wish I knew what it was.

Kim Jung Mi

2010-04-27T20:35:00.005+08:00

After a friend sent me a paper he has written on Korean underground rock, I went on a fruitless hunt for music by the legendary guitarist, Shin Jung Hyun, especially his full length cover of Iron Butterfly's In-a-gadda-da-vida. Instead I came up with my musical discovery of the week, two 1973 albums by singer Kim Jung Mi on the Mutant Sounds blog. Folky vocals with lots of echo and some great guitar work by Shin Jung Hyun.

Breakfast in Shek Kip Mei

2010-04-17T10:02:00.006+08:00

A Saturday morning breakfast at Nam Shan estate in Shek Kip Mei. French toast, a luncheon meat and egg sandwich, iced milk tea, iced yin yeung (coffee and tea), and what is that thing in the middle called? In Hong Kong, French toast is usually two slices of bread with peanut butter to stick them together and a slab of butter on top to go with the syrup. In Cantonese, ask for Western toast (sai dosi).

Crazy Lion

2010-02-27T18:11:00.002+08:00

They maybe the only reggae band in Hong Kong! Later, they will share with us about their music and lyrics. Stay tuned!

Tacit Closet

2010-02-19T19:22:00.004+08:00

A great new band who I'd really like to see play live, Tacit Closet were interviewed this month in BC Magazine. Jacky, the singer and guitarist, was asked why he writes and sings lyrics in English. As we have a professional interest, here is his answer.

"Actually, I'm not a very good English speaker, I'm not raised in any kind of background with English or anything. I never even knew any foreigners before university. But I listened to a lot of English music and so when I wrote lyrics all those phrases and sentences started to come to my mind in English. Also I find writing in Cantonese quite difficult; the tones in Cantonese are quite hard to rhyme whereas in English you can twist a word phonetically to easily match it with the sound of another so it's easier in that sense."

Back to the music, there are six excellent songs on their MySpace page. Not far off an album. Make it, guys, and I will buy! While I've been typing this I listened to Sleep is the enemy twice - really cool guitar break!

The Lee's - Smoking on the Shoulders of Giant

2010-02-08T21:11:00.005+08:00

This, I believe, is wing, one half of stealstealground, who made the amazing Bad Waves of Paranoia, sung by his sister pennylane (still up there on their MySpace page). You can also hear Smoking on the Shoulders of Giants, or something like it, on track 13 of My Little Airport's We Can't Stop Smoking In The Vicious And Blue Summer, which makes MLA the giants, right? Seems like at that point, The Lee's hadn't decided on the lyrics yet, but it's not that easy to tell because MLA are rambling on over the top of it. It doesn't get more indie than this! Is there more to come?

Jacky Cheung - Everyday is Christmas

2010-02-06T19:49:00.004+08:00

Jacky Cheung's English track from his Private Corner album, which came out on January 29th. For once I am not a year out of date! It is a jazz album with songs by Roxanne Seeman, including Everyday is Christmas. A bit early for Christmas, but then every day is Christmas with Jacky, right? A cool track with a little Hong Kong English in the title - 'everyday'?

Mensheng

2010-01-25T22:45:00.002+08:00

This is Mensheng (which means disciple in Mandarin), who put out their debut CD last year. Love the cover. Not my kind of music and I don't have the CD. But from the two tracks on their MySpace, I'd say they are pretty good at what they do. Is that what you young people call screamo?

Get your shit together, man!

2010-01-23T09:29:00.009+08:00

Chochukmo

2010-01-14T19:46:00.004+08:00

Here is Chochukmo, The King Lost His Pink, one of a hundred odd Hong Kong indie CD covers in a new Flickr set. Now, you can't just walk into a shop and buy any Hong Kong indie CD you like, so please tell me what I am missing!

Chochukmo won a Time Out Hong Kong 'we'll make your album' competition and brought out the album at the end of last year. The production is good, which is nice because there's some pretty clever stuff going on in there. Whatever indie means, Chochukmo are definitely indie because they say so on their sleeve notes: 'we're still indie and we'll stay indie'. They also say that nobody forced them to wear anything they didn't enjoy, which I guess explains the cover.

How about A-day? Are they indie? Well, they did have a track on the excellent 3-CD Come Out and Play compilation in 2004. Now they have an album and credits for hairstyling, make up and styling (okay, I'm just jealous). Some nice acoustic tracks, but overall a bit cantopoppy for me. Wish them well!

Top Hong Kong indie track 2009

2010-01-04T20:10:00.004+08:00

I am taken task for my last post by Chris B. There were far more indie CDs out in 2009 than the four I bought and I am going to hunt some of them down and post them up here. Meanwhile here's my top track of last year - Mongolia Song, the debut (free!) download only single by Modern Children. Go to their website, download it, watch the 'making of' video (love the bit where the neighbour complains about the drumming in the corridor), and tell your friends.

http://modernchildren.net

Hong Kong indie albums 2009

2009-12-28T20:10:00.007+08:00

My favourite Hong Kong indie album for 2009 - My Little Airport's fourth album, Poetics. Something Between Montparnasse and Mongkok. Having said that, there's lots of live music about, but it hasn't been much of a year for those of us who like to listen at home. I think I only bought four CDs all year, which means that compiling the Time Out Best of Hong Kong Indie 2009 podcast couldn't have been that easy. Worth a listen even though half the bands haven't actually put out a CD yet. MLA's Donald Tsang, Please Die! is in there, but I wonder if they couldn't find space for Velvette Vendetta and Ketchup - two acts that did release CDs during the year.

Teresa Teng

2009-11-05T22:31:00.005+08:00

In the 1980s, Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng's (Deng Lijun)songs were officially banned in China, but countless pirate cassettes were circulated. The saying went around that Deng Xiaoping ruled China by day, but Deng Lijun ruled by night. It seems that not much has changed. Apple Daily had a recent report on an internet poll asking which cultural icon has had the greatest influence on China since since 1949. 24 million voted and Teresa won with 8.5 million votes. Next came Faye Wong with 7.5 million, and in third place Jay Chou.

Teresa Teng sang in Mandarin and Cantonese, but also recorded songs in English, Japanese, Taiwanese, Indonesian and Vietnamese. The image is from a CD reissue of a selection of English and Japanese songs that originally came out in 1976.

Buying second hand vinyl in Hong Kong

2009-10-31T19:29:00.006+08:00

Where would you go to buy second hand vinyl in Hong Kong? Where else but from Paul, who has far more than he can handle. And at last he has a card to show for it. Paul is a great character, speaks English and loves to talk about records. He reckons he has around 200,000 discs, which makes it a little bit difficult to browse. So give him a call, tell him what you want and see what happens. If you read Chinese, you can find more stores on the maps at HC Lee's Vinyl Paradise. But beware! It hasn't been updated for a while and some have closed down.

Japanese English Pop 4 - Betty Inada

2009-10-26T14:51:00.003+08:00

A while back I wrote about Japanese-English bilingual songs in the early '50s. Here's one from further back still - Betty Inada singing Happy Days Are Here Again (1929) first in Japanese and then in English. Betty Inada was a nisei (second generation Japanese) who came over from San Francisco and was in on the start of the 1930s jazz boom. There were numerous bilingual recordings in the 1930s and I guess this was one of the first.

Singing in Spanish

2009-10-03T22:12:00.004+08:00

I mentioned that the song on Rebecca Pan's new My dream, my way, my indie music CD that I can't out of my head is the pancakes version of Magica luna which she sings first in Spanish, then in English. In the CD booklet, she writes:

'I learnt Spanish many years ago. At one point I realized that I will never be able to speak Spanish well in my life because I found the tenses very difficult. But luckily, there are always beautiful Spanish songs in this world which we can sing, one of which is Magica luna.

Here is Moriyama Kayoko singing Magica luna in Japanese...

Rebecca Pan - My Dream, My Way, My Indie Music

2009-09-30T22:14:00.004+08:00

This is probably going to be the most interesting HK album I hear this year. It isn't exactly by Rebecca Pan, but mainly tribute tracks from a bunch of local indie artists. When we met Rebecca two or three years ago, she didn't know about the indie acts singing in English. We also interviewed a few of the artists on the album and they didn't know about her. So it's nice to see them together because it creates a little bit of continuity in the music scene that wasn't there before. The hedgehog adventurer likes Ketchup's Solid Gold Rickshaw, Ga Yum Yan's, The Protest, and my little airport's I Wonder Why (actually, that is just P). I like the pancakes' Magica Luna, or at least it has got stuck in my head like a lot of her songs do.

The picture below is Rebecca signing the CD after her concert a week or so ago at the Sunbeam Theatre in North Point. PixelToy, Ketchup, Chet Lam, the pancakes, at17, p, and Eason Chan all appeared and Rebecca did a few numbers on her own. A lot of fun. So why is she signing on the stage? It seems the Sunbeam Theatre management wouldn't let her set up the table in the foyer, so as soon as she finished her encore, the curtains closed, up came the table and Rebecca sat down.

Japanese English pop 4 - RC Succession

2009-09-17T18:28:00.003+08:00

Again from Carolyn Stevens' Japanese Popular Music, there is a story behind these covers of Summertime Blues and Love Me Tender. In 1988, RC Succession recorded an album called COVERS, which was intended for release by Toshiba-EMI on the anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bomb and included Japanese versions of American protest songs such as Blowing In The Wind and Eve Of Destruction. So why Summertime Blues and Love Me Tender? In their Japanese versions, both are transformed into protests against nuclear power plants. This didn't please Toshiba-EMI at all - Toshiba being involved in the construction of nuclear reactors - so the record was pulled just before it was due to come out. Released on Kitty Records instead, the album went straight to number one in the Oricon charts.

Japanese English Pop 3 - Kosaka Kazuya

2009-09-15T22:09:00.004+08:00

Kosaka Kazuya's, Heartbreak Hotel came out hot on the heels of Elvis' version (January 1956) and was one of the big hits of 1956 in Japan.

Japanese English pop 2 - Yukimura Izumi

2009-09-14T22:38:00.007+08:00

Another find from Carolyn Stevens' great book on Japanese Popular Music. Our research has Grace Chang's, I Want You To Be My Baby as the first Hong Kong song with English lyrics (the verses alternate between English and Chinese) somewhere towards the end of the fifties. Now I know that this goes back further in Japan. Carolyn Stevens mentions Eri Chiemi, Tennessee Waltz (1952) and Yukimura Izumi, Blue Canary (1954). This is Yukimura Izumi doing Alice In Wonderland in 1953 - a magical 'sandwich' with English on the outside and Japanese in the middle.

Japanese English pop 1 - Tokyo Jihen

2009-09-13T22:33:00.005+08:00

I have just come across Carolyn Stevens' great book on Japanese Popular Music. The last chapter is on singing in English and translated English covers, a subject dear to our hearts, and so I have been tracking down some of the artists she mentions that I didn't know about. Let's start with Shiina Ringo and Tokyo Jihen, a band she formed in 2004. In a sea of songs with English titles that turn out to have Japanese, Cantonese, Korean, etc lyrics, Genjitsu wo Warau (meaning 'laugh at reality') is a bit of surprise - an English song with a Japanese title. The only one I know of, in fact. It was recorded on Tokyo Jihen's first album, Kyouiku (education) in 2004. We spent a frustrating hour looking for this album in Mongkok this afternoon and didn't find it.

Hong Kong English vinyl record covers

2009-09-06T22:49:00.006+08:00

chopsticks sandra and amina, originally uploaded by HKpop.
We have been collecting English language records by Hong Kong artists for a few years and, if I remember rightly, it started out with a hunt for The Chopsticks. More on Sandra and Amina another time. This is just to celebrate finally getting all our vinyl record covers - around 120 of them - into a Flickr set. Special thanks to Sally for the scanning and Kaz for getting the files down to size.

Law Yim Hing - Tonight

2009-09-04T13:50:00.002+08:00

Apart from tracking down English recordings and performances by Asian singers, we are also tracking down Cantonese and Mandarin versions of English songs. This is not so easy because the Chinese title doesn't usually give you much clue, and if you don't know the original English song, what do you do? Here's an easy one, Law Yim Hing singing a version of Tonight from West Side Story in a 1964 Cantonese movie Riches in Splendour. Law Yim Hing was a well-known Cantonese opera singer and I'd say it shows here.

I doubt this song was recorded other than in the film and the movie setting has her singing live on radio, which was also popular back in the days when people who enjoyed Cantonese songs mostly wouldn't have the income to buy records.

This is posted on YouTube by HongKongInThe50s who has put up lots of 50s and 60s Cantonese movie clips. What a guy! I could watch all day.

Hedgehog

2009-09-03T23:00:00.003+08:00

I have been downloading music from emusic for a few years now and even though I have gone from unlimited downloads for US$10 a month to around 50 cents a track, I still think its a good deal for the music you find there. Not much good for Asian music, but I have just come across this excellent album by the Beijing band Hedgehog as well as albums by Carsick Cars, Sober and Queen Sea Big Shark. Noise Hit World is mostly English and I wonder if the title is namechecking Apples in Stereo's Fun Trick Noisemaker album, which gets its name from a Chinese toy?

Here's a nice interview with Hedgehog's drummer, Atom, and Li Qing from Car Sick Cars.

Bangkok vinyl

2009-09-01T22:23:00.004+08:00

Tonchabab Vinyl Records, originally uploaded by HKpop.

On a trip to Bangkok last week, we had a fun time searching for Tonchabab Vinyl Records on 10 Boonsiri Road. He has a great collection of second hand vinyl in his shop both western and thai. We picked up some nice Hong Kong stuff there, including a lovely Mandarin/Spanish album by Mona Fong & Los Mensjeros del Paraguay. And as you see, the owner is a really nice guy.

The reason we had a fun time searching is that a friend of the owner has put the location on google earth, but unfortunately in the wrong place. I've posted up this picture in the right place, and you can also find it on yahoo map if you follow the photo into flickr. It's kind of the middle of nowhere but not far from Khaosan Road.

Kay Tse

2009-08-13T23:23:00.003+08:00

The hedgehog adventurer is spending a lot of time compiling a list of English songs recorded by mainstream Hong Kong artists for our research (now around 3,000). Most are covers, but quite a few are written. This is The One and Only written by Lam Sze Chung for Kay Tse and included on her Kay One album in 2005. Kay Tse is one of the four big female singers in Hong Kong right now, together with Joey Yung, Miriam Yeung and Denise Ho. She is also a good example of how it is becoming more and more important for East Asian singers to speak English. Kay is a graduate in American Studies from Hong Kong University and everybody knows that!

Hocc x Paisley Wu

2009-08-12T20:23:00.003+08:00

My last post mentioned Faith Yang's Falling Slowly. This is Hocc (that's 'ho-see-see', aka Denise Ho) and Paisley Wu singing California Dreaming and Falling Slowly on TV. As the hedgehog adventurer points out, the Hocc and Paisley version is better if only because they noticed that it is a duet. Not recorded as far as I know. Nice comment from jocelyng87 - 'luv it...hocc english soo good....胡蓓蔚 kinda so-so lol'.

Perfect day

2009-08-10T20:49:00.003+08:00

This is not quite what it looks like. Perfect Day (Lou Reed) by Faith Yang ft. Eason Chan over a few minutes from the Japanese movie Taiyou no uta. Just to confuse things, the girl in video is not Faith, but J-pop star Yui who plays the lead in the movie. But I guess that's the kind of thing people do on YouTube.

This is from her Self-selected album of English covers released on Sony BMG in April, which definitely ups the ante for my-favourite-songs albums. Other tracks are Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead), The Drugs Don't Work (The Verve), Halellujah (Leonard Cohen), 20th Century Boy (T-Rex), Diamonds Are Forever (Shirley Bassey), Falling Slowly (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova), Song 2 (Blur), The Scientist (Coldplay), After Hours (The Velvet Underground) and Miss Underwater, which is not a cover but a song written for her by Maximilian Hecker.

I think Lou Reed would like this version and he would like this badly recorded live version even more.

One and Other

2009-07-08T19:17:00.003+08:00

When I don't write on this blog, it means I have been working too much on the computer, which I have been for the last couple of weeks. And also keeping half an eye on one and other in London, where we'll be tomorrow morning. Then it's on to Liverpool to fly the flag for Hong Kong pop at the International Association for Study of Popular Music (IASPM).

Eight treasures set lunch

2009-07-05T23:35:00.002+08:00

From Tai Hing Roast Restaurant, which has branches all over Hong Kong. This one was snapped and eaten on Tung Choi Street (aka Goldfish Street) north of Mongkok Road. The eight treasures are roast pork, BBQ pork, pig knuckle, red sausage, squid, soya chicken, roast goose and a salted egg.

Bye bye, pain!

2009-07-05T23:24:00.004+08:00

Ads on the first floor of a building on the corner of Sai Yee Street and Mongkok Road. On the left, choose the sex of your baby. On the right, say bye bye to pain. Behind...?

Red train

2009-06-20T16:42:00.004+08:00

This fine red train came all the way from China to our favourite Mongkok toy shop, pictured below. Go right to the back of the shop and you'll find lots of replica tin toys just like this. The shop is on Bute Street near the corner of Sai Yee Street, or under the escalator that goes up to Mongkok East MTR. I guess it has a name, but you wouldn't be able to see it would you?

Super box

2009-06-20T16:34:00.006+08:00

A free illustrated book plate super box with Freak Boy's Koro Koro comic. You will collect it!

Chupa Chups

2009-06-14T18:57:00.004+08:00

This bag came free from Park'n'Shop on Saturday. Great bag. Coincidentally a taxi driver told us something about Chupa Chups only the day before. If you want to learn Cantonese, he said, put a Chupa Chups in your mouth and off you go. Why? Because it will stop you rolling your tongue.

I'd never seen a Chupa Chups before I came to Hong Kong, so I always thought they were a local thing. This is what I learned from Wikipedia. Chupa Chups come from Catalonia, 'chupa' means suck in Spanish, and that nice logo in the middle of the bag was designed by Salvador Dali.

International Emporium

2009-05-31T18:51:00.001+08:00

On the corner of Nga Tsin Wai Rd. and Lion Rock Rd. in Kowloon City, this building used to be the International Emporium 國際. The emporium was an old-fashioned department store. There is no telling why the word, emporium, was used. It signaled a type of fashion store which catered to everyone. And in the good old days, there used to be a number of 'emporiums', including one Indian Emporium in Tsim Sha Tsui. The building is now abandoned, leaving only the skeleton of a building.

Alice remembered visiting the International Emporium when she was very young. It was airy, with florscent lights above all display glass cabinets. The clothing items were not particularly exciting, but these were clothes were comfort clothes people wore at home. There were mannequims, but they were so stiff that their limbs were put at strange angles. There was no fancy decoration or anything. Even when Alice was young, she could tell International Emporium was 'old-fashioned'.

Eason Chan

2009-05-30T16:59:00.004+08:00

This is next generation Cantopop god Eason Chan singing Aren't You Glad?, his first English song released last year. A while ago we did a survey of university students' music tastes and Eason came out way on top as favourite artist. Why does he sing with a perfect British accent? His dad was a senior civil servant (now in prison for accepting bribes), which meant that Eason got to go to a private school in England from age 12. Aren't You Glad? was written by Russell Harris, who is...? The MV was the winner of a competition in Malaysia.

Sham 69

2009-05-19T21:37:00.003+08:00

As I haven't been keeping up with UK pop very well over the last few years, it came as a surprise to me that Sham 69 still exist - let alone that they played in HK at Backstage on May 15. But as it turns out, this was not the 'real' Sham 69 - only one of the original band still there and it's not Jimmy Pursey. If I remember right, I saw Sham 69 open for The Clash at the Finsbury Park Astoria in 1978 where Jimmy made Joe Strummer look like the expat public school boy he was. I saw them several times that year and became something of a fan, then it all seemed to go bad. You couldn't get to the stage without risking being kicked around by a bunch of National Front skinheads. And then came Hurry Up Harry... Shame really when you listen to their first record. This is the B-side of I Don't Wanna with Ulster and Red London.

This is also something new on YouTube for me. You put your record on the turntable and video it while the record plays? Follow CesarAlcapone's stream and you'll see he is a master.

Tizzy Bac

2009-05-16T19:25:00.006+08:00

Tizzy Bac, my favourite Taiwan band, actually my favourite band all round at the moment. Their first CD came out in 2002 and now they have 3 studio CDs and one live double CD. Tizzy Bac do a few songs in English, like Shall We Dance, off their new CD, but they are really the band for people who like a little English with their Mandarin. Above is a track from the latest CD with a long Mandarin title that means something like 'If I see hell, I won't be afraid of the devil' . Below is Sideshow Bob from the second CD. Unusual for this kind of song, the English comes in the first line and then disappears.

Neon Genesis Evangelion III

2009-05-13T22:41:00.005+08:00

The third of three CDs from the original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series. A different version of Fly me to the Moon was used over the end credits of each episode, which makes for a lot of versions of Fly me to the Moon and a few interesting pronunciations. This CD closes with 12 versions, mostly 'TV size' with an 8 minute mix at the end. That adds up to 20 minutes plus of Fly me to the Moon. If that doesn't put you off, instrumental tracks include Depression, Separation Anxiety, The Sorrow of Losing the Object of One's Dependence, and Those Women Longed for the Touch of Others' Lips and thus Invited their Kisses. This album is in my car right now and I can't get enough of it.

Car Sick Cars

2009-05-11T19:42:00.004+08:00

I have some time off work, so I am going to post for a few days on my true love in music, or at least my true research interest, which is Asian artists who perform in English. I am starting with an excellent Beijing band we saw on Saturday night, Car Sick Cars. Followers of Sonic Youth - the drummer is even called Thurston - they play as close to what I remember as punk as I've heard in a long time. They have also toured with Sonic Youth and have a few English songs in their bag, including a high-speed ear-shattering version of The Velvet Underground's Sunday Morning. Can't find anything in English on the Internet though, so here's Zhong Nan Hai (the name of Beijing's equivalent of the White House and the bass player's favourite brand of cigarettes).

Grover in Hong Kong

2009-05-03T18:37:00.003+08:00

Not satisfied with looking like it is made of green Lego bricks, this Bossini clothing store on Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mongkok, is brightening itself up with Sesame Street characters. Grover says, 'Hi, Hong Kong!'

Carabinas

2009-04-14T22:02:00.006+08:00

Some people use carabinas to hang off rock faces. In Hong Kong we use them to hang stuff (mostly small stuffed animals) off our bags. These photos were taken in Ap Liu Street market, Sham Shui Po, with freakboy's brand new starburst Jelly Lens.

Gweilo English teacher

2009-04-01T18:12:00.005+08:00

Click the picture and read. This ad for a gweilo English teacher was standing at the bus stop on Bonham Rd outside Hong Kong University last week. So what exactly is a gweilo English teacher? If you know Hong Kong, Malaysia or Singapore you won't need me to tell you. For those who don't, a gweilo is a (male) white ghost (female: gweipoh) or a white foreigner - a fairly affectionate term mostly used by gweilo's themselves.

Hong Kong isn't going overboard for native-speaker English teachers quite as much Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan, but it is a selling point. With a gweilo you get a little bit extra - you know that your native speaker will also be foreign, white and male.

But how about 'practical secrets to communicating effectively and with passion'? What kind of bullshit is that?

Shanhaijing

2009-01-28T19:29:00.007+08:00

'The late version of Shanghaijing - Hong Kong version VI', an installation at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre by Pauline Mak. These hanging plastic bag sculptures are based on strange mythical animals from the 2000-year-old Chinese 'Classic of Mountain and Sea'. A comment on the intertextuality between the traditional and the modern, Chinese mythology, the possibilities of genetic modification and biotechnology, and too many plastic bags in Hong Kong. Hanging under spotlights in a darkened empty room, they and their shadows looked really strange.

A walk through Shek Kip Mei 5

2009-01-28T18:58:00.002+08:00

Finally we arrived at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, which opened not long ago in Shek Kip Mei in a renovated nine-storey factory building and provides space for artists and craftspeople to create and display work. This is the interior courtyard and the hanging cloths - the kind that are used for canopies in markets and constructions sites - are part of an exhibition of installations on the theme of memory.

A walk through Shek Kip Mei 4

2009-01-28T18:48:00.004+08:00

A poster from Shek Kip Mei post office. Here are the popular Hong Kong cartoon characters McDull and McMug encouraging us to keep our letters tidy if we want them to be delivered. Alice noticed the red rabbit and black pig stamps that were used in kindergartens to let kids know if their work was tidy or not. She wonders if they are still used now. She also tells me that the black pig has made its way into Cantonese - if you don't keep your room tidy, you might just 'get a black piggie'.

A walk through Shek Kip Mei 3

2009-01-25T18:53:00.005+08:00

These coin-operated rides are yet another attraction at the Colourful Dragon Restaurant. Oddly enough, we found more of these on exhibition in G.O.D. at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre later in the afternoon. Here they are, newly painted, in full working order and ready to use.

A walk through Shek Kip Mei 2

2009-01-25T18:43:00.002+08:00

The Colourful Dragon Restaurant in Tai Hang Tung public housing estate. I have passed this octagonal two-storey restaurant many times in the car, but have never had chance to go in before. Apart from the food, the attraction is the dance floor. Tea dance $68, nightclub $108.

A walk through Shek Kip Mei 1

2009-01-25T18:37:00.003+08:00

Some pictures taken on a walk through Shek Kip Mei, from the back door of City University to the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre. This banner is on the side of a concrete footbridge and advertises all the things you can buy at Tai Hang Tung public housing estate market. Teddy bears and paper clips?

Top ten things to do in Taipei

2009-01-23T16:20:00.004+08:00

Something from an old notebook that I found today brought back good memories. In summer 2007, Alice, Kaz (11 at the time) and myself went off to a great weekend at the Formoz Festival in a park and baseball stadium in downtown Taipei. In between, there were endless games of 'street basketball' - a game you can play everywhere in Taipei, but nowhere in Hong Kong - while Alice went off in search of hedgehogs. Yo La Tengo were already my favourite band and Kaz had got into the Teryaki Boyz after watching Tokyo Drift. Afterwards we started to listen to Mercury Rev and Alice fell in love with the Taiwanese band Echo (although strangely we missed their set).

I guess the list was some kind of collective literacy event because it shows traces of being written by all three of us. It was evidently unfinished...only nine?

Eat Hot Star chicken at Shimin night market
Go on a hedgehog hunt (Taipei is the hedghog capital of East Asia)
Play 'street basketball everywhere you go [and we did - see photo]
Shi ling bun (dumpling bun) at Dun Thai Fung (yummy)
Go to the Eslite 24hr bookstore in the afternoon (never between 10 pm and 10 am)
Record people entering MRT stations and appreciate the 'city beat' of Taipei
Eating quails eggs in Danshui (and deep-fried durian, haha - [see profile photo]
Go to the Formoz Festival and see Yo La Tengo (or Teriyaki Boyz if you prefer)
Go to the 'retro' toy shop in Danshui and buy a catapult (or a paper doll if you are a girl)

Selling dog meat as mutton

2009-01-18T10:35:00.003+08:00

The Hong Kong government has just announced a new policy on the language of instruction in schools that I am not going to talk about here, except to say that in the past some schools have claimed to teach in English when the teachers have actually been using quite a lot of Cantonese. According to yesterday's South China Morning Post, in Cantonese this is called 'selling dog meat as mutton'. Not everybody thinks this is a bad thing - I mean mixing Cantonese with English. But if the SCMP report is accurate, Leung Yiu-chung, a legislator and a maths teacher, wants to go even further. "Teachers are in the frontline," he said, "They should be allowed to decide for themselves. What's wrong with selling dog meat as mutton?" Well, quite a lot really, if you read this report from the Russia Info-Centre about a Chinese restaurant in Moscow.

Salty lemon drink

2009-01-06T21:35:00.004+08:00

Another Hong Kong drink. A bottle of Sprite on top of a salty pickled lemon. Is it Hong Kong or Vietnamese? I am not sure. This one is from Pho Saigon restaurant in Prince Edward. Tastes great!

Rainism

2009-01-06T21:14:00.010+08:00

This goes back to Christmas Day. At Christmas, what to Hong Kong people like to eat? Ice cream, of course, especially from the Mr Softee van that parks near the Star Ferry at Tsim Tsa Tsui. But not a hundred yards away outside the Cultural Centre we found another van undercutting Mr Softee by giving away free ice creams. This one was advertising Korean superstar Rain's new album Rainism. Rain has come a long way in Asia just singing in Korean, but according to the advertising on the side of the van, Rain sings in Korean, English and Mandarin on this album. He is also supposedly bringing out an English album this year, which should be interesting because so far all the big Asian stars who have brought out English albums in the last few years have been female.

3 Hello Ringtones

2009-01-03T13:31:00.005+08:00

When we started researching Hong Kong English pop music in 2006, records like this were pretty hard to get hold of. This is Except You b/w No One Can Love You by Mod East released on Diamond some time around the mid-6os. They still are pretty hard to get hold of on vinyl, but now they are also starting to come out on CD (Universal have the back catalogue) and even as ringtones. Below is a list of tracks available as 'hello ringtones' (i.e. what someone hears when they call you) from 3. Most, if not all, came out on Diamond in the 60s. Of course, you need the right kind of 3 mobile account to download one, but if you have one, follow the link, and look in 'jazz/classic music' in the 'hello ring library'.

Hasta Manana 情莫變 - Amina

I Still Love You - Anders Nelson & The Inspiration

Love to Dance (Hala Hala) - D'Topnotes

Up Up & Away - Danny Diaz & The Checkmates

Deborah - Joe Jr. & Side Effects

Let's Go Off-Beat - Kong Ling

Lullaby of Birdland - Marilyn Palmer

Stranger to Love - Mod East

梭羅河 - Mona Fong

Shadow of Your Smile - Rowena

You've Lost That Loving Feeling - The Fabulous Echoes

I'll Be Waiting - The Lotus

1, 2, 3, Red Light - The Menace

Send Her Back The Mystics

Butterfly - Robert Lee 李振輝

十號風波 (Typhoon #10) - Teng Kee Chan / Lee Wai 鄧寄塵 / 李慧

Two good friends

2009-01-01T17:58:00.006+08:00

And before the shopping spree we had lunch at the 'Very Good Restaurant' on Soy Street. This is what is known as a cha chaan teng, a cheap restaurant that sells all kinds of Chinese and Western dishes and a few that have got mixed up along the way. Actually, there are a few 'Very Good Restaurants' around town, but this is a favourite because we like to go upstairs and be reminded of the 71/2th floor in Being John Malkowich. Below are a couple of Hong Kong pop food icons sharing a laugh with the chopsticks. On the left is a glass of iced lemon coffee and on the right a glass of yin yeung - tea mixed with coffee or maybe coffee mixed with tea.

I have been reading a couple of academic papers by DrJoolz where she mentions how digital cameras and Flickr are changing people's lives in a way that they carry cameras around with them everywhere and photograph everything they do. I was reminded that here in Hong Kong taking a photo of your lunch or dinner before you eat it has become quite the thing to do. And sure enough, just after we'd finished our photo session, the young couple next to us pulled out their cameras and started snapping their congee and noodles too.

Shopping spree

2009-01-01T17:33:00.004+08:00

After Sino Centre, CTMA Centre is my favourite Mongkok mall - especially the top floor and two basement floors which are jammed with small shops selling all kinds of wierd and wonderful toy figures. You'll find it on Sai Yeung Choi South St near the junction with Dundas Street. After a heavy-drinking New Year's Eve, we felt like doing absolutely nothing at all except to go on a meaningless shopping spree. Below is a group shot of some of the things we bought - a set of Evangelion figures, a wind-up hedgehog, a pig from Monster Hunter, and a fisheye 'jelly lens'. The jelly lens cost only HK$35 and I suppose that's why my photo of the mall didn't turn out so good.

Popsicles in Paris

2008-12-27T17:19:00.006+08:00

A while back I blogged about a 1951 Coca Cola ad that used an image of globalization. Now here's a song about globalization from 1964. The little I can find out about Popsicles in Paris is that it was written by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick for the show To Broadway With Love. I came across it as a version by the excellent J's With Jamie, posted on the WFMU blog. Since the song doesn't show up on allmusic.com, that may have been one of very few recordings made. I have transcribed the lyrics myself, which was fun except for one annoyingly difficult to catch word at the end of the 'Strudel in Seattle...' line.

Popsicles in Paris, shish kebab in Shanghai
Sweet potato pie in Rome
Crackerjack in Cairo, curry in Caracas
Alka-Seltzer back at home

The other night I took a flight and had me a ball
Flying high and low
Around the world I found the world like man is it small
Smaller than we know

Strudel in Seattle, jello in [Vermichi??]
That's the way the world is now
What about tomorrow? Which way will it go?
Smaller, smaller until 'Wow!'

Shuzai goes dating

2008-12-19T22:07:00.009+08:00

Click to image if you read Chinese!

Back in the day, Cantonese opera and Hong Kong popular music were pretty much the same thing. But in 1930, the owner of New Moon Records, Chin Kwong Yan, came up with something a bit different, recording an album of Cantonese melodies in an American dancing style. The recordings featured trumpet, trombone, saxophone, violin and piano and were played by a pick-up band from two Cantonese opera theatres. This is the songsheet for a song called Saujai Goes Dating, which was recorded by Wong Sau Lin, a Hong Kong comedian who was known for his language play. We haven't actually heard this recording - New Moon recordings are almost impossible to find now. And because Chinese characters are read differently in different dialects, we don't know exactly how it was sung. But it looks like it was mainly Cantonese, with a few phrases from northern dialects thrown in. As you can see, there are also bits of pidgin English (chow chow = food, amah = maid, kamshaw = gift) and even a bit of pidgin French (com pan li vu = comment allez vous???). As far as we know this is the earliest example of a Cantonese song to include English in the lyrics (something that is now quite normal).

Here is Alice's translation. As the Chinese uses four syllable phrases, we've used some translator's licence to try to keep it four beats to the bar.

There is a girl, melon-seed face
She's in the east, I'm in the west
We are apart, what a pity
Call her right back, to see my face

SOME LIKES SWEETIE, SOME LIKES MONEY
You want honey, I want cents
Blow the whistle, blowing peep peep
Two houses TALKEE, choose a date

SHE WILL LOVE ME, she does love me
What's the trouble, it means WHAT FOR
April 24th, APRIL 24TH
GO HONEYMOON, IT IS FOR REAL

GO TO PAREE, go to Paris
COM PAN LI VU, come over here
BEAUTIFUL DOLL, beautiful doll
Let me buy it, for you to see

WHO'S YOUR FATHER, who's your father?
He's my father, he's called BILLY
Your father-in-law, he's my daddy
He's got WHISKER, just like a sheep

He is stingy, STINGY FELLOW
POCKET EMPTY, empty pockets
THIRTY CENTS, buy a roast goose
And have a meal, don't be hungry

TOO MUCH CHOW CHOW, eat too much
Belly too small, what should I do?
Pray to sky god, he will bless me
Give us baby, as a KAM SHAW

GET ONE AMAH, hire a maid
Care for baby, grow up quickly
Wash milk bottles, don't break any
Close the door, CLOSE THE DOOR

If I sing wrong, please forgive me
No education, I don't know much
Listen to this, just for a laugh
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Happy New Year

The song appeared in the September 1930 issue of New Moon Collection and is reproduced in Andrew Jones (2001) Yellow Music: Media Culture and Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age (Duke University Press). The original is in the Harvard-Yenching Library.

Harmonious family

2008-12-17T22:46:00.004+08:00

At the conference I presented a survey in which HK secondary schoolkids reported that they spend an average of 64 hours a week using different kinds of media devices (which means they probably use more than one device at the same time, or they are not very accurate in estimating the time they spend on different activities). They also reported that they spent a lot more time chatting with their family and friends than their teachers did. When I came to present, there was a surprise slide in my Powerpoint. This is from Apple Daily last Friday - "When everybody has their own game console, MP3 player and mobile phone, there will be no arguments".

Painting the eye on a lion

2008-12-17T22:38:00.004+08:00

Not much here recently because I have been pretty much occupied with our conference on popular culture in education. It's over now and was a great success with contributions from wonderful people from all over the world. This is me enacting a bit of HK popular culture of my own. The Hong Kong Tourist Board was kind enough to send along a lion dance team to open the conference and I am painting the eyes on the lion to bring it to life.

Rebecca Pan x at17 x Jazz

2008-12-07T18:48:00.006+08:00

Rebecca Pan now has more than 50 years in Hong Kong showbiz, starting out at the Showboat in North Point in 1957 as one of the first nightclub singers to build up an English repertoire. This weekend she did three shows with at17, which meant that either she would be strumming on a guitar in her jeans or at17 would have to dress up a bit. Which they did, and the less said about that the better. Ellen sang a Cole Porter song called 'Your the Top' (grammatically more correct than the original?) and Eman sang quite a few. Rebecca sang all her old hits and they all got together and did a Latin rock out. Alice reminded me that I always complain about about the talking that breaks up the rhythm of a lot of shows. Rebecca did talk quite a bit and so did Eman. As far as I remember Ellen didn't say a word, which I liked a lot. Chet Lam was guest. Great show for Rebecca and also for 82-year-old Berry Yaneza, who was cheered every time the trumpet touched his lips and for Joey Villaneuva, who showed that he is an incredible jazz guitarist.

Kids today

2008-11-22T22:51:00.002+08:00

"My generation grew up obsessed with Western rock music and the counterculture, all that coolness and heaviness and authenticity. In comparison all the Japanese rock bands were just leaden imitators. People talk about Flower Travellin' Band today, but how many people would honestly choose them as being more original than Led Zeppelin? They might have added a few Oriental flourishes, but Zeppelin were far cooler. We had so little information that we always had to use our own imagination. I'd see photos of a stack of Marshall amps and imagine they were all turned up to ten. I never realised that most of them were just spares. I imagined that they played at crushing volume and I'd try to do the same. Or I'd see some guitarist whirling their guitar around and imagine that they played like that through their whole set. When I picked up a guitar I thought that was how you had to play it. Our whole rock culture began from those kinds of misconceptions. But those misconceptions and the fantasies they allowed to exist have almost all gone now. Kids today grow up on J-pop and hardly listen to any Western music at all. In both a good and bad way, they've lost that yearning for something other."

Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple in The Wire October 2008.

Joe Chen

2008-11-02T23:01:00.004+08:00

Joe Chen, one time leader of The Menace, died this week long before he should have done. The Menace were in the second wave of Hong Kong's late '60s pop bands and are remembered for Strawberry Sundae, a self-composed, catchy little piece of bubblegum. Joe went on to record several albums of his own and worked in the record industry for many years after he stopped singing. He was also a DJ and had a show on RTHK until he fell ill a few months ago.

I don't know whether the English press has picked this up, but there is a nice spread in this morning's Apple Daily. Joe was one of the first people we interviewed a couple of years ago for our book on Hong Kong English pop music and he was kind enough to give us a few of his own snapshots for publication. Below is Joe at Commercial Radio and a shot of The Menace outside City Hall.

Life On Mars

2008-11-01T16:57:00.003+08:00

"All the English-lanague songs I grew up with, I had no idea what they were singing about. So it was all about the power, the expresson. Michael Jackson had a really strong expression. His dancing, his movement, his songwriting, his harmonies, his musicianship, he is incredible. Nobody in the favelas of Brazil could understand a word he says. But the feeling was there. We identified with him." Seu Jorge from Guardian News & Media in the South China Morning Post 26 October 2008.

Jorge has an album out next with covers of Roy Ayers's Everybody Loves the Sunshine and Michael Jackson's Rock With You. This is him doing David Bowie's Life On Mars.

Krispy Kreme doughnuts since 1937...

2008-10-27T20:27:00.004+08:00

..or in Hong Kong since 2006. Today at least two of my pop culture and education project colleagues are heartbroken at the closure of Krispy Kreme Hong Kong. No more happy scenes like these.

Ofra Haza?

2008-10-22T21:38:00.008+08:00

And here is Ofra Haza singing Deliver Us in the Cantonese version of The Prince Of Egypt. Or is it? Apparently, she sang 17 of the 21 language versions, but opinion is divided on whether she sang this one or not. The majority think not, but if they are right, who is this Cantopop diva who can fool so many people into thinking she is Ofra Haza?

In A Far Away Land

2008-10-22T21:09:00.005+08:00

A couple of blogs ago, I wrote about Paul Robeson singing Chee Lai in Mandarin and English. Here is John Denver singing In A Far Away Land, a traditional Qinghai folk song written by Luo Bin Wang, in Mandarin at a concert in Australia. Why?

Try my breast

2008-10-21T22:11:00.007+08:00

Here is an interesting case of the politicization of language... This is Saturday's Apple Daily having great fun at the expense of Gary Chan Hak Kan. At 32, Gary is the youngest member of the HK Legislative Council elected in September on the pro-China Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) ticket. And what better way to start his Legco career than tell the world that he will 'try his breast'. In fact, that is an easy enough mistake to make under pressure. There is no 'r' sound in Cantonese (a word like 'friend' becomes 'fen' in Cantonese), so Cantonese speakers tend to put them into English words where they are not really needed. But because Gary Chan is an irritating young upstart pro-China politician, who was eased into an almost guaranteed Legco seat ahead of his elders and betters, Apple Daily can still get some milk out of his English more than a month later. As a native speaker of English, I really shouldn't join in the fun. The adventurous hedgehog, on the other hand, says he deserves everything he gets.

Chee Lai!

2008-10-19T19:00:00.005+08:00

My last post was about what I believed to be the first English version of a Mandarin hit song. Today we had tea with a group of Hong Kong music fans and, thanks to Louis Lee, I now know better. In 1941, Paul Robeson made a three-disc album with the title Chee Lai! Songs Of New China. This included the song Chi Lai! (Arise!) sung first in Mandarin and then in English. Here is the English lyric.

Arise! You who refuse to be bond slaves!
Let's stand up and fight for liberty and true democracy!
All the world is facing the change of oppression!
Everyone who fights for freedom is now crying:
Arise! Arise! Arise!
All of us with one heart, with the torch of freedom, March On!
With the torch of freedom, March On! March On! March On and On!

The song may be better known as The March Of The Volunteers - tune by Nie Er and lyrics by Tian Han - written in Shanghai in 1934 and used as the theme song for the patriotic movie Sons And Daughters In A Time Of Storm. It is even better known as the national anthem of the People's Republic of China.

From what I have been able to find out, the recording came about when Liu Liangmo, director of the Shanghai YMCA, came to the USA and looked up Robeson as a likely candidate to sing some Chinese resistance songs. The album they produced had two songs by Robeson (the other being Song Of The Guerillas) and four by a Chinese chorus conducted by Liu. According to a Time review, although the songs were "not tuneful to Western ears", they were "interesting and authentic examples of China's new mass music". The album also included a booklet with an introduction by Soong Ching-ling, widow of Sun Yat-sen.

Here's an MP3 of Chee Lai! (Arise!) at the Internet Archive.

Rose, Rose, I Love You

2008-10-17T21:39:00.011+08:00

I have been digging around in lost corners of the web today to see what I can find out about Rose, Rose, I Love You, one of the most popular Hong Kong songs over the last 50 or 60 years. The original was written by Chen Gexin and recorded by Yao Lee in Mandarin on EMI-Pathe in 1941. In pinyin the title is Méigui méigui wǒ ài nǐ, which translates accurately as Rose, Rose, I Love You. The story behind the English version, published in Time, starts in 1951 with an Australian DJ, Wilfrid Thomas, picking up a copy of Yao Lee's disc in a back street in Hong Kong and bringing it to London, where it caused such a stir that Chappell Music asked him to write English lyrics to it. Thomas gave the song a topical twist, turning it into a departing British soldier's lament for the girl he must leave behind in Malaya. There is also a clever twist on the Chinese title in the line Make way, oh make way for this Eastern rose.

In 1951, it was common for new songs to be recorded by several artists and hit the charts at the same time. Frankie Laine's version won the race for Rose, Rose, I Love You, reaching #3 on Billboard, although it may well have been intended as the B-side to Jezebel, which got to #2. There also versions by Billy Morrow (#8) on RCA and Gordon Jenkins on Decca (#21). The vocal on the latter was by Cisco Houston and I found a download at www.cisc ohouston.com. With all this fuss, Columbia even decided to release the Yao Lee version, although for some reason they changed her name to Hue Lee.

Back in London, a different English version with the title May Kway (lyrics by John Turner) came out as a Petula Clark songsheet and reached #16 on the British songsheet charts. (Record charts didn't start until 1952). Petula Clark also recorded May Kway on Polygon, as did Billy Cotton on Fontana.

The Time article finished up by saying that Chappell were holding on to royalties for Miss Hue Lee "the song's unknown writers, now presumably somewhere in Red China". Well, Yao Lee and Chen Gexin were not exactly unknown, although Chen had used his pen name, Lin Mei, on the Shanghai recording. By 1951, they were both working in Hong Kong with Great Wall records along with many other musicians from pre-revolution Shanghai. But two years after the 1949 revolution, these were confusing times. Hong Kong audiences, it seems, were better informed about Western music and it wasn't long before they had taken both the Mandarin and English versions of the song to their hearts.

Frankie Laine, Yao Lee and Hue Lee scans from Wong Kee Chee's The Age of Shanghainese Pops. Gordon Jenkins from www.cisc ohouston.com. Petula Clark from www.petulaclark.net.

First celebrity brand...

2008-10-12T17:32:00.007+08:00

This is Alice blogging...

Last time, it was mentioned that I found some bilingual advertisements from the 1920s...here is the proof.

This is a print ad in 'An illustrated family magazine' from 1929 Hong Kong.

'Watch Mei Lan Fong opera, please smoke Mei Lan Fong cigarette'

Mei Lan Fong 梅蘭芳 (1894-1961) was possibly the most famous Peking Opera star ever. He was so famous that he actually got his own cigarette brand! This may well be the first celebrity brand. I found this ad fascinating. The packaging was in English and the picture shows Mei Lan Fong in his stage costume. The picture was not just another beautiful lady, it was Mei in full costume: the decorative headpiece, the period costume and also the stage setting. Mei was even shown with his artistic feminine gesture.

'If you like a good drink...

2008-10-09T21:29:00.006+08:00

...just say Carlsberg', or 'Ga si ba' if you prefer Cantonese. This is another ad from the Ritz Ballroom Souvenir Booklet, 1951. I was thinking that this must be a pretty early example of bilingual advertising in Hong Kong, but now Alice tells me she is turning up similar ads from the 1920s.

What I love about this ad, though, is the way the guy can point at the English and Chinese names and never miss a beat on the dancefloor.