The Cantonese "Youth Film” and Music of the 1960s in Hong Kong CHAN, Pui Shan A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Music The Chinese University of Hong Kong January 2011 |f 23APR2fi>J ！?I Thesis Committee Professor YU Siu Wah (Chair) Professor Michael Edward McCLELLAN (Thesis Supervisor) Professor Victor Amaro VICENTE (Committee Member) Professor LI Siu Leung (External Examiner) X i Contents Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Chapter 1: 1 The Political and Social Influence on the Development of Hong Kong Film Industry and the Cantonese Cinema in the 1950s and the 1960s Chapter 2: 24 Defining the Genre: Three Characteristics of Hong Kong Cantonese Youth Film Chapter 3: 53 The Functions and Characteristics of Song in Cantonese Youth Film Chapter 4: 87 The Modernity of Cantonese Cinema and the City (Hong Kong) Conclusion: 104 Hong Kong Cantonese Youth Film and the Construction of Identity • Appendix 1 107 Appendix 2 109 Appendix 3 \\\ Bibliography 112 • ii Acknowledgements I am grateful for the teaching offered by the teaching staff and the sharing among friends at the Music Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This experience is valuable to me. I have to thank Ada Chan, Lucy Choi, Angel Tsui, Julia Heung and Carman Tsang for their encouragement and prayers. I would also like to express my gratitude to my family which allowed me to pursue my studies in Music and Ethnomusicology. Furthermore, I cannot give enough thanks to my supervisor, Professor Michael E. McClellan for his patience, understanding, kindness, guidance, thoughtful and substantial support. Finally, I would like to thank God for His work, guidance and love which I don't deserve and is out of my imagination. Anna Pui-shan Chan Hong Kong July 2010 iii Abstract of thesis: Cantonese youth film has been labeled as one of the more important genres in Hong Kong cinema in the 1960s. Due to the social and economic changes that marked the period from the 1950s to the 1960s, the city went through a phase of modernization to which Cantonese cinema, in the guise of Cantonese youth film, contributed. In this thesis, I would like to contextualize Cantonese youth film by discussing the modernization of Cantonese cinema and Hong Kong jointly. By identifying the historical，social and economic influences on Cantonese youth film, especially on the characteristics and functions of its songs, I argue that the modernity of Cantonese cinema at the end of the 1960s was influenced by the development of a "Hong Kong consciousness" among the inhabitants of the city. I also consider how Cantonese youth film acted as a multi-dimensional forum of mass media that facilitated the formation of "Hong Kong consciousness", in which the two-way influence between the cinema and the city is made evident. X ‘ iv 粵語青春歌舞片於香港六十年代後期掀起一輪歌舞熱潮。五、六十年代的社 會、政治、經濟變遷，促成粵語電影業的變革。隨着社會、電影業的變化’粵語 電影工作者製作一系列以青春偶像爲招徕、以大城市爲背景、以愛情故事包裝的 歌舞片。本篇論文希望透過硏究六十年代後期的粵語青春歌舞片，來探討粵語電 影業和香港社會如何經歷六十年代的現代化，並進一步討論青春歌舞片與初期香 港本土意識形成的相互影響。 Submitted by CHAN, Pui shan for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (July 2010) V Chapter 1: The Political and Social Influence on the Development of Hong Kong Film Industry and the Cantonese Cinema in the 1950s and the 1960s Introduction Cantonese youth film has been labeled as one of the more important genres in Hong Kong cinema in the 1960s. The rise of Cantonese youth film was regarded as the last success before the low tide of Cantonese cinema in the early 1970s. Due to the social and economic changes that marked the period from the 1950s to the 1960s，the city went through a phase of modernization to which Cantonese cinema, in the guise of Cantonese youth film, contributed. In this thesis, I would like to contextualize Cantonese youth film by discussing the modernization of Cantonese cinema and Hong Kong jointly. By identifying the historical, social and economic influences on Cantonese youth film, especially on the characteristics and functions of its songs, I argue that the modernity of Cantonese cinema at the end of the sixties was influenced by the development of a "Hong Kong consciousness" among the inhabitants of the city. I also consider how Cantonese youth film acted as a multi-dimensional forum of mass media that facilitated the formation of this "Hong Kong consciousness", in which the two-way influence between the cinema and the city is made evident. 1 Literature Review In preparation of this thesis, I have drawn materials from the surviving historical data on Hong Kong and its film industry, transcripts of interviews with filmmakers done by film critics and academic forums among film critics, academic literature, as well as the youth films themselves. For the secondary literature on Hong Kong and its film industry, I. C. Jarvie was the first Western academic to write a book on Hong Kong cinema (Teo 2004:100). He produced a sociological study of Hong Kong film industry and its audiences in which he strove to understand the society of Hong Kong from the study of its cinema. His study included an outline of the history of Hong Kong cinema, the sociological analysis of its audiences, thematic analyses of the narratives and a brief discussion of its aesthetics. Local scholars, such as Lin Nian-tong (林年同)，Shu Qi (舒琪)，Law Kar (羅卡)，Yu Muyun (余慕雲）and Li Cheuk-to (李焯桃)contributed more detailed research into the history of Hong Kong cinema. They usually focused on a smaller group of works describing how local issues influenced Hong Kong cinema and offered opinions regarding specific cinematic genres. Local historian, Zhong Baoxian (鍾寶賢）wrote a rather thorough study in Chinese about the history of Hong Kong cinema with a concentration on political influences and changes to the film production system. Stephen Teo, film critic and historian, also contributed a detailed book in English in which- he 2 approached the history of Hong Kong cinema from different specific perspectives and with different focuses for each era. Regarding the secondary historical literature of Hong Kong cinema, the focus has tended toward macroscopic research and the arguments center on how Hong Kong became the center of Chinese cinema outside Mainland China, devoting much time to the competition between Mandarin and Cantonese cinema as well as the contest among major film companies. However, these studies usually touch upon the topic of Cantonese youth film of the late 1960s only lightly in their broad description of Hong Kong cinema history. When discussing Cantonese youth film, scholars commonly pay attention to its thematic narratives, the images of stars in the films, the social influences on content and the representation of local social phenomena in the films. Authors interested in these topics include Poshek Fu, Law Kar, Sek Kei and Cheuk Pak-tong. Wu Yuehua, a local film critic, has to date conducted the only detailed study about songs in Cantonese youth film. Her work will be considered at greater length in subsequent chapters. With regard to the cinema and modernity, Western academics such as Leo Chamey, Vanessa R. Schwartz, and Murray Pomerance have made significant contributions. They have concentrated on particular films that revealed the multiplicity of perspectives toward modernity that resulted from the rapidity of social and technological change in Hong Kong. This study builds on these findings but will 3 offer some new perspectives regarding the relationship of cinema and city in order to broaden our understanding of the socio-cultural role played by Cantonese youth films. Methodology The main primary sources of this research are Cantonese youth films which can be accessed through the Hong Kong Film Archive. Cantonese youth films included in my thesis are listed in Appendix 2. The various viewings of the films was prioritized in the following way. First, Cantonese youth films directed by Wong Tiu (黃堯）and Chan Wan (陳雲)were examined and given first priority as these two directors directed a lot of Cantonese youth films and they were regarded as the leading directors of Cantonese youth films in the late 1960s. Then, based on the existing studies and academic research, significant scenes from other directors' productions consituted the second group of films to be examined. The remaining Cantonese youth films were examined at last. Brief plot descriptions of each Cantonese youth film can be read in the website of Hong Kong Film Archive. i Therefore，, the focuses of examination of films was the music scenes, the messages that the films expressed and how these Cantonese youth films depicted the city (Hong Kong). In addition，informal interviews with my elder family members were conducted 1 http://ipac.hkfa.lcsd.gov.hk/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=hkfa 4 to give an account of the lifestyle and living standard around the late 1960s. Those interviews were conducted in an informal conservation about their daily life in the late 1960s. Their wages and entertainment were the focus of those informal interviews. Combined with the existing academic literatures, my research demonstrates how the tradition of movie musicals and the didacticism of Cantonese youth films affected its songs and how Cantonese cinema and the city went through the phase of modernization in the late 1960s. Other related issues, such as women's status, the lack of local identity, are discussed as well. Hong Kong Society after World War II A. Economic Growth in Hong Kong since the late 1950s: Upon the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, tens of thousands of Chinese streamed across the border to Hong Kong to escape Communism; thus, Hong Kong's population increased 20% in less than a year. A number of these refugees were diasporic entrepreneurs and financiers from Shanghai who brought capital and business skills to their new home.