The Hong Kong entertainment industry is one of the city’s most successful stories. It had an excellent record of producing popular movies, TV episodes, and Canto-pop songs in the ’80s and ’90s, once earning a reputation as the “Hollywood of the East”.

It is beyond question that the catchy soundtracks and jingles of Hong Kong’s movies and TV episodes have significantly helped the city’s entertainment industry prosper. They have also sweetened the musical lives of local and Chinese mainland residents, overseas Chinese, and neighboring Asian communities.

The city has experienced great changes in the past half-century. Having thrived for more than 30 years, the local entertainment industry seems to have lost its glamour in recent years, losing ground to the mainland and South Korea. In addition, the 2019 political turmoil and the COVID-19 pandemic have further weakened Hong Kong’s overall competitiveness, nourishing a pessimistic and gloomy feeling in the city.

However, most people hold on to an optimistic belief that the city’s core values — perseverance, hard work, solidarity, and dexterity still prevail. The tougher the time, the stronger the “Lion Rock Spirit” (or Hong Kong Spirit) to withstand adversity. Hong Kong people know the challenges ahead and we are working hard to rebuild the city’s strength in international finance, trade, logistics, arts, and cultural exchanges.

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After all, the central government is always Hong Kong’s strongest shield in regaining its international prestige. From the nation’s development point of view, if the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region can leverage its traditional advantage as a meeting place between the Chinese and foreign cultures, it can play a better role in promoting Chinese cultural soft power. The city’s pop music is obviously one of the best tools to accomplish the task.

On the other hand, the local entertainment circle has suffered a great loss of stars following the deaths of numerous talented composers, producers, singers, and movie stars in the past 20 years. A revival of the industry needs a large pool of talent. One well-known Chinese idiom says, “when hearing the war drums, a leader will think about good generals”. Among those departed individuals who helped elevate the city’s entertainment industry to international prestige was the late Michael Lai Siu-tin. The legendary musician passed away in December 2019, aged 73.

Born to a composer and a literary critic, Lai entered the entertainment circle, aged seven, as a child actor. However, his musical talent eventually encouraged him to join the musical profession. Lai is credited with 30 original musical scores for Hong Kong films from the 1970s to the 1990s, and he composed about 700 original songs. Many of his works were placed in the RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards during the late 70s and early 80s. He received a Hall of Fame Award from the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong in 2006.

A group of enthusiastic supporters of local music recently fulfilled Lai’s last wish of producing an English version of his most popular Canto-pop hit, Ask Me. Lai longed to have Hong Kong pop music more widely recognized beyond China and Asia. The English version of Ask Me, dubbed City of Hope, was officially released to raise funds for charity in December, marking the fifth anniversary of Lai’s death. The English song depicts a town that is rising again out of a trough (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk59ljoFvsA).

According to Lai, the melodies for Ask Me were inspired by the Streets of London, an English song depicting the plight of the homeless and other forgotten members of society. When he and some friends discussed a theme song for a documentary film project about Hong Kong 10 years ago, Ask Me was the title chosen for a song to be sung in English. The English song was initially named City of Sorrow. The film project has yet to materialize, but when Lai was dying in Dec 2019, Hong Kong was affected by severe political violence. Anger, sadness, and despair were the tones of the time. So, it was a city of sorrow.

It was Alan Ka-shing Cheung, a local award-winning composer, arranger, and producer who suggested altering parts of the lyrics and renaming it City of Hope. Prior to his death, Lai asked Cheung to rearrange Ask Me. Cheung knew that Lai’s biggest wish was to give more joy to people through music, so he insisted on an optimistic tone.  

“Lai loved Ask Me very much and I want to give ‘newness’ and ‘freshness’ to City of Hope, so I invited some top international jazz musicians to work with me to insert more elements of jazz in the new arrangement, aiming for a wider acceptance by foreigners,” said Cheung.

Ask Me, a musical Cantonese interlude that featured in the 1976 film Jumping Ash, is a pessimistic song about egoistic and individualistic feelings. Nevertheless, its catchy melodies and lyrics made it one of the most popular songs among local and overseas Chinese communities. Thirteen prominent female singers have since done cover versions of the song on their own albums.    

Interestingly, the English lyrics of City of Hope were not written by a local Chinese person, but a gang piao (Hong Kong drifter) from Shanghai. Gang piao is a Mandarin term for educated Chinese mainland people who live and work in Hong Kong.

Gu Wenxin moved to Hong Kong two years ago and is also a lawyer. She said in Ask Me, the singer experiences an emotional roller-coaster ride before eventually finding self-affirmation after repeated self-questioning. “So, I hope to convey this kind of affirmation in the English lyrics of City of Hope for Hong Kong people or residents of other cities.”

Hong Kong has long been a city built by talented people from all over the world. All newcomers have unique experiences and feelings about the city in which they have settled. In the lyrics, Gu conveys her loneliness and mixed feelings about the city.

“Looking back, there was a hint of loneliness and confusion in the lyrics. When I walked the streets of Hong Kong and looked up to see the lights, I imagined families having dinner together. However, when I looked up to the sky on my way home from work, I saw the moon and stars most of the time because you know in Hong Kong people often need to work overtime,” she said.

“On the other hand, the lights and the stars in the song could also be the memories and hopes of some people, so I wish when people listen to the song, they hear not only a city, but themselves, too,” she added.

City of Hope is sung by Emana Leung Hoi-Ting, an actress-cum-singer whom Lai wanted to sing the English version. Leung said that Lai was her lucky star guiding her musical career, and she hopes that Lai’s musical works last forever in people’s hearts.

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Raymond Young, the publisher of City of Hope, said, “Hong Kong people like to sing English songs of foreign origins. It is a delight to tell a local story with an English song of Hong Kong‘s melodies.”

As a promoter who actively fosters cultural exchanges between students of the mainland and Hong Kong, Young said that teachers and students of Beichuan High School in Sichuan province are scheduled to visit Hong Kong this spring, and they will sing City of Hope.

May the song bring more hope, joy, and motivation to the city we love so that we can have more successful stories to tell.

The author, a Hong Kong-based freelance writer, is an adviser to the Hong Kong Association of Media Veterans. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.