Orchestrating Hong Kong : the establishment of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra

Abstract

This thesis focuses on examining the establishment of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (HKCO) in 1977. Being the only professional full-sized modern Chinese orchestra in Hong Kong, the HKCO has greatly influenced the development of other modern Chinese orchestras in the territory since its professionalisation in 1977. As a part of the massive social and cultural programmes carried out in the 1970s, not only did the HKCO successfully promote Chinese music in the colony, but it also played an important role in developing the city as the “Pearl of the Orient”, world-renowned for its prosperity and refined glamour in the 1980s and 1990s.

It appears that the establishment of the HKCO was merely a means to enrich and enliven the cultural life of Hong Kong. However, in light of recent studies and declassified records from The National Archives of the United Kingdom revealing political considerations and intentions of the social and cultural programmes implemented in the 1970s, I argue that the establishment of the HKCO was not only a cultural programme intending to promote Chinese arts and culture, but also an attempt to palliate the impacts brought by the burst of social discontent in the late 1960s and a part of the strategy to advance the position of the United Kingdom in the foreseeable negotiation with the People’s Republic of China about the future of Hong Kong after 1997.

In order to gain a better understanding of the establishment of the HKCO and the cultural programmes put into practice during the 1970s, this thesis outlines the development of the modern Chinese orchestra in Hong Kong from the 1950s to the 1970s, explores the early development of the HKCO before being professionalised, investigates the administrative procedures and discussions concerning the formation of the professional HKCO in 1977 as well as discusses the political considerations of the Hong Kong British Colonial Government when implementing various cultural programmes, particularly establishing the HKCO, in the 1970s.