Hong Kong Cantopop Lyrics as Sinophone Articulations

Abstract

In her account of Hong Kong literature as Sinophone literature, Shu-mei Shih underlines the importance of Cantonese for Hong Kong: “The Hong Kong consciousness that undergirded the rise of Hong Kong studies in late (British) colonial Hong Kong was linguistically specific to the prominent deployment of the local Cantonese language, which implicitly challenged Putonghua and China-centric disparagements of Hong Kong as a ‘cultural desert’.” Cantopop (Cantonese popular songs) has been one of the most important sources of the cultural identity of Hong Kong people. Although Cantonese is not fully utilized in Cantopop, the hybridization of Cantonese, modern standard Chinese, and classical Chinese is often seen in its lyrics. In line with Shih’s notion of the Sinophone as method and theory, which “eschews monolingualism, ethnocentrism, and colonialism,” this paper argues that Cantopop lyrics could be a form of Cantophone literature that “evinces the existential openness and porousness of linguistic communities.” While the Sinophone, as heterogeneous, localized, and interconnected marginal sites of cultural production, is mobilized as a critical intervention in unsettled binaries, the analysis of Cantopop lyrics will contribute a significant perspective by deconstructing binaries such as the spoken vs. the written and Putonghua vs. Cantonese. 誠如史書美所⾔，粵語是香港意識的要素，能夠抗衡普通話並拆解香港是⽂化沙漠的迷思。 粵語流⾏曲混雜粵語的詞風自成⼀格，更是香港⽂化身份重要泉源之⼀。本⽂按華語語系的角度，探論粵語流⾏歌詞作為在地異質⽂化的可能性。