Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong Cantopop: 1984

Abstract

The Sino-British Joint Declaration was formally signed by the People’s Republic of China and the United Kingdom on December 19, 1984, and Hong Kong people finally faced the inevitability of the then British colony returning to its motherland in 1997. This chapter discusses to twist the dystopian take of George Orwell’s 1984, arguing that it is possible to imagine a new future by reflecting on this important year in the history of Cantopop. Cantopop picked up momentum in the late 1970s, and different dispositions converged to bring it to an unparalleled height in 1984. The hybridization of local and global music elements were also behind the phenomenal rise of Cantopop in 1984. In the history of Hong Kong Cantopop, 1984 was one of those rare years when the industry witnessed a paradigm shift on several fronts: cross-media and cross-cultural hybridization, the idol business, and the concert industry.