From ci to Cantopop lyrics : the inheritance and transformation of aesthetic features in the works of Lin Xi, Wyman Wong, and Chow Yiu Fai = 詞之審美特質在香港的綿延與嬗變 : 林夕、黃偉文、周耀輝粵語流行歌詞研究

Abstract

Cantopop, a genre of Chinese popular music sung in Cantonese, is one of the most representative cultural symbols of Hong Kong. This thesis delves into the relationship between the inheritance and transformation of Cantopop lyrics based on the works of Lin Xi, Wyman Wong and Chow Yiu Fai, who are three of the most influential lyricists in the past three decades in Hong Kong. Their lyrics are analyzed in contrast with ci, a genre of traditional Chinese literature in Tang, Song and Qing Dynasty. Admittedly, there are considerable differences in terms of specific life experiences and expressive strategies. However, the essential spirit of ci has been inherited by Cantopop lyrics in terms of the expression of love, the way of looking upon the world and life, and the application of art of expression. In other words, they embody the vigor and dynamic of the “open elements” in traditional Chinese culture.

Meanwhile, on the basis of understanding the momentum of cultural continuity in general, this thesis also focuses on the “closed elements” in the social-historical context of Hong Kong, and examines how they help Cantopop lyrics adapt to local conditions by transforming new aesthetic features, revealing the conflict and cooperation among different elements in the field of cultural production. It is argued that while Cantopop lyrics might abide by the market-oriented mechanism of cultural industries which are manipulated by the “heteronomous principle”, the lyricists try to stick with the “autonomous principle” to express their local experiences, feelings, emotions and sentiments in Hong Kong through the way of “Xing Guan Qun Yuan”, intertextuality and queer imaginaries in particular, so as to keep their aesthetic considerations and humanistic concerns.

Essentially, the relationship between Cantopop lyrics and ci is transformation in the process of inheritance, and vice versa. Toward this end, the basic aesthetic features of contemporary Cantopop lyrics are explained in regard to “fusion of horizons”, which will shed light on its future development in the context of globalization.