Original title: Hong Kong’s famous celebrity tutor and composer made a wish to publish the new book “Half a Foot from the Ground” (quote)
Born for HK Phil Decoding the Charm of Life of HK Phil Classics (Theme)
Beijing Youth DailyReporter Zhang Jia
The Hong Kong Philharmonic, like youth, is close to us, yet seems thousands of miles away. In the Hong Kong Philharmonic, there are the vast rivers and lakes created by Jin Yong, the brim and cigarettes of Xiao Ma, the mysterious sunglasses of Wong Kar Wai, the mellow voice of Anita Mui, the blurred expression of Leslie Cheung, the call sign of Beyond, and the love of everyone when they were young, Dreams, curiosity and dissatisfaction. Those theme songs that set the impression of the times, those sounds that are closely related to social events, classic period dramas, and exquisite lyrics have accompanied the growth of several generations.
The new book “Half a Foot from the Ground” by the senior music consultant of “Sounds of Endless” and well-known “hexagonal fighter” in the Hong Kong music scene is newly published by Times Chinese International. In this book, I wish to relive the 1970s and 1980s This period is the golden age of Hong Kong Philharmonic, and also the youthful era of Wishing and that generation of musicians. Therefore, Wishing said: “Music is like a time machine, filling up the memories of youth.” He invited everyone to open an old song, “Let the music take us half a foot off the ground and go to youth together.”
The birth of Cantopop is not superficial
Wishing was born in Hong Kong, China. He has loved music since he was a child. On his ninth birthday, he received a double vinyl record of “Superstar” from his brother. Since then, he has planted the seeds of music in his heart. When he was studying abroad, he was enlightened by musical theater master Grace Macdonald, and later became a professional stage actor. He has been nourished by traditional Chinese culture and Hong Kong pop music. At that time, Wishing was a spectator of the HK Phil.
After returning to Hong Kong, Wishing was hired by TVB, stepped into the Hong Kong music scene, and became a participant of the Hong Kong Philharmonic ever since. Wishing has been active in Hong Kong’s entertainment industry since the 1980s. With his rich experience in stage plays, he has participated in hundreds of concerts and the production of large-scale comprehensive programs, and has the chance to cooperate with idols he liked when he was young , including Xu Guanjie, Luo Wen, Lin Zixiang, Wang Mingquan, Zheng Shaoqiu, Su Rui and so on.
Wishing is a well-known “hexagonal warrior” in the Hong Kong music scene: he has personally experienced the golden age of Hong Kong pop music, from typhoon/dance teacher, record image designer, to the founder of the music label “Star Music” and other multiple identities. Artists spread over more than half of the Hong Kong entertainment circle; as a famous celebrity mentor, his students almost occupy half of the Hong Kong music scene, including many celebrities such as Lin Yilian, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Chen Xiaochun; he is also a senior music producer and composer Home, has produced over 30 music albums, more than half of which have sold platinum, over 80 songs on the charts, and 29 champion songs. “,” Wish” and “Chasing” are all familiar to people.
In 2001, Wishing promoted the creation of the only Hong Kong music award – the Golden Sail Music Award, and recruited the first CASH music ambassador Leslie Cheung. With his strong support, it is still the industry standard in the Hong Kong music scene.
In 2022, he was invited to serve as the senior music consultant and professional singer tutor of “The Sound Is Never Ending”, and finally had the opportunity to present his beloved Hong Kong Philharmonic in front of everyone. At this time, he became a disseminator of Hong Kong Philharmonic. “Endless Sound” made Hong Kong pop music, which has been silent for a long time, once again sparked a topic in the mainland. Although the show has ended, the enthusiasm for Hong Kong music it caused has not subsided.
Talking about the new book “Half a Foot from the Ground”, I made a wish and said: “As a professional singer instructor and senior music consultant, I participated in the production of “Endless Sound·Hong Kong Philharmonic Season”, and won the Hong Kong Philharmonic that I have loved all my life In front of the audience, how can the volume of 12 issues accommodate decades of classic years and details. So I wrote this “Half a Foot from the Ground”, a book telling the story of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a book of love Book.”
In addition, Wishing also narrated another reason in the preface. He wrote that one day last year, a friend sent him a video from a certain platform, the content of which was two unknown video bloggers talking about pop music. For the sake of the so-called traffic, these two people played at will in a profession that they didn’t understand, which shocked Wishing a bit: “In this day and age, anyone can make their own videos, which is a good thing. Things that are unreasonable, self-righteous, but without nutrition, specious, are bad things!”
The two video bloggers said of the birth of Cantonese pop songs in Hong Kong: “It’s just a continuation of the minor tune.” It seems that superstars such as Luo Wen, Xu Guanjie and Xu Xiaofeng can be recognized as long as they have the shadow of the so-called “minor tune”. It is used to fully explain the overall musical cultural transformation of Cantonese pop songs. In Wishing’s opinion, the two vloggers’ statement shows that they have no idea how the whole thing happened: “I must say: the birth of Cantopop is not superficial! I found out that I wrote “Half a Foot from the Ground” “The necessity of this book.”
HK Phil’s popularity is inseparable from TVB dramas
On April 1st, the “Half a Foot from the Ground” sharing meeting was held. Wishing and writer Chen Guanzhong, Chinese pop singer Ding Dang, Hong Kong famous lyricist Liu Zhuohui, Lin Junjie and Adu’s mentor, Singapore gold medal musician Xu Huanliang gathered happily Together, recall the golden age that reverberated with classic sounds, and reminisce about the past in the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Wishing believes that the most important figures in the birth of Hong Kong Cantonese pop songs are Xu Guanjie and Gu Jiahui. In 1972, the Xu brothers composed the song “Iron Tower Lingyun” (the name at the time was “Just Like This”) for the TVB TV program “Double Star Announcement”. The younger brother Xu Guanjie composed the song and the older brother Xu Guanwen wrote the lyrics. They made a wish and said: “This is the real Cantonese. The beginning of the popular song is definitely not a continuation of a minor. When composing the melody of “Iron Tower Lingyun”, Xu Guanjie used more folk and pop music styles from the United States, but he also used a structure that is very suitable for the direction of Cantonese itself To create. In terms of lyrics, Hui Guanwen also abandoned the popular method of writing lyrics in the form of Cantonese opera at that time, and used a style that is more like new poetry, so as to express his feelings for Hong Kong.”
In 1974, Gu Jiahui’s “Cause of Laughter” sounded like “the continuation of the minor tune” on the surface, but he did not find a singer from among the singers who sang the Chinese minor tune. Instead, he invited Xiandu, a Chinese-Western hybrid who is good at singing blues and jazz. La Lai performed this song, which is very touching. From Wishing’s point of view, Xu Guanjie and Gu Jiahui successfully integrated Chinese and Western cultures, created pop music belonging to contemporary Chinese, and started a music explosion. Cantonese pop songs began to be ubiquitous in Chinese areas, becoming the first wave of Chinese pop music.
The famous writer Chen Guanzhong explained that what they call Hong Kong music refers to Cantonese songs. “Before the 1970s, Cantonese songs in Hong Kong were not dominant. At that time, there were many minor tunes and dance music. In the 1960s, there were also popular songs. However, as everyone said, many singers who sing Cantonese pop songs seem to be inferior to singers who sing Mandarin songs and singers who sing English songs in terms of social and cultural status. By the early 1970s, this trend had completely changed , one of the reasons is that the power of TVB TV series is too great, the TV series are in Cantonese, the theme song is in Cantonese, and Cantonese songs became popular all at once. The 1980s was the most glorious period for the Hong Kong Philharmonic.”
As for why the Hong Kong Philharmonic became the leader of Chinese pop music back then, Xu Huanliang believes that tolerance is an important reason, “Standing on today, I think that the development of music should be passed on, and we should hold the viewpoint of tolerance and absorption of advantages. , make Chinese pop music better.”
Liu Zhuohui, a famous lyricist who has collaborated with Beyond on many classic songs such as “Lover” and “Earth”, believes that tolerance has also brought the Hong Kong Philharmonic to the other side, that is, it has no bottom line and is extremely commercialized. Whether it is Japanese, British, or American songs, this makes the music very rich, and it is also the reason why the Hong Kong Philharmonic was very strong at that time. It is indeed very tolerant, but this is also a manifestation of making money without a bottom line. The originals were changed with other people’s songs. After entering the 1990s, Hong Kong record companies that pursued commercialization still did whatever they could to make money. In the early 21st century, Taiwanese singers, singers from Singapore and Malaysia, and mainland singers emerged. At that time, Hong Kong’s purely commercial approach was no longer very popular, so everyone would have the impression that the Hong Kong Philharmonic began to decline more than ten years ago. To clarify what the starting point of making music is, or simply to make money, I think this has something to do with it.”
To create idols is to discover their aura to shine the times
In the glorious period of the Hong Kong Philharmonic in the 1980s, there were some unique characteristics, that is, many singers were very good actors, such as Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, Ye Qianwen, Zhong Zhentao… Chen Guanzhong believes that this characteristic also enables Hong Kong music to be promoted quickly remember. Analyzing the reasons, Liu Zhuohui said that the first one is that the Hong Kong market is very small, and you may not make enough money just by singing alone. The second is that the Hong Kong film industry, especially the director’s requirements for Hong Kong actors are different, he does not need you Having studied film, he wants you to perform in a natural way, so even though many Hong Kong singers have not received any professional training, they act naturally. Many singers have become actors, and they are very popular.
Wishing believes that this may be related to the “training class” of Hong Kong TVB’s systematic star-making method at that time. Xu Huanliang also agrees with this very much. He said that they were deeply influenced by Hong Kong TVB when they held a training class in Singapore, and very famous singers Adu and Lin Junjie came out of the training class, and they also succeeded in “star making”.
Wishing’s music career started from TVB. He was very excited to be able to cooperate with idols such as Zheng Shaoqiu, Wang Mingquan, Luo Wen, Zhen Ni, and Xu Guanjie. Moreover, one of the trainings given to him by TVB was to let him have the concept of making stars, so that Wishing could understand To “creating idols is to discover their aura to shine in the era.” It is with this idea that he composed “This Life and This World” for Leslie Cheung; to help Lin Yilian who is in a confused period find her position, let her within a year , with Anita Mui on the same stage to win the top ten Chinese golden songs, and produced “Fall in Love with Someone Who Doesn’t Go Home” for her, which opened up the Taiwan market for Hong Kong stars, and broke the previous record with the album “Urban Touch III: Faces & Places”. The youngest record in the Hong Kong music scene, won the “Best Record Producer” award; discovered and strongly recommended Chen Xiaochun, the backup dancer at that time.
Why did Leslie Cheung sing “This Life and This World” after he was awarded the Mai?
On the day of the sharing session on April 1st, it coincided with the 20th anniversary of Leslie Cheung’s death. Wishing and Leslie Cheung met in 1985. Leslie Cheung was the first singer he collaborated with. Wishing is unwilling to spend friendship, but on this special day, he must To commemorate, he said: “I will not be sad today. My old friend likes the applause you gave him very much. I will give this book to my good friend Leslie Cheung.”
In the book, Wishing also tells the story of why Leslie Cheung quit the music scene at the peak of his life from a personal perspective, and why he returned to the music scene singing “This Life, This Life” after being banned, and started his second glorious life story.
In 1989, Leslie Cheung announced that he would be closed at the peak. He asked at his farewell concert: “Will you forget me soon?” Gu Jiaming, the gold medal music producer, made a wish and said that the main creative team of the film felt that Leslie Cheung should be willing to sing these songs in the film, “But in fact, no one asked him, and what he agreed was to make this film. At that time, he had already retired from the music industry. In 1989, he held a lot of Final Encounter concerts in the Red Pavilion, and he was really banned. No one dared to ask him to sing in the movie, and there was more than one song … This responsibility belongs to the director Chen Kexin! Of course, the director finally asked me to lobby Leslie Cheung. After all, I wrote the song and created the story, and he knew that Leslie Cheung and I had collaborated many times. “
Wishing that he could not use Leslie Cheung’s friendship with him to kidnap him to do something he didn’t want to do, “Even if he is very good to his friends. This is not a casual thing, maybe there is only one way to convince him, That is: Impressing him with these songs, there may be a glimmer of hope. Because in the final analysis, there is still a sensual artist who loves music hidden in Leslie Cheung.”
So, Wishing took the written “This Life and This World” to find Leslie Cheung. Sure enough, Leslie Cheung didn’t want anyone to say that he repented. Now that he has quit the music scene, he doesn’t want to sing new songs. After listening to “This Life and This World”, Leslie Cheung paused and asked to take it home and listen carefully before giving an answer. “That day, I forgot whether it was I who drove him or he drove me. I remember that it was only the two of us in the car, listening to the demo of “This Life and This World” over and over again. In fact, we talked a lot in the car that day, and Not just about movies. For example, that year, I had prepared two albums for Sandy Lam, “Don’t Care About Who I Am” and “Better Start Over”. After researching a lot about the music situation in Taiwan and Hong Kong, he asked me a lot of important questions and gave me a lot of valuable advice.”
In the end, Leslie Cheung agreed, and made a wish to praise the lyrics of “This Life and This World” lyricist Ruan Shisheng is very good, “‘I am willing to agree in this life to hug him again in this life’ moved many people, even to Leslie Cheung who finally agreed to sing this song , is also a very wonderful sentence.”
Although Leslie Cheung has passed away for 20 years, Wishing wrote affectionately in “Half a Foot from the Ground”, “It feels like Leslie is always by my side protecting me, Leslie Cheung! We, all, honestly love you.”
It’s not that old songs are good, but that good songs are not old
Xu Huanliang said that people often hear people say that the current songs are not as good as the old ones, and he thinks this is a wrong impression. “As time goes by, our memory will naturally screen out the bad songs and keep the good songs. In fact, it’s not that the old songs are good, but that the good songs are not old.”
Xu Huanliang hopes to use the “Half a Foot from the Ground” that made a wish. The focus of the discussion is not the rise and fall of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, but how the glorious period came about. “When we understand this cycle, we can think about our In the future, I think the key point is to think about how we create Chinese pop music at this point in time, as Chinese pop music becomes bigger and bigger in the world, one day Chinese pop music can really go all over the world.”
This statement was approved by Wishing, “Music does not distinguish between languages, it is a frequency, it is an energy, it really makes us ‘half a foot off the ground’, but I am very proud that we Hong Kong people can have such a brilliant For a period of time, whether in terms of culture or music, and I can be friends with these singers, I think it is very rare, so I wrote this book.”
From a bystander and participant of Hong Kong pop music to a waterer and disseminator later, he made a wish saying that he was born for the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and his heart is at the same frequency as the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and he will never die. “I must actually write this history. Although there are too many stories to record, I still hope to sort out the first ten years of Cantonese pop music—its beginning and development. This is better than everyone relying on guesswork to understand this period of history, which is also my original intention of writing this book.”
From Wishing’s point of view, maybe only people like him who have not passed away and don’t want to retire would be interested in writing a book about the time of the HK Phil. It records the history of Cantonese pop music from scratch in Hong Kong, and then became popular among Chinese people all over the world. “I also witnessed the glory days of the Hong Kong Philharmonic in the time and space when I changed from a fan in my childhood to a music producer. Frankly speaking, there are not many people who have this kind of experience, but the songs, characters and There are so many stories, and one book cannot be finished. But I will try my best to do it well, because the protagonists (singer, composer, lyricist, etc.) and their works are so worthy of our review and study , Appreciation and commemoration. They are shining brightly, illuminating the direction of the new generation of singers and music creators. But if you want to know how these senior masters used Huashan to discuss swords, I still need to take you half a foot off the ground ‘, leave time and space together, go back to the past, and feel the power of classic pop Hong Kong music in the beautiful melody!”
