Such Are the Fading Sounds [Yue you ruci] (review)

As the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong's ceremonial handover to the People's Republic of China (PRC) approaches, the Special Administrative Region (SAR) is entering a new phase of soul searching. Such Are the Fading Sounds joins the growing array of literature—in this case, a background of Hong Kong Chinese music—that represents an anxiety-driven, nostalgic search for identity, validation, and some degree of self-determination on the part of Hong Kong denizens since they began facing their impending shift in colonial status from the early 1980s. However, with the most apocalyptic fears of the July 1997 handover having abated, for the moment, cultural analysts are beginning to assess Hong Kong's transformation through the lens of a "trans-colonial" territory that is emerging from its embryonic stage within the PRC.

Yu Siu-wah is ideally situated, being both Chinese and Western educated, to recount Hong Kong's musical trajectory. Having played erhu (Chinese fiddle) professionally in the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and holding a PhD in musicology from Harvard, he is now on the music faculty at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Such Are the Fading Sounds is a successor to his earlier book Out of Chaos and Coincidence: Hong Kong Music Culture (published in Chinese by Oxford University Press in 2001) and other valuable publications in which Yu has evaluated Hong Kong and Chinese music in historical contexts.

Unlike Out of Chaos, the more recent book is bilingual, being segmented into two halves and four parts. Parts I and II comprise the first half in Chinese and Parts III and IV parallel the first half in an abridged English translation of the Chinese version. Parts I and III offer a general summary of Chinese music, while Parts II and IV discuss Chinese music within the specific framework of Hong Kong. To a degree, the bilingual layout succeeds in communicating to a segment of Chinese and non-Chinese readers alike. It is written in the complex form of Chinese script (targeting a primarily Hong Kong and Taiwan readership), and pinyin is used alongside the Chinese characters that appear in the English section for cross-referencing. The English half is not always edited to native English publishing standards. However, the illustrations of instruments and musicians are excellent, all appearing in the front Chinese half, and include bilingual captions.

According to the Chinese preface, the book is designed to introduce musical and cultural aficionados to the basics of Hong Kong Chinese music without entering technical discussions. Despite this seemingly elementary goal, Yu pursues a number of subtler objectives. For example, as the title suggests, Such Are the Fading Sounds is a lament over the loss of Hong Kong's more "traditional" Chinese music culture in the face of national, regional, and global changes that will dictate its twenty-first-century future. During this period "when the concept of Chinese national music is at stake," (259) Yu actively perpetuates Hong Kong-related research as one effort to save the SAR from being "drowned by the grand narrative of China." (325) The strategy is to establish and maintain Hong Kong's unique cultural position between China and the West on a number of fronts—both as East-West interface and as preserver of an authentic yet "repackaged" (317) Chinese tradition that "can be described as a survivor and the last resort for Mainland music culture after numerous political unrests" (321).

As a demonstration of uniqueness, however, Parts II and IV offer only brief synopses of various terminologies and contexts in the Hong Kong setting. They are relegated to terse references to Chinese, Western, and "World" music, along with a rundown of performance contexts, ranging from religious/ritual forms to recorded and broadcast music. Instrumental music is afforded surprisingly little coverage, given the author's own experience and virtuosity, while Chapter 12 on vocal music is the...