Tucked away in the Hong Kong Heritage Museum stands a lone wedding gown on display. The elaborate cream dress, by designer Eddie Lau, comes with a dramatic veil and enormous train.

It might seem like a dream come true for any bride, but to lovers of Cantonese pop music, the creation means so much more: It was the gown Anita Mui wore when she sang her last song — The Sunset Song — at the final concert she ever did. She died shortly after of cervical cancer on Dec 30, 2003. The gown has become a symbol of her marriage and dedication to the stage.

Mui’s wedding gown is a poetic emblem of Hong Kong’s Cantonese music industry. Once the epi-centre of Asian entertainment, Cantonese pop music or Cantopop has now been replaced, by J-Pop, Mandopop and now, K-pop. And like the gown, it may just be a matter of time before Cantopop finds itself relegated to the confines of a museum — to be studied, respected and quietly appreciated. But never again to draw the cheers and applause of millions. 

THE GOLDEN AGE OF CANTOPOP

“The late ’80s to the mid-’90s can be considered the Golden Age of Cantopop — when they had the true superstars, including the Heavenly Kings,” said Singapore songwriter Dick Lee, who recently composed the song Chase Again for Hong Kong singer Sammi Cheng — a reference to the hit ballad he wrote for Leslie Cheung in 1994, Chase. “Up to that point, I think Hong Kong was the Hollywood of the Chinese entertainment world — though more for its glamour than its creativity.”

Mui was one of those superstars. She was only 18 when she sprang into the hearts and minds of Cantopop fans in 1982. It was a glorious time in history for Hong Kong’s music industry. Domestic sales for both local and international releases hit HK$2.5 billion (S$408 million) per annum between 1978 and 1989, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) Hong Kong, with an additional HK$800 million from overseas sales and royalties. 

This was the age of Sam Hui, Roman Tam, Danny Chan and Paula Tsui, but Mui’s deep, soulful voice and commanding stage presence meant that she would stay unchallenged, even decades after she was crowned the first winner of the New Talent Singing Awards.

Singapore chanteuse Kit Chan, who made a name for herself in Cantopop in the late 1990s after establishing her career in Singapore and Taiwan, said she found Hong Kong’s music industry at the time “very colourful, vibrant and exciting”.

“There were big shows when you find yourself sharing the stage with Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam, Aaron Kwok and Jacky Cheung, as well as contemporaries like Eason Chan, William So, Kelly Chen and Sammi Cheng,” said Chan, whose breakout role in Hong Kong’s first modern musical Snow.Wolf.Lake in 1997 alongside Jacky Cheung and Sandy Lam led to Cantonese albums and her first acting role on television – in the hit TVB series Healing Hands 2. 

“You have Anita Mui and bigwig songwriters like James Wong who would come backstage to say hello. There were also newer singers like Joey Yung. It was just always a big party and the mood was high.”

Chan added: “That was probably the last of the ‘Golden Age’ of Cantopop, and I was just very lucky to have been able to experience that and be a part of that. There were so many singers doing very diverse things, and all very strong distinctive character.”

Chan also said she learned how to shape her own career during her stint in Hong Kong. “Being a ‘Westernised’ young woman from Singapore also meant I was often thought too opinionated, not girl-next-door and saccharine-sweet enough for the Taiwan market, and it made me feel confused. It was in Hong Kong that I found my confidence as an artiste and learned to be directly responsible for my own choices in my work and the way I lived my life both in and out of the limelight.”

Even now, musicians frequently hark back to that “Golden Age”. Earlier this year, Hong Kong singer Josie Ho and her band, the Uni boys, released a single called Salute To 80’s — a medley of hit songs by Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, Danny Chan and Roman Tam. Her compatriot, Denise Ho, released Recollections, a compilation of Mui’s greatest hits, to commemorate the latter’s 10th death anniversary. 

Though now noted for her unique brand of music, Denise Ho’s career in pop music has been inextricably linked to Anita Mui. After all, the 36-year-old only stepped into the music business after winning the 1996 New Talent Singing Awards – a competition she entered to because she wanted to see her idol Mui, who was a judge that year. “It’s not just an album, but a memoir,” she said. “These songs accompanied me growing up.”

She added: “I guess the ’80s were a particularly glorious period in Hong Kong’s pop culture history. And this is human nature – people only appreciate what they have lost. But I hope people can also pay attention to what we have now. Maybe in 20 years, people will start to miss what we have now.”

THE END OF AN ERA

Lovers of Cantopop miss these superstars because they weren’t just singers or performers. They were larger than life – icons and leaders of society.

“I miss the larger-than-life personas of Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, and the endearing familiarity of Sam Hui, and the fact that they were all very strong performers with distinctive styles” said Chan. “I just think that while life was “harder” then, it also allowed for development and growth, which is so important to an artiste. There was enough time and support for artistes to discover themselves and to improve upon their craft, and to live a relatively unscrutinised life which definitely meant a fuller and more colourful life.”

Added Denise: “I often think if she were still here, maybe some things wouldn’t be the same. She had this ability to rally everyone (for a cause), and it’s something the entire entertainment industry in Hong Kong now lacks. And it’s not just because of her status, but also her personality – she had this strong sense of justice. Not many other people can be as selfless or as willing to stand up for somebody else, as she was. I can’t say what would be different ... but right now, it feels as if there isn’t a real leader who can lead us. That leader was originally (Anita).” 

Mui’s success at the 1982 New Talent Singing Awards inspired the likes of Eason Chan, Sammi Cheng, Leon Lai, Miriam Yeung and William So, all of whom made their foray into showbiz by the same competition. Her death at the age of 40 in 2003 — coming after Roman Tam passed away from liver cancer in 2002; followed by the deaths of prominent lyricist Richard Lam Chun-Keung and Leslie Cheung seemed to signal the start of end of Cantopop. (Renowned songwriter James Wong’s death in 2004 cements that notion.) 

The declining record sales around the world through the years also affect what was happening in Hong Kong. According to IFPI Hong Kong, domestic sales slid to HK$1 billion in 1999, while overseas sales were wiped out by the sale of pirated CDs and VCDs. And just last year, in 2012, domestic sales (including all digital sales) were estimated at a mere HK$300 million. These figures, according to Ricky Fung, Chief Executive Officer of IFPI Hong Kong, are the result of “rampant free downloading and unauthorised file-sharing on the internet”.

“People look for entertainment in very different ways now. It’s not just Hong Kong’s pop industry. Other regions have been affected too,” said Denise. 

Piracy and illegal downloads may have hurt Hong Kong’s pop industry, but Chan said that Hong Kong’s shrinking pop industry was also due to the then-burgeoning Chinese market. “Before the opening of the Chinese market, Hong Kong-ers listened mostly to Cantopop, and the rest of the overseas Chinese community were mainly influenced by the reach of TVB – which was responsible for successfully promoting the careers of many Cantopop singers from the ’80s to the early s’90s.”

She added: “TVB had exclusive contracts with record labels which limited artistes’ appearances on TV. This monopoly worked to the benefit of both the TV station and the artistes, enabling Cantopop to gain popularity with the overseas Chinese. With the rise of China, and the subsequent opening of the Chinese market ... it was inevitable that Mandopop would overtake Cantopop.”

According to Stephen Chu Yiu Wai of the School of Modern Languages & Cultures at Hong Kong University, the crux of the problem was by the late 1990s, Hong Kong had already lost its position as the “hip trendsetter”. And the industry had failed to realise that in time.

“Every year, I ask my students if they listen to Cantopop. And over the years, fewer of them say they do, or they refuse to admit it even if they do listen to Cantopop,” he said. “I had a student who ran to my office after class and told me that he really liked Cantopop, and that his MP3 player was filled with Cantonese songs, but he didn’t dare to tell his friends.”

According to Chu, the current K-pop wave is similar to what happened with Cantopop. “It’s like Hong Kong pop culture of the 1980s. What’s most important is the Koreans’ ability to create superstars,” he said. “We don’t have any big stars anymore in Hong Kong, after Eason Chan. Hong Kong is no longer a place that produces stars.”

Right now, it’s very difficult to find people like Leslie Cheung and Mui, said Chu, who called them “superstar material”. “But there are many talented musicians (although) they may not be at their level,” he added. “Even so, they don’t have enough opportunities. Young people don’t listen to (Cantonese) music anymore, so it doesn’t help even if they have talent.”

“Today, the Hong Kong music scene, like the rest of the world is facing the problem of a very noisy economy where it is hard to build on something slowly and surely” said Chan. “Attention span is short, and there are too many entertainment choices, so it is sometimes very hard to build a new artiste in a solid way from scratch.

“There is pressure to come out with a loud bang, and it is often hard to sustain. On the one hand, there is this very established stratum of singers who have a very loyal following, but they find it hard or are not interested to break new ground. And there is on the other hand, a moving conveyor belt of newbies who get churned out and replaced constantly, which leaves a rather dismal scene of having a huge uninhabited middle ground.”

Perhaps legendary Hong Kong lyricist James Wong’s said it best in his assessment of Cantopop. Wong, known affectionately as Jim-suk (Uncle Jim), wrote a PhD dissertation entitled The Rise And Decline Of Cantopop: A Study Of Hong Kong Popular Music (1949–1997), just one year before he passed away from lung cancer in 2004. .

“As for the decline of Cantopop – because of the challenges it faces – it will be difficult to witness the appearance of a miracle,” he wrote. “Perhaps Cantonese popular music will not disappear completely. It will continue existing, with the support of regions with Cantonese speakers, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Singapore and Malaysia.

“Maybe, Cantopop will become an antique-like culture that caters only to the elites – like all popular culture after the detriment of time, and like Cantonese opera, which has become available only at high culture events, and a part of Chinese traditional culture.”

Or perhaps one day, Cantopop will live solely in our memories.