The Big Cantopop Question as Hong Kong Gets in Tune With China

The diaspora worries that the city is losing its identity. And yet, an orientation towards China in entertainment seems inevitable.

- Lin Suling

In a 2024 performance of the song Love Across Mountains And Rivers, Hong Kong star Liza Wang sings the lyrics of the iconic Cantonese song.

"I am not afraid of the wind, (for) love can transcend countless mountains and rivers," she croons.

The 77-year-old is surrounded by a large troupe of dancers, as cameras pan to what appears to be a huge hall filled with an engaged live audience clapping and singing along.

Although a dated love ballad and theme song of a television drama of the same name released in 1982, the tune has come to symbolise the love the Hong Kong diaspora around the world has for its city. Its characterisation of the indomitable Hong Kong spirit against insurmountable odds appears to have stood the test of time.

Yet surprisingly, the YouTube account televising this incredible performance wasn't of Hong Kong channel TVB but Chinese national broadcaster CCTV.

THE LUCRATIVE CHINA MARKET

The episode accurately captures a calculated strategy by state television elites to capitalise on the popularity of Hong Kong celebrities to sell its message and widen its reach.

The key message of grit and determination in Ms Wang's song ties in well with the narrative pitched at a Chinese audience battling economic uncertainty.

Supply is also simply responding to market demand, some might argue. Cantopop stars have found success in China since the 1980s, turbocharged by a general Chinese admiration of Hong Kong's economic ascent, which acted as a springboard into farther markets in Taiwan, South-east Asia and South Korea.

Selling to the Chinese market has become exponentially more lucrative.

Ms Wang is not the only Hong Kong entertainer to perform at CCTV's annual Spring Festival Gala - now the most-watched television programme in the world, viewed by a third of all China's viewers, thanks also to the internet. On air for four decades, it has been broadcast online since 1999.