SAVING LOCAL MUSIC FROM OBLIVION: THE HONG KONG MUSIC COLLECTION AT THE

HONG KONG CENTRAL LIBRARY

Author(s): Jim H Y Chang
Source: Fontes Artis Musicae , July-September 2008, Vol. 55, No. 3 (July-September
2008), pp. 495-511
Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation
Centres (IAML)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23512500

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 SAVING LOCAL MUSIC
FROM OBLIVION: THE
HONG KONG MUSIC
COLLECTION AT THE
HONG KONG CENTRAL
LIBRARY

Jim H Y Chang1

English Abstract
Hong Kong Central Library opened in 2001 and began a Hong
in the same year. The main objectives were to collect materia
to develop public understanding in the preservation of the H
courage studies and researches on Hong Kong music. Throug
posers, and music institutes over the past few years, Hong K
collected over 50,000 music documents and facilitated local m
Hong Kong Central Library continues the development of th
encourage the preservation of, study of, and research into lo

French Abstract
La Bibliothèque centrale de Hong Kong a ouvert ses portes en 2001, et a lancé un appel à
donations afin de constituer un fonds local cette même année. Les objectifs de la collection ét
originalement de réunir et développer un fonds musical en rapport avec Hong Kong, et de
familiariser le public avec son patrimoine musical local en conservant des archives sur la mu
de Hong Kong, dans l'espoir de susciter les études sur ce sujet. Depuis quelques années et a
l'appui de musiciens, de compositeurs et d'institutions, la bibliothèque a réuni plus de 50 000
documents musicaux tout en encourageant les recherches et les publications sur la musique
régionale de Hong Kong. La collection poursuit sa progression.

German Abstract
Die Hong Kong Central Library eröffnete im Jahr 2001 und begann im selben Jahr mit dem
Aufbau einer Sammlung zur Musik aus Hongkong. Dazu hatte man sich zum Ziel gesetzt,
Materialien zur Musik Hongkongs zu sammeln, öffentliches Interesse an der Sicherung ein
Musikarchivs in Hongkong zu wecken und sich für eine verstärkte Forschung zur Musik
Hongkongs stark zu machen. Dank der Unterstützung von Musikern, Komponisten und
Musikinstitutionen konnten in den vergangenen Jahren mehr als 50.000 Musikdokumente
gesammelt und lokale Forschungsarbeiten sowie andere Veröffentlichungen unterstützt we

1. Jim H Y CHANG is Senior Librarian at Hong Kong Central Library. He was the head of the Arts Re
Centre from 2003 to 2006, and in charge of the Hong Kong Music Collection Campaign. He is also a m
and a music composer himself.

495

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496 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 55/3

Die Hong Kong Central Library wird den Bestand weiter entwickeln,
die Erforschung der lokalen Musik einzusetzen.

Chinese Abstract
香港中央圖書館於二零零一年落成啟用，同年推出了一項「香港音樂特藏徵集行動」，
旨在全面地蒐集有關香港音樂的資料、推動保存本地音樂文獻的意識和促進有關香港音樂的
工作。過去幾年間，得到各音樂家、作曲家及音樂機構的大力支持，香港中央圖書館已成功
了超過五萬項音樂文獻，亦促進了本地音樂研究及出版工作。日後，香港中央圖書館將會繼
展香港音樂特藏，以及鼓勵本地音樂的保存、學習及研究工作。

Introduction

Foliowing its grand opening in May 2001, Hong Kong Central Library began two docu
ment collection campaigns almost simultaneously, one for local literary works and th
other one for musical works. Jointly organized with two local organizations, namely, th
Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) and the Composers and Author
Society of Hong Kong (CASH), the Hong Kong Music Collection Campaign was officially
launched in early December 2001 to invite donations of music documents from the publ
With the füll consent and support from musicians, composers, collectors, and music in
stitutes, etc., over 50,000 Hong Kong-related music documents have been successfully
collected over the past few years, including quite a large number of rare and valuable m
sical héritage items that might otherwise have been permanently lost. As stated in one o
the basic objectives in running the campaign, Hong Kong Central Library has started i
first step in saving local music from oblivion.

Historical Background

In the early 1990s, the Arts Library of the ex-Urban Council Public Libraries in Hong
Kong worked with the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild and had established the first collec
tion of local musical works. The Hong Kong Composers’ Guild, founded in 1983, is a pro
fessional association of serious composers with its objectives to promote and cultivate mu
sic composition in Hong Kong.2 Being invited to contribute, members of the Guild showed
their support for the collection by donating their own musical works, some unpublished,
to the Arts Library to form a collection. Some 307 copies of these originally composed mu
sic scores were received. They were then catalogued, duplicated, and shelved in the for
mat of hard-bound copies in the Arts Library for public reference. Since most of the com
poser members of the Guild were young music scholars or students who were brought up
in local or overseas music schools from the 1970s to the 1990s, the collection, however,
more or less represented a specific but comparatively more "contemporary" and "occi
dental" music genre from composers in this particular génération.
Obviously, the collection does not and cannot represent the entire music culture of
Hong Kong. Hong Kong began as a small fishing village located in the south-eastern coast
of Guangdong Province, China, and to this day, a great majority of its population is native
Chinese. Despite the fact that it was a British colony from 1842 to 1997 and has long been
influenced by western culture, indigenous Chinese music and Cantonese operatic songs,
etc., are still the mainstream of music culture in Hong Kong. This is the entertainment for

2. See the introduction of Hong Kong Composers' Guild at their homepage at http://www.hkcg.org.

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 SAVING LOCAL MUSIC FROM OBLIVION 497

Illustration 1 The Hong Kong Central Library, iront view.

a majority of local citizens in their daily life. To establish a local music collection, at least,
means also to collect and include the documents of such kinds of what we may call popu
lar music, which, to a greater extent, more significantly represents the local music culture.
Before World War II, "occidental" music activities were scarce and were always limited
to the non-Chinese communities in Hong Kong. Some scholars might tend to agree that
"occidental" styles of music activities, music education, and concepts of composition grad
ually evolved after the 1950s3 when a large numbers of college-trained composers such
as LIN Sheng-shih 1914-1991) and HUANG You-di (wMf, b- 1912)> were "im
ported" from post-war China while the arrival of Italian singer Elisio GUALDI (1905- ?)
and Latvian pianist Harry ORE (1885-1972) also influenced the music development of
early modern Hong Kong. Formal college music training commenced when the first pri
vate music school, the China Christian Sacred Music School later re
named the Hong Kong Music Institute, ILLs , was established by Stephen
Kwong SHAO (S|3^é) in 1951 and when the first local music department at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong was founded in 1965. Actually, most of the local "contemporary"
composers were students of these musicians and came from these music academies.
Yet, beyond these college-originated "serious" music programs, local people can never
deny that indigenous Chinese music, Cantonese operatic songs, native music works and
Cantopop4, etc. appear everywhere in their daily lives. People can hear these familiar

3. See CHAN Wing-wah, "Composing Music in Hong Kong", in Asian Composers in the 20th Century, edited
by the Japan Federation of Composers, Tokyo: The Japan Federation of Composers Inc., 2002, p. 189-92; and
Daniel Ping-leung LAW, "Chapter 11, Hong Kong", in New Music in the Orient: Essays on Composition in Asia
since World War II, edited by Harrison Ryker, Buren, Nethelands: Frits Knuf Publishers, 1991, p. 225-48.
4. "Cantopop: Shortened form for 'Cantonese pop', the prevalent style of commercial entertainment music
that originated from Hong Kong in the late 1970s, influenced by contemporary Japanese popular music but re
taining Chinese melodic characteristics. 1980s Cantopop owed much to the studio-sound of Anglo-American soft
rock. Production values, including recording technology, were very high, and popular singers became teenage
idols. By the 1990s, Cantopop was marketed and widely imitated in Taiwan and China". Joanna C. Lee,
"Cantopop," Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 5 May 2008).

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498 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 55/3

tunes when they watch a local feature film, when they are list
casts, when they are attending traditional festive and ritual events,
participating in a banquet held in a night club or a Chinese rest
interested to know more about such music: Who composed it?
Are these music documents still available? Actually, these are al
not the main problems, for the staff of Hong Kong Central Library
Kong Music Collection Campaign.

The Campaign
Hong Kong Central Library was open to the public in May 2001
come the administrative headquarters and the main library of
Libraries System. Being the major cultural, learning, and info
Hong Kong Community, it has also come to realize that one of
collect and preserve local cultural héritage. Foliowing the amal
brary (which was then renamed the Arts Resource Centre) to
Library building, the Hong Kong Music Collection (HKMC) Camp
December 2001.
Jointly organized with the HKADC and the CASH, Hong Kong Central Library started
to invite donations of music documents from local and overseas musicians, composers,
collectors and music institutes, etc. Three main objectives were set at the very beginning
of the campaign. Firstly, Hong Kong Central Library wished to collect materials related to
music in Hong Kong. Secondly, it aimed to develop public understanding about the ne
cessity for the préservation of Hong Kong music and lastly, to encourage studies and re
search on Hong Kong music.
Overseen by the librarian of the Arts Resource Centre, a small dedicated group, the
HKMC team, which included both Research Assistants and Cataloguers, were recruited
to liaise with potential donors, to collect the donations, and to process the collected music
documents. The team is also responsible for undertaking music-related research works,
publications, organizing library extension activities to promote the campaign, and to invite
further donations.

The Documents

Just like the newly-opened Hong Kong Central Library, the collection of music docum
took the HKMC team into new territory, with little in the way of previous expérienc
borrow from. Almost everything had to start from zéro. First of ail, the team had to
the scopes of the collectibles. With reference to the définition in the Yin Yue B
Dian (Music Encyclopedia) which spécifiés that "bibliography of music, a branch
sicology, is a study on ail written materials about music such as music scores, the
publications, newspapers, correspondence, diary and up to posters, house progr
admission tickets, papers and ail kinds of printed materials, etc.’’,5 Hong Kong C
Library came to define music documents as "ail kinds of materials, no matter print or

5.《音樂百科詞典》，繆天瑞主編，北京：人民音樂，1998, p.727 = Yin Yue Bai Ke Ci Dian [Music

pedia]，edited by MIAO Tian-rui, Beijing: Ren Min Yin Yue, 1998 (text in Chinese), p. 727.

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SAVING LOCAL MUSIC FROM OBLIVION 499

Illustration 2 The promotional leafle

dication of what they would like peop
sic manuscripts (middle), and old phot
permission of the Hong Kong Central

print, that are related to local music

into the following 8 categories:

1. Music scores: the core materia

of manuscripts, published musi
2. Audio-visual materials: recordin
formats
3. House programmes: that recor
4. Photos and pictures: visual rec
5. Posters: promotional means of
6. Clippings: newspaper and peri
great importance to researchers
7. Vertical files: all kinds of music documents in loose sheet formats
8. Others: including artifacts, souvenirs and other unclassified music materials

Since the launch of the campaign, Hong Kong Central Library received quite a large
number of music materials, especially original music scores from many local young

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500 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 55/3

composers through the assistance of the two joint Organizers an

tional Channels. However, the library soon came to realize that
recording indigenous Chinese music that representing the main s
ture needed to be pursued; gift donation of these items was rare. Bef
further formulate collection stratégies and to establish commun
had to conduct further research to know more about the différences between "oriental"
and "occidental" music in terms of their aesthetic aspects and music notation practices. In
all, they had to identify ail of the basic underlying problems arising from these causes and
try to device possible solutions.
Prof. YU Siu-wah of the Music Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, noted
that, in terms of compositional concept, the différence between Chinese and the West was
prominent in a sense that "Western music is composer-oriented. From without a single
note to melody, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration, it stresses the importance of
originality" while "in China, attention and efforts have been paid to texting pre-existing
mélodies, ... arrangements, transforming,... transcribing" and the "creativity in tradi
tional Chinese music lies in hands of performers.’’6 Précisé music notation Systems and
practices are major concerns in the training of western music composition while ifs a very
différent picture for oriental music. Kaufmann clearly speit out that "oriental notations
...often provide only sketchy outlines of the music, which receives its final form not from
the composer but from improvising singers and players."7 New compositions sometimes
did appear in some special circumstances, for example, film music for a new feature film.
Yet, there might not exist any exact or finalized version of music scores for these new
compositions since the composer himself was often both the composer and performer.
This added some complexities and difficulties in collecting and processing a piece of mu
sic by clearly identifying the composers and performers from the original works and some
of the re-arranged versions.
Another important and interesting feature to note for the traditional oriental notations
is that they are "often guarded jealously by a few masters and may be kept vague pur
posely to avoid their use by uninitiated persons.”8 Traditional Chinese music éducation is
normally done in an oral-aural teaching manner when the master teaches his own student
only face-to-face, rather than through any established Systems or any mnemonic aids.
"Amongst ail those who performed music only a few of the most learned would master the
symbols, and they would rarely impart their knowledge to ail their students.”9 From the
point of view of modem music éducation, which is aimed at a larger audience than a sin
gle student, these practices hinder the healthy development of music éducation. Music no
tation in such an environment becomes more or less an optional aid with little importance
and significance to the educational process itself.
Consequently, neither writers nor performers take these "written music symbols” seri
ously and this is reflected from a dialogue with an old local operatic song writer. Mr. SO
Yung (蘇翁，1928-2004); was a famous local Cantonese opéra scriptwriter and operatic

6.余少華，《樂猶如此》，香港：國際演藝評論家協會，2005 = YU Siu Wah, Such are the Fading Sounds, Hong

Kong: International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong), 2005, p. 246.
7. Walter Kaufmann, Musical Notations of the Orient; Notational Systems of Continental, East, South and
Central Asia, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967, p. 1.
8. Kaufmann, pp. 1-2.
9. Kaufmann, p. 2.

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SAVING LOCAL MUSIC FROM OBLIVION 501

song writer. He was also a donor

team that in the good old days, th
own music works. After they had
record company and received the m
abouts of their music works anym
oriental works are believed to have a
Kong Central Library to collect t
documents extremely difficult an
fully not only means to rescue th
courage to break through the barr

The Achievement

After assimilating all the necessary background information on local music culture,
team began to formulate its collection strategy and to build an important personal
work. They clearly knew that the indigenous musical work was one of the most importan
documents essential to the collection and the old musicians were the main targets t
needed to contact in time. The exercise could more or less be regarded as a race w
time. They started to approach the potential donors personally, one by one, espec
those old musicians who might have written, performed, or possessed some valuabl
sic documents. To approach the elder generation, it seemed that patience was a mus
most occasions, musicians of the elder generation might not have a clear concept ab
copyright, about the role of composers, about the importance in the preservation o
tural heritage, or the real value of their original works. The team then had to exp
clearly and patiently to them the objectives of the campaign, the value of the music
ments, and the importance in preserving local cultural heritage. At times, the greate
stacle was the above-mentioned concept of secrecy. They sometimes had to convince
musicians to donate their personal, and sometimes highly private music documents t
collection for public research even if they still thought that they should keep their
looms "secret" and not accessible to outsiders. In all, communication skill was the
important skill for the acquisitions team as they had to be flexible, tactful, and yet prov
an appropriate way that made different potential donors feel comfortable. In most
sions, they also needed to serve as a listener rather than a speaker, not for once but
peated visits to the old musicians. As a result of the persisting visits and conversat
friendship and mutual trust would gradually be built up and actually, many rare
ments or manuscripts were successfully collected in such a manner.
Library extension activities are another most effective means in promoting a camp
and the library services. Since the launch of the HKMC Campaign, Hong Kong Cen
Library realized that it had to educate the public about the purpose and the holding
the collection. The Central Library started to organize various kinds of extension ac
ties such as subject talks on local music topics, exhibitions on some valuable manusc
or artifacts received from any particular renowned donors, mini concerts, etc. In Se
ber 2004, a large exhibition entitled Treasures of Music—An Exhibition of Hong Kong Mu
Documents Collected was held in Hong Kong Central Library, tied in also with a serie
4 subject talks on local music history. The exhibition and the talks attracted quite a
number of attendances and it further invited interested donors, both from local and ove
seas to send in their own music documents. That was very encouraging indeed.

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502 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 55/3

c/ QC}$/.i<r

Jkt, Exhibition
4 9 2004 - 219.2004

10-.0ta.nl. - 8.-00 p.m.

EihtbHkm Galkry 1-1fl/P, 5.9,2004 81 5:10 |wn. - 7:)0 pjn.

Ikmg Kong Central Uhniiy ##****#4'
10.9.2004 UIMU 6.t» p.m. - 84X1 pjn.

. 1, 15.9,2004, t*jE.I f>:00 p-m. - 8:00 (un.

19.9X004i*»l*i 24X1 pjn.- vOOpjn.

fe

Illustration 3 Poster for the Treasures ofMusic Exhibition, 2004. Used by permission of the
Hong Kong Central Library.

In early 2007, Hong Kong Central Library compiled and published the Catalogue of
Music Scores in the Hong Kong Music Collection，which was a union catalogue on all the
music scores received through the campaign.10
Up tili the end of 2007, Hong Kong Central Library has successfully collected over
50,000 items of music documents, including some 7,000 music scores and about 2,000
valuable manuscripts.

The Highlights

The work in collecting manuscripts for the HKMC is füll of interest and excitement.
Sometimes the team members will be elated when they suddenly discover some valuable
music items that are reported as long missing or sometimes they will be extremely down
for a long period when they receive the sad news that an old donor has suddenly passed
away. They maybe deeply moved when they reâd the diaries of a lyricist and discover sen
timental stories that were not publicly known. The following are several valuable collec
tions highlights. Through the process of establishing these personal collections, one may

10.《香港音樂特藏樂譜目錄》，香港：香港中央圖書館，2007 = Catalogue ofMusic Scores in the Hong Kong

Music Collection, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Central Library, 2007. (text in Chinese)

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SAVING LOCAL MUSIC FROM OBLIVION 503

#
m
if:
s'J rift

Illustration 4 The cover of Catalogue ofMusic Scores in the Hong Kong Music Collectiony pub
lished by the Hong Kong Central Library in early 2007.

also discover some interesting and humane aspects in running the campaign that ex
plify the joyfulness and sadness inherent in the project.

WU Man-sum Manuscripts
WU Man-sum (胡文森，1910-1963), was a famous Cantonese composer and lyricist. Wh
he was young, he was deeply influenced by his family members and was greatly interested
in Cantonese operatic songs. Later he started to write Cantonese opéra as well as so
music and songs for feature films. Amongst his large quantities of works, some so
were adopted with extremely elegant and literary lyrics, while in some secular songs,
lyrics were considered very colloquial and vulgär. To praise for his multi-skills and ab
in writing various kinds of songs, he won the title of “Qu-di” (曲帝）which meant
"Emperor of Songs".
The manuscripts of Mr. WU were discovered only by accident. The team first conta
the family of the late Mr. LOO Kar-chi (盧家熾，1917-1996), another famous musician
song writer from the 1950s, and collected a large pile of music documents from his
ily. The old documents, which looked shabby and worn, included many manuscripts of
Cantonese operatic songs and film music written mgong-che (工尺）notation.11 As the team

11. Gong-che notation is a traditional Chinese pitch notation System using Chinese characters to dénoté t
sol-fa names. The System is now widely used in Guangdong music, Cantonese Opera, and operatic songs.

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504 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 55/3

\-i •o-;vr:.v
,V -
■ ■ ■■'

Illustration 5 Manuscripts of music scores in the Hong Kong

various kinds of music scores in the collections: some are writt
and some in cipher notation.

Illustration 6 WU Man-sum (1910-1963), in a picture taken in

permission of Hong Kong Central Library.

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SAVING LOCAL MUSIC FROM OBLIVION 505

Illustration 7 WU Man-sum's pre-printe

corner with a Cantonese opera song writt
Melancholy Melody). The manuscript is i
copyright statement, and the page numb
gin indicate the two singers and their en
umn next to the composer's picture. Use

was clearing up the pile of documen

very good condition and well packe
Man-sum. These manuscripts were a
in pre-printed lyric papers with M
notices (which were very rare featur
started to process the batch of manu
lic exhibition.
A few months later, Hong Kong Central Library received a call from a local researcher,
Mr. WONG Chi-wah (ftiäiljl), who expressed his great interest in conducting in-depth re
search on the biography and lyrics of Mr. WU. As encouraging local music research was
one of the main objectives in running the campaign, Hong Kong Central Library was de
lighted to receive such a request. Yet, concerning the copyright and intellectual proper
ties issues, at the very first place, the team had to start searching for the relatives of Mr.
WU to see if anyone could identify the manuscripts and authorize the research work.
Since Mr. WU had passed away and there was no up-to-date contact information for his
family, initially the team was not 100% sure whether they could successfully reach the rel
atives of Mr. WU. They began their search through enquiries of old operatic singers and
finally, they sent a letter to a nephew of Mr. WU who was likely residing in the USA. About
one or two months later, the team received a telephone call from a woman who said that

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506 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 55/3

Illustration 8 The cover of 吳大江傳 / The Legends ofNg Tai-kong, s

ing the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1983.

she was the daughter of the late Mr. WU Man-sum. She was current
and she said that she had just received a redirected mail from h
team met Ms. WU who authorized the research work with pleasu
it is known that the research project on the biography and the wor
has just been completed and a book with a tentative title Trac
going to be published soon.

NG Tai-kong Collection
NG Tai-kong (吳大江，1943-2001) was the founding Music Dire
Chinese Orchestra, begun in 1977. Mr. NG came to Hong Kong
the 1960s as an illegal immigrant and started his legendary m
struggling from a minor labourer to a pioneer who formed the

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 SAVING LOCAL MUSIC FROM OBLIVION 507

Chinese orchestras in Singapore a

his directorship of the Hong Kong
and remained there until his deat
had written a large number of tr
avant-garde music work, Chance E
and special orchestration techniqu
Composers’ Rostrum held in Paris.
After Mr. NG died in Taipei, the
to collect Mr. NG's manuscripts f
Kong Central Library decided to h
also serving as a mémorable activity
same time, however, the manuscript
could not be located. The team star
search ail possible places for manu
in several very dirty and spider-w
of a raw food market. After comb
living in the boxes, the team even
manuscript for the work which was
I studied music theory and comp
musician in the Hong Kong Chine
To show appréciation for Mr. NG
and spent more than three years c
research project on the life of Mr
published in Hong Kong in early 2

Richard LAM Collection

Richard LAM (林振強，1947-2003) was a famous author, columnist, and lyricist in H

Kong. Beginning in the early 1980s, Mr. LAM wrote over a thousand Chinese lyrics
Hong Kong Cantopop singers, most of which became extremely populär. Richard
quickly became a household name. Mr. LAM's lyrical works were colloquial, easy to
and remember, füll of Hong Kong spirit, and could well represent a particular génér
of local populär music culture. He won quite a lot of important Hong Kong Canto
awards from the 1980s to the 1990s, which were regarded as the golden âge of lo
Cantopop industry. After his death in November 2003 at the âge of 55, Mr. LAM's c
bution in Cantopop lyric writing was recognized when his family received the "H
Famé Award 2004” from CASH.
The family of Mr. LAM responded to the invitation from Hong Kong Central Library by
donating over 700 manuscripts of Mr. LAM's lyrical works to the Hong Kong Music
Collection in 2004. As an acknowledgement of the generosity of Mr. LAM's family, Hong
Kong Central Library organized an exhibition of Mr. LAM's manuscripts in November
2004 to let the public see the original works of this talented lyricist. This exhibition, also
serving as a mémorial activity to Mr. LAM, ended with high acclaims from the général
public.
12. The füll biography of Mr. NG and his contribution to modem Chinese musiccan be read at
鄭學仁，《吳大江傳》，香港：三聯，2006 = Jim CHANG Hok Yan, The Legends ofNg Tai Kong，Hong Kong: Joint
Publishing, 2006. (text in Chinese)

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508 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 55/3

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Illustration 9 The manuscript of a 1985 Cantopop lyric song,空晃，"Empty Chair", Music by

Violet LAM Man-yee (林敏怡)，lyrics by Richard LAM. It was an award-winning work in the ABU
Asia-Pacific Populär Song Contest that year. This is in cipher notation with numbers representing
the pitches on the top line and the lyrics in Chinese characters below. Used by permission of
Hong Kong Central Library.

Harold Han-tseung WEI Collection

Prof. Harold Han-tseung WEI (韋丨翰章，1906-1993)，also known as the <rWeed Poet"
(野草詞人)，was a renowned scholar, poet, and lyricist. Since his first lyric, Longing for
Home (思鄉，1932), Prof. WEI had written over 300 lyrical works in over half a Century
and, later in his career, worked most closely with the composers LIN Sheng-shih and
HUANG You-di. Prof. WEI was an elegant scholar. His lyrics and poems of May-Fourth

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SAVING LOCAL MUSIC FROM OBLIVION 509

1
Lyrics Exhibition of Richard Lam

4.11.2004 - 31.12.2004 BJ^

%

i
Arts Resource Centre, 10/F Hong Kong Central Libary
ft
□
op

G*

Illustration 10 The poster for the 2004 exhibition of the lyrics of Richard LAM. Used by
permission of Hong Kong Central Library.

Movement style13 were highly praised as "articulate and füll of contemporary feelings,. •.
with profound émotions and musically very rieh."14 After moving to Hong Kong in 1950,
Prof. WEI continued his lyric-writing work and also taught in the Hong Kong Music
Institute for many years. He died in Hong Kong in 1993 at age 87. His contribution was
recognized with the "Hall of Fame Award 1998” by CASH.

13. The May Fourth Movement was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement in early modem
China. It grew out of dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles settlement and the Movement began on 4 May
1919 and marked the upsurge of Chinese nationalism and the uprising in the général questioning and re
appraisal of millennia-old Chinese values. Coming out of the New Culture Movement started in 1915, another
new development of cultural feature was the promotion in the use of vernacular Chinese to replace classical
Chinese. The new writing style was typical for this eriod and it marked the évolution of modem Chinese
literature from the 20th Century onwards. Modifed from Wikipedia online, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
May_Fourth_Movement > (Accessed 7 May 2008).
14. Sœ黃友棣，「懷念歌詞大師韋瀚章教授」，《韋瀚章教授紀念音樂會》場刊，1993年8月了 HUANGYou
Di, "A Tribute to Professor Harold H. T. Wei, the Master of Lyrics", house programme of Memorial Concert for
Professor Harold H. T. Wei, August 1993.

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510 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 55/3

The "Weed Poet"

A Memorial Exhibition of Harold Han-tseung WEI

'Arts Resource Centre, lo/F 'Hong Rong Central Library

e>.
:WW3E.%-+8R+-8
: -p'-n, (,ib Oct - Hcrv 2005

HHHI

Illustration 11 Poster from the Memorial Exhibition held at the Hong Kong Centr
2005. Used by permission of the Hong Kong Central Library.

The donation of Prof. WEI's documents to Hong Kong Central Library wa

an ex-librarian who was himself a relative of Prof. WEI. Through his effor
of music documents from this late lyrics master were eventually added to
Music Collection. Amongst them were 15 volumes of personal diaries, recor
activities from 1974 to 1991. The diaries, with some very impressive storie

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SAVING LOCAL MUSIC FROM OBLIVION 511

reflected the mild personality of

materials for researchers in local
hibition of these music document
donations and to memorize Prof.

Way Forward

Over the past few years, Hong K

amount of music documents and
cated, catalogued, and displayed
Library has initially achieved its t
valuable cultural heritage items fo
ing the music materials in the futu
cal music database at the present s
Aiming at continuing to collec
objective, Hong Kong Central Librar
encouraging and facilitating local
long, long way to go.

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