Immersive exhibition on golden age of Cantopop composer and lyricist shows impact they had

The Tai Kwun studio is full of reminders of the era in Hong Kong that witnessed Wong and Koo's rise as songwriters. Photo: Cyril Ip

• James Wong Jim and Joseph Koo's work writing songs for radio, TV and Cantopop stars including Leslie Cheung and Roman Tam vividly recalled

In a three-decade creative partnership that began in 1972, lyricist James Wong Jim and composer Joseph Koo Ka-fai wrote 236 songs, including the unofficial Hong Kong anthem Below the Lion Rock, that depicted and shaped how people in Hong Kong saw themselves in a time of great change.

An immersive exhibition newly opened at the Tai Kwun arts and heritage centre in the city's Central district pays tribute to their genius and influence, and transports visitors back to a time many refer to as the golden age of Cantopop.

The Duplex Studio exhibition space in Block 01 of Tai Kwun, which used to house the Central Police Station, has been made to resemble, among other nostalgia-inducing scenes, the living room of a typical Hong Kong apartment of the 1970s - which was when Cantopop was born.

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Before Cantopop, the music market had been dominated by Cantonese opera and English-language pop music. The genre produced home-grown pop icons such as Rebecca Pan Di-hua, Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, Frances Yip Lai-yee and Roman Tam Pak-sin, better known as Law Man - all of whom recorded songs written by Wong and Koo.

"These are two absolute musical giants of Hong Kong who represented an era," says Hong Kong-born, New York-based musicologist Joanna Lee, curator of the exhibition, called "Soundtrack of Our Lives".

"It is always good to learn about history and heritage, and there is a lot of history to be learned here," she adds.

The show centres on the pair's careers, which coincided with an evolution in the way people consumed music, going from listening to and watching public broadcasts to carrying portable music players to using digital technology.

The lower level of the exhibition features a recreation of a cha chaan teng cafe and a retro audiovisual equipment repair shop; the cafe menu refers to three of the pair's most famous compositions - the theme tune to television show The Bund, "A Laugh at the World" from The Swordsman (1990), and "Fire Burns My Heart" from the 1989 film A Terra-Cotta Warrior.

"I don't think anybody could say that their music wasn't part of our lives, simply because of television and radio during the 70s and 80s - you're surrounded by them," says Lee. Wong and Koo were "absolutely part of mass media history".

The manuscript of Koo's full score for "A Laugh at the World", with Wong's words and music, is on show, alongside calligraphy by Wong provided by his son Johan Wong.

"Imagine a theme song of a TV drama - it's played every night during prime time, beginning and end - so it already appears every day, Monday to Friday, twice on TV, and it's not just you [hearing it], but also your neighbours ... Later on, you have their music showing up in films," Lee says.

Much of the material on show was unearthed by Lee and Koo's 94-year-old sister, the singer Carrie Koo Mei, in the garden shed of the latter's home in Vancouver, Canada.

They include dozens of autographed scores for commercial jingles from the 80s and early 90s, among them ads for Sunkist, Viceroy Cigarettes, Beijing Niu Huang Jie Du Pian and Lawman "Ice Blue" Jeans.

Born in Guangzhou, southern China, the two musicians moved to Hong Kong in their youth, and often collaborated by phone until Koo moved to Canada in the 90s, when they switched to using faxes.

A fax machine from the period is one of the highlights of the display in a room called "A Workplace Reimagined", which presents recreations of Koo's studio in Vancouver and Wong's Hong Kong abode side by side as if in an office - although the pair never actually shared one.

Lee says the pair's cultural impact extended to mainland China and diasporic communities, helped by Chinatown CD and cassette stores. Their music helped shape a cultural identity built on a shared language and appreciation for the Hong Kong spirit.

Outside the mock office, visitors can listen to personal commentaries on Wong and Koo's classic songs by various experts, including stage director and educator Fredric Mao, literary critic and professor Stephen Yiu-Wai Chu and Norris Wong Yee-lam, director of the acclaimed 2023 film The Lyricist Wannabe.

"There are eight commentaries on eight songs, and we try to analyse them in a little bit more depth," Lee says. "Some of them talk about the mixture of Chinese and Western [elements], for example, in the middle of a very Western guitar chord, there is a wood block ... or the first section is much more traditionally Chinese, and then the second section has a disco beat."

The show runs for seven weeks, and Lee wants visitors to "appreciate and know Hong Kong" through music, "the best way to reach our hearts".

"I want people who don't know Hong Kong to come here to actually learn something about Hong Kong and to enjoy the music. I want the people who know the music to come back and relive that music," she says.

Alongside the exhibition, Tai Kwun has planned extension activities ranging from lyric writing workshops, to film screenings, a talk with Frances Yip, as well as a talent development programme guided by a protege of Koo, record producer Andrew Tuason.

A parallel exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin, titled "A Laugh at the World: James Wong" will be held from July 17 until February 2025 and marks the 20th anniversary of the lyricist's death.

"Soundtrack of Our Lives: Joseph Koo x James Wong x the Rise of Cantopop", Duplex Studio, Block01, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Daily, 11am-7pm. Until August 28.

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