In reply to KaWai:
thank god for capitalism in hong kong at that time if that was the case! else the talents could have landed elsewere further away, say, maybe singapore.
Arts and Culture
From Shakespeare to The Smiths, Wittgenstein to WarholHong Kong entertainment culture since the 1950's has been the continuation of pre Communistic Shanghai?
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Since the Communist Party took over, the Chinese entertainment business originally based in Shanghai basically just transplanted into Hong Kong, along with many writers, musicians, and other talents,in the 1950's to 1960's, some of the Hong Kong popular mandarin language songs sounded aesthetically similar to the popular songs in mainland China pre-Communisim, from the 30's to the late 40's. The success of Hong Kong popular culture is the natural evolution of pre-Communist Shanghai entertainment industry?
In reply to BillySoh:
Some talents went to Taiwan, but Taiwan lacked geographically and historically the advantage which HK has. Some of the talents went to Southeast Asia too, Singapore, Vietnam. Run Run Shaw is from Singapore. There are many HK movie Tycoons and writers, directors, that are Shanghainese. How would HK entertainment culture be without the influences of the migranted talents from the Shanghai pre-Communisit era?
HK after WW2 was small potato, no one really cared this capitalistic city, but at least it's peaceful and out of the radar, which was a perfect nurturing place, with a easy handed control from the British. I am not diminshing the talents of people from Canton region, of course HK entertainment culture has been a melting pot of the talents from all parts of China, and especially since mid-1960's, HK home grown and I am proud to say a large group of passionate, talented, hard working people who are now the driving force of the core of the entertainment industry, completely unique and influencial to many parts of the world, but the Shanghainese because that's where the mainland Chinese modern popular culture was originated from, they brought the Shanghai movie studio star system, studio system, as well as certain aesthetics into HK. WIthout the 1950's and 60's strong Shanghainese studio/star system influence, today's HK entertainment culture would be very different.
In reply to KaWai:
Ah the Shaw Brothers, Run Run and Run Me. It is indeed, the dialect originally was mandarin, after so it went to HK it became more cantonese based. Not quite sure of the Chinese entertainment here back then. In Singapore we had also our own bahasa melayu (malay) movie industry back in the 1950s and it was quite western influenced. More than half the people behind the camera were westerners I guess. Actors and actresses were dressed in suits and dresses, cinematography was pretty much west influenced in those malay films, and the music in those films were heavily influenced by jazz.
In reply to BillySoh:
Jazz was very influencial, in films in HK too, also Rumba, Cha Cha, all the Latin Jazz. Wong Kar Wai used lots of them for "In the Mood for Love".
What I find rather interesting is to see how nowadays the ' communists' in China, Russia and as well as in the former Eastern European countries have transformed themselves into a kind of out of proportion greedy capitalists....the very system they opposed and fought fiercely in the past with any dirty means they could get hold of....has become ironically their personal ' saviour ' ....so I'm wondering....what is the value of communism when it is a system totally, totally bankrupt...even more than it was in the past when it had absolute control of people's life... Today they only care about how to make money for themselves .....but not just little amounts......they want it all if possible !.....funny that some people still call themselves a 'communist' when what they really mean is capitalist !...It just shows part of our human ' qualities' when it comes to personal values in the 'Art of Opportunism '.....
In reply to Galileo's Universe:
You have read the book "Animnal Farm"? There's no such thing as pure Communism, it can never work, there's no real equality in that system. It's against human nature. It can only work in small commune as the hippies did in the 60's, it can't work when you deal with so many people. The word "Communism" has become a political term to use when it's convenient.
In reply to KaWai:
"Animal Farm', George Orwell...................
Great, Great Reading !...indeed...indeed..!
Same as Bush using the word "Democracy" on his war in Iraq, I don't think there's one person in the Middle East, in Asia, in Europe, in South America, just about anywhere who believes in Bush's words about bringing democracy to the region.
Today is US Veterans' Day, I feel really sad for those families who have made scarifices for this stupid, unjust war, this stupid occupation in Iraq. Peace would come, but not in at least another 50 years, there will be a point in time when 2 cultures could look into each other with mutual respect because of the shared bloody past, but it's a long time before then.
In reply to KaWai:
....yes I know he is the perfect son of....'*****, etc... well we already know he is not the best choice around in politics today and yet what I'm truly amazed about is to read that Putin is a lot far more popular around the world... and the choice of preference if given the opportunity ......but what I find most extraordinary is people's assumed ' naivety' on the subject .... People who think like that haven't got a real clue of what they are wishing for....!