Hong Kong migrants revel in Cantopop concerts, films from home as tears flow, emotions high in ‘collective healing’ at venues in Canada, UK
- Emotional scenes as migrants who left in recent years flock to see RubberBand concerts and other Cantopop groups
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It was a warm summer’s evening in late July when a crowd of about 1,500 – mainly Hongkongers – streamed into Vancouver’s Centre for Performing Arts for a concert by Cantopop group RubberBand.
It was the last performance of the band’s eight-city world tour, its first since forming in 2005, which had kicked off months earlier in London to a similarly Hong Kong crowd.
Emily Chan, in her 30s, who had recently emigrated from Hong Kong to Canada because of sweeping political changes in the city, admitted she had not been a fan, but went with friends just to watch a band from home.
“Tears were falling from my eyes like rain,” she said, describing her elation at singing along to the band’s hits with hundreds of other Cantonese speakers. “It felt like a return to the good old days.”
The band had pitched the tour as a “reunion” for overseas Hongkongers, with dates across the UK, Europe and North America, where Hong Kong emigrants have headed in recent years.
“We knew we had many fans overseas who wanted to watch us perform,” RubberBand frontman Mau Hou-cheong told the Post. “As Australia and New Zealand are also hotspots for Hongkongers, we hope to perform there in the future, too.”
His most distinct memory from the tour was of walking into the crowd and seeing the emotion in fans’ eyes as they reached out to him.
