From Singing "Out-of-Tone" to Creating Contextualized Cantonese Contemporary Worship Songs

Hong Kong in the Decentralization of Chinese Christianity

Bibliographic Data

ID4313593
AuthorsShin Fung Hung (0000-0001-5159-4994, Duke University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume15
Issue6
Pages648
Publication date2024-05-24
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel15060648
OpenAlexW4398775540
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited8

For over a century, Hong Kong Christians have sung Chinese hymns in an "out-of-tone" manner. Lyrics in traditional hymnals were translated or written to be sung in Mandarin, the national language, but most locals speak Cantonese, another Sinitic and tonal language. Singing goes "out-of-tone" when Mandarin hymns are sung in Cantonese, which often causes meaning distortions. Why did Hong Kong Christians accept this practice? How did they move from singing "out-of-tone" to creating contextualized Cantonese contemporary worship songs? What does this process reveal about the evolution of Chinese Christianity? From a Hong Kong-centered perspective, this article reconstructs the city's hymnological development. I consider the creation of national Mandarin hymnals during Republican China as producing a nationalistic Mainland-centric and Mandarin-centric Chinese Christianity. Being on the periphery, Hong Kong Christians did not have the resources to develop their own hymns and thus continued to worship "out-of-tone". With the decline of the old Chinese Christian center of Shanghai, the growth of Cantonese culture and Hongkonger identity, and the influence of Western pop and Christian music, local Christians began to create Cantonese contemporary worship songs. This hymnological contextualization reflects and contributes to not only the decolonization but, more importantly, the decentralization of Chinese Christianity

Acoustics · Art · Christianity · Decentralization · Literature · Political science · Singing · Theology · Worship · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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