Back in the late 1980s, Lian-Hee Wee read about the Qin (aka Guqin) and was shocked to learn that this utmost important instrument to the traditional Chinese literati was (and remains) largely unknown to the ethnic Chinese community. In 2000, while in the USA, he received a newspaper cutting that motivated him to fly to Hong Kong…
Category: music
Pet Sounds: Stuart Christie
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] An American Summer One of my earliest memories is of lying on cool, terracotta tiles at my godmother’s…
Pet Sounds: Jason Eng Hun Lee
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] It’s a Terrible Beauty We’ve Made: Singing Through the Barricades with Spandau Ballet There are some songs…
Pet Sounds: Robert Fuchs
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] I have to confess that when I first read the title of this series, I thought “Well, I…
Pet Sounds: Vino Shum
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Rainy and thunderous. A sleepless night. Turn on my phone. Start the mp3 player. “悲しくてやりきれない” (I Can’t Bear…
Pet Sounds: Anna Tham
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Rapid rush of hollow percussion, bleak wail of dida, magnificent echo of gong, voices ring onstage and off,…
Pet Sounds: Minnie Chung
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] What is the Best Ending? The realization of a sweet dream turning out just as expected? Or the…
Pet Sounds: Paulina Lee
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] “Do you think music is a dangerous thing?” All of a sudden, E threw out this question in…
Pet Sounds: Jason S Polley
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Co-opting Cool: The Figurative and Literal Death of Nirvana [The Keywords] These “keys” are in no particular order,…
Pet Sounds: Yannie Lee
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] How can two plus two make five? “2+2=5” by Radiohead probably alludes to George Orwell’s 1984—‘In the end…
Pet Sounds: Tammy Ho Lai-Ming
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Silence Like a Cancer Grows My first year of university life went by rather fast, as it should,…
Pet Sounds: Leo Lau
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Coldplay’s “Paradise” ‘Where is your paradise?’ At the age of seven, during a Chinese lesson, I was asked…
Pet Sounds: William Ng
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Caprice ‘When you breathe into this instrument, darling, you’re not just giving it life – you’re giving it…
Pet Sounds: Suzanne Lai
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] The sound of you closing your door stealthily. The sound of your heels pressing on the woollen carpet….
Pet Sounds: Buster Leung
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] A still from Pulp Fiction Centurions: The Culture Clash The Centurions’s “Bullwinkle (Part II)” is a surf band’s…
Pet Sounds: Pamela Wong
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Artwork by Danni Chen Oasis – Live Forever The streets are soaked in a shade of green, of…
Pet Sounds: Englebert Tse
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] On Friday 14 July 2017, four more pro-democracy lawmakers—‘Long Hair’ Leung Kwok-hung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Edward Yiu Chung-yim…
Pet Sounds: Karen Wong
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] The first time I heard the song “Missing You”, by the Korean indie band Delispice, was about eighteen…
Pet Sounds: Winnie Chor
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] My father was a seaman from when I was a baby until I was around ten. When he…
Pet Sounds: Mignon Chiu
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Nothing really happens at the disputed “Salt & Pepper”; oh no, it should be “Sgt Pepper”. Letting my…
Pet Sounds: Sophia Zhang
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] As I am currently preparing to move out of Hong Kong, I find myself really lucky to have…
Pet Sounds: Jensen Ho
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] “Pumped Up Kicks” is the 2010 debut single by Foster The People. Soon after its release, it topped…
Pet Sounds: Olivia Kwok
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] This scene used to keep popping up in my mind: I am crying so hard in a taxi…
Pet Sounds: Abel Han Song
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] A still from Dust in the Wind The Time Boat This story sounds like a one-sentence joke: a…
Pet Sounds: Grace Hiu-Yan Wong
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] In September 2013, I visited the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, UK. It was a modest establishment…
Pet Sounds: Hiroko Itakura
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Shostakovich wrote Piano Concerto No. 2 as a birthday present for his son Maxim Music amuses us, raises…
Pet Sounds: Kwun Kiem Foeng
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] From the music video, “Born to Die” Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die One manoeuvres through life along…
Pet Sounds: Holy Yoong
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Artwork by Jerek Puczei Faye Wong’s “Oi Mui” (曖昧) ‘To try to write love is to confront the…
Pet Sounds: Holden Liang Qichao
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] I have always appreciated melodrama – in storytelling, that is. Even as I have got older and more…
Pet Sounds: Tasha Chung Wai Yin
Pet Sounds: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department reflect on a piece of music or song. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.] Moana The Adventure is Calling: How Far Will I Go? This piece is all about the song “How…
Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University 