Emma-Lee Moss, known as singer-songwriter Emmy the Great, has released a memoir exploring the history of Hong Kong through its Cantopop music. Born in Hong Kong to an English father and a Hongkonger mother, Moss lived there until age 11, when her family moved to England ahead of the 1997 handover. In her book, My Cantopop Nights, she interweaves her personal story with the evolution of Cantopop, a genre blending Chinese and Western pop sensibilities.
Moss recalls the significance of the handover, noting that her British passport allowed her family to avoid the uncertainties of the transition. Years later, as a touring musician, she reconnected with Cantopop during gigs in Hong Kong, eventually moving back in 2017. She witnessed the 2019 pro-democracy protests, which followed the imprisonment of activists Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Alex Chow.
The memoir highlights key Cantopop tracks. Moss writes about Aaron Kwok’s “Love You Endlessly,” which inspired her iconic haircut at age 11. She arrived in England with that style, moving from a world where Kwok was a god to one where he was unknown. Another pivotal song is Faye Wong’s Cantonese cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams,” which Moss associates with a sleepover in Hong Kong in 1996, where a friend introduced her to Western rock and DIY punk.
During the pandemic, Moss discovered a 1970s album by the Wynners, a Hong Kong band, and found her father’s name on the cover. He had written English lyrics for them, revealing a hidden family connection to Cantopop. The Wynners, featuring future stars Alan Tam and Kenny Bee, had a TV show performing Western covers. Moss notes that Cantopop’s roots trace back to the Beatles’ 1964 Hong Kong concert, which sparked Beatlemania and shaped the genre.
