The Unspoken Dance: An Oral History of Hong Kong Dance (1950s-70s)

Authors: Joanna Lee Hoi-yin, Lam Heyee
Editor: Nicolette Wong
Translators: Nicolette Wong, Joanna Lee Hoi-yin
Publishing Date: January 2019
ISBN: 9789881359926

This book focuses on the "pre-professionalisation era" of Hong Kong dance from the 1950s to the 1970s as the main time frame of the research. The two researchers Joanna Lee Hoi-yin and Lam Heyee conducted interviews in Hong Kong, the US and Canada with ten pioneers who were active in Hong Kong dance between the 1950s and 1970s. This book derives different perspectives from these pioneers’ memories, and, in the form of oral history that embodies a personal touch, constructs a body of historical materials regarding the early development of Hong Kong dance.

"'Oral history' is not only a method of collecting historical materials. It is dynamic, and it holds great significance as an opening for the interaction between life and culture… The ten dance pioneers Ng Sai-fun, Julie Ng, Stephen Kwok, Lorita Leung, Florence Mo-han Aw, Yeung Wai-kui, Cheng Wai-yung, Lau Siu-ming, Lau So-kam and Joan Campbell worked in the dance profession in a particular cultural climate in Hong Kong. As we read their oral history accounts, we learn about certain events of the era. More importantly, we feel the passion for Hong Kong, dance, and life in these ten remarkable figures—it is a passion that still resounds today."
—Lo Wai-luk (Veteran art critic, and Chairman of Arts Criticism Group, Hong Kong Arts Development Council)