| This thesis examines how music activities act as a catalyst for community cohesion in the chapel at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The study considers the relationship between mainland China and Hong Kong throughout its history, emphasizing the 1997 political transition from British to Chinese government rule to today, as reflected in music analyses of Cantonese Christian songs, Mandarin hymns and their performance practice among the congregation. My thesis considers the issue of multicultural encounters and discourses in post-colonial Hong Kong, emphasizing the politics of language selection as it relates to music, as well as the integration of mainland Chinese musical elements into the performance of Christian music. This study utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach to investigate the development of Hong Kong's cultural identity in a post-colonial context. Foremost is an emphasis on post-colonial theory (also known as Post-colonial study, or Post-colonialism). This theory seeks to interpret the relationship and ideologies between a colony and its colonizing power in various political, social, cultural and psychological arenas. Moreover, post-colonial criticism also examines how western values function as the dominant forms of knowledge acquisition and how subdominant populations react and interact with first-world cultures. |
