Developments and Changes

Although nanyin is by no means a music genre belonging to the mainstream of Chinese music, nor are there many performing artists who can sing nanyin, it has not become extinct. From the 1970s onwards, as the social environment changed, nanyin moved from the former plebeian venues of old-style teahouses, opium dens etc. to concert halls, lecture halls in the universities and modern teahouses settings, thus widening the audience base and arousing the interest in more levels of the society of Hong Kong, including academics who make nanyin their fields of research. Today, with the help of technology, the public can have access to rare nanyin recordings by the blind artists of the past or other singers of more recent times through the archives of government departments, academic institutes, as well as record album releases. There are occasional talks, courses, performances of nanyin organised by different sectors. One exemplary feat was the joint performance of nanyin artists of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, presented by the governments of the three places, in 2016, which succeeded in promoting this song-art.