It is quite impossible now to assess what Tat Ming Pair, Wong Yiu Ming, and Chow Yiu Fai meant to me before September 2019. I would always think about them with bias generated in next few years. Without those memories, where would Tat Ming stand in my heart?

Music and Society, Episode 6

Stories with Tat Ming Pair

On that Mid-Autumn day in 2019, it simply occurred to me that Tat Ming had some truly culturally Chinese songs, and their styles and choice of instruments reflected a unique vibe combined with traditional art and modern values. So, after a few traditional songs, Teresa Teng, Qi Qin, Faye Wang, etc… It became their party, Tat and Ming.

The rest were magic, destiny, or whatever you want to call.

At that time, a few close friends of mine would primarily label my music taste with Lo Tayu and Alan Tam. I would mostly agree too. My TuiGe statistics gathered in April 2020 showed that my top 7 singers, apart from those two, were: Eason Chen, Faye Wang, Leslie Cheung, Tat Ming Pair, and Karen Mok.

The styles and vibes were the first reasons I started to like Tat Ming. Hearing 石头记 for the first time on radio 97.4 during Wang Dong‘s programme, my father introduced them to me, and shared his opinion of them being quite representative as cultural and ethnic musicians. 石头记 was also the first song of them that connected me with others. In the early TuiGe days, Song Gong (mate, hope you are doing well) told me that it was one of his favorite songs.

Then, TuiGe demanded me to explore more “less popular” music, and that was the time I began to gain more comprehensive pictures of the musicians I like. Tat Ming, in particular, served as a source of uniqueness. Their focus on some minorities topics and novelty were quite useful when I needed a surprise song to impress.

For example, 你还爱我吗 was the first attempt to imply romantic relationship to a girl. 寂寞的人有福了 kind of reflected my mindset in the autumn of 2015.

Other than those, I could not think of anything too special to me in case of Tat Ming. I did not even care too much of Chow Yiu Fai during that time, when you were listening to his talk in person, I was skipping Chemistry exam to see Stomp performing in our school.

Entering adulthood, politics became a key factor in my music listening. Tat Ming, along with Bobby Chen and Li Zhi, therefore, elevated on my all time list. I appreciated what they expressed in songs, and how somehow they did not compromise their opinions for profits.

Pre 2019 September, I was listening to their 30-year anniversary song in June. Apart from that, musicians like them are super good at producing songs that appeal to the whole society with some “Melancholic Hope”, like their 今天世上所有地方, and Lo Tayu‘s 伴侣 (both 2004 and 2020 versions). They preserved some serious collective memory of our society with great empathy, and guided us to some universal hope.

So, that’s what Tat Ming meant to me before I met you. I had to confess that some of the songs only became familiar to me afterwards, like 皇后大盗, 四季交易会, 口吃. Nonetheless, the originally already specialness of Tat Ming, with what happened to us, reached a level of utmost specialness. In case of 今夜星光灿烂, the worry of late-20th-century Hong Kong in transition, is intwined with the sorrow of covid distanced love, I still treasure every moment of it.

Now, fast forward to 2024 October.

It’s hard to say my mindset when I suddenly decided to go to Anthony Wong Yiu Ming‘s concert when offered free tickets. Before the trip, I was not sure if it would be reactivating those post-2019 memory, or it would be a way to say hello to an even younger version of myself.

Sense told me, that, if carrying too much emotions attached from the past, the journey would be disappointing. I had placed too many symbols and meanings that are only personal but not quite applicable in reality. The most meanings and happiness were given to me by Tat Ming in presence of those specific background and people, not by the person, Wong, or Lau.

So, compared to those “truer” fans I met in Vancouver, I did not enjoy the concert as much as they did, but I still had quite a journey of self-exploring. Back in that therapy group, I called that a trip of Desensitization. It was an adventure that helped me relocate Tat Ming and Wong back to the position of “one of the musicians I love” from “something utterly special”.

That being said, I have seen clearly how I am different from people who see Wong as their “favorite without doubt”, and I kind of successfully separated “what I like about Tat Ming’s songs”, “what I appreciate Wong as a person”, and “what I cherish from my days with you“.

Eventually, I would not need to ask the question, “is it my party?”. I now know more clearly where the lines are.