Faculty of Art
To celebrate the 5th anniversary of the UBC Cantonese Language Program and boost student creativity in the time of quarantine, UBC Cantonese, UBC School of Music, and 3721 Productions co-organized the “Combating COVID-19 Cantonese Lyrics Competition” in March 2020.
The competition aimed to inspire students interested in Music, Cantonese, and Asian cultures to keep up their good works in the quarantine.
“We are organizing this competition because we are tired of all the cancellations happening everywhere. We want UBC students to process their experiences of COVID-19 through writing lyrics for a Cantopop song.” — Dr. Hedy Law
The winner’s song will be produced and released on iTunes and Spotify in June this year.
Ms. Mini Choi, Mr. Chris Shum, and Mr. Yi-Hing Ong were invited to be the adjudicators for this competition, all of which are top industry professionals in Hong Kong, familiar with Cantonese pop culture and provided professional opinions to UBC student participants. They also have joined UBC advanced Cantonese class CNTO 451 as guest speakers during their visit to Vancouver.
Many students from Cantonese and Music classes submitted excellent entries. In May 2020, five outstanding works were selected, including Winner Emily Liang, Co-runner-ups Kristy Chan and Natalie Kwok, and two honourable mentions Cindy Chow and Vinci Fong.
This competition is a unique first-ever collaboration between all the organizing institutions. It provides a fantastic opportunity for students to blossom in such a difficult time.