Chinese music studies can be divided into two categories: "court music" and "folk music". Cantonese music is under the latter one and can carry two different styles, “refined" and "popular". The lecture explores its initial developments by looking at the two aforesaid categories and how "refined" and “popular" elements evolved to their contemporary form in Cantonese music.

Speaker: CHENG Wai Tao is a researcher of modern Chinese music history in Hong Kong. With a foresighted attitude, he has engaged in collecting Chinese music materials since the 1960s. In the 1990s, he began to sort out the materials about Cantonese music and made in-depth studies. Since the turn of the millennium, he has also conducted historical research and delivered a significant number of publications on China's music records industry. In recent years, based on his knowledge and accomplishments, he has arranged the Cantonese music materials and compiled a new series, which is ready to be published.