Gaidong in Hong Kong: The Ecology of Commercial Chinese Instrumental Music Performance

Gaidong (lit. vending booth on the street, Jiedang in Mandarin) is a Cantonese expression commonly used by performers of Chinese musical instruments in Hong Kong since the 1990s to describe paid musical activities in hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and public housing estates. The making of gaidong requires four groups of people-service seekers, audience, agent, musician-and three other components: venue, performance, and the environment. Every component of gaidong is interrelated with one another and changes in one will influence the others. In this essay, I adapt a model proposed by Daniel M. Neuman to understand the dynamics of gaidong in ecological terms. Having participated in more than twenty gaidong a year for eleven years, in some cases also bearing the dual role of performer and agent-musician, has allowed me to obtain a substantial amount of first-hand information on this performance context. I will illustrate my model with two case studies which will also show the two major changes going on in the current situation: (1) an increasing demand for performing the latest local popular songs, and (2) increasing requests for all-female groups due to the influence of the Twelve Girls Band (a popularized Chinese traditional music band from Mainland China). I will in turn discuss the influences of these changes on the mindset of the musicians.