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Bernice Chan

Most people in Hong Kong who grew up in the 1980s and ’90s would have listened to some measure of Cantopop, but they were not the only ones to do so – the Cantopop stars of that time had fans all over the world.
A new exhibition at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver, Canada, highlights how migration played a major role in the far-reaching influence of these stars – some of whom also sang in Mandarin.
“We actually have a whole list of 100 singers who have some kind of Canadian tie,” said museum CEO Melissa Karmen Lee at the launch of “Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s-2000”.
The list, which includes singers from Taiwan and mainland China, boasts a number of big names – Nicholas Tse Ting-fung and Sally Yeh Chian-wen, who grew up in British Columbia; Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, who emigrated to Vancouver in 1990; and Faye Wong, Teresa Teng Li-chun and Leon Lai Ming, all of whom regularly performed in Canada.
The exhibition examines how these stars, as well as other generations of Asian singers, continue to influence Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Canada through music and fashion.

There have been many waves of emigration from Hong Kong to Canada, the most recent being after citywide anti-government protests in 2019 and the subsequent introduction of a national security law.
For co-curator Lee, the exhibition is somewhat personal. She is a second-generation Hong Kong-Canadian and no stranger to the Chinese city – Lee was once the education and public programmes curator at Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun heritage arts venue and a lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“I wanted to tell the story about how it’s a continuation of that trans-Pacific tie between Vancouver and Hong Kong that has existed since the early 1800s,” she says.
“The singers were Canadian; they had ties to Canada. There’s a reason why so many of these singers kept on coming back and doing benefits and fundraisers in Vancouver and Toronto.”
The main room housing the exhibition features mannequins in reimagined outfits that look like those that Cantopop stars have worn while performing. There is a denim outfit similar to what Andy Lau Tak-wah once wore, and a white suit with feathers that is reminiscent of a famous outfit worn by Leslie Cheung.

One of the highlights is a reinterpretation of the wedding dress that Anita Mui Yim-fong – one of Hong Kong’s most revered stars – wore during her final series of concerts in 2003, weeks before she succumbed to cancer.
Costume designer Stephanie Kong used upcycled fabrics and discarded jewellery to make the white floor-length gown, complete with a tulle veil, after she researched Mui’s dramatic life story.
“She wore this wedding dress because it was her message to her audience, of her being married to the stage, to her music and everything that they knew of her, that was just such a large part of her life and her person.”
Kong says she used to think that Cantopop only belonged to her Hong Kong immigrant parents, not to herself.
“I associated it with my parents … and being dragged to these Chinese music stores full of laser discs. And I’m like, ‘Can we go yet?’ I wanted to go to Virgin Records and get my Spice Girls’ CD,” she recalls.
Now, after the exhibition, she has developed a very different perspective because she has come to realise how much Canadian influence there was in the industry.

Another room has been transformed into a karaoke room, complete with a mini stage, sofas and a light installation projecting a spectrum of colours onto the walls.
The light installation features 300 laser discs that create a retro-futuristic look inspired by Hong Kong nightclubs in the 1980s. It is the work of Singapore artist Ming Wong and his Canadian collaborator Liam Morgan.
“For me, Cantopop is synonymous with karaoke,” Wong says, adding that it is through singing Cantopop songs that “we project our dreams and desires to the stars”.
You can sing along to Mandarin songs here, too. “Mandarin’s standardised tonal structure made it more accessible for mass karaoke participation than Cantonese, whose tonal complexity often posed challenges for non-native speakers,” says Lee.
The exhibition also, for the first time in Canada, displays a few of the late composer Joseph Koo Ka-fai’s original scores.
Koo, one of the most prolific and successful Cantopop composers, was a Vancouverite who moved to the city from Hong Kong in the 1990s and died there in 2023.

On loan from the Koo family are excerpts from the 1987 movie A Better Tomorrow II, starring Chow Yun-fat, on which he and songwriter James Wong Jim collaborated via fax machine.
Cantopop fans will also enjoy looking at portraits taken by professional photographer Raymond Chan, who often took photos for the stars when they came through Vancouver, while a new eight-minute documentary called We Are Who We Are by production company Black Rhino Creative looks at Leslie Cheung’s musical impact on people in Hong Kong and Vancouver.
“Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s-2000” can be viewed at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver until May 31, 2026.


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From Leslie Cheung to Nicholas Tse, Cantopop’s Canadian connections revealed in exhibition

An exhibition at Vancouver’s Chinese Canadian Museum 
examines how Cantopop stars like Leslie Cheung, Nicholas Tse, Faye Wong and Leon Lai, as well as other generations of Asian singers, continue to influence Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Canada through music and fashion. Photo: Will Luk

Melissa Karmen Lee, CEO of the Chinese Canadian Museum, at “Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s-2000”. Photo: Chinese Canadian Museum

Chinese-Canadian fashion designers have created pieces inspired by outfits worn by Cantopop and Mandopop legends. Photo: Will Luk

A piece by Stephanie Kong, inspired by the wedding dress worn by Anita Mui, on show at the Chinese Canadian Museum’s “Dream Factory” exhibition. Photo: Chinese Canadian Museum

“Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s-2000” can be viewed until May 31, 2026. Photo: Will Luk

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Raymond Lam arrives at The 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards on April 27, 2025. Photo: Sam Tsang

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Raymond Lam made a name for himself as a television actor early in his career. Photo: Handout

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A new exhibition at Vancouver’s Chinese Canadian Museum highlights how migration played a major role for a host of major Cantopop stars


A new exhibition at Vancouver’s Chinese Canadian Museum highlights how migration played a major role for a host of major Cantopop stars.


From Leslie Cheung to Nicholas Tse, Cantopop’s Canadian connections revealed in exhibition

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A new exhibition at Vancouver’s Chinese Canadian Museum highlights how migration played a major role for a host of major Cantopop stars

A new exhibition at Vancouver’s Chinese Canadian Museum highlights how migration played a major role for a host of major Cantopop stars