Hong Kong musicians and widow of Nobel Prize-winning scientist join forces to create songs to boost public knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease
- Scientist’s widow Gwen Kao Wong joins new music project ‘Remember The Time We Sing’ to boost public knowledge of the degenerative brain disease
- Music producer Vicky Fung, part of the project, says project meant familiarisation with the lives of participants and bring joy by focusing ‘on the moment’
“He really loved whistling. He was so good at it. He always whistled the songs from his childhood such as ‘Rose, Rose, I Love You’. He actually remembered music,” his widow and long-time carer, Gwen Kao Wong May-wan, told the Post.
“When you play music to the elderly, they will seem very interested as it can stimulate their brain. When an elderly person suffers from dementia, it is important to stimulate his brain every day.”
Kao Wong was speaking to the Post about a music collaboration her Charles K. Kao Foundation for Alzheimer’s disease, founded with her late husband, took part in with two non-profit organisations created by renowned songwriters.
The music generated through the programme will be showcased at two concerts on Saturday and Sunday.
Kao Wong highlighted the need to improve knowledge of the condition as there might be more elderly people diagnosed with dementia in the future because of Hong Kong’s ageing population.
The government predicts about 2.74 million people in the city are expected to be 65 or over in 2046, or 36 per cent of the population.
“Dementia can occur in anyone, no matter how you improve your lifestyle. Your lifestyle may be healthy, but it can still happen to you,” Kao Wong warned.
Young songwriters and producers, as well as six families with children aged between six and 12, were recruited to learn about dementia through listening to Kao Wong’s experiences and spending time with dementia patients and their carers.
The participants, divided into six groups, visited Tai Kwun and took part in drawing and singing sessions with early stage dementia patients.
Under the guidance of non-profit organisation Every Life Is A Song, co-founded by renowned songwriter and lyricist Vicky Fung Wing-ki, the families discussed their thoughts on dementia and ideas for original songs.
The participants and songwriters composed eight songs based on their interaction with the patients and caretakers with the help of My Main Stage, a music platform established by acclaimed producer Chiu Tsang-hei.
Fung, who has produced music for several pop singers in the past 20 years, said that unlike commercial work the dementia project required the songwriters to familiarise themselves with the subjects of the songs.
“We are not aiming to put the songs on the charts or win awards,” she said.
She added that the songwriters would ask children to pick the lyrics they liked or incorporate the memories of patients, which allowed them to use their imaginations and approach dementia from different perspectives.
Fung said one of the songs centred around a bedtime story that involved a conversation between a baby dinosaur and his grandfather, who had dementia, because the songwriter noticed that one of the children loved the prehistoric creatures.
“After some songwriters wrote a slow and touching song, some children wondered why it was so sad,” she said.
“In children’s minds, dementia may not be such a sorrowful thing. They may think the songs can still be happy and we can still sing and dance together.”
Fung said another song was a phone conversation where a daughter was playing along with her mother who kept talking about irrelevant matters and had the wrong perception of time.
“When the mother says she is thinking about her first love, the daughter will pretend to be a young man,” she explained.
“Other than forcing the patient to remember us, we can just focus on the moment. Even if you have forgotten about me, we can still be happy when we are together.”
The songs will be performed by three city singers – Cath Wong, Zeno Koo and The Absent Brother – at a concert in Tai Kwun on September 2 and 3.
The songs will also be uploaded to digital music platforms in October and a short documentary recording the encounters between the participants will also be screened.
Fung said it was easy to reach the public through music because it could translate people’s feelings, thoughts and images in their minds into melodies and lyrics.
“It is hard for us to understand this condition. When someone has dementia, his condition may keep changing, which may make people around him feel like they do not know what to do,” she said.
“Families of patients may need to cope with the condition for a long time. We can, through our own contributions, remind people about dementia, or make them not afraid to talk about it.”
Charles Kao was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for physics in 2009 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2010. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the early 2000s and died, aged 84, in 2018.
