Editorial | Canto-pop sensation a bright light amid the gloom
- Keung To and his 12-member group, Mirror, are a home-grown success story that is exactly what young people in Hong Kong need to give hope and lift spirits
The pandemic and politics – Hong Kong people crave a diversion from the bad news, rules and restrictions. They have found it in 21-year-old Canto-pop sensation Keung To and his 12-member group, Mirror. All-singing and dancing, their songs and videos are a bright light amid the gloom of a world in Covid-19 shutdown.
Home-grown talent aspiring to succeed and doing so in the local Chinese dialect of Cantonese with the familiar backdrop of the city from which they hail is exactly what residents of all ages need at so challenging a time.
Made famous by a popular television reality show, the group is a local twist on the K-pop phenomenon. But while K-pop is renowned for the manufactured, pitch and picture-perfect image of its stars, the Hong Kong take is down-to-earth.
Keung To has a likeable, boy-next-door demeanour. Although sporting a stylish haircut, he is perceived as level-headed, humble and simple.
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Boy band Mirror with idol Keung To lead Hong Kong Canto-pop revival after protests and pandemic
Popular music takes many forms and its pinnacle in Hong Kong is widely perceived as being during the golden years of Canto-pop during the 1980s and 1990s. But it would be wrong to compare Keung To and Mirror to the entertainers of those years, when the economy was booming, fans could attend concerts in person and disease did not menace society.