Why music graduates craving a career in Hong Kong feel they must go it alone
Lacking connections and unwilling to conform to the city’s sterile mainstream scene, Berklee College of Music graduates Joyce Cheung and Mark Tai pursue personal ventures in the hope they’ll be heard
Making music as a career in Hong Kong is anything but easy. The unstable working hours and income and lack of opportunity means even the most gifted are likely to give up on pursuing their dreams. But a new breed of young, passionate independent musicians are determined to rise to the challenge and take matters into their own hands.
Joyce Cheung Pui-chih is a classically trained composer who returned to the city two years ago after having completed a double major in film scoring and contemporary music writing and production at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, United States. She graduated with a first-class honours degree.
And despite having such a glowing résumé, the 23-year-old has little illusion about her prospects in Hong Kong as a music maker. “You will constantly be in a state of misery,” she says.
Attaining her dream of being a film score composer is extremely difficult, if not downright impossible, she says. “First, the market is already dominated. Second, even if you try very hard, making demos and sending them to people, it doesn’t mean you will find any job opportunities.
“It all depends on what connections you have.”