Annotation

Though similar publications had been launched in the 1920s and 1930s, this tabloid is considered a pioneer in the coverage of Hong Kong entertainment news. Each issue consisted of four pages. Its name, ‘Chun Lan’ , is taken from special issues announcing the forming of new opera troupes in the early Republican period. Though it had no overseas agents or distributors, it took direct subscriptions from readers in other countries. During its early years, it mainly published opera updates, photos of opera stars and film stars, and news about radio programmes and films. It also published song lyrics and reviews of music and operas. Its column, ‘Records of Stage and Screen’, was devoted to Cantonese opera and film topics, offering an alternative view on the so-called ‘separation of opera and cinema’ (lingying fenjia). It also featured cartoon stories and serialised comic strips such as ‘King of Slipshod’ (Wulong Wang) and ‘Big Brother Ho’ (He Laoda). It also featured works by many authors of popular literature, with erotic and crime fiction the most common. In the early 1970s, it adopted a more general outlook, reducing its Cantonese opera coverage and adding local news and horse- and dog-racing reports in its place. Overall, Chun Lan Yat Po epitomised Hong Kong popular culture during the postwar era to the early 1970s.