Written 1979 Lyricist(s) James Wong | ||
Below the Lion Rock (Chinese: 獅子山下) is a Cantonese popular song. It was composed and arranged by Joseph Koo in 1979, with lyrics written by James Wong, and first performed by Roman Tam.
The song was written and performed as the title song of a TV show of the same name.
During the 2003 SARS outbreak, the song was often broadcast by the media in Hong Kong, and became regarded as an unofficial anthem of Hong Kong. In 2013, the 'Hong Kong Our Home' (Chinese: 家是香港) campaign, ran by the Hong Kong government to boost community cohesion, used lyrics from this song. In the same year, the Wikimania conference was held in Hong Kong. Its motto, 'Of one mind in pursuit of our dream; All discord set aside' (Chinese: 放開彼此心中矛盾，理想一起去追), is a line from this song.
Background
Below the Lion Rock was featured to be the title song of a TV song directed by Radio Television of Hong Kong, which is more commonly referred as RTHK, in 1979. At that period, Cantonese song started to rise and aroused people's awareness. Different from other Cantonese songs, Below the Lion Rock was not meant to be satirizing the society that time.