I know excels in storytelling, the characters, setup and payoff. The music and the lyrics complement each other to express the inner emotional states of characters. I'd like to examine in detail how the song introduces our two protagonists and their situations, from the opening of the song to the very first line of the chorus.
Male:
若愛沒理論證實有沒有 我只有一路跟住感覺走
也許這一秒可見一見她就夠
讓半份慰藉滲在半夜缺口 等某一個真相趕我走
熟悉的找個角落再守候
If no reason can tell whether this love is true, I could do nothing but follow my impulses
Maybe I'd be satisfied just stealing a glance at her
Let this half-baked comfort seep into my midnight emptiness, until some truths finally drive me away
I find a familiar corner, and I wait again
The song opens with the male narrator's dialogue, sluggish, dragging, hesitant. On one hand, the audience knows this song is about romantic love, but his expressions are vague and elusive. We can feel his intense loneliness and helplessness, without knowing the details of the story yet. On the other hand, musically, this verse is filled with rapid sixteenth-note phrases, and Keung To sings it softly, almost whispering. It is as if we are eavesdropping on someone's most intimate heartbreak. Suspense is built -- why is he in such despair?
Duet:
I know, I know, I know
I know, I know, I know
I know, I know, I know
越痛苦 越滿足
就抱著這罪咎
I know, I know, I know
I know, I know, I know
I know, I know, I know
The more it hurts, the more it satisfies
And so, I hold onto this guilt
The female voice joins in, as if responding to the male character's laments. The repeated "I know" feels like a mutual acknowledgement of the pain the two are bearing. They both understand their love cannot last. All they can do is comfort each other. "I know. Say no more. I understand." Yet, saying "I know" resolves no sorrow. It is as if to fill the awkward silence and avoid direct confrontations, a reluctant intimacy sidestepping the ugly truth.
What follows is what I think is the pinnacle of the whole song. Our male protagonist, crushed by external forces and hiding in the shadow, finds himself rejected by his lover who chose avoidance. Desperate for the unspoken truth to be acknowledged, he reaches a boiling point:
Male:
Say it
The next line is the very first of the whole song, after so long, that the singer could finally burst open. His deepest wish, that very desire that his lover knows yet refuses to speak of, while he desperately begs for it to be spoken:
Male:
多麼想跟她公開的得到這世間的祝福
Oh how much I wish to openly receive this world's blessing with her
Now the audience's doubt has been answered -- the very reason why the two love each other yet feel so separately isolated, the situation they find themselves in that cannot be spoken out loud -- their love cannot be publicly accepted.
The song is about a story after all, and it has an ending. In the latter half, the emotional suppression pushes our two protagonists to the brink -- from enduring to breaking up, to emotional collapse, to their final reluctant acceptance. It is also really well done but I won't elaborate further here.
My Experience with Abrahim Chan
I've always enjoyed the lyrics of Cantopops, so I am not unfamiliar with Abrahim Chan's work. I still recall listening to 矛盾一生 A Life of Contradictions for the first time. The chorus goes:
矛盾只因深愛著，你知嗎?
All my internal conflicts stem from my deep love for you. Do you even know?
Such a profound and beautiful expression of vulnerability. It stirred up something in my heart. Yet when I decided to listen to it once again, I was disappointed to find the lyrics desynced from the title, with a main character overdramatic and incoherent.
I also love 3AM, sung again by AGA, whose lines depict such a touching imagery:
Maybe it is 3 am in the morning and I don't know how to say goodbye
如假開心，開心開始假得很，倒不攤開這張牌
If this happiness is so fake that this fake happiness starts to feel too fake, should we just be honest and show our hands?
Yet, taking a step back, I can only see the inconsistency in the character setting throughout, and it's such a shame.
Back then, during the Abrahim Chan Controversy 陳詠謙之亂 broke out in 2018, I also helped share and forward that viral article. Blogger 逆嘶亭 Yik Si Ting concisely pointed out the flaws of many Chan's pieces. Later, both industry insiders and outsiders have come out defending Chan, saying much of the criticism had been exaggerated. But today, I decided to reread the blog, and still found myself agreeing to most of its points.
Maybe most of my negative impressions of Chan stem from mere disappointment. He is so clearly talented at invoking emotional imagery. Every piece of lyrics he wrote most likely has a few lines that are deeply moving. Yet, he never seemed to be able to piece together a coherent masterpiece. Having experienced the pop scenes of many cultures, I still feel Cantonese songs have the greatest potential to carry poetic beauty -- a richness no other language could match. Perhaps that's why I hold such high expectations for the contemporary lyricists. I wish they could seize every opportunity to use Cantonese as a powerful medium to create heartfelt art.
That being said, maybe artistic journeys are about growth. An overthinking, self-doubting painter wastes a decade hesitating before they can gather up the courage to pick up their brush, but a thick-faced painter creates every single day. Among a hundred pieces of mediocrity, there may be one masterpiece. Thinking this way, perhaps we should all learn something from Abrahim Chan.
