Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies
| "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Beyond | |
| from the album Rock and Roll | |
| Language | Cantonese |
| Published | May 1993 |
| Released | May 1993 |
| Recorded | April 1993 |
| Genre | Rock and roll |
| Length | 5:26 |
| Label | Warner Music |
| Songwriter(s) | Wong Ka Kui |
| Music video | |
| Music video (Rock Records edition) at YouTube | |
| Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies | |||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 海闊天空 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 海阔天空 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | sea wide sky empty | ||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | hǎi kuò tiān kōng |
| IPA | [xàikʰwôtʰjɛ́nkʰʊ́ŋ] |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| IPA | Cantonese pronunciation: [hɔːi fuːt tʰiːn hʊŋ] |
| Jyutping | hoi2 fut3 tin1 hung1 |
"Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies" (Chinese: 海闊天空; Jyutping: hoi2 fut3 tin1 hung1; lit. "sea wide sky empty") is a song performed by Beyond, the Hong Kong band. Being released on 1993 in the Cantonese album Rock and Roll, the song was massively popular. The song has been also translated as "Under a Vast Sky", "Ocean Wide Sky High", "Vast Seas, Clear Skies", and "Clear Skies, Vast Ocean". The song has been an anthem of Cantonese rock music and one of Beyond's signature songs. The iconic song was adopted in different protests in Cantonese-speaking regions, most prominently as the unofficial anthem of the 2014 Hong Kong protests.
The song was mainly written by Wong Ka Kui and accompanied by other band members. The theme of this song is dreams and freedom. The backdrop was Wong's disillusionment with the music industry. It was written to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the band's formation. However, the band vocalist Wong Ka Kui died on 30 June 1993, after around two months the song was released. The song gained critical acclaim and commercial success.
Beyond recorded a Mandarin version, "Hai Kuo Tian Kong" (same Chinese characters pronounced in Mandarin), for the and a Japanese version, "Haruka naru yume ni ~Far away~" (遥かなる夢に 〜Far away〜?, literally "A Faraway Dream").
In the 2003 Hong Kong movie Truth or Dare: 6th Floor Rear Flat, the song was played and sung live by Teresa Carpio, where it was interpreted as the sacrifice a mother had made for her son.
In 2010, Cai Xiuqing (蔡岫勍) performed the song for China's Got Talent, which earned her third place and in 2012, Hong Kong a cappella group Metro Vocal Group released a cover in their album No Borders.
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