"Cantonese Boy" is a song by English new wave band

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, released in May 1982 as the fourth and final

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

from their 1981 album '' Tin Drum''. The single peaked at number 24 on the UK Singles Chart. The song refers to the

enlistment Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

of a

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

boy to the

Chinese Red Army The Chinese Red Army, formally the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army( zh, labels=no, t=中國工農紅軍) or just the Red Army( zh, labels=no, t=紅軍), was the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1928 to 1937. I ...

Release

"Cantonese Boy" was released with the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

"Burning Bridges" on the

7-inch single In music, a single is a type of release of a song recording of fewer tracks than an album ( LP), typically one or two tracks. A single can be released for sale to the public in a variety of physical or digital formats. Singles may be standa ...

, taken from the band's previous album ''

Gentlemen Take Polaroids ''Gentlemen Take Polaroids'' is the fourth studio album by the English band Japan, released in November 1980 by Virgin Records. Background ''Gentlemen Take Polaroids'' was the band's first album for the Virgin Records label after leaving Han ...

''. The 12-inch single two different B-sides: "The Experience of Swimming" and "

", which were originally released on the "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" single in October 1980. A double 7-inch single was also released: the 7-inch single of "Cantonese Boy" and the two 12-inch B-sides, switched around, making it exactly the same as the "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" single.

Reception

Reviewing the song for ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...

'', Sunie Fletcher described it as "a skillful, fluent and textured piece of music" and that as a single "it's a less obvious proposition than its predecessors, "

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" and " Visions of China"", as "its chief shortcoming is the lack of a

hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved/bent back or has a deeply grooved indentation, which serves to grab, latch or in any way attach itself onto another object. The hook's d ...

, as they say in the trade, but it's pleasurable listening for all that". Dave Rimmer for ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'' wrote that it is "a good song", but "can't really be counted as much more than a stop-gap measure until the boys in rouge re-unite and pen something new".

Track listings

7": Virgin / VS 502 (UK) # "Cantonese Boy" – 3:44 # "Burning Bridges" – 5:20 Double 7": Virgin / VS 502 (UK) # "Cantonese Boy" – 3:44 # "Burning Bridges" – 5:20 # "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" – 3:28 # "The Experience of Swimming" – 4:02 12": Virgin / VS 502-12 (UK) # "Cantonese Boy" – 3:44 # "The Experience of Swimming" – 4:02 # "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" – 7:06

Personnel

Japan *

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt; 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan (band), Japan. During his time in Japan, Sylvia ...

– vocals, keyboards, tapes *

Richard Barbieri Richard Barbieri (born 30 November 1957) is an English musician, composer and sound designer. Originally a member of new wave band Japan (and their brief 1989–1991 reincarnation as Rain Tree Crow), he became the keyboard player in the prog ...

– keyboards, tapes *

Mick Karn Andonis Michaelides (Greek: Αντώνης Μιχαηλίδης; 24 July 1958 – 4 January 2011), better known as Mick Karn, was a British musician who rose to fame as the bassist for the art rock/ new wave band Japan. His distinctive fretles ...

– bass guitar *

Steve Jansen Steve Jansen (born Stephen Ian Batt, born 1 December 1959) is an English musician, composer and record producer. Biography Jansen was a founding member of the band Japan (band), Japan, along with his brother David Sylvian (vocals, guitars and ...

– drums, percussion Technical *

Steve Nye Steve Nye is an English music producer for several artists. Career Nye started out as a tape op at AIR Studios in London in 1971, where producer Rupert Hine discovered him. There he got into engineering (and later producing) many well-known ...

– engineer, mixing, producer * Phil Bodger – assistant engineer * David Sylvian – cover design * Steve Jansen – cover photography * Allan Ballard – photography of Japan * Ken Ansell –

lettering Lettering or Lettering design is an act or result of artfully drawing letters, instead of writing them simply. Lettering is considered an art form, where each letter in a phrase or quote acts as an illustration. Each letter is created with attent ...

Charts

References

{{authority control 1982 singles Songs written by David Sylvian Japan (band) songs 1982 songs Virgin Records singles