Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies

1993 song by Beyond

“海闊天空 (Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies)”	“海闊天空 (Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies)”
Single by Beyond	Single by Beyond
from the album Rock and Roll	from the album Rock and Roll
Language	Cantonese
B-side	“What For”
Released	14 May 1993
Recorded	1993
Genre	- Pop rock - art rock
Length	5:24
Label	Warner Music Group
Songwriter	Wong Ka Kui
Producers	Beyond, Kunihiko Ryo
Chinese name	Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	海闊天空
Simplified Chinese	海阔天空
Cantonese Yale	Hói fut tīn hūng
Literal meaning	‘Sea Vast Sky Clear’
Music videos	Music videos
Music video (Rock Records edition) on YouTube	Music video (Rock Records edition) on YouTube
Music video (WEA edition) on YouTube	Music video (WEA edition) on YouTube

Transcriptions	Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin	Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Hǎi kuò tiān kōng
Wade–Giles	Hai3 k‘uo4 t‘ien1 k‘ung1
IPA	[xàɪ kʰwô tʰjɛ́n kʰʊ́ŋ]
Yue: Cantonese	Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Hói fut tīn hūng
Jyutping	hoi2 fut3 tin1 hung1
IPA	[hɔj˧˥ fut̚˧ tʰin˥ hʊŋ˥]

“Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies”¹² (Chinese: 海闊天空; Cantonese Yale: Hói fut tīn hūng; ‘Sea Vast Sky Clear’) is a song by the Hong Kong rock band Beyond. It was released for their studio album Rock and Roll (樂與怒; Lohk yúh nouh) on 14 May 1993, and remains massively popular.³ The song is an anthem of Cantonese rock music and one of Beyond’s signature songs.⁴ In 2022, it became the first Cantonese song to record over 100 million views on YouTube.⁵

It has been adopted for several events in Cantonese-speaking regions, such as the Artistes 512 Fund Raising Campaign for the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and most prominently as the unofficial anthem of the 2014 Hong Kong protests.⁶

Background

Ka Kui was inspired by his trip to Africa in 1990 (after which he also wrote one of his most popular songs “Amani” (“Peace” in Swahili)).⁷ Its theme—personal freedom and the pursuit of dreams—flowed from his disillusionment with the music industry.⁸³ It was written to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the band’s formation. However, Ka Kui died on 30 June 1993, around two months after the song’s release. It went on to gain critical acclaim and commercial success.

Release

The song has been also translated as “Under a Vast Sky”,³⁹ “Ocean Wide Sky High”,¹⁰ “Vast Seas, Clear Skies”,¹¹¹² and “Clear Skies, Vast Ocean”.¹³ The 1993 Taiwanese album sharing the Chinese name of the song officially translates the title of the song as “Hold On to My Dream”.

Beyond recorded a Japanese version, “Haruka naru yume ni Far away” (遥かなる夢に 〜Far away〜; literally “A Faraway Dream”).

Covers

In the 2003 Hong Kong movie Truth or Dare: 6th Floor Rear Flat, the song was performed 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, earning her third place.¹⁴ In 2012, Hong Kong a cappella group Metro Vocal Group released a cover on their album No Borders.¹⁵

External links

• “The Hong Kong Protests’ Anthem: “Under a Vast Sky”“, Voice Project, 1 October 2014
• 海闊天空 at Discogs (list of releases)

References

Footnotes

1. Hong, Brendon (23 October 2014). “Chinese Tourists Are Taking Hong Kong Protest Selfies”. The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014. ↩

2. Vittachi, Nury (14 October 2014). “Hong Kong’s Pop Culture of Protest”. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014. ↩

3. Wang, Joyu (1 October 2014). “The Story Behind the Hong Kong Protests’ Unofficial Anthem”. The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Seto Kit Yen; Angelin Yeoh. “The ’90s: When Cantopop ruled”. The Star. Malaysia. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014. ↩

5. “HK rock band Beyond’s classic ‘Hai Kuo Tian Kong’ viewed 100 million times on YouTube, first Cantonese song to reach milestone (VIDEO)”. Yahoo News. 15 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2025. ↩

6. “5 things about Canto-rock band Beyond’s Boundless Oceans Vast Skies, unofficial anthem of Hong Kong protesters”. The Straits Times. Singapore. 2 October 2014. Archived from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014. ↩

7. http://www.greenpeace.org Archived 16 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine. “www.greenpeace.org Archived 6 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine.” 雍容 政府與公共事務主任. Retrieved on 27 December 2010. ↩

8. Hong Kong’s rock song of freedom Archived 3 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine, BBC, 3 Jul 2018 ↩

9. Schumacher, Mary Louise (6 November 2014). “The enchanting art of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution”. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014. ↩

10. Yap, Ricky (20 October 2003). “Great ‘reunion’ and Beyond”. New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2014. Record no. 0FE60E1F039EA4FE from NewsBank. ↩

11. Lee Yueh Shien (19 October 2003). “Beyond music”. New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2014. Record no. 0FE60E268F3754F8 from NewsBank. ↩

12. “Greatest hits”. The Star. Malaysia. 30 June 2013. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2014. ↩

13. Lee Wing-Sze (8 July 2001). “Interviews ‘a form of art’”. South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014. ↩

14. 沒有雙臂又如何 中國頭號達人就是他 [How can an armless person be China’s top talent?] (in Chinese). CRI. 11 October 2010. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014. ↩

15. “元氣堂無伴奏唱廣東歌鬼佬正過你”. Apple Daily. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2015. ↩