I met Ching-wah Lam in September 1996 in Shandong at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the China''s Traditional Music Society Conference, during which I listened to his academic reports for the first time. I can recall vividly that his report was on the music exchanges between China and the West in the 18th century. Then he had collected rich materials and presented a thorough analysis that impressed all participants. It was the early days of China''s economic reform and social opening-up, and scholars in China were eager to gain experience of the research from the West.
Lam''s presentation fitted well with China''s academic environment and complemented the needs of Chinese music scholars, It came to my mind that Hong Kong had not reverted to China then, but there would be much more exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong in the future. His research area will enable scholars of two sides to learn from one another.