Wake up（384）

 

384

 

The teachers and students who gathered at the Cafe Bau restaurant in Hong Kong finally broke up. When the old dean Bai Yu, Hong Wenxuan, and Shen Zhirui left the restaurant, Nanyang Sheng, Wan Ru, Qin Xiling, Lin Beixue, Shen Haidong, and Zhou Yuzhong, the doctoral students, also went their separate ways and bid farewell to Cafe Bau.

Nanyangsheng and Wanru were driving on the way home. While driving, Wanru said to Nan Yangsheng: You are new to Hong Kong, and I will take you for a drive around this small harbor town known as the Pearl of the Orient.

Nan Yangsheng asked Wanru: What happened to the anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong?

Wanru turned on the music channel in the car casually, and she selected a Hong Kong song. She said to Nan Yangsheng: The song being played now is "May Glory to Hong Kong".

In Hong Kong’s anti-extradition and pro-democracy movement, after the song was released on the online audio-visual platform Youtube, it quickly spread to the streets of Hong Kong like wildfire. In less than two weeks, the hit rate exceeded 1.4 million. In shopping malls or squares in various parts of Hong Kong, you can see the mass chorus organized by the people spontaneously. In one night, more than ten districts relayed the chorus. representative song. It quickly resonated with Hong Kong people, united Hong Kong people together, and pushed the protest movement to another peak.

The crowd sang this song in a chorus everywhere, which became a new form of protest at that time. At the small concert at the recruiting booth of the Student Music Club of the University of Hong Kong, after several popular songs passed, the song "Glory to Hong Kong" sounded.

The lead singer said in an interview: "I feel very proud because I am a Hong Kong native. When I sang this song for the first time, I wanted to cry, because this is something we are really proud of. Hong Kong Our own value, our own freedom, is something we should be proud of, and this song fully expresses our feelings."

Wanru drove and stopped at Tsuen Wan Plaza in Hong Kong. She told Nan Yangsheng: On the night of September 11 that year, in this Tsuen Wan Plaza, the four-storey shopping mall hall was crowded with people. They turned on the flashlights on their mobile phones and waited quietly. When 9 o'clock came, the singing of "Glory to Hong Kong" slowly sounded in the crowd, and then spread rapidly...

For many Hong Kong citizens, this song reflects their mental journey since the struggle, and every word expresses their aspirations. A Mr. Liu at the scene told reporters: "The demonstrations in Hong Kong, our various activities in the 18 districts, and the road we have traveled together, this song expresses every step we take, every emotion, every thought in everyone's heart, What I want, when I sing this song, I actually have a lot of feelings in my heart, because many people's injuries and sacrifices are what they did for citizens like us. Our efforts, our common journey, we also want the Hong Kong government, and even governments around the world to pay attention to our Hong Kong affairs, to pay attention to the five demands expressed by our Hong Kong citizens. In fact, what we want is the autonomy of Hong Kong. Hong Kong has true universal suffrage."

Wan Ru said: This song is signed by Thomas dgx yhl, and other netizens in the Hong Kong Internet discussion forum Lian Deng.com collectively created it. The creator said that the name of the song has two meanings. The first is to look forward to the future and hope that Hong Kong can become everyone. Glorious, glorious city. The second meaning is that Hong Kong people are willing to attribute personal glory and glory to Hong Kong. And in the 190-character lyrics, which few words can touch the hearts of Hong Kong people the most? I think the most touching thing is that there is a saying in it that "the sons and daughters of our generation will revolutionize the era of justice", which means that the young people of our generation are the generation chosen by fate, and we must stick to our bright future with the people of this generation.

Wanru said: "The thing that touched me most about this song is that Hong Kong should be restored when the dawn comes. Now people say that the darkest time is when the dawn comes, but we don't know when the darkest time is in Hong Kong, but We also look forward to the dawn coming soon, so we feel that this song is very touching to us, and we will sing this song together."

Wanru said to Nan Yangsheng: "Going together with children, for justice, revolution of the times" that is to say, we are a family, and we are going to revolution because of the ideas we believe in, which is our own justice, and we are going to restore Hong Kong . "

The popularity of this song has led many Hong Kong people to call it the "National Anthem" of Hong Kong. Most young people think this song is like the national anthem, but I am not sure if everyone agrees with this statement. I think the younger generation of Hong Kong people will agree with this statement.

However, this statement touched Beijing's sensitive nerves and raised doubts about "Hong Kong independence" songs. On some occasions, pro-China people sang the Chinese national anthem to separate themselves from the protesters' singing.

Wanru said: "Hong Kong people do not want independence. Hong Kong people just want the democracy we should have, the dual universal suffrage we should have. As long as the central government responds to our demands, everything will be resolved quickly. So this song The song contains a lot of emotions, so every time I listen to it, every time I sing it, my emotions are a little excited, and I don’t know how to say it.”

Wanru added: "When we hear this song, it makes us feel hopeful. We can tell the government what we want. We think our campaign this time can tell the government that Hong Kong people will not give in so easily. Under this environment, then we hope that the freedom we want, the democracy we want can come to Hong Kong, we hope that under the one country, two systems, we can choose our chief executive, and we can have the freedom we could have had. "

Wanru chose another song on the music channel in the car. She said: In addition to "Glory to Hong Kong", the song "Les Miserables" was the most frequently sung in previous demonstrations in Hong Kong. Interlude, "Do You Hear The People Sing." and "Ask Who Hasn't Voiced," adapted into Cantonese.

Herbert Kreutzer, the English lyricist of "Do You Hear The People Sing", once wrote in the British Daily Mail that he was very happy that the demonstrators in Hong Kong could turn this song into their national anthem or group anthem .

In fact, these lyrics express the aspirations of Hong Kong people, why they stand up and what they are after. Some feelings of what Hong Kong people have experienced are all written in the lyrics "Glory to Hong Kong" can tell more people the ideas of Hong Kong people.

Wanru said to Nanyangsheng:

Speaking of Hong Kong culture, what do you think of? TV series, Hong Kong movies or Cantopop? Bruce Lee, Old Master Q, or Stephen Chow? Maybe it's Jin Yong's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and Ni Kuang's "Wesley", maybe it's Zhang Ailing and Xu Anhua's "Love in a Fallen City"; or, compared to the band beyond, you prefer the Daming School and my little airport... I don’t know where When did it start, rich cultural fruits have grown in this land dubbed the "cultural desert", providing all kinds of spiritual food for different generations with different tastes, and its influence even goes far beyond the Chinese-speaking world.

Culture can flourish and grow in this land of Hong Kong, which cannot be separated from the historical roots here. Before Hong Kong was ceded to Britain by the Manchu Qing in 1840, the region where the cosmopolitan city we know today was not even unified under the name "Hong Kong". After its opening as a port, Hong Kong became a cultural enclave—a mixed place of Chinese and Western cultures, where the various cultures brought by immigrants and refugees collided with each other, hybridizing a unique mixed species like the bauhinia, and even forming a cultural industry that occupies a place in the world. This kind of unique creativity also appeared everywhere in the anti-extradition law movement in 2019, and it has been transplanted overseas with the new wave of immigration from Hong Kong, and continues to grow like water.

How does history become a part of culture, and how is it condensed into symbols and preserved?

Wanru found a parking space at Tsuen Wan Plaza and parked the car. She and Nan Yangsheng walked in the square, and said to Nan Yangsheng with a smile:

I can tell you two Hong Kong stories, which may partially answer this question.

Walking on the streets of Hong Kong from the 1950s and 1960s to around the millennium, you will see those black square graffiti. They may appear on any surface that can be written on: walls, bridge piers, electrical boxes, lampposts, street signs... These texts vary in size, but they are generally neat and not rigid. The direction of the text is from top to bottom, most of the time from the right To the left, the content is mostly "Kowloon New China Huang Zeng Zao Wealth... Empress Wen Fucai..." "First ancestor Zeng Guangzhen, second generation ancestor Zeng Chaofeng, third generation ancestor Zeng Wensun Gong..." Continue reading, but find that the logic does not make sense , cannot be written. The text is sometimes mixed with some Arabic numerals, such as "66 years", and the word "King Huang" is often written very large.

Wanru smiled and said: These are all Zeng Zaocai's handwriting. Born in Guangdong in 1921, he came to Hong Kong in 1937 and worked various jobs for a living. When he was young, he worked as a cleaner at a garbage station. An accident caused his left foot to be injured. Since then, he has to rely on crutches to walk. It is said that when he returned to his hometown in his thirties to sort out the relics of his ancestors, he found a genealogy, which stated that part of the land in Kowloon was once a "food town" given to his ancestors before it was ceded to the United Kingdom. After belonging to the territory, they were deprived of their status as landlords of Kowloon. From then on, he called himself the "Emperor of Kowloon", and wrote on public property everywhere, accusing the Queen of England of illegally occupying his land and declaring his "sovereignty" over Kowloon.

Due to the graffiti problem, Zeng Zaocai had disputes with municipal officials and the police many times, and was repeatedly prosecuted, cautioned and fined. His family finally left him because they couldn't bear his graffiti habit. He lived alone on aid, but never gave up writing and suing. Later, some intellectuals became interested in his words, and even made secondary creations, including the famous Hong Kong designer Deng Dazhi and the pop band Beyond.

Today, the "Emperor of Kowloon" has "passed away" for nearly fifteen years, and there are very few authentic works of his "Mo Bao" left on the streets. However, his words have long been a part of Hong Kong's popular culture and history, and are one of the most well-known cultural symbols of Hong Kong's colonial period. These include from "Freedom Sē" to "Freedom hi".

" Sē" is Hong Kong-style traditional Chinese, the pronunciation is similar to "hi" in English, which means female sexual organs, and is a rough word in Cantonese. Although the word is commonly used in swear words, the word "Freedom" never existed before June 12, 2019.

On June 9 of that year, there was a historic 1.03 million anti-revision parade in Hong Kong, but the government immediately stated that night that it would continue the second reading of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. Hong Kong citizens then initiated the 612 National Strike, surrounded the government headquarters and the Legislative Council area, trying to prevent the passage of the bill. On the same day, the police caused conflicts when they cleared the venue in many places, which aroused great social repercussions.

In Hong Kong, shopping malls are generally private places, and unless they are clearly listed, the police are not allowed to enter at will to enforce the law. At 10 o'clock in the evening on June 12, a group of demonstrators rushed into Pacific Place to take shelter, and the Hong Kong Police Athlon team who followed them could only stay outside. A policeman blocked the gate with umbrellas and other debris, and shouted at the demonstrators inside: "Come out! Fuck your mother! Liberty!" It means: Come out! fuck your mother! Freedom!

This scene was recorded by "Stand News" which was broadcasting live on Facebook at the time. It also inspired the subsequent parade of 2 million people on June 16.

The term "freedom" has sparked heated discussions in Hong Kong society. The police's exports are dirty. This is not in line with the ethics of public officials in Hong Kong. It is a very outrageous behavior. Moreover, among the most frequently used words in Cantonese swearing, " Sē" is the only word aimed at women. Hong Kong's local swear words often use male organ words. Why does he only use this, especially when the demonstrators are male? In most cases? Furthermore, according to the rules of word formation, "XX Sē" can be used to describe people who believe in certain values, but why has "freedom" become a deprecated object of hatred? Au Jialin, a well-known Hong Kong current commentator, concluded in the article "The Nazis Hate Liberty the Most": "...Freedom, the finishing touch, brilliantly summed up the deep-seated contradictions of this confrontation; The confrontation of nationalism, collectivism, and fascism."

Hong Kong demonstrators expressed great anger at this insulting term with strong misogynistic overtones, and quickly turned it into self-deprecating ideas, such as making up the slogan "I would rather be a freedom fighter than a totalitarian turtle". Someone combined "freedom" and " Sē" to create a new word, which was also translated into English freedom-hi. As a result, "Freedom Sē" became "Freedom hi", which gradually evolved into a cultural symbol in the subsequent protest movement.

Wanru said to Nanyangsheng:

The two cultural symbols tell you that some real history may not be recorded in the annals of history, but it can leave traces in the culture, and it still maintains a strong vitality in the 25 years of change.