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Excerpted from Apple Daily via InMediaHK:Here is the original report in English (24 May 2006) with direct links to the appropriate youtube clips as well as to merchandising opportunities and ring tones: EastSouthWestNorth
What is the most popular movie in Hong Kong? It is not M:i:3 (which is likely not to be shown in mainland China) and it is not Da Vinci Code (which is severely criticized by the Catholic Church). No, it is a stealth video clip entitled "巴士阿叔, Bus Uncle" on YouTube.
The incident occurred on the top deck of a Number 68X Kowloon bus on April 29. A young man observed that the middle-aged person in front of him was talking too loud on the mobile telephone. So he tapped the man's shoulder and asked him to keep the volume down. This led to a vigorous response, including a string of obscenities. The entire proceedings were recorded by another passenger using a mobile camera phone. The film was uploaded on YouTube and then seen by the whole wide world. As of May 19, 1.2 million people have watched the video clip!
This is a noisy species, with persistent and loud ku-OO ku-OO calls as well as other cackles and screams.So far unseen, but surely heard. Perhaps it perches in the higher reaches of one of the square's tall Chinese Banyan trees.
The white house was the secret prison used to imprison political prisoners and terrorists during the British colonial period. It also served as the training school for Hong Kong/British secret agents. Many famous people with ties to the Chinese Communist Party were prisoners here, including the famous 1960's actors Fu Qi and She Wei, the spy police inspector Tsang Chiu-Fo, etc. Since the prisoners had important key information that the government needed, the special agents at the white house would use any means including drugs and hypnosis to induce the prisoners to confess.It is, by all accounts, still a Government property and is often hired out to film crews. For pix and more: EastSouthWestNorth
A certain noble Finn traipsed all the way down the slope to restock the beer bucket. When he came back with armloads of booze. . . all except [the building's residents] and the noble Finn's spouse had decamped.Thanks also for photo (severely cropped by me), Dave A!
Several elderly parade viewers were treated for heat stroke and one floating girl fainted atop her pole before the parade began.Full report: Hongkong Standard
And about 34,000 visitors - 10,000 of whom left following the parade - brought brisk business to the island.
Lau Pang-kwai, owner of a Ta Hing incense store, said he enjoyed a 50 percent increase in sales, while Yen Lau said she expected to sell out her stock of 4,000 bun-theme pillows at HK$45 each and make up to HK$50,000.
Ended up going out for dinner with the beach bar people last night - 2nd night of the 3-day 'fast'. Follow us, we know where we can feed on meat. Kicked out of one place, we wandered seemingly aimlessly, arriving eventually at East Lake. We had our meal and while usually I recognise little of the food when eating with this group, the dishes served up where strangely familiar:Thanks, Mick S!
sweet&sour pork
fried squid
beef with onions
diced chicken with cashew nuts
fried fish pieces with beancurd
soy noodles with spring onions
Seems they were only willing to serve meat dishes to tourists and thus I had to act the token part. It was all nod, nod seeing as the owner and staff know me by name, if not always the same one.
So tradition is dead. And deserves to be. Setting aside the travesty of the resurrected bun scramble on the government run, steel frame tower 50 feet from the real towers, the one god burning you can't see for the nervous, fully clad firemen and the Tourist Asso' sponsored 2nd day march, the organisers this year decreed that ripping off the plastic wrappings on the China-made buns was too much trouble and that they be placed on the towers as they were. Result, crimson towers, glinting inappropriately in the TV lights.
The opera is pretty good though.
Off to an avoid-the-festival party soon. Think I'll assume the old bore persona, "assume" hah!, wistfully recalling old days when traditions were respected and all was right with the world. Won't mention the fact that the festival was moved off the beachfront in the late 60's to accommodate the tourist hordes. Some myths have to be protected.
I just saw the ATV late news and apart from telling its audience that the bun festival was on Saturday I'm sure they said there'd be special ferries and overnight buses TO Cheung Chau. Well, I want to be on one.Thanks, Mick S! Here's a preview.
According to historian Peter Linebaugh:
For more about the Red and Green as well as the remainder of Mr Toad's terrific poem: autonomediaOn May Day 1980 the Green and Red themes were combined when a former Buick auto-maker from Detroit, one "Mr. Toad," sat at a picnic table and penned the following lines,
The eight hour day is not enough;
We are thinking of more and better stuff.
So here is our prayer and here is our plan,
We want what we want and we'll take what we can.Down with wars both small and large,
Except for the ones where we're in charge:
Those are the wars of class against class,
Where we get a chance to kick some ass..For air to breathe and water to drink,
And no more poison from the kitchen sink.
For land that's green and life that's saved
And less and less of the earth that's paved.
