Friday, May 26, 2006

Hong Kong: Bus Uncle says "I've got pressure"

Among the many items that caught my eye several days ago in the ever busy and informative local EastSouthWestNorth was a story titled Bus Uncle.

That story has now made today's (26 May 2006) Guardian. The Guardian credits an agency report, in this case Associated Press (25 May 2006). Both the AP and Guardian reports have, among other things, lame links to youtube.

Uncredited be either the Guardian or AP is the Hong Kong blogger who broke the story in the English-language medium: EastSouthWestNorth:
Excerpted from Apple Daily via InMediaHK:
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!
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

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