Is it real?
I am a proud mother, I don't deny it. So have a look at my daughter's latest homework assignment. She was asked to make a music video for her Media Studies course. Click on the link and it will take you to You Tube where you can watch the video and listen to the music. She borrowed two gorilla costumes from a children's party company then was filmed 'at large' in Hong Kong. My daughter is the one wearing the scarf - otherwise she is unrecognizable!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGF8VULVSP4
Social Experiment
But I just have to comment on the social significance of this moment in time. Where else in the world could you parade around on the streets of a busy 'world' city in a gorilla suit and not be acknowledged unless, of course, you jumped in front of people and scared the life out of them. I think this says a lot about the compliance and inverted politeness, which may be misconstrued as aloofness, of Hong Kong people. They just want and expect things to be safe and to run on schedule, to be expected and routine. When, unusually, two people in gorilla costumes board the MTR their reaction is either "Ignore" "look down" "pretend it is not happening " or to whip out their mobile phone and take a picture of it preferably with the standard two fingered peace sign. This features in EVERY photograph ever taken by people from Hong Kong - if they don't do that particular pose then the photograph just gets deleted and lost forever.
Hello! Who the **** is Kitty?
often imagine Hong Kongers looking through their photograph albums looking at pictures of themselves in the same pose at various times of the year, all photos taken in shopping malls with some sort of Hello Kitty or Mini Mouse theme going on in the background. How dull!
Cheese or Cheers?
Actually there are a few more standard 'take a photograph with me" poses. As well as the two fingered peace sign there is the tongue out and sticking up to one side pose, this is borderline porn star but because of the naivety in this city it passes off as cute (some would say - but not me) and then there is the finger poked in the cheek pose while at the same time making a screwing motion with said finger, oh and obviously, the grin has to be unnaturally large and cheesy (or is that cheersy - saying 'Cheese' while having your photograph taken has been lost in translation and becomes 'Cheers'.
Dog Clothes
Oh and how could I forget photographs taken while posing but with the added interest of a dog dressed in clothes. Come to Sai Kung on a Sunday afternoon and see this for yourself.
Tourist Reaction
Significantly the Western tourists on Nathan Road were the only ones to embrace the fun in the situation and have some sort of concept about how to react. These people may possibly have travelledto other 'world' cities such as Paris or Barcelona or London and seen street theatre or just plain old busking. They know it's for fun, they are on holiday and up for a good time. Their reaction is different from the residents.
When I decide to do my Masters in Sociology I shall use this empirical evidence as the corner stone of my research.
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