“I Love to be Brainwashed”
It’s been four years since the Finnish (those notorious malcontents) packaged their woes and miseries into a funny, ironic performance and called it the Helsinki Complaints Choir. Since then, people from Birmingham to Chicago have gotten into the act, but the concept only seems to have reached Asia in the past year. Tokyo pulled out all the stops in a spectacular performance. Hong Kong’s first Complaints Choir was formed last spring and it started performing over the summer.
While the lyrics of many other cities dwell on the mundane (bad bosses, annoying neighbours, the weather), Hongkongers have that Cantonese knack for complaining in a very big way, and it shows through in the Complaints Choir. Some of the big-ticket complaints include the demolition of the Star Ferry pier, the government’s inept planning of the West Kowloon Cultural District, overpriced real estate, the minibonds scandal, substandard public education, declining wages, the lack of universal suffrage, Cantopop, political gaffes, the Chinese melamine scandal, the TVs that blare incessantly on public buses, a sensationalistic and uncritical news media and just generally being a city of ju pah (butterface) girls and awkward guys.
Whew. They even manage to squeeze a sardonic Mandarin jab at the Chinese “Motherland” into the chorus. At least Hong Kong is better off than Singapore, which banned its Complaints Choir from performing in public.
Tags: Hong Kong
Sam Imberman says:
I’m surprised there hasn’t been one in Montreal yet. It’s not like there’s nothing to complain about here – or that Montrealers are particularly bad complainers…
January 6th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Christopher DeWolf says:
I was surprised too. In fact, there are very few Canadian or American complaint choirs, and the ones that do exist are somewhat less elaborate than their Scandinavian and Asian counterparts.
January 6th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
C says:
Interestingly, I saw in the creds that Ho Shan (PixelToy) and Ah-P (My Little Airport) were part of the production!
January 9th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Andrew says:
that was great.. thanks for sharing
January 10th, 2010 at 10:20 pm