剛剛的北美之行,在演出之餘,當然也勾結了不少的當地的媒體。
#lgbtqInHongKong #CensorshipInChina #FreedomOfSpeech #LiberateHongKong #StandWithHongKong #CantoPop
//Anthony Wong’s Forbidden Colors
Out Hong Kong Canto-pop star brings his activism to US during his home’s protest crisis
BY MICHAEL LUONGO
From 1988’s “Forbidden Colors,” named for a 1953 novel by gay Japanese writer Yukio Mishima to this year’s “Is It A Crime?,” commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Hong Kong Canto-pop star Anthony Wong Yiu-ming has combined music and activism over his long career. As Hong Kong explodes in revolt against Beijing’s tightening grip with the One Country, Two Systems policy ticking to its halfway point, Wong arrived stateside for a tour that included ’s Gramercy Theatre.
Gay City News caught up with 57-year-old Wong in the Upper West Side apartment of Hong Kong film director Evans Chan, a collaborator on several films. The director was hosting a gathering for Hong Kong diaspora fans, many from the New York For Hong Kong (NY4HK) solidarity movement.
The conversation covered Wong’s friendship with out actress, model, and singer Denise Ho Wan-see who co-founded the LGBTQ group Big Love Alliance with Wong and recently spoke to the US Congress; the late Leslie Cheung, perhaps Asia’s most famous LGBTQ celebrity; the threat of China’s rise in the global order; and the ongoing relationship among Canto-pop, the Cantonese language, and Hong Kong identity.
Wong felt it was important to point out that Hong Kong’s current struggle is one of many related to preserving democracy in the former British colony that was handed back to China in 1997. While not his own lyrics, Wong is known for singing “Raise the Umbrella” at public events and in Chan’s 2016 documentary “Raise the Umbrellas,” which examined the 2014 Occupy Central or Umbrella Movement, when Hong Kong citizens took over the central business district for nearly three months, paralyzing the city.
Wong told Gay City News, “I wanted to sing it on this tour because it was the fifth anniversary of the Umbrella Movement last week.”
He added, “For a long time after, nobody wanted to sing that song, because we all thought the Umbrella Movement was a failure. We all thought we were defeated.”
Still, he said, without previous movements “we wouldn’t have reached today,” adding, “Even more so than the Umbrella Movement, I still feel we feel more empowered than before.”
Hong Kong’s current protests came days after the 30th anniversary commemorations of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, known in China as the June 4th Incident. Hong Kong is the only place on Chinese soil where the Massacre can be publicly discussed and commemorated. Working with Tats Lau of his band Tat Ming Pair, Wong wrote the song “Is It A Crime?” to perform at Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen commemoration. The song emphasizes how the right to remember the Massacre is increasingly fraught.
“I wanted our group to put out that song to commemorate that because to me Tiananmen Square was a big enlightenment,” a warning of what the Beijing government will do to those who challenge it, he said, adding that during the June 4 Victoria Park vigil, “I really felt the energy and the power was coming back to the people. I really felt it, so when I was onstage to sing that song I really felt the energy. I knew that people would go onto the street in the following days.”
As the genre Canto-pop suggests, most of Wong’s work is in Cantonese, also known as Guangdonghua, the language of Guangdong province and Hong Kong. Mandarin, or Putonghua, is China’s national language. Wong feels Beijing’s goal is to eliminate Cantonese, even in Hong Kong.
“When you want to destroy a people, you destroy the language first, and the culture will disappear,” he said, adding that despite Cantonese being spoken by tens of millions of people, “we are being marginalized.”
Canto-pop and the Cantonese language are integral to Hong Kong’s identity; losing it is among the fears driving the protests.
“Our culture is being marginalized, more than five years ago I think I could feel it coming, I could see it coming,” Wong said. “That’s why in my music and in my concerts, I kept addressing this issue of Hong Kong being marginalized.”
This fight against the marginalization of identity has pervaded Wong’s work since his earliest days.
“People would find our music and our words, our lyrical content very apocalyptic,” he explained. “Most of our songs were about the last days of Hong Kong, because in 1984, they signed over the Sino-British declaration and that was the first time I realized I was going to lose Hong Kong.”
Clarifying identity is why Wong officially came out in 2012, after years of hints. He said his fans always knew but journalists hounded him to be direct.
“I sang a lot of songs about free love, about ambiguity and sexuality — even in the ‘80s,” he said, referring to 1988’s “Forbidden Colors.” “When we released that song as a single, people kept asking me questions.”
In 1989, he released the gender-fluid ballad “Forget He is She,” but with homosexuality still criminalized until 1991, he did not state his sexuality directly.
That changed in 2012, a politically active year that brought Hong Kongers out against a now-defunct plan to give Beijing tighter control over grade school curriculum. Raymond Chan Chi-chuen was elected to the Legislative Council, becoming the city’s first out gay legislator. In a concert, Wong used a play on the Chinese word “tongzhi,” which has an official meaning of comrade in the communist sense, but also homosexual in modern slang. By flashing the word about himself and simultaneously about an unpopular Hong Kong leader considered loyal to the Chinese Communist Party, he came out.
“The [2012] show is about identity about Hong Kong, because the whole city is losing its identity,” he said. “So I think I should be honest about it. It is not that I had been very dishonest about it, I thought I was honest enough.”
That same year he founded Big Love Alliance with Denise Ho, who also came out that year. The LGBTQ rights group organizes Hong Kong’s queer festival Pink Dot, which has its roots in Singapore’s LGBTQ movement. Given the current unrest, however, Pink Dot will not be held this year in Hong Kong.
As out celebrities using their star power to promote LGBTQ issues, Wong and Ho follow in the footsteps of fellow Hong Konger Leslie Cheung, the late actor and singer known for “Farewell My Concubine” (1993), “Happy Together” (1997), and other movies where he played gay or sexually ambiguous characters.
“He is like the biggest star in Hong Kong culture,” said Wong, adding he was not a close friend though the two collaborated on an album shortly before Cheung’s 2003 suicide.
Wong said that some might think he came to North America at an odd time, while his native city is literally burning. However, he wanted to help others connect to Hong Kong.
“My tool is still primarily my music, I still use my music to express myself, and part of my concern is about Hong Kong, about the world, and I didn’t want to cancel this tour in the midst of all this unrest,” he said. “In this trip I learned that I could encourage more people to keep an eye on what is going on in Hong Kong.”
Wong worries about the future of LGBTQ rights in Hong Kong, explaining, “We are trying to fight for the freedom for all Hong Kongers. If Hong Kongers don’t have freedom, the minorities won’t.”
That’s why he appreciates Taiwan’s marriage equality law and its leadership in Asia on LGBTQ rights.
“I am so happy that Taiwan has done that and they set a very good example in every way and not just in LGBT rights, but in democracy,” he said.
Wong was clear about his message to the US, warning “what is happening to Hong Kong won’t just happen to Hong Kongers, it will happen to the free world, the West, all those crackdowns, all those censorships, all those crackdowns on freedom of the press, all this crackdown will spread to the West.”
Wong’s music is banned in Mainland China because of his outspokenness against Beijing.
Like other recent notable Hong Kong visitors including activist Joshua Wong who testified before Congress with Ho, Wong is looking for the US to come to his city’s aid.
Wong tightened his body and his arms against himself, his most physically expressive moment throughout the hour and a half interview, and said, “Whoever wants to have a relationship with China, no matter what kind of relationship, a business relationship, an artistic relationship, or even in the academic world, they feel the pressure, they feel that they have to be quiet sometimes. So we all, we are all facing this situation, because China is so big they really want the free world to compromise.”
(These remarks came just weeks before China’s angry response to support for Hong Kong protesters voiced by the Houston Rockets’ general manager that could threaten significant investment in the National Basketball Association by that nation.)
Wong added, “America is the biggest democracy in the world, and they really have to use their influence to help Hong Kong. I hope they know this is not only a Hong Kong issue. This will become a global issue because China really wants to rule the world.”
Of that prospect, he said, “That’s very scary.”//
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cantopop identity 在 喬寶寶 Qbobo Facebook 的最佳貼文
Love is everywhere❤️
[#WrittenBySimon] From Gill Paul to Qbobo: Prime act of an Indian Hongkonger
Gill Mohindepaul Singh may not be a familiar name to most Hongkongers but how about Qbobo (literally cute baby in Cantonese)?
We got to know him through TVB.
Many Hongkongers were amazed by this hunky Indian’s versatile, hilarious dance and juggling and most importantly, his almost irreproachable Cantonese. He shot to fame shortly after his maiden appearance in the reality TV show Minutes To Fame in 2005. That was how he earned his affectionate stage name “Qbobo”.
Qbobo was born to a Hong Kong Indian family in 1969. Before making his first splash into the entertainment industry, he worked as an assistant officer at the Correctional Services Department for more than 16 years.
In the next decade, as one of TVB’s most beloved actors, he appeared in more than 40 TV dramas, in particular sitcoms, and in a dozen comedy and action movies as well.
But his growing cult following among locals, including South Asians, didn’t help when his wife, who had been living in Hong Kong for more than 20 years, was denied a Hong Kong passport in 2012.
His wife originally planned to apply for the travel document for easier trips to Scotland where her younger son was attending school and receiving treatment for spine problems.
The Immigration Department didn’t bother with any explanation for the flat refusal, citing “confidentiality”.
Qbobo told media it was a big letdown and he couldn’t understand why since many of their fellow Indians in Hong Kong who couldn’t speak fluent Cantonese could get their Hong Kong passports.
That, ultimately, forced the couple to decide to emigrate to Scotland for the sake of their children. Like all the new arrivals there, Qbobo had to be physically in Scotland for the most part of the initial years so as to qualify for residency. That forced him, very reluctantly, to bid farewell to his fans in Hong Kong.
Qbobo started a new chapter in his performing career a year later when he returned to Hong Kong. In July, with the help of stenographers, he published a book in Chinese, Made In Hong Kong, a memoir of his own life and that of other South Asians. It’s a first-person account of the living history of Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities.
“Hong Kong is my home. I’m always proud of my Hong Kong identity,” he wrote on the cover of the book.
“We also love fish balls and steamed rice rolls. We also grew up watching Bruce Lee and Stephen Chow movies. We South Asians are all made in Hong Kong. Can society count us as Hongkongers?” he asked at the end of the book.
I recently had a casual chat with Qbobo, in Cantonese of course.
==================
Shen: Many of your fans are still curious about your family. Tell us how you grew up in Hong Kong.
Qbobo: My grandfather went from India to Shanghai alone in the 1930s and worked in the British Settlement. Later, he raised his own family there. They all fled to Hong Kong after China fell to the communists in 1949.
I went to Matteo Ricci Primary School, where most of the students were locals, and very quickly learned to speak Cantonese and how to use chopsticks.
My father was rather worried that I might become too “Chinese” and decided to send me to Sir Ellis Kadoorie school (Sookunpoo), a government school for ethnic minorities, so as to mingle more with my compatriots and other South Asians.
I joined the Hong Kong Correctional Services and I started to pick up my Cantonese with the help of local colleagues. I ended up spending 16 years there.
I don’t think my childhood was anything different from other Chinese kids back then. We all played in street parks, adored Cantopop singers like Leslie Cheung, Alan Tam and Samuel Hui, watched TVB’s children show 430 Space Shuttle every afternoon, and of course went to movies for Bruce Lee, Chow Yun-fat and Stephen Chow.
Shen: But still you live in two cultures — the local one and the Indian one. How did that influence your childhood?
Qbobo: I usually ate a lot of fishballs after school and I also used chopsticks like my classmates. But at home my father always wanted us not to forget our own culture and where we were from. We spoke Punjabi, went to Sikh Temples and all family members would put on traditional clothing (long loose trousers and a long sleeved jacket for men, long trousers over dress known as Salwar Kameez and Chuni (scarf) to cover the head for women) every Sunday.
Shen: What made you give up your job to become an actor?
Qbobo: Perhaps I was born with a penchant for acting. I liked to sing Alan Tam songs so my colleagues signed me up for a TVB reality show in 2005. At the beginning, I just wanted to let people know that South Asians could also sing in Cantonese.
I entered the finals and got many show invitations and so I resigned from the Correctional Services.
I wanted to project a positive image for Indians and other South Asians in the city. Throughout history people from India contributed greatly to Hong Kong — most of the officers were Indians in the earliest days of the disciplined services, the University of Hong Kong was established with large donations from Sir Mody and other Indian businessmen, the Star Ferry was founded by an Indian Parsee merchant and we all know that CLP is owned by the Kadoorie family from Mumbai.
But the government is now under fire for taking in refugees from South Asia and granting them non-refoulement permissions. This has somehow affected how Hong Kong society sees the entire South Asian community.
Shen: Why did you want to publish the book?
Qbobo: I had the idea for years. I have always been wondering what makes a person a genuine Hongkonger. Are Hongkongers ethnic Chinese only? As a metropolis Hong Kong has residents of all races and color. Since I was born and raised here, I consider myself a Hongkonger, even though some may not agree.
Racial discrimination is everywhere in this world and the problem in Hong Kong is not that serious by comparison. I have the luck to be an actor and I hope I can do something to raise people’s awareness of the life and rights of South Asians who also live here.
Shen: Since you’ve also lived in Scotland as well, tell me which place you like more, Hong Kong or Scotland?
Qbobo: I still love Hong Kong more, it’s my home.
We emigrated because we had to plan for our kids after my wife was denied a Hong Kong passport. We tried our best to settle into society but sadly there are still some hurdles, some arise from government policies or the system itself.
One more thing, Hong Kong’s political status is worrying, with all the dissension among people getting deeper rather than healing up. The housing problem has shown no sign of improvement either… Homes are getting ever smaller and more expensive.
All parents want a better future for their kids, so do we.
Shen: What are the problems and difficulties South Asians face in Hong Kong?
Qbobo: It’s not easy for Indians, Pakistanis or Nepalese to find a job. If you don’t speak Cantonese or can’t write or read Chinese, you just can’t get hired even if you have a college diploma.
Say if there is also a Westerner candidate who doesn’t know Chinese either, the chances are that the white guy is more likely to land the job.
Chinese language capabilities are vital for South Asians if they seek to move up the ladder and thus the government has been allocating more resources to training programs and vocational Chinese language courses.
Shen: How do you plan for your future career? Are we going to see more of your TV dramas and movies?
Qbobo: My wife wants me to go back to Scotland to spend more time with her and our kids and I think I may call it a day for my career in three to four years’ time, perhaps in 2020.
But I will always carry my Hong Kong identity even if I leave and don’t come back one day. Hong Kong is always my home.