We’ll talk about who’s who in the Hong Kong music industry… though not a loyal follower of any of them, a little exposure won’t hurt so I’ll try to showcase their (imo) best songs.
The 23-yr-old Tang Tsz Kei, better known as her stage name “G.E.M.” (aka “Get Everybody Moving”), has been dominating the industry for the recent years, and it’s no wonder why with works like,
G.E.M. – A.I.N.Y.
… and this cover down below that got everyone cray-cray (no, srsly, I MEAN IT, like you have no fucking idea how many people sang this shit in my high school’s (and other) music contests!!!)
G.E.M. – Intoxicated
Every contestants “whoring” out on 3:45 lol
My fave (do people still say “fave”?) song of her:
G.E.M. – Get Over You
All’s well and good until she made a remark, “Ai Guo, Ai Gang” (“Love China, Love Hong Kong”), during the Occupy Central/Umbrella Revolution, which a lot of Hong Kongers deemed as a “pussy move” and trying to “kiss at China’s ass” as to not affect her “RMBs” (ok that last one gave me a chuckle haha). She’s been getting a lot of backlash and fans were voicing their disappointment in her, though I believe people shouldn’t have any “political obligation”, or support whoever the heck they like…
Will she recover from this setback? One can only hope.
Next up is Joey Yung, one of the most successful HK singers to date.
Joey Yung – 小小 (“Little Little”)
She has an estimated income of $29,200,000 RMB last year in 2013, making her the highest paid Hong Kong-based Cantopop singer. I’m not really a big fan of her even though she was on the radio all the time before… maybe because my elementary music teacher tried to shove this song and this song in our class (I have a low-ish voice so it was TORTURE to make me sing those..!!), or perhaps I hated how they were overplayed… Her presence seems to be diminishing, but with her steady fan base in China and Taiwan, she’s a force to be reckon with and should not be easily make light off.
Twins, Cantopop duo consisting of Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung, are every girls’ childhood memories and “big sis” who they looked up to.
Twins – 女人味 (“Womanly”)
Thank you SO much “Audition Online”!
Unfortunately, the group was never the same after naked pictures of Gillian and Edison Chen (another local actor/musician) surfaced on the internet forums. Now, Hong Kong is NOT like the US that if some celeb releases a sex tape or nudies, they get more famous and get more “opportunities” (Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton to name a few). Gillian had to actually hide from the public eyes for 2 years and apologize for her “actions”.
They did reunite in 2010 and after the Jennifer Lawrence leak pics, Gillian finally had the courage to comment, “So you guys peek at the photos and have the balls to scold her?”
That’s it for today. I wanted to share 3 more artists but apparently it’ll be too long so next time I guess!
G.E.M.:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/G.E.M.OfficialPage/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gem0816/
Joey Yung:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yungjoey
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yungchoyee/
Twins:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eegtwins?fref=ts
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TwinsHK/featured
Ms Applesauce 
Totally interesting what you chose to showcase and highlight for your slice of popular HK music. I like knowing what was most popular in your high school there. It makes the song more personal and approachable having that detail.
I hate the use of “pussy” as a derogatory term because it just infers women are weak. As if to call someone a woman would be not just an insult but the worst insult. I mean I know I’m shouting into the wind when I bring this up… it’s such a commonly used term now… and what am I gonna do, ban rap? Oh well, I don’t mean to tangent… but too bad on that… although I was kind of wondering about the Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution as I listened to her (and before I read your review). Maybe she was required to say what she said on a certain “commercial” level as an artist in China…I mean, like she had to be pro China too? I think political action for artists can be dangerous in China, (like with Wei Wei) so her fans are understandably upset, but she’s in a difficult position if she wants to make her music. Her fans are ultimately fighting for her rights to be an artist with greater freedom to express herself so it’s too bad there isn’t more room for what the people of Hong Kong want.
We are use to our artists getting politically involved in the U.S. and art has a natural resistance to censorship… just by being… so I feel all art is political. Not that musicians are required to do anything more than make the music, but then G.E.M is the one who brought it all up by announcing what she did to a crowd that was sensitive at the time. She also uses a lot of christian cross symbols openly and so her evangelism is a political action essentially. If she loses fans because she is out of touch with her fan base, it only makes sense. But I don’t imagine it happening. I think China will keep her going. Look at all the production investment. No, she’s not going to go away easily.
Sorry for waxing political… I can’t help it tho. I’m an artist who believes all art is political (if not propaganda) but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun…
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Thanks for the comment! This will be a bit long since I’ll try to explain the situation with G.E.M. so bear with me…
Well, the same thing can be said about “dick”, implying all men are jerks! I personally haven’t seen anyone had any qualms on either uses… but it’s a nice angle to think about, now that you mention it.
Ok, first of all HK kinda has a complicated relationship with China. First, they don’t like the “Mainlanders” tourists… since they pee on the subway (or let their child pee in there), they “squat” on the ground while waiting for the bus (which people over here see as “uncivilized”), cut in line etc etc… when I was in high school, I was on a trip to hear a talk about Hotel Management and the woman told us her experience working in a hotel that the hotel had to make their rules stricter since a lot of things were stolen, and yes, Mainlanders were the ones who did those (even stole a hair dryer!) And years ago when my friend was in China, she told me her friend’s dog got “dognapped” when she turned around for a split second… and you know what happens to the dogs over there,,, (they get cooked and are sold in some restaurants).
Second, some Mainlanders rush over here and try to live here and “reap” the benefits… did you know some pregnant Mainlanders will come here illegally just to be rushed at the hospital so they can give birth to their child in here? They’d rather pay 10k for a private hospital bed so their child would have HK benefits (i.e. passport, better facilities etc), and that has led to a lot of pregnant mothers here very angry since the hospital beds are already limited enough, (Have you heard that if you compare the HK’s population density to the world’s… it would be like fitting everyone in Egypt? That’s how crowded we are.) And also, that’s why people here are especially mad since some of them who live in SHENZHEN, (yes, SHENZHEN) would rush over here to apply for kindergarten spots for their child… That would take at least 2-4 hrs commute time for their child! It’s really insane. Here is one article if you’re interested: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1342176/hong-kong-and-mainland-parents-feel-pressure-kindergarten-chaos
Third, we really aren’t happy along with the hospital beds, they have to come here and “grab” our milk. Yes, since that incident in 2008 where infants in China died due to melamine in their milk powder, they’re afraid to buy milks in their country so they come here. Some of them try to grab as much milk and sell it at a high price back in China – it was so bad that the HK government had to put a 2-can-of-milk-powder-per-person (or 1.8 kg) quota for people travelling from HK to China. Yes, it’s ILLEGAL to smuggle milk powder.
Now, even though I’ve listed a lot of negative stuffs of them, I’d like to think I’m neutral to Mainlanders (well, first, I actually call them that instead of the new term “Locusts”). Since you know facebook and a bunch of other social media and stuffs in general are censored in China, and them trying to shove their restrictions over here, you can imagine why people aren’t happy with her not “standing up” for her beloved city. China has made it clear that they’d stop/ban the sales of certain artists/singers’ work if they don’t “pledge” “love China, love HK”. But what G.E.M. did made her look really, REALLY bad, especially when you have actors like Chow Yun Fat trying to stand up for the protests and when asked about his (imminent) declining sales in China, he said, “Well, that just means I’ll earn less then!”
But yeah, she probably would have fared better if she kept silent instead of saying that.
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Dicks are considered powerful. Pussies are considered weak tho. The actual symbols historically are yin-yang. Dark and receptive= female. Light and creative= male. That’s in the I-Ching among other things. So you might not feel or be aware of the effects of the slurs, but I am. And so are a lot of other women. Anyhow, language is tricky. Depends on when where how and what company. So it all gets hypocritical… (but this is not really the point!) I’m not offended as much as I’m aware of it being ingrained sexism. Ignoring it perpetuates a lot of stereotypes. I like to challenge those when I can.
But about your actual blog post…
I appreciate you taking the time to tell me what it’s like for you there. It sounds complicated and intense.
I had heard about the milk, as many women from here send breast milk evidently to help… as I understand it, they are not selling it but volunteering their milk I guess.
Population issues will eventually become a problem for most of the world, I’m afraid… hopefully we can all come up with some sustainable solutions…
In the meantime, we shall have to keep playing music! 🙂 Peace to you.
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