Real Hong Kong News
1 November 2021
Malaysian singer-songwriter Namewee published the music video of his new duet “Fragile” (mandarin “玻璃心” literal meaning: “Glass Heart”) featuring Australian-Malaysian singer Kimberley Chen on 16 October 2021 on Youtube. Within two days, the music video had been viewed four million times, making it the No.1 hit on Youtube in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Although its ranking on the trending worldwide chart dropped after two weeks (30 October), the video recorded over 20 million views.
Soon after the song’s debut, Namewee and Kimberley Chen’s Weibo accounts were removed. While the tune comes across like a catchy love song and the lyrics could be interpreted as a couple arguing, most think that the lyrics are full of metaphors that mock Xi Jinping, the CCP and “Little Pink”s.
“Little Pink” is a nickname for Chinese nationalists who troll netizens of every country (particularly those from Hong Kong and Taiwan) accusing them of insulting Chinese (as an ethnicity and as a culture) and deeming their opinions as hurtful of Chinese people’s feelings (a commonplace CCP official response). These Chinese nationalists are also known as “Glass Hearts”, as they frequently find news reports (often related to Hong Kong and Taiwan) and netizens comments “offensive” if they are not following the CCP party line. In fact, celebrities like John Cena, sports organisations like NBA and major global corporates like GAP have had to apologise because of their non-politically-correct (in China’s terms) comments or products. See John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight show for more.
While you might think that no-one will tolerate any “insults” towards their home-country, and that Chinese nationalists have the right to be offended and attack the singers, it is worth knowing that China is not the only country Namewee has used as an inspiration for his music.
Namewee is well known for producing music loaded with humour on cultural differences across Asia (e.g. Tokyo Bon, Ghost Island (Taiwan), Thai Love Song and Thai Cha Cha), his despisal of talent shows and his interests in Cantonese. Response from Youtubers and other netizens on these creations are, more often than not, positive.
Kimberley Chen’s musical career began when she was 15 in Australia. When she faced Chinese nationalists’ abuse online, and was banned from Weibo over her participation in producing Fragile, Kimberley made a short video to say that the importance of freedom of expression trumps that of having a profitable career.
Namewee’s latest hit may have touched a nerve with Chinese nationalists, he received significant support from the online community and compliments to Kimberley’s singing techniques, as evident by the rankings and views particularly, including this Hip-Hop remix. It’s worth noting that the “Triggered Little Pink” phenomenon has long been trending in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and many KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) have produced videos mocking these Chinese nationalists, well before Namewee’s music video.
Although there are English subtitles in the music video, RHKN finds that the translation sometimes does not convey the cleverness (e.g. play on word) of the lyrics: To help readers grasp the nuances, we have translated the lyrics into English below line-by-line and added some background and interpretations:
| 說的話 你從來都不想聽 | You never really listen to what I say |
| 卻又滔滔不絕出征反擊 | But never stop arguing back |
| 不明白 到底辱了你哪裡 | Don’t understand how I have insulted you |
| 總覺得世界與你為敵 | (You) Always think that the world’s against you |
| 你說我 (屬於你) | You said I (belong to you) |
| 別逃避 (快回家裡) | Don’t fight it (come home soon) |
| 一點都不能少都讓你贏 (不講道理) | Not a bit less, you must win it all (can’t reason with you) |
| 你要我 (去說明) | You want me (to explain) |
| 不可分割的關係 | Our inseparable relationship |
| 還要呵護著你易碎玻璃 | While also protecting your fragile glass heart |
| 對不起傷害了你 | Sorry that I’ve hurt you |
| 傷了你的感情 | Hurt your feelings |
| 我聽見有個聲音 | I could hear the sound of |
| 是玻璃心碎一地 | Glass heart shattering on the ground |
| 對不起是我太任性 | Sorry I am willful |
| 講真話總讓人傷心 | The truth tends to hurt |
| 或許不該太直白 超直白 | Perhaps I shouldn’t be so direct, too direct |
| I’m So Sorry | I’m so sorry |
| 又讓你森七七 | For making you so angry |
| 你擁有 粉紅色純潔的心 | You have the pure heart in pink |
| 熱愛小狗小貓蝙蝠果子狸 | Love doggies, kittens, bats and civets |
| 要聽話 別再攀岩爬牆壁 | You should behave and stop climbing rocks and walls |
| 爺爺知道了又要懷念你 | If grandpa finds out, you’ll be missed |
| 你說你 (很努力) | You said you (work very hard) |
| 不換肩 (走了十里) | Using one shoulder (walked 10 “miles” – see explanation below) |
| 扛著棉花 採著牠愛的蜂蜜 (共同富裕) | Carrying cotton while collecting his favourite honey (common prosperity) |
| 拚了命 (要脫貧) | Worked so hard (combat poverty) |
| 每天到韭菜園裡 | In the Chinese chive garden |
| 收割撒幣月領一千真開心 | To harvest and earn 1k a month – so happy |
| 對不起傷害了你 | Sorry that I’ve hurt you |
| 傷了你的感情 | Hurt your feelings |
| 我聽見有個聲音 | I could hear the sound of |
| 是玻璃心碎一地 | Glass heart shattering on the ground |
| 對不起是我太任性 | Sorry I am willful |
| 講真話總讓人傷心 | The truth tends to hurt |
| 或許不該太直白 超直白 | Perhaps I shouldn’t be so direct, too direct |
| I’m So Sorry | I’m so sorry |
| 又讓你森七七 | For making you so angry |
| 說個話 還要自帶消音 | When you speak, you self-censor |
| 怕被送進去 種哈密瓜再教育 | Afraid to be sent to grow Hami melon and re-educate |
| 吃了蘋果 你又要切鳳梨 | Ate Apple and then wanna cut pineapple |
| 在那邊氣噗噗 就罵我的媽咪 | Getting wind up, then curse my mummy |
| 拜託你 別再偷我的東西 | Please stop stealing my stuff |
| 要我跪下去 Sorry我不可以 | You want me to kneel. Sorry, I cannot |
| 跟你說話 像對熊貓彈琴 | Speaking to you is like casting pearls before panda |
| 真的驚呆了嚇尿了 倒吸一口氣 | I’m so shocked that I almost wet myself |
| 對不起傷害了你 | Sorry that I’ve hurt you |
| 傷了你的感情 | Hurt your feelings |
| 我聽見有個聲音 | I could hear the sound of |
| 是玻璃心碎一地 | Glass heart shattering on the ground |
| 對不起是我太任性 | Sorry I am willful |
| 講真話總讓人傷心 | The truth tends to hurt |
| 或許不該太直白 超直白 | Perhaps I shouldn’t be so direct, too direct |
| I’m So Sorry | I’m so sorry |
| 又讓你森七七 | For making you so angry |
| 對不起 | Sorry that |
| 傷害了你 | I’ve hurt you |
| Sorry baby | Sorry baby |
| 玻璃心 | Glass heart |
出征 which can be translated as “march to war”, is commonly used to describe Chinese nationalists launching attacks online for comments or news that “hurt their feelings” – the full phase is “小粉紅出征” which literally means “Little Pink march to war”. The powder pink dominating the music video is considered to be the “major hint” of what the song is about.
辱 means insult, which Chinese nationalists often use together with the word 華, as 辱華. The meaning of 華 is complicated as it can refer to Chinese as a culture and ethnicity, and in Chinese language the meaning of this character is impossible to distinguish.
“Inseparable relationship”: China has long claimed that Taiwan is a province of China, and that it’s an “inseparable part of China”.
China is known to be a country that eats dogs, cats and other wild animals like civets and bats. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the word bat has become a “sensitive” word in China and amongst Chinese netizens.
Grandpa: this term is often used as the equivalent of the Chinese state and more recently it has a new meaning which is the synonym of Xi Jinping. Dissidents in China often go missing after speaking out on issues or inequity.
In 2003, Xi Jinping said that he used to carry 100kg of wheat with only one shoulder walking for 10 miles (China’s old measuring unit), which is around 5km, along a mountain road, a claim he repeated in an interview back in 2004. In fact, three body-builders in Taiwan tried to replicate Xi’s claim, but the bamboo pole snapped during the first half of their journey.
Honey: the favourite of Winnie the Pooh, a cartoon character banned in China after some said that it resembles Xi.
Chinese chive (韭菜): a term used to describe citizens in China because the plant is tough and always grows back after being harvested. 割韭菜 (harvesting Chinese chive) is a metaphor netizens use to describe the CPP harvesting the ordinary people’s wealth.
1k per month: Li Keqiang, premier of the State Council, said in 2020 that “China is a developing country with a large population. Our average annual salary is RMB30,000, but around 600 million people make RMB1,000 a month”. In the context of this song, this could also be interpreted as a reference to the limited salary the 50c Party / 50c Troll Army can make, who collect RMB0.5 for each propaganda comment they post online.
Self-censorship, re-education and Hami melon: reference to Chinese netizens self-censor their comments online (which led to the popularity of Putonghua pingyin acronyms – more below), and the Xinjiang re-education camps (Hami melon is a fruit originally from Hami, Xinjiang.).
Ate Apple and cut pineapple: this could be a reference to the technology giant Apple (see here in the music video that there are two bites in the Apple logo), as Chinese companies like Xiaomi and Huawei have allegedly stolen technologies from the West and flood the global market with their cheaper products as their R&D costs are significantly lower. It could also be a reference to the forced closure of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily. Pineapple could be a reference to China’s banning the import of Taiwan’s famously high-quality pineapples. Worth noting that the Mandarin pronunciation of 吃 (eat, pronounced as “chi”) and 切 (cut, pronounced as “qie”) are somewhat similar to non-native.
Curse my mummy: Chinese nationalists are famous for online insults, and some of their commonly use insults are NMSL and CNM / CNMB, which are the Putonghua-pingyin acronyms of Ni-Ma-Si-La (You’re mum is dead) and Cao-Ni-Ma (Fu*k your mum) / Cao-Ni-Ma-Bi (Fu*k your mum’s c**t). Thai netizens countered Chinese nationalists attacks an online row in 2020 caused by a Thai woman Weeraya’s comment hinting that she is in favour of Taiwan independence, with a tremendous sense of humour, resulting a flood of memes. Hongkongers, Taiwanese and Japanese also joined in the online battle, and the hashtag #MilkTeaAlliance was trending. NMSL flags are featured in the music video.
Kneeling: many celebrities in Hong Kong and Taiwan who became famous in China after achieving fame in their homeland become “(Chinese) Flag Protectors (護旗手)” and would always toe the CCP’s line, from Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Bill protests, National Security Law, Xinjiang cotton all the way to Taiwan’s status. Hongkongers would describe those who suddenly become “patriotic” as kneeling to China / RMB (hence the saying RMB smells good 人民幣真香), and a saying becomes popular “I’d rather eat congee with my back straight than have a feast kneeling down”. Namewee once said “Some choose to eat expensive food kneeling, some choose to eat basic stuff standing up. I choose to eat good food standing up because by doing so I can embarrass those who kneel and give hope to those who stand.” Many entertainers received floods of abuse for not voicing their support of China or CCP because they did not express their loyalty to China and CCP on issues related to Hong Kong and Taiwan fast enough. In fact, China’s latest purge on entertainers / actors for holding foreign passports has made several of them to (or at least said on record that they would) give up their foreign citizenships including Gong Li.
The Real Hong Kong News 