Use of catchwords hits Titanic proportions

How will you, fellow Hong Konger, remember the first seven or so months of this year? Will you recall your shares and Asian currency notes becoming worth less than the paper they're printed on? Or will Tung Chee-hwa's progressively more sawn-off haircut, and that chicken, fish, vegetables and just about every other food-type available in Hong Kong became toxic at some stage, be the images which stick in your mind? The answer is probably that a combination of all these features will come back to haunt your dreams in some way in the future when the SAR is back on Easy Street. But there is another, even more all-encompassing trend of this year that is likely to stay with us all when memories of plunging wealth have faded. It is the emergence of a series of catchwords that somehow seem to sum up what has already become a crazy year more aptly than any number of events can. The first catchword to take Hong Kong and the world by storm this year was the name of the movie which dominated the first few months of 1998: Titanic. Once Titanic, the movie, became a mega-hit, you just knew there was going to be no escape from the relentless attempts by everyone from bowling alley proprietors to bowler-hatted businessmen to cash in on its success. No-one was immune to this Titanic disease that - apart from anything else - had the teenyboppers' hearts going on. And yes, even Hong Kong brokers tried to cash in on the phenomenon of the sinking ship. For much of this year, an endless string of analysts' reports made fulsome Titanic references. Of course, it has helped significantly that Asian economies - including Hong Kong's - have been charting much the same course as the doomed ship this year. Once unsinkable optimists like Carlton Poon of Worldsec Securities started to talk about economic stimulus packages in Japan being like 'rearranging deck-chairs on the Titanic'. David Roche of Independent Strategy made a similar analogy, as did analysts at Merrill Lynch and other leading broking firms. Finally, heavyweight business figures such as Cheung Kong supremo Li Ka-shing started invoking the memory of the ship - this time to say that Hong Kong was nothing like the Titanic. Just to show you how long one metaphor can last, the Titanic references are still flowing in. Just last week, Lai See was sent in a list of 10 reasons why derivatives bear a striking resemblance to you know what - proof that originality is going strong in broking. Another catchword to capture the imagination of those this year has been the ubiquitous V-word, Viagra. The anti-impotence drug has been popping up everywhere: naturally, again, in broker's reports, in Cantonese movies and even in the schedules of tour organisers. Yes, Japanese travel agents are organising 'Viagra tours' - basically, to anywhere the phantom pill is legally available. Inevitably, Viagra has even become an integral part of the everyday vernacular - even though demand for the potent pill has tapered off slightly in the last couple of weeks. When famous old actors team up with young actresses in movies, it is described as something along the lines of the 'Viagra syndrome'. When 41-year-old golfer Mark O'Meara won the British Open early on Monday morning (Hong Kong time), it was described by one paper as 'a bit of golfing Viagra'. We can only imagine the reaction from locals when Asian stock exchanges show an enduring trend towards picking up. What are the chances someone will describe it all as 'a dose of market Viagra'? Pretty high, we imagine. There are also signs of some local catchwords taking off - particularly in the wake of the new airport's problems. The name 'Chek Lap Kok-up' has already become a standard phrase, and 'rat-astrophe' is rapidly taking off as a reference to the abundance of rats afflicting the airport. Needless to say, other phrases indelibly associated with the airport opening, like 'teething problems', 'temporarily out of order' and 'signal failure' are etched on the minds of many a Hong Konger. Senior mainland dignitaries who visited Hong Kong recently for the handover anniversary celebrations - led by President Jiang Zemin - also bandied about some of the key catchwords of recent weeks. Terms like 'motherland', 'troubled times' and 'glorious future' seemed to recur continuously for the duration of the mainland visits. In a bid to incorporate as many of the catchwords mentioned in this article as possible, Lai See now wishes to make the following statement: when Hong Kong ceases to be the Titanic, and instead becomes the Viagra economy and enters a glorious future, people will look back fondly upon these troubled times. How's that for a catchy tip?