Get it off your chest but mind your language
MANY T-shirts sell because they look good. They are hits because they are clever. But some are popular simply because they contain a certain language - even if the message is lost in the medium.
'I would be so satisfied standing by my side if you were right here,' reads one picked up years ago in Japan. Around the same time, items of clothing declared 'We have to guard ours beautiful natural [sic]' or urged 'Come together exhilaration standoff'.
During the country's boom years when everyone, it seemed, had a yen to learn English, such inanities were common. Companies, desperate to be hip, commissioned advertisements penned in English and ad companies dreamed up innovative uses for the language.
Overnight the wake wakaranai concept was born. Literally 'meaning not understood', the new genre spawned messages that, though nonsensical, were supposed to give consumers a warm, fuzzy feeling. It was, as the Japanese like to say, a form of belly-to-belly communication in which, even without words - or with words that make no sense - an idea is conveyed.
In Hong Kong, T-shirts and sweaters bearing 'funny' English have been around for as long as anyone can remember. Perhaps due in part to the trend in Japan, but more likely a legacy of careless copywriters ('Freedom is not to buy for'), counterfeiters ('Cabernt Sauvignon') or comedians whose victims are walking around urging people to 'Enjoy Cock' instead of Coca-Cola, the T-shirts have found their way on to the backs of everyone from prepubescents to those past their prime.
These days, while odd English can still be found on the odd T-shirt, an increasing number of designs are sporting messages written in the Japanese syllabary. Many have been obtuse.
'We've all noticed how popular they've become recently,' Japanese junior-school teacher Yukako Toyama says. 'My friends and I have seen lots of people walking around Causeway Bay wearing T-shirts with Japanese on them. It's a bit strange.' Hong Kongers' appetite for popular Japanese culture has not escaped the notice of casual-clothing chain Giordano, which during the summer sold for the first time T-shirts bearing Japanese words or phrases.