'Angry old man' targets a fresh face
The 'Victoria Park Uncle' in Hong Kong popular culture is synonymous with the 'angry old man' and has become an iconic caricature in recent years, encapsulating the politicisation of the public. They can be found arguing about the latest political policies over a game of Chinese chess in the park on weekdays, and gathered under the pavilion on Sundays, forming the rowdy audience in the live broadcast of RTHK's City Forum current affairs show, usually scolding the pan-democrats for causing trouble. However, last Sunday one such member of the audience had to be evicted from the pavilion after his constant foul language and abuse of one of the participants, and his argument with the presenter, Joseph Tse Chi-fung, over who should be allowed to ask a question. This time, the object of abuse was not the most obvious candidate, such as Emily Lau Wai-hing, but lesser-known Civic Party member Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, who was speaking on behalf of the legal sector election committee members regarding the abolition of functional constituencies. 'I think the organisers thought inviting a fresh face would avoid such situations, but obviously it didn't help,' he said.
Macau chief's Putonghua a bundle of laughs
The video clip of Fernando Chui Sai-on speaking at his inauguration on Sunday has become a hit on the internet. The new Macau chief's Putonghua is amusing tens of thousands of Chinese who watched the live broadcast or online clips of the inauguration. One such clip on YouTube, titled 'Chui Sai-on's Putonghua', had attracted 1,385 views by late yesterday afternoon and become yesterday's No1 hit in the category of Comedy of Hong Kong. A similar clip on YouTube had attracted 1,102 views with high ratings.
Chui's heavy Cantonese accent makes his inauguration speech sound nothing like Putonghua. People commenting online say that listening to it is a tough challenge for the one billion mainland citizens.
Linguistic challenge for President Hu
