West Kowloon arts panel dodges jokers as it votes for venue name
Body that distills public opinion settles on safe choice amid sniggering over Putonghua option
Most consultants for the West Kowloon arts hub have come out in favour of "Chinese Opera" as the English name for its traditional performing arts venue.
They rejected the alternative, "Xiqu", which quickly became the subject of lewd mockery online after it was proposed.
Xiqu is the pinyin representation of the Putonghua phrase to describe traditional Chinese theatrical arts. But wags on the internet have gained plenty of comic mileage out of its resemblance to the Cantonese term si chue, which means "private parts".
The Cantonese term for the art form is hei kuk.
At a panel meeting yesterday, only one of the 14 members present voted in favour of the name Xiqu, but nine others voted for Chinese Opera. The rest did not vote for either.
It was unclear which way individual panel members voted, but several expressed their views before the name was put to a vote.
"It's better to use 'Chinese Opera', because if we are choosing an English name, of course we need a name that foreigners will understand," panel member John Tse Wing-ling said. "Even on the mainland, many cities use 'Chinese Opera'."