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Kevin Kung

Shopping around busy Sheung Shui, you can see stores well-stocked with "special delicacies" such as milk powder and Ferrero Rocher chocolates as well as "the latest fashion" - diapers.
Rugby players, it seems, even find the obstacle-filled MTR station, packed with travellers and their bulky bags, an ideal spot to hone their skills in the scrum.
These are not real marketing gimmicks, but a tongue-in-cheek video introduction to the district that takes a dig at parallel-goods trading.
The six-minute clip in Cantonese, titled Sheung Shui Shopping, is the work of four Chinese University students calling themselves the One Letter Horse.
WATCH: Sheung Shui Shopping (Cantonese):

None lives in the district, but Angus Kwok Hei, Chan Ka-ming, Yeung Chun-yin and graduate Jonathan Ho Chi-yan - all in their 20s - see it as their mission to raise awareness of social issues by producing video clips and posting their work on YouTube.
Journalism student Yeung, who did the filming, gained a better understanding of how local residents were suffering under the influx of cross-border traders after just one day of shooting.
"I found it tough to stay there for even a day," Yeung said. "But residents in Sheung Shui have to tolerate the situation every day."
The satirical video presents the issue in the style of TVB travel show Seoul Searching. It was released in February and collected more than 226,000 views. Later that month, the northern New Territories saw a spate of anti-trading protests.
The Sheung Shui video is One Letter Horse's fourth production since the team got together in October. Previous works concerned the "umbrella movement" last year, housing woes and voters' registrations.
The four men share a common goal - to advocate and illustrate societal topics in a humorous way with colloquial language and localised jokes, not to demand their viewers accept their views, but to raise awareness.
"We talk about issues that people already know. Our clips serve as reminders," Chan, who is also studying journalism, said.
"In this case, we want people to know the root of the problem is actually not the traders, but the government's policy of issuing multi-entry permits. We want more people, and not just those who are affected, to care about the issues."
Dr Fu King-wa, an assistant professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong, said One Letter Horse and other such video production teams were "products of social conflicts".
"Social conflicts in Hong Kong have become serious in the past two to three years," said Fu, who studies internet use among the young.
"The young generation cannot find a way to express themselves and have chosen to share their views through videos. It is a hybrid of popular culture and the voice of the youth.
"These clips may be widespread only within a particular age group on social networks and do not have an in-depth reach unlike the mass media. But they have the potential to grow."
In the case of One Letter Horse, the team used to run a radio show on Chinese University's campus. The team decided to go one step further, by producing videos, on the eve of an anti-Occupy Central protest at their campus led by pro-government activist Leticia Lee See-yin.
"This team wouldn't exist if our city was prosperous and without problems," said Ho, who received his master's degree in economics in December and started work as a multimedia content editor.
Chan explained how the group works. "Normally, we use at least half a month for each project, with most of the time allocated to pre-production.
"We spend weeks sharpening our script, as we don't want our audience to just have a laugh. We want to produce a quality video that can give people a long- lasting memory."


Hungry Hong Kong customers call on Shenzhen couriers for braised bullfrog, duck neck and other mainland Chinese delicacies

‘We are just earning a living’: parallel trading on the rise in Hong Kong border town as trend makes comeback post-Covid curbs

Hong Kong customs to meet Guangdong counterparts to discuss resurgence in parallel trading, vows crackdown

Mainland shoppers return to Hong Kong, but some border shopkeepers fear boom times have gone for good

Parallel trading

Students' video takes satirical look at Sheung Shui trader influx problem

One Letter Horse members (from left) Jonathan Ho Chi-yan, Angus Kwok Hei and Chan Ka-ming discuss their tongue-in-cheek video about traders in Sheung Shui. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Hong Kong anti-parallel trading activists plan fresh New Territories rally

Scenes like this may be seen again in Sheung Shui on Sunday. Photo: David Wong 

News

Hong Kong

Team's humorous video of diaper fashions and rugby tackles highlights serious trader problem


Shopping around busy Sheung Shui, you can see stores well-stocked with "special delicacies" such as milk powder and Ferrero Rocher chocolates as well as "the latest fashion" - diapers.
