Hong Kong 20th anniversary handover song is mercilessly mocked by music lovers

A new song released by the Hong Kong government to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover has been subjected to merciless mockery by music lovers, who branded it “fake” and “scary”.

Hong Kong Our Home, which is just one minute long yet reportedly cost HK$190,000 to create, has been slammed ahead of the July 1 anniversary.

The upbeat track was produced by Terrence Ma (T-Ma) and The Voice’s Jay Fung, with vocals from popular Canto-pop artists Hacken Lee, Miriam Yeung, Pakho Chau, Jason Chan, Joyce Cheng, Agatha Kong (AGA), Ken Hung, Alfred Hui and Mag Lam.

The lyrics, written by Jolland Chan, include the lines: “Our beautiful Hong Kong shining ever brighter ... Our beautiful Hong Kong up on the world stage ... Step by step, we will carry on astounding the world as we always have”.

After its release on YouTube recently, Cantonese heavy metal band Charmcharmchu described the track as a “pure disgrace”.

“The title ‘Hong Kong, Our Home’ is not representative; it only shows the fake, good side of the scene here, like other promotional videos by the Hong Kong government,” a band spokesman said.

“The situation in Hong Kong is getting worse every year, in regards to democracy and living standards. Honestly we would not celebrate this handover anniversary.”

But one YouTube commenter, Frederick Poon, was far more complimentary at least about the music video.

“The picture is very dynamic; crossharbour swimming, dragon boat races, tug of war – my favourite sports,” he said.

The song’s music video features clips of the singers recording the track in a studio segmented between clips of sites including the Hong Kong skyline, trail runners, harbour swimmers and dragon boat teams.

Since it was uploaded to the government’s official YouTube site, the Chinese subtitled version has been played more than 11,000 times but has received twice as many “thumbs down” ratings as “thumbs up”.

The song is part of this year’s handover celebrations being coordinated by the government under the theme “Together, Progress, Opportunity”.

A previous handover anniversary song produced by the government was also subject to ridicule.

In 2007, the 10th anniversary song Just Because You Are Here prompted a popular parody which has had almost 1 million views on YouTube.

The parody, which features images of former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, mocked Hong Kong’s lack of universal suffrage, its political leaders and social problems.

It included the lines: “When properties crash, it’s worse than death ... Pawn your pants! Pawn your socks! Pawn Triumph!”