What Kills Us This Week!

It's not looking good.  In fact, this would be all "Journey we more into the nightmare." stuff only everyone's simply cross at the moment.  However, this mood is definitely heading towards outrage.  Give it a few more weeks! Certainly it's our big talking point around here and everyone is citing the now-missing slogan "Diu lei lo mo!" 

What's happening to cause all this snittiness?  Well, in an effort to kill the language and independent thought of South China, Beijing has pulled the plug on all Cantonese TV stations, replacing them with their own stations which use their own language, Mandarin.   And these stations, naturally, will be toeing the Party line in a BIG way and do any of us really want that?  I mean, they call us "Those Monkeys in the South" so do we really want them shoving their own views down our collective maws?

Truly very nasty stuff. 

The response would be "Diu lei lo mo!" only, well, the famous Cantonese plague with those very words has suddenly vanished in some sinister overnight operation.  

"Diu lei lo mo!" is the very famous South China anti-Beijing slogan used since the Ming Dynasty, replacing the earlier much more subtle "The mountains are high and the Emperor is far away."  and was first used, apparently, by the famous Cantonese general Yuan Chong-huan who lead the Cantonese to beat back a Beijing Imperial Invasion in the early 17th century.

What this Ming-Dynasty battle cry means is very rude and vulgar and thus beloved of the "Tseen-loving" South Chinese. "Tseen" as I've blogged before is the Cantonese word for "vulgar", and yes indeed, down here we monkeys treasure our vulgar ways.  And since we still have the right to freedom of speech here in Hong Kong, let me exercise that with the translation "F**ck his mother!  Hit 'em hard!"

We monkeys especially love our freedom of speech, but it looks like that's going to be ushered out too.  Mainland China is currently cracking down on blogs, shutting off some and telling others to "improve their operation" which means "self-censor or die, you monkey scumbags."  I wonder if I'll be among those to go ... or don't they care about English-language blogs?  I do know you can't get Travels with Denise across the border, however surely they aren't interested beyond that?  Will I stay or will I go?  Won't it be interesting to find out!

Wait a sec.  Let me check something.  Ah, yes, they are shutting down English-language blogs up in China if they don't like the content, however they are calling it "service difficulties".  Cute, la!  Oh, and they are also talking about licensing bloggers and charging them rent to use cyberspace.  Yee ha!!!  Gosh, that Chinese Communist Party!  Such a hoot, la???  Gotta love their ways!

So that's an excellent reason for Hong Kong to panic this week, except I don't think it'll happen.  That's the other side of the Cantonese nature: sure, they Chicken-Little constantly and on the smallest pretext, however if you push 'em they are the scrappiest, fiesty-est fighters you have ever come across. 

But to choose this week's ... 

THREATDOWN 

Being Tseen and heard!

Go US, yes!!!