Week #34: Taiwan band Mayday’s lip sync scandal 🎸, Starbucks China and Luckin’s Christmas specials🎄, HeyTea’s Buddhism product got banned 🪷 | Following the yuan

Mayday is seen as the childhood idol of China's millennial generation (including me), will the bubble burst?

Wow, how time flies! I’m now in my final weeks of Cantonese class (and I still can’t say s**t). Though, from my English learning experience, I feel like cultivating interest should be my utmost focus at this stage, and I should give myself less pressure, right?

How does one do that? A romantic involvement with a native speaker is beneficial, and then if one is not in the native environment, they can make sure it’s part of their media consumption in the form of songs, entertainment, etc.

Lately, after enjoying all the Wong Kar-wai classics and gangster movies, I find myself stuck with mass-produced B-movies. It's like gnawing on chicken bones: somewhat entertaining, but not quite satisfying. My cursory search for Hong Kong music mostly brings up Keung To, the 24-year-old idol who soared to fame after the 2018 ViuTV competition, despite a lackluster performance in a mainland singing contest years back.

There's an interesting trivia about Keung and journalism — Ronson Chan, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, who covered the 2019 protests, was tasked with reporting on Keung's birthday in 2022. To Chan, it was a bit of a letdown to say the least.

Keung To’s fans await the idol’s birthday tram on April 30, 2023. Image: HK01

Partially for that reason, I’ve been questioning whether today’s HK still appeals to me, or am I fantasising about the old HK? Until I saw this girl’s vlog which talks about a popular song from 2021 with a vintage tune and feel.

I’m happily surprised that one of the two lead singers used to be a journalist 🥺, and this song, seemingly about leaving a party with a casual “see you later 系咁先啦”, actually captures the sentiment of a generation grappling with emigration [watch the band’s BBC Chinese interview]. It turns out when you think you are not resonating with someone/thing/area, you should really look harder.

1. Taiwanese band Mayday’s lip sync scandal 🎸

What happened: Bilibili vlogger Paddy Field Farmer, responding to numerous requests from Mayday concert attendees, investigated the Taiwanese band’s performances. Using high-quality recordings from a fan at a Shanghai concert this November and audio pitch software Melodyne, he found that five out of 12 songs were partially or entirely lip-synced.