The handover of Hong Kong‘s sovereignty is not yet thirty years old, but Hong Kong has “returned” to one country and one system early. Thirty years ago, the classic Cantonese song “Queen’s Road East” sung by Luo Da-you and Chiang Chi-kwong was like a prophecy that “the people are surging” in protest against the tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party, and that everyone was eager to emigrate under the National Security Law, and that “the city is far away with a goodbye from my friends “The song was written by Lin Xi2. The song’s lyricist, Lin Xi, wrote an article in the Hong Kong media on February 4, thirty years later, to explain this “forbidden” song on the mainland again.
The song “Queen’s Road East” is familiar to Hong Kong people, composed by Luo Dayou in 1991, Lin Xi wrote the lyrics, Luo Dayou and Jiang Zhiguang chorus. The song uses several symbols and metaphors about the Chinese Communist Party and the United Kingdom, depicting the complex feelings of Hong Kong society in the face of the handover of sovereignty in 1997, and soon became a “banned song” in mainland China. It was not until the dust of the handover settled that the ban was lifted after 2000.
Lyrics are like spiritual sticks that are increasingly fulfilled
However, as the Chinese Communist Party has been tearing down the promise of “one country, two systems and Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” for two decades, the core values of rule of law, democracy and freedom in Hong Kong have gradually changed, and the lyrics of “Queen’s Road East” have become more and more spiritual like a fortune cookie. The Hong Kong Communist Party is pushing forward the legislation of Article 23, brainwashing the national Education subject, and reversing the universal suffrage, making Hong Kong people’s grievances boil, and every year on July 1, the Queen’s Road East is “swarming with people” because of the march. “If you are a citizen of a big country, you only need to be rich”, it seems to foreshadow the opening of the mainland “free flow”, the mainland rich people flock to Hong Kong to spend, north water flock to Hong Kong to speculate in stocks and properties, changing the economic and social ecology of Hong Kong, the red economic circle of vested interests for the benefit of the abandonment of principles and conscience.
The song was taken down by several Music platforms in mainland China in June of the same year, becoming a “banned song” once again.
Lin Xi writes an article to explain the taste of the lyrics again
The Time came in 2021, the implementation of the National Security Law of Hong Kong for more than half a year, the big raids, the criticism campaign day after day, the political and social environment of Hong Kong deteriorated beyond many people’s imagination, Hong Kong people have migrated and abandoned Hong Kong for the future of the next generation, the lyrics of the song “a goodbye to the city from my friends” was once again fulfilled. The lyricist Lin Xi changed one of the words in this line, and wrote an article in the column of Apple Daily with the title of “Knowing that I’ll give up this city with a bye”, once again interpreting the song “Queen’s Road East”.
The article begins with the first generation of the God of Song Xu Guanjie’s 90 years of creation of the “word know you 97” – “did not have the patience to 97, pick up a pen to count down two thousand and 28 (what rush)”; Lin Xi wrote the “Queen’s Road East” a year later. “The first thing I want to do is to be a human being in an era when the gods are nearing their twilight. This person does not have to read through the recent history of China, just a relative in Guangzhou, for no reason, someone fire in the charcoal, to kneel on it, after the rest of Life in a wheelchair, ask how not anxious?”
The “Queen’s Road East” has just been released and has become a banned song in the mainland. Lin Xi asked himself the reason for the ban, “worried about the prospects, not only the regime transfer, the mainland comrades face CD-ROM policy, as a big appetite for Food outside the fear of being reported, normal over teachers afraid of being reported by colleagues.”
“There is a noble friend, behind the coin
Youth unchanged name is Queen
Every time the sale goes running around with me
No expression on the face but convergence of achievement”
Hong Kong coins before 1997, the back are engraved with the head of the Queen of England. Lin Xi for writing these lyrics “self-examination” to write a “confession”: their fault in the “glory does not go to the party, and dare to say that the Queen of England on the coin is an aristocrat, no expression to actively non-intervention policy can converge achievements “.
“To rely on great comrades to engage in new meaning
Buy as you like and sell uncompleted flowers everywhere there are units
But Mongkok may have to change the name”
The article said, “to engage in a new meaning” of “great comrades” and what? At that time, someone said the lyrics like a prophecy, “the original ‘engage in new meaning’ of the new, not just meaning to do a look, is a new transformation of Hong Kong, even the old batteries are replaced with a new Bauhinia Party.” And Mong Kok did not change its name, “just as Hong Kong did not change its name, refueling in the dictionary meaning also did not change, just did not expect when ‘refueling’ meets ‘Hong Kong’, will also become taboo.”
“A goodbye from a friend to the city”
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. At least in my Dreams, I never thought I would become a ‘second-class citizen’ or even a refugee, as Yeh Liu put it.” His only regret is that it was unnatural and inaccurate to use “far away” as a “transitive verb,” and it was only when the song was sent to the stage that he wanted to change it to “to give up the city with a goodbye from a friend. “It’s more evocative. But in the end he still gave up the opportunity to think of using “give up”, “with all Hong Kong people, then did not do their best to guard the professional spirit, and now it is too late to regret.”
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