I am going to use a music album to write an online review. The album is sung by different old style singers like Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung and Sam Hui called 「Elements」. There are a few songs which is very famous in this album like 「半斤八兩」, 「有酒今朝醉」, 「浪子心聲」 and 「滄海一聲笑」, I am sure that many of us have already listened to these songs.
The song that I most familiar with is the song 「半斤八兩」. It is because my father is a fan of Sam Hui and his songs always wake me up on Sunday morning when I was small. The lyric of the song has spoken out a lot of employee's mind in the middle 70s
我哋呢班打工仔
一生一世為錢幣做奴隸
嗰種辛苦折墮講出嚇鬼（死俾你睇）
咪話冇乜所謂
出咗半斤力
想話攞番足八兩
家陣惡揾食
邊有半斤八兩咁理想（吹漲）
As the song has spoken our employee's thoughts and reflecting the social situation in that time, it has created a collective memory for a lot of employees in that period and even nowadays, my father is one of the examples, every time he listens to this song, he told me the working situation in that period.
The song also shows employee's compliant and resentment to the society in the lyrics like they have to walk along the street but the salary is still very low. The boss always condemn and hopeless for pay rise.
通街走糴直頭系壞腸胃
揾嗰些少到月底點夠使（奀過鬼）
最弊波士喐啲發威（癲過雞）
一味喺處系唔系亂嚟吠
噏親加薪塊面嗱起惡睇（扭嚇計）
你就認真開胃
Yet my dad is a fan of Sam Hui, but he does not fit all the identification of a fan. He has the adoration to Sam Hui, but he does not have the transcendence or any extra-cinematic indemnificatory processes. I will consider him as a very rational and 「low level」 fan. However, Sam Hui is a very popular singer in
Chan Ching Yi, Valerie(10349849)
It is doubtless that”半斤八兩” is a classic song that is always popular. You have cited some of the representative lyrics which are considered to be the portrayal of Hong Kong people in the 80s, who experienced the drastic economic growth at that time. Despite the fact that they benefited from the growing economy, they were working as “slaves” for their boss.
ReplyDeleteHowever, do you think the song can still provoke resonance among Hong Kong people nowadays (in particular, young people who just started their career)? Do they decode the same message (I believe there are at least some slight discrepancies)? Why or why not? You may try to situate the song in a larger social and economic context, and to make comparisons across different time periods.