Tale of Two Videos – Hong Kong State of Mind (aka SAR of Mind) & the MTR Song

**Updated on 19 April 2011: After this was posted a friend later told me guy who wrote song in Video #2 is a friend of hers, the very talented Steven James, dj at rthk Radio 3

Video#1

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEk2CoyJV9E]

Lyrics:

Yeah I’m out in Central

Now I’m down in Times Square
Right next to Victoria Park
But I’ll be local forever
I’m the new Donald Tsang
And since I made it here
I can make it anywhere
Yeah they love me everywhere

I used to club at Prive
Go with all my banker friends
Right there off of Lan-Kwai
Brought me back to that McDonalds
Then off to Tsui Wah
Se-ven-E-le-ven
Mixing cheap whisky with coke straight ballin’
Cruising down Queen’s road
Silver Mercedes
Driving so slow
But Fei Jai we call it “Ben-ze”

Me I’m out in Wan Chai
Home of them hookers
Got some Ebeneezer’s
Then drop by at Carnegie’s
Say what up to the Guai Los
Still sipping bubble tea
Sitting in a tram
Amy Chua give me high-fives
Teacher, I be gettin’ A’s
Gonna pass my CFA
Tell by my attitude that I’m most definitely from

Chorus
In Hong Kong
Concrete jungle where we eat dim sum
Special admin region
Now you’re in Hong Kong
The shops will make you feel brand new
The sales will inspire you
Let’s hear it for Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Roll up to the Jockey Club
Bettin’ on some horses
Sippin’ on the cheap beer
Ain’t no better place to play
I think I have swine flu
Hand me a tissue
It don’t stop me chilling on the street, eating great food
Welcome to the finance hub
Every corner selling grub
Chung King Mansion curry spot
Home of the shark fin
Red cab, green cab, blue cab, holla back
At Yung Kee like a tourist eating roast duck
7 million shopping malls, everyday they get packed
City it’s amusing half of y’all speak Engrish
Me I gotta plug a special and I got it made
Citi never sleeps, Merrill Lynch B of A
J P Morgan, HSBC, Chinese New Year, rest in peace Bruce Lee
Wan Chai Convention Centre, long live the Star Ferry
Long live the king yo, I’m from the S-A-R that’s

[Chorus]

Work is tiring
Homes need helpers
They come out on a Sunday
Hang out at the Jollibee’s
The tutor comes in with formalities
Who teach the math casually
Then maybe some science
Don’t skip the violin
Caught up in the in crowd
Now you’re white-washed
The winter gets mild, en vogue with your Uggs out
The colony passed back to the main-land
My boss is an expat, the city’s filled with them
Mommy sent the kids to an international school
Now they can’t read Chinese, less employable
Hail main-land to the city they buy LV
Gucci, Prada, we got everything they need
Came here high school, graduated elsewhere
Medicine, finance, engineering or law
Openrice.com got you feeling like a champion
The city never sleeps, gonna make my first billion

[Chorus]

Hands up in the air for the big city
Neon lights, big banks all looking pretty
No place in the world that can compare
Put your iPhones in the air, everybody say yeaaahh, yeaaahh

[Chorus]

Credits: Soo Jin Koh, Shao Ong, Charity Battad for her excellent singing, Brandon Koh, and Simon Li

And the British-born Chinese reader whom I recently got to know who then sent me the video, “It tells such a good and fairly accurate-to-a-point picture of HK.” She’s been here like, twice as long as my 7 years, so….

Video #2

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3oqxQ5ovpI&feature=player_embedded#at=40]

Let’s start from the very beginning
Though there’s plenty of places to start
If you want to get around
You can get all over town
Just by stepping underground onto the M-T-R (M-T-R)
MTRKCR say
Just follow me:

Tsuen Wan, Tai Wo Hau, Kwai Hing, Kwai Fong,
Lai King, and Mei Foo, Lai Chi Kok,
Cheung Sha Wan, Sham Shui Po, and Tai Chi Doh
(change trains) Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon Tong,
Lok Fu, Wong Tai Sin, Diamond Hill,
Choi Hung, and onto Kowloon Bay,
Ngau Tau Kok, Kwun Tong and Lam Tin,
and then Yau Tong change for Quarry Bay

North Point, Fortress Hill, and Tin Hau,
Tung Lo Wan, in English Causeway Bay,
Wan Chai, next for me – Admiralty,
Central and then you have a choice
Sheung Wan but I like Tsim Sha Tsui
Jordan we’re off to Yau Ma Tei
Mong Kok and here we are again
we’ve returned to Prince Edward Road
so if you want to get around just get yourself down to the M-T-R

It’s like it’s coming and there’s nothing you can do but just stand there. Pun intended…