PINK AND GOLD MEMORY

Last night Jenny waxed wistful about Hong Kong during the seventies through the nineties, though admitting that it was probably better since then. Which is understandable. Back then it was more shiny, though a bit more hard scrabble. The music seemed brighter, the enterprise more brash. Golden age unnoticeably segued into golden age.

The fashion sense, however, was always berserk. That hasn't changed. Mid Eighties HK clothing had a lot of electric olive green. Plus dull gold, blacks, and, oddly, pink. I remember being piqued by a sporty jacket that in bold lettering on a pink back ground advertised the "Royal Pink Regiment".

Yeah, um, okay. Whatever. You rock, dude.


Names that must be mentioned, because the eighties and nineties were glorious because of them: Chow Yunfat (周潤發), Leslie Cheung (張國榮), Maggie Cheung (張曼玉), Cherie Chung (鍾楚紅), Anita Mui (梅艷芳), and Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊). Some of them have "left the building" since then. Jenny and the bookseller would probably have slightly different lists.

Note: These are all movie people. Yes, there was also vibrant Canto-pop (in addition to the ever-audible opening credit song from 'Seunghoi Tan', but that never was my thing. Sorry.

Hong Kong has changed. It's still there. I haven't seen a Hong Kong movie in many years. But I have been overexposed to mega music videos shot at that huge venue at the tip of Kowloon. My barber had them on screen, chachantengs have them, karaoke joints, even some staid and very conservative businesses. I walked by a home town association the other day, and a pop song was visible in the backroom with strobe lights, glow sticks, thousands of fans, and two or three dozen strangely garbed back-up dancers on a multi-level stage. No idea what the song was, and I don't want to hear it. Probably all about how you've changed me, my life will never be the same, we shared taxis then we no longer go in the same direction, and I am consumed with mid-twenties yuppie existential angst.
Woe, despair, snow, teddy bears. Etcetera.


I never did find out who or what the 'Royal Pink Regiment' was.
Something from the heyday of the Crown Colony, probably.
I'm guessing refreshingly hip.



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