CantoTalk Episode #7
Please go to Quizlet for 58 vocabulary items:
Hello everyone! Welcome to the seventh episode of the CantoTalk Music Podcast. Hosting today, as usual, is me, Edgar. Our Cantonese-learning friends, remember to check out the links in the info section, where we have the transcript, translation, Cantonese romanization, and some vocabularies from this episode. Today, our theme is 片車. In Cantonese, 片車 means to street-race with others illegally. And today, I also chose five fast-paced songs that’d make people want to fully step on their pedals! Everyone remember, however, while it’s one thing to listen to the songs, please don’t speed when driving, and be aware of traffic and road safety!
When it comes to the most classic Cantopop about speeding cars, the first song must be Ekin Cheng’s 極速 (lit. Extreme Speed). Ekin Cheng is a mega-star in the 90’s that simultaneously dabbled in movies and singing. Back then, his long-haired, topless image of Chan Ho Nam in the Young and Dangerous series started the rebellious MK culture in Hong Kong. Besides his box-office-smashing movies, the theme songs he sang for his own movies were also very popular. Such as the song we’re talking about today, 極速, which is the theme song of the movie The Legend of Speed. A street-racing movie with a street-racing theme song, this 1999 song can be said as Ekin Cheung’s representative work. The creative team behind the song even found Jerald, whom we talked about in the first episode, to further escalate the mood by rapping. I wonder if sharp-eared listeners can recognize Jerald’s voice? Okay! Let’s turn on the engine: for our first street-racing song, we have Ekin Cheng’s 極速!
Played just now’s Ekin Cheng’s 極速! Speeding is not only a thing for race cars and private cars—especially for Hong Kong minibuses after dark. Our Western listeners, if you didn’t know, minibus is a public transport in Hong Kong. Minibus can either be a 紅van (lit. red van), which does not have a set route, or a 綠van (lit. green van), which has a set route. A characteristic of minibus is that they don’t have to stop at minibus stops. So if you want to get off, you’d need to tell the driver 有落 (lit. There’s a drop-off). In 2012, when I was still in secondary school, everyone’s been following an internet novel called Lost on a Red Minibus to Taipo. The book’s about a protagonist who, after boarding on a red minibus from Mong Kok to Tai Po, found out that everyone in the world but the passengers and driver of the minibus has disappeared. In 2014, the novel’s finally been adapted to the movie The Midnight After. And the theme song of this movie, is the song we’re talking about today, Shine’s Revolution, which is about a speeding minibus. Shine is a two-man duo debuted in 2002 after they’re scouted by the director Fruit Chan. Since Fruit Chan is also the director of The Midnight After, and since Shine has another song that talks about Mong Kok called 去吧！旺角揸fit人 (lit. Go! Person in Charge of Mong Kok), it made sense to find Shine to sing the movie’s theme song. Okay! Let’s jump from a street-racing cad to a minibus: the second song, we have Shine’s Revolution!
Just now we played Shine’s Revolution! Let’s not stop the speeding mood: for our third song, we have KOLOR’s 公路之星 (lit. Highway Star)! KOLOR is a four-man rock band founder in 2005, spelled K-O-L-O-R. The K came from their band’s ex-manager Wong Ka Keung of Beyond. KOLOR is a very prolific band, once did a project to release a song every month for 41 consecutive months. Because of this, a lot of their songs respond and document the events happening in Hong Kong at the time. For example, they have a song called 也許 (lit. Maybe), which’s about the Hong Kong Lamma Island ferry collision incident at that time. Another song called 神龍教 (lit. Mystic Dragon Cult) is about the anti-national education movement of that time. As for 公路之星, the song which we’re talking about today, it used a driver who refused to let anyone cut into his lane on a highway as a metaphor for holding your stance firmly: don’t back off just from the pressure of others. Of course we think it’s important to stay true to your heart and stance, but folks, remember to be safe drivers on highways: even after hearing the next exciting, hot-blooded fast song, don’t fully step on the pedal. Our third song drives from Mong Kok to a highway, we have KOLOR’s 公路之星!
Played just now’s KOLOR’s 公路之星! After the bus hit the highway, we found out that there’s a bomb on the vehicle, and the bomb would blow up if the vehicle slowed down. Besides the plot of the 1994 Keanu Reeves movie Speed, this is also what the next song we’re talking about: Nowhere Boy’s Speed’s about! Nowhere Boys is a five-man rock band in Hong Kong. They play in a very special genre called Cinematic Rock, which means that their songs are very cinematic, with the themes of their songs all inspired by movies. For example, they have a song called Joker, which is inspired by the movie Joker. They have an album called Pandora’s Box, which obviously is paying homage to Stephen Chow’s A Chinese Odyssey: Part One – Pandora’s Box. Even the name of their band Nowhere Boys comes from the 2009 film 約翰連儂：不羈前傳, the English name of which is Nowhere Boy. The song we’re talking about today, 2018’s Speed, is then inspired by the 1994 film Speed. Let’s see if this film makes you feel like watching a Hollywood action movie? Our fourth song we have Nowhere Boys’ Speed!
Played just now’s Nowhere Boys’ Speed! After the bomb on the bus’ been defused, let’s jump onto a race car, cause the next song we’re talking about is RIVA.852’s 時速飄移 (lit. mph Drifting)! Last episode, we talked about the history of Hong Kong Hip Hop in the 00’s. Actually, from the 00’s to the mid-10’s of Hong Kong, since the public mainly listened to songs through TVs and radios, and since Hip Hop was still not a mainstream genre back then, there were only a handful of Hong Kong rap musicians back then. However, in the late 10’s, with Internet and streaming becoming commonplace, and with Hip Hop starting to become popular in Asia, there started to be more and more young people finding beats on the Internet and tried writing lyrics to rap on them. This atmosphere then started nurturing different beat producers in Hong Kong, with these rappers and producers coming together, forming Hip Hop groups big and small. RIVA.852, the artist whom we’re talking about today, is one such example. In 2020, she started finding beats on the Internet to write songs on and publish her work on YouTube. Rapping more and more, her skills became more mature. Last year, along with new-generation Hong Kong rappers and producers FUNGMADE, Hobbit, and Slept Kid, she even formed Stone Way Records. As one of the few female rappers in Hong Kong, her goal is to bring a new flavor to the male-dominated raping community. For our last song today, let’s listen to the music by a Hong Kong new-generation female rapper. We have RIVA.852’s 時速飄移!
Played just now’s RIVA.852’s 時速飄移! Okay, we’ve done enough street-racing today! I am Edgar. Thank you for listening to the CantoTalk Music Podcast. We’ll see you in the next episode!
To the right is a screenshot preview of a comprehensive handout that includes a full transcript, vocabulary, comprehension questions, and a featured song. The handout will be available for purchase, with the added benefit that CantoLTA members can enjoy up to 2 complimentary handouts and can purchase additional ones at an exclusive 20%
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Please give credit to Edgar Chung and the Cantonese Alliance of North America!